Sorghum is one of the most important cereal crops in the semi-arid tropics. Several insect pests damage it. The possibility of identifying genotypes with multiple resistance to these pests and transferring the relevant genes into high-yielding varieties and hybrids has been considered as an attractive approach to reducing yield losses. A set of 12 cytoplasmic male-sterile and maintainer lines, ...

A novel compound, serinol phosphate, was identified in sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum) clone 51NG97. It was produced by an enzyme-mediated transamination of dihydroxyacetone phosphate with either alanine, glutamate, aspartate, or glutamine serving equally well as an amino donor. Some detectable phosphatase activity was present in crude leaf enzyme preparation that hydrolyzed serinol phosphate...

Twelve moderately haloalkaliphilic bacteria were isolated from sediment and water sample collected from the alkaline Soda Lake of Lonar, India using Lonar Lake water as enrichment medium. All the isolates were identified based on biochemical characterization, 16S rRNA sequencing and phylogenetic analysis. Isolation of haloalkaliphilic Marinobacter excellens, Alkalimonas delamerensis, Roseinatro...

The present study evaluates the pathogenic efficacy of an entomopathogenic fungus, Metarhizium anisopliae s.l. (=M. anisopliae) against red spider mite, Oligonychus coffeae damaging tea plants. Laboratory studies revealed that M. was on O. and exhibited 78% mortality. Evaluation formulated 5% aqueous suspension (AS) (1000 ml containing 2 × 107 conidia/ml in 400 L water/ha) through micro-plot a ...

The effects of cochlioquinone A, isolated from Drechslera sacchari, were studied in vitro and in vivo. This compound specifically inhibited diacylglycerol kinase activity with Ki = 3.1 microM. The kinetics revealed that cochlioquinone A inhibited diacylglycerol kinase in competition with ATP, and non-competitively with diacylglycerol. The compound inhibited neither protein kinase C, epidermal g...

Successive transfer in synthetic medium of spores and mycelial fragments from original toxin-producing cultures of Helminthosporium sacchari results in attenuated cultures which do not produce the host-specific toxin helminthosporoside. When attenuated cultures are grown on material obtained from the water wash of sugarcane leaves susceptible to this fungus, the production of heminthosporoside ...