No abstract

Agro-climatic conditions of North-East India are very complex and rice cultivars present in the region have been adapted to grow under harsh environmental conditions. Germplasm present in the region is considered to possess several important and unique traits that are of importance in rice improvement programs. Genetic engineering is a powerful tool to introduce new traits into crop plants. However, not much information is available on the methods to introduce foreign genes into North-East rice cultivars. Therefore, the main objective of this study is to develop transformation procedures for fast recovery of transgenic plants from North-East rice cultivars. To achieve this objective, a systematic study was carried out to identify media components and culture conditions for efficient embryogenic callus induction from the mature seeds and differentiation of callus into plantlets from two North-East deep water rice cultivars, Taothabi and Khongan. Also, role of preculture of callus on -mediated transformation was studied. Co-cultivation of with 1-5 days precultured callus was found to result in high frequency of transformation. Detailed characterization of transgenic lines confirmed stable integration of transgenes and expression of reporter gene. The whole process starting from callus induction to regenerating of transgenic rice plants that can be established in the soil was achieved in about 35-45 days. The procedures developed were found to be applicable to a popular variety IR 64. Therefore, methods developed in this study should be useful not only to introduce new traits quickly but also to validate the function(s) of several candidate gene(s) identified under the functional genomics of rice.

The North-East state Manipur, India is a powerhouse of many wild flora and fauna. Varied ranges of wild edible Prunus triflora genotypes commonly known as plum are found in valley and hill districts of the region. Each fruit has distinctive physiological habitat and geographical characteristic. However, to the best of our knowledge no biochemical evaluation has been carried out of these fruits from this region. Four populations of wild Prunus triflora genotypes (Imphal kalenheikha, Senapati maoheikha, Ukhrul applemix, Ukhrul mangomix) were selected as source for study to estimate bio-chemical contents using standard protocols. The selected site differed in respect to their altitudes ranging from 750 -2740 m above msl. Proximate analysis revealed that the Prunus triflora genotype of Senapati maoheikha have highest amount of total soluble sugar, reducing sugar, total soluble protein and antioxidant activity of 34.67 ± 0.65 mg/ 100g, 23.65±2.22 mg/100g, 5.66±0.23 mg/100g, IC50666.3 ± 26µg/ml, respectively. While the genotype of Ukhrul applemix showed high value of 16.51± 5.9 mg/100g non-reducing sugar. Ascorbic acid content was highest in Imphal kalenheikha having 13.19±0.9 mg/100g of fresh weight among the genotypes. Significant correlationship was achieved between ascorbic acid and antioxidant activity in all the genotypes. Our study showed that wild Prunus triflora is a potential source of nutrition and a food containing healthgiving additives like functional food. Therefore, popularizing and bringing into mainstream cultivation of these fruit need initiation.