Interspecific hybridization is known to improve productivity and resistance to diseases in many crops. Therefore, an attempt was made to introgress productivity and disease resistance into chickpea from wild Cicer species. The true F 1 hybrids of cultivated chickpea genotypes ÔL550Õ and ÔFGK45Õ with C. reticulatum were backcrossed twice to their cultivated female parents to minimize the linkage drag of undesirable wild traits. The pedigree method was followed to advance the segregating populations from straight crosses (without backcross) and BC 1 /BC 2 generations to F 5 -F 7 . The interspecific derivatives recorded up to a 16.9% increase over the check cultivars and a 25.2% increase over the female parent in a preliminary yield evaluation trial. Of the 22 interspecific derivatives thus derived, four desi and two kabuli lines were further evaluated for seed yield in replicated trials at three diverse locations. These lines possess a high degree of resistance to wilt, foot rot and root rot diseases, and recorded a 6.1-17.0% seed yield increase over the best check cultivars.

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Beauveria bassiana, an entomopathogenic fungus, is the alternative biocontrol agent exploited against major economic crop pests. Pieris brassicae L. is an emerging pest of the Brassicaceae family. Therefore, in the present study, fungal isolates of Beauveria bassiana, viz. MTCC 2028, MTCC 4495, MTCC 6291, and NBAII-11, were evaluated for their virulence against third instar larvae of P. brassicae. Among all these fungal isolates, maximum mortality (86.66%) was recorded in B. bassiana MTCC 4495 at higher concentration of spores (109 conidia/ml), and the minimum mortality (30.00%) was recorded in B. bassiana MTCC 6291 at a lower concentration (107 conidia/ml) after ten days of treatment. The extracellular cuticle-degrading enzyme activities of fungal isolates were measured. Variability was observed both in the pattern of enzyme secretion and the level of enzyme activities among various fungal isolates. B. bassiana MTCC 4495 recorded the maximum mean chitinase (0.51 U/ml), protease (1.12 U/ml), and lipase activities (1.36 U/ml). The minimum mean chitinase and protease activities (0.37 and 0.91 U/ml, respectively) were recorded in B. bassiana MTCC 6291. The minimum mean lipase activity (1.04 U/ml) was recorded in B. bassiana NBAII-11. Our studies revealed B. bassiana MTCC 4495 as the most pathogenic isolate against P. brassicae, which also recorded maximum extracellular enzyme activities, suggesting the possible roles of extracellular enzymes in the pathogenicity of B. bassiana against P. brassicae.

BACKGROUND:To the authors' knowledge, the diagnostic value of cell block (CB) as an adjunct to ThinPrep liquid-based cytology (LBC) of bronchial washing specimens in the detection and subclassification of pulmonary neoplasms has not been well evaluated. The objective of the current study was to evaluate the diagnostic utility of CB in this setting. METHODS: A total of 74 bronchial washing specimens and concurrently prepared CBs with a diagnosis of malignant or suspicious/atypical obtained from bronchoscopy procedures performed during 2009 were reviewed along with 28 randomly selected negative cases. LBC and CBs were reviewed independently. Deeper levels and ancillary studies were performed on CBs for specific tumor classification if needed. LBC and CB diagnoses were correlated with final histology and/or bronchial brushings. RESULTS: Use of CBs increased the number of positive diagnoses from 18 (LBC only) to 30 (combined LBC and CB) and 36 (combined LBC and CB with ancillary studies), with increased diagnostic yields of 67% and 100%, respectively. CB without ancillary techniques detected 22 malignancies whereas LBC detected 18 malignancies and CB with ancillary techniques detected 29 malignancies. A specific tumor diagnosis was possible in 22 of 29 (76%) malignancies detected by CB. Bronchial brushings and histology confirmed malignancy in 91% and 92% of cases, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: CB combined with LBC was found to improve the rate of detection of malignancy over LBC alone, especially in cases with suspicious or atypical LBC diagnoses. Increased diagnostic yield is observed when CB is used with or without ancillary studies, but the yield is higher with CB using ancillary studies. CB serves as yet another available source of diagnostic material for immunohistochemical and molecular studies. Cancer (Cancer Cytopathol) 2012;120:134-

Whitefly Bemisia tabaci is a global invasive pest that causes substantial losses to agricultural crops worldwide either by direct feeding or vectoring numerous plant viruses. Management with insecticides remains a big challenge due to its rapid resistance development potential as well as the impact of these chemicals on nontarget organisms. Thus, in search of alternate and novel pest management strategies RNA interference (RNAi) has come up as potential future tool in this direction. The present study targets nine potential genes (Aquaporin (AQP), Calcitonin (CAL), CyclophilinB (CYCP), Knottin-1 (k-1), Heat shock proteins (Hsp20, Hsp40 and Hsp70), SWItch/Sucrose Non-fermentable (SNF7) and inhibitor of apoptosis (IAP) of whitefly that have been implicated to play a role in various vital physiological functions and virus transmission. The RNAi mediated knockdown efficiency of these genes has been improved through the conjugation of respective target gene dsRNA with CQD (carbon quantum dots) nanoparticles or simultaneous knockdown of dsRNA specific gut nucleases. The studies revealed that feeding of dsRNA (40 µg/ml sucrose diet) of the target gene(s) either conjugated with CQD or along with dsRNA against dsRNase (dsdsRNase) (40 µg/ml sucrose diet) enhanced the RNAi efficiency by 24-89% compared to whiteflies fed with naked dsRNA of the same target gene. The studies provide insights about the functional role of various genes in whitefly, which can possibly be exploited for the management of this pest in the future.