The rapid spread and evolution of various strains of SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for COVID-19, continues to challenge the disease controlling measures globally. Alarming concern is, the number of second wave infections surpassed the first wave and the onset of severe symptoms manifesting rapidly. In this scenario, testing of maximum population in less time and minimum cost with existing diagnostic amenities is the only possible way to control the spread of the virus. The previously described RNA extraction-free methods using dry swab have been shown to be advantageous in these critical times by different studies. In this work, we show the temporal stability and performance of the dry swab viral detection method at two different temperatures. Contrived dry swabs holding serially diluted SARS-CoV-2 strains A2a and A3i at 25° (room temperature; RT) and 4° were subjected to direct RT-PCR and compared with standard VTM-RNA based method. The results clearly indicate that dry swab method of RNA detection is as efficient as VTM-RNA-based method in both strains, when checked for up to 72 hours. The lesser CT values of dry swab samples in comparison to that of the VTM-RNA samples suggest better sensitivity of the method within 48 hours of time. The results collectively suggest that dry swab samples are stable at RT for 24 hours and the detection of SARS-CoV-2 RNA by RT-PCR do not show variance from VTM-RNA. This extraction free, direct RT-PCR method holds phenomenal standing in the present life-threatening circumstances due to SARS-CoV-2.

Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) of SARS-CoV-2 emerged as an advantageous method to study the infection dynamics at substantial population level A temporal glimpse at sewage viral genome helps as diagnostic tool to understand the viral spread at community level. In this study for the long-term epidemiological surveillance we monitored the SARS-CoV-2 genetic material in domestic sewage by adopting the longitudinal sampling to represent a selected community (~1.8 lakhs population which occupies 1.79% of the total population of Hyderabad city) to understand the dynamics of infection Dynamics and spread of COVID-19 outbreak within the selected community were achieved by studying the longitudinal sampling for a specific period of time WBE also promotes clinical scrutiny along with disease detection and management in contrast to an advance warning signal to anticipate outbreaks

The possible faecal-oral transmission of SARS-CoV-2 through domestic discharges has emerged as a serious public health concern. Based on persistence of the virus in environment, the wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) enabled the surveillance of infection in a community. The water bodies connected to the anthropogenic activities have strong possibility of presence of the SARS-CoV-2 genetic material. In this work, we monitored urban, peri-urban and rural lakes in and around Hyderabad as a long-term surveillance study for presence of enteric virus SARS-CoV-2 gene fragments. The study time of seven months coincided with the first and second wave of COVID-19 infection. The study depicted differential viral RNA copies in the urban lake with high viral load observed during the peaks of wave I and wave II. Distinct variability in viral genes detection was observed amongst all five lakes which were in concordance with the human activity of the catchment area. The SARS-CoV-2 genes were not detected in peri-urban and rural lakes, whereas the urban lakes having direct functional attributes from domestic activity, in the community showed presence of viral load. The outcome of the study clearly shows that the urban water streams linked with domestic discharge will function as a proxy for wastewater epidemiological studies. The surge in viral gene load from February 2021 sample suggests the on shoot of the second wave of infection, which correlated well with the prevailing pandemic situation. Implementation of regular WBE based monitoring system for the water bodies/wastewater in the urban and semi-urban areas will help to understand the outbreak and spread of virus in the community.

Background:Novel variants of rice (Oryza sativa L.) can be obtained from induced mutations. The objective of the present study is to induce mutations in the background of Samba Mahsuri (BPT-5204), a popular and mega rice variety of India for creating novel variants for morphological, physiological and biotic stresses through using Ethyl Methane Sulphonate (EMS).Results: A population derived from 10, 500 M1 plants and their descendants was phenotyped for a wide range of traits leading to the identification of 124 mutants having variations in key agro-morphological traits, and 106 mutants exhibited variation for physiological traits. Higher yield is the ultimate goal of crop improvement and we identified 574 mutants having higher yield compared to wild type by having better yield attributing traits. Further, a total of fifty mutants showed better panicle exsertion phenotypes as compared to Samba Mahsuri leading to enhancement of yield. Upon rigorous screening for three major biotic stresses, nine mutants showed enhanced tolerance for yellow stem borer, and thirteen different mutants each showed enhanced tolerance for sheath blight and bacterial leaf blight, respectively. On the whole, 1406 desired mutant lines identified at M2 were forwarded to an advanced generation (M5). Whole genome re-sequencing and analyses of 15 stable mutants revealed high level of similarities (99.91 to 99.99%) with the Samba Mahsuri. Conclusions:The lines showing enhanced tolerance to important biotic stresses (YSB, ShB and BLB) as well as several economically important traits are unique genetic resources which can be utilized for the identification of novel genes/alleles for different traits. The lines which have better agronomic features can be used as pre-breeding lines. The entire mutagenic population is maintained as a national resource for genetic improvement of the rice crop.