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Over the past decades, a number of 1,4‐naphthoquinones have been isolated from natural resources and several of naphthoquinone derivatives with diverse structural motif have been synthesized; they possess a multitude of biochemical properties and modulate numerous pharmacological roles that offer new targets for addressing the challenges pertaining to novel drug developments. Among natural naphthoquinones, lapachol, α‐lapachone, β‐lapachone, lawsone, juglone, and plumbagin have been evaluated for its potential as antitrypanosomal activities. The chemotherapeutic drugs available for combating human trypanosomiasis, that is, American trypanosomiasis and African trypanosomiasis caused by Trypanosoma cruzi and Trypanosoma brucei, respectively, and animal tripanosomosis caused by Trypanosoma evansi have a problem of drug resistance and several toxic effect. Therefore, search of alternative effective drug molecules, without toxic effects, have enthused the researchers for searching new drug entity with potential clinical efficacy. In the search for new antitrypanosomal compound, this review focuses on different natural quinones and their synthetic derivatives associated with antitrypanosomal studies. In this context, this review will be useful for the development of new antitrypanosomal drugs mainly based on different structural modification of natural and synthetic naphthoquinones.

Among the four cultivated cotton species, G. hirsutum (allotetraploid) presently holds a primary place in cultivation. Efforts to further improve this primary cotton face the constraints of its narrow genetic base due to repeated selective breeding and hence demands enrichment of diversity in the gene pool. G. arboreum (diploid species) is an invaluable genetic resource with great potential in this direction. Based on the dispersal and domestication in different directions from Indus valley, different races of G. arboreum have evolved, each having certain traits like drought and disease resistance, which the tetraploid cotton lack. Due to lack of systematic, race wise characterization of G. arboreum germplasm, it has not been explored fully. During the present study, 100 polymorphic SSR loci were used to genotype 95 accessions belonging to 6 races of G. arboreum producing 246 polymorphic alleles; mean number of effective alleles was 1.505. AMOVA showed 14 % of molecular variance among population groups, 34 % among individuals and remaining 52 % within individuals. UPGMA dendrogram, based on Nei's genetic distance, distributed the six populations in two major clusters of 3 populations each; race 'bengalense' was found more close to 'cernuum' than the others. The clustering of 95 genotypes by UPGMA tree generation as well as PCoA analysis clustered 'bengalense' genotypes into one group along with some genotypes of 'cernuum', while rest of the genotypes made separate clusters. Outcomes of this research should be helpful in identifying the genotypes for their further utilization in hybridization program to obtain high level of germplasm diversity.

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Sethi K., Siwach P., Verma S.K. (2017): Linkage disequilibrium and association mapping of fibre quality traits in elite Asiatic cotton (Gossypium arboreum) germplasm populations. Czech J. Genet. Plant Breed., 53: 159−167.Cotton productivity has been hindered by the narrow genetic base of cultivated cotton. Linkage disequilibriumbased association mapping has become a powerful molecular tool to dissect and exploit genetic diversity. In the present study, population structure and marker-trait associations for fibre quality traits in genotypes belonging to six races of Gossypium arboreum were assessed. Out of 300 simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers, 100 were found polymorphic, yielding a total of 240 alleles (all polymorphic). Structure analysis revealed allelic admixtures between genotypes. A Q-matrix exhibited mixed ancestry for the majority of genotypes, the race indicum forming a significant percent ancestry for almost all genotypes. At significant threshold values of r 2 ≥ 0.05, 7.37% of SSR loci showed significant linkage disequilibrium (LD), while at highly significant threshold of r 2 ≥ 0.1, the value was reduced to 5.31%. LD clearly decayed within the genetic distance of 9-10 cM, with r 2 ≥ 0.1. Twenty-eight SSR markers were found associated with six fibre quality traits using general linear model and mixed linear model.