Congress grass, Parthenium hysterophorus L., of the family Asteraceae (tribe: Heliantheae), is an erect and much branched annual or ephermeral herb, known for its notorious role as environmental, medical, and agricultural hazards. It is believed to have been introduced into India and Australia from North America and in the last few years the weed has emerged as the seventh most devastating weed in Africa, Asia, and Australia. The aim of this review is to provide general information about the physiology, distribution, ill effects, and management of parthenium. Control of parthenium has been tried by various methods, but no single management option would be adequate to manage parthenium, and there is a need to integrate various management options. Successful management of this weed can only be achieved by an integrated approach with biological control as the key element.

This study describes the muscle transcriptome profile of Bandur breed, a consumer favoured, meat type sheep of India. The transcriptome was compared to the less desirable, unregistered local sheep population, in order to understand the molecular factors related to muscle traits in Indian sheep breeds. Bandur sheep have tender muscles and higher backfat thickness than local sheep. The longissimus thoracis transcriptome profiles of Bandur and local sheep were obtained using RNA sequencing (RNA Seq). The animals were male, non-castrated, with uniform age and reared under similar environment, as well as management conditions. We could identify 568 significantly up-regulated and 538 significantly down-regulated genes in Bandur sheep (p≤0.05). Among these, 181 up-regulated and 142 down-regulated genes in Bandur sheep, with a fold change ≥1.5, were considered for further analysis. Significant Gene Ontology terms for the up-regulated dataset in Bandur sheep included transporter activity, substrate specific transmembrane, lipid and fatty acid binding. The down-regulated activities in Bandur sheep were mainly related to RNA degradation, regulation of ERK1 and ERK2 cascades and innate immune response. The MAPK signaling pathway, Adipocytokine signaling pathway and PPAR signaling pathway were enriched for Bandur sheep. The highly connected genes identified by network analysis were CNOT2 , CNOT6 , HSPB1 , HSPA6 , MAP3K14 and PPARD , which may be important regulators of energy metabolism, cellular stress and fatty acid metabolism in the skeletal muscles. These key genes affect the CCR4-NOT complex, PPAR and MAPK signaling pathways. The highly connected genes identified in this study, form interesting candidates for further research on muscle traits in Bandur sheep.

The expression of genes and their regulation during lactation in buffaloes remains less understood. To understand the interplay of various genes and pathways, the milk transcriptome from three lactation stages of Murrah buffalo was analyzed by RNA sequencing. The filtered reads were mapped to the Bubalus bubalis as well as Bos taurus reference assemblies. The average mapping rate to water buffalo and Btau 4.6 reference sequence, was 75.5% and 75.7% respectively. Highly expressed genes (RPKM > 3000), throughout lactation included CSN2, CSN1S1, CSN3, LALBA, SPP1 and TPT1. A total of 12833 transcripts were common across all the stages, while 271, 205 and 418 were unique to early, mid and late lactation respectively. Majority of the genes throughout lactation were linked to biological functions like protein metabolism, transport and immune response. A discernible shift from metabolism in early stage to metabolism and immune response in mid stage, and an increase in immune response functions in late lactation was observed. The results provide information of candidate genes and pathways involved in the different stages of lactation in buffalo. The study also identified 14 differentially expressed and highly connected genes across the three lactation stages, which can be used as candidates for future research.

is one of the major fungal pathogens of honey bee broods and the causative agent of Chalkbrood disease. The factors responsible for the pathogenesis of Chalkbrood disease are still not fully understood, and the increasing resistance of to commonly used antifungal agents necessitates a search for new agents to control this disease. The antifungal activities of 27 plant essential oils against two isolates of (Aksu-4 and Aksu-9) were evaluated. Out of the 27 plant essential oils tested, 21 were found to be effective in killing both isolates of. Based on their minimum fungicidal concentration (MFC) values, the effective oils were grouped into three categories: highly effective, moderately effective and minimally effective. Mountain pepper oil, Kala Bhangra oil, spearmint oil, babuna oil, betel leaf oil, carrot seed oil, cumin seed oil and clove bud oil were highly effective, with MBC values between 50.0 μg/mL and 600.0 μg/mL. Mountain pepper was the most effective essential oil, with an MBC value of 50.0 μg/mL. Citral and caryophyllene containing oils were the most effective with MIC 50 ppm. The essential oils tested exhibited significant antimicrobial activities against both strains of , and they may contain compounds that could play an important role in the treatment or prevention of Chalkbrood disease of honeybee.

Parthenium hysterophorus, one of the world's most dangerous weeds, is responsible for huge losses to the biodiversity, agriculture, economy, and health of livestock and human beings. High competitive success rate and adaptability of the species enable it to dominate diverse types of habitats. Various weed control strategies are being used globally to reduce its population to manageable levels. But owing to many limitations associated with the conventional methods, management of Parthenium still remains a challenge. Recently large scale utilization has been taken up as a holistic approach for the control of weeds. Parthenium hysterophorus can be managed by exploiting this weed in diverse fields. In agriculture, it can be used either as green manure or after composting. Industrially it can be used for producing various value added products. The weed also exhibits many environmental applications. Chemical constituents of Parthenium show extensive range of pharmacological activities suggesting its role as a chemotherapeutic agent. This review briefly discusses the problem of Parthenium and enlists its possible utilities which can open new avenues for effective management of this violent weed.