Abiotic stresses are the foremost limiting factors for agricultural productivity. Crop plants need to cope up adverse external pressure created by environmental and edaphic conditions with their intrinsic biological mechanisms, failing which their growth, development, and productivity suffer. Microorganisms, the most natural inhabitants of diverse environments exhibit enormous metabolic capabilities to mitigate abiotic stresses. Since microbial interactions with plants are an integral part of the living ecosystem, they are believed to be the natural partners that modulate local and systemic mechanisms in plants to offer defense under adverse external conditions. Plant-microbe interactions comprise complex mechanisms within the plant cellular system. Biochemical, molecular and physiological studies are paving the way in understanding the complex but integrated cellular processes. Under the continuous pressure of increasing climatic alterations, it now becomes more imperative to define and interpret plant-microbe relationships in terms of protection against abiotic stresses. At the same time, it also becomes essential to generate deeper insights into the stress-mitigating mechanisms in crop plants for their translation in higher productivity. Multi-omics approaches comprising genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics and phenomics integrate studies on the interaction of plants with microbes and their external environment and generate multi-layered information that can answer what is happening in real-time within the cells. Integration, analysis and decipherization of the big-data can lead to a massive outcome that has significant chance for implementation in the fields. This review summarizes abiotic stresses responses in plants in-terms of biochemical and molecular mechanisms followed by the microbe-mediated stress mitigation phenomenon. We describe the role of multi-omics approaches in generating multi-pronged information to provide a better understanding of plant–microbe interactions that modulate cellular mechanisms in plants under extreme external conditions and help to optimize abiotic stresses. Vigilant amalgamation of these high-throughput approaches supports a higher level of knowledge generation about root-level mechanisms involved in the alleviation of abiotic stresses in organisms.

The GATA gene family is one of the most conserved families of transcription factors, playing a significant role in different aspects of cellular processes, in organisms ranging from fungi to angiosperms. GATA transcription factors are DNA-binding proteins, having a class IV zinc-finger motif CX2CX17−20CX2C followed by a highly basic region and are known to bind a consensus sequence WGATAR. In plants, GATAs are known to be involved in light-dependent gene regulation and nitrate assimilation. However, a comprehensive analysis of these GATA gene members has not yet been highlighted in rice when subjected to environmental stresses. In this study, we present an overview of the GATA gene family in rice (OsGATA) in terms of, their chromosomal distribution, domain architecture, and phylogeny. Our study has revealed the presence of 28 genes, encoding 35 putative GATA transcription factors belonging to seven subfamilies in the rice genome. Transcript abundance analysis in contrasting genotypes of rice—IR64 (salt sensitive) and Pokkali (salt tolerant), for individual GATA members indicated their differential expression in response to various abiotic stresses such as salinity, drought, and exogenous ABA. One of the members of subfamily VII—OsGATA23a, emerged as a multi-stress responsive transcription factor giving elevated expression levels in response to salinity and drought. ABA also induces expression of OsGATA23a by 35 and 55-folds in IR64 and Pokkali respectively. However, OsGATA23b, an alternative splice variant of OsGATA23 did not respond to above-mentioned stresses. Developmental regulation of the OsGATA genes based on a publicly available microarray database showed distinct expression patterns for most of the GATA members throughout different stages of rice development. Altogether, our results suggest inherent roles of diverse OsGATA factors in abiotic stress signaling and also throw some light on the tight regulation of the spliced variants of OsGATA genes in response to different environmental conditions.

Sporotrichosis is endemic in the Sub-Himalayan belt, which ranges from the northern to the north-eastern Indian subcontinent. Similar to many parts of the developing world, sporotrichosis is commonly recognized clinically in this region however consolidated epidemiological data is lacking. We report epidemiological, clinical and microbiological data from a hundred culture positive cases of sporotrichosis. Out of 305 clinically suspicious cases of sporotrichosis, a total of 100 isolates were identified as Sporothrix schenckii species complex ( S. schenckii ) on culture. Out of the culture proven cases 71% of the cases presented with lymphocutaneous type of lesions while 28% had fixed localized type and 1% had disseminated sporotrichosis. Presentation with lesions on hands was most frequently seen in 32% with arm (23%) and face (21%) in that sequence. The male to female ratio was 1∶1.27. Age ranged from 1 ½ years to 88 years. Mean age was 43.25 years. Disease was predominantly seen in the fourth to sixth decade of life with 58% cases between 31 and 60 years of age. Since the first report from the region there has been a steady rise in the number of cases of sporotrichosis. Seasonal trends reveal that most of the patients visited for consultation in the beginning of the year between March and April. This is the first study, from the most endemic region of the Sub-Himalayan belt, to delve into epidemiological and clinical details of such a large number of culture proven cases over a period of more than eighteen years which would help in the understanding of the local disease pattern of sporotrichosis.

We present detailed quantitative measurement analyses for flow in a spinner flask with spinning rates between 20 to 45 RPM, utilizing the optical velocimetry measurement technique of Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV). A partial section of the impeller was immersed in the working fluid to reduce the shear forces induced on the cells cultured on microcarriers. Higher rotational speeds improved the mixing effect in the medium at the expense of a higher shear environment. It was found that the mouse induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells achieved the optimum number of cells over 7 days in 25 RPM suspension culture. This condition translates to 0.0984 Pa of maximum shear stress caused by the interaction of the fluid flow with the bottom surface. However, inverse cell growth was obtained at 28 RPM culture condition. Such a narrow margin demonstrated that mouse iPS cells cultured on microcarriers are very sensitive to mechanical forces. This study provides insight to biomechanical parameters, specifically the shear stress distribution, for a commercially available spinner flask over a wide range of Reynolds number.