The study was carried out to assess genetic diversity among 119 lentil genotypes grown in different habitats for heat tolerance using morpho‐physiological and reproductive traits and SSR markers. High‐temperature stress was applied at seedling (35/33°C) and anthesis stages (35/20°C) to study the effects on morpho‐physiological and reproductive traits under hydroponic condition, which was compared with non‐stressed and stressed field conditions. A set of 209 alleles were identified by 35 SSR markers among the genotypes. Genetic diversity and polymorphism information content values varied between 0.0494–0.859 and 0.0488–0.844, with mean values of 0.606 and 0.563, respectively. Genotypes were clustered into nine groups based on SSR markers. Morpho‐physiological and reproductive traits under heat stress were found to be significantly different among SSR clusters. These findings suggest that heat adaptation is variable among the genotypes and the tolerant materials can be evolved through hybridization using parents from different clusters with diverse mechanisms of heat tolerance.

Salinity is one of the major factors reducing plant growth and productivity worldwide and affects about 7% of world's total land area. In India about 6.73 million hectare of land area is salt affected. Wheat is the second most important crop after rice in India and occupies approximately 28.5 million hectare area. Several tolerance indices comprising of mean productivity (MP), geometric mean productivity (GMP), stress tolerance index (STI), stress stability index (SSI), tolerance index (TOL), yield index (YI) and yield stability index (YSI) were calculated in this investigation for salinity and its ability to understand which one or more predictor among studied indices based on correlation, principal component analysis and cluster analysis. Ten wheat genotypes were evaluated in two successive growing seasons (2012)(2013)(2014), with complete randomized design with three replications under both salinity stress and non-salinity to identify salt tolerant genotypes to the target environment. Multiple indices for salt tolerance were calculated based on the potential yield (Yp) under non-stress and yield (Ys) under stress conditions. The Ys and Yp showed highest significant and positive correlations with GMP, MP and STI among indices studied. Therefore, these indices were considered as a better predictor of Ys and Yp than TOL, SSI and YSI. Principal component analysis classified the genotypes into two groups. The first two PCs with eigen values >1 contributed 99.74% of the variability amongst genotypes. PC1 accounted for about 5.24% of the variation in salt tolerance indices and PC2 for 3.74%. The first PC was related to Ys, Yp, MP, GMP, STI and YI whereas the second PC related to Yp, TOL and SSI. The cluster analysis sequestrated ten genotypes into two clusters based on Ward's method. According to results, salinity significantly reduced the yield of some genotypes while some were found tolerant to stress indicating sufficient genetic variability for salinity tolerance among the studied genotypes. It could be implicated in selection of salinity tolerant wheat genotypes for the development of bread wheat varieties.

Measles is a childhood disease that causes great morbidity and mortality in India and worldwide. Because measles surveillance in India is in its infancy, there is a paucity of countrywide data on circulating Measles virus genotypes. This study was conducted in 21 of 28 States and 2 of 7 Union Territories of India by MeaslesNetIndia, a national network of 27 centers and sentinel practitioners. MeaslesNetIndia investigated 52 measles outbreaks in geographically representative areas from 2005 through June 2010. All outbreaks were serologically confirmed by detection of antimeasles virus immunoglobulin M (IgM) antibodies in serum or oral fluid samples. Molecular studies, using World Health Organization (WHO)-recommended protocols obtained 203 N-gene, 40 H-gene, and 4 M-gene sequences during this period. Measles genotypes D4, D7, and D8 were found to be circulating in various parts of India during the study period. Further phylogenetic analysis revealed 4 lineages of Indian D8 genotypes: D8a, D8b, D8c, and D8d. This study generated a large, countrywide sequence database that can form the baseline for future molecular studies on measles virus transmission pathways in India. This study has created support and capabilities for countrywide measles molecular surveillance that must be carried forward.

Groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.) is an excellent cash crop having multipurpose uses of each plant part i.e., direct consumption, cooking oil and a rich source of protein feed for animals. Rust and late leaf spot (LLS) are two major foliar fungal diseases of groundnut and can cause yield loss up to 70%. Use of fungicide is costly approach and it is not environment-friendly also, therefore breeding new cultivars with genetic resistance is sustainable, environment-friendly and cost effective approach. Screening and identification of resistant cultivar is one of the primary objective for groundnut improvement. Use of molecular markers, particularly gene based, are user friendly and cost effective approach to identify groundnut resistant genotypes. The present investigation aimed to screen groundnut germplasm using allele specific primers for foliar fungal diseases (LLS and rust). The study consisted 30 uncharacterized germplasm lines and 4 check varieties of Groundnut. A set of 4 gene based SSR markers were selected for screening of groundnut germplasms for foliar fungal diseases i.e., LLS and rust. A total of 14 alleles were identified with an average of 3.5 alleles per locus for polymorphic SSR markers. The gene diversity and Polymorphic Information Content (PIC) values varied between 0.3972-0.5778 with an average of 0.47 respectively. The genetic relationships among Groundnut genotypes are presented in SSR based UPGMA tree. Principle Co-ordinate analysis (PCA) based on origin formed 4 major population groups. The population structure of the 34 Groundnut genotypes was estimated using STRUCTURE v2.3.3 software based on SSR markers. The optimum K value was determined by using Structure Harvester, where the highest peak was observed at delta K = 2. The number of sub populations (K) was identified based on maximum likelihood and delta K (dK) values, with two core and pure groups and an admixture group. Current study identified four germplasms i.e., AH8054, CS21181, CS708, Akola White to be used as foliar disease resistant cultivar for groundnut hybridization and improvement.

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