Pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum L. R. Br.) is an important cereal crop grown mainly in the arid and semi-arid regions of India known to possess the natural ability to withstand thermal stress. To elucidate the molecular basis of high temperature response in pearl millet, 12 days old seedlings of P. glaucum cv. 841A were subjected to heat stress at 46 degrees C for different time durations ( 30...

Pearl millet [Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R. Br., Poaceae] has been historically grown for forage production and cattle grazing in the US. It is widely grown as a multi-purpose cereal grain crop principally for food, and also for feed, fodder, fuel, and mulch on more than 26 million hectares, primarily in arid and semi-arid regions of India and Africa (FAO 2000). It is a staple grain for about 90 m...

Polygalacturonases (PGs) are hydrolytic enzymes employed by several phytopathogens to weaken the plant cell wall by degrading homopolygalacturonan, a major constituent of pectin. Plants fight back by employing polygalacturonase-inhibitor proteins (PGIPs). The present study compared the inhibition potential of pearl millet PGIP (Pennisetum glaucum; PglPGIP1) with the known inhibition of Phaseolu...

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE Traditional medicines play an important role in the management of chronically painful and debilitating joint conditions, particularly in the rural Africa. However, their potential use as sources of medicines has not been fully exploited. The present study was carried to find the medicinal plants traditionally used to manage chronic joint pains in Machakos and Maku...

The purpose of this study was to update the floristic inventory found in the Upper Paraná River floodplain. Floristic surveys were performed from February 2000 through March 2008, as part of the Brazilian Long-Term Ecological Research Program (PELD/CNPq-Site 6). The material collected was identified from 774 species, 442 genera, and 116 families. The ten families with high species richness were...

Millets are major food and feed sources in the developing world especially in the semiarid tropical regions of Africa and Asia. The most widely cultivated millets are pearl mil‐ let [Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R. Br.], finger millet [Eleusine coracana (L.) Gaertn], foxtail millet [Setaria italica (L.) P. Beauvois], Japanese barnyard millet [Echinochloa esculneta (A. Braun) H. Scholz], Indian Barny...

Gametophytic apomixis is asexual reproduction as a consequence of parthenogenetic development of a chromosomally unreduced egg. The trait leads to the production of embryos with a maternal genotype, i.e. progeny are clones of the maternal plant. The application of the trait in agriculture could be a tremendous tool for crop improvement through conventional and nonconventional breeding methods. ...

Rhizoremediation is the use of plant-microbe interaction for the enhanced degradation of contaminants. Rhizosphere bioremediation of pyrethroid pesticides will offer an attractive and potentially inexpensive approach for remediation of contaminated soil. The present study was done with the aim of establishment of highly effective remediation method using plant with degradative rhizosphere and i...

Heat shock of living tissue induces the synthesis of a unique group of proteins, the heat shock proteins. In plants, the major group of heat shock proteins has a molecular mass of 15 to 25 kilodaltons. Accumulation of these proteins to stainable levels has been reported in only a few species. To examine accumulation of the low molecular weight heat shock proteins in a broader range of species, ...