Publications

The rice–wheat cropping system is the main food bowl in Asia, feeding billions across the globe. However, the productivity and long-term sustainability of this system are threatened by stagnant crop yields and greenhouse gas emissions from flooded rice production. The negative environmental consequences of excessive nitrogen fertilizer use are further exacerbating the situation, along with the high labor and water requirements of transplanted rice. Residue burning in rice has also severe environmental concerns. Under these circumstances, many farmers in South Asia have shifted from transplanted rice to direct-seeded rice and reported water and labor savings and reduced methane emissions. There is a need for opting the precision agriculture techniques for the sustainable management of nutrients. Allelopathic crops could be useful in the rotation for weed management, the major yield-reducing factor in direct-seeded rice. Legume incorporation might be a viable option for improving soil health. As governments in South Asia have imposed a strict ban on the burning of rice residues, the use of rice-specific harvesters might be a pragmatic option to manage rice residues with yield and premium advantage. However, the soil/climatic conditions and farmer socio-economic conditions must be considered while promoting these technologies in rice-wheat system in South Asia.

This study confirmed multiple pairs of NILs and identified SNPs between PHS isolines, which are valuable resources for further fine-mapping of this locus to clone the major genes for PHS resistance and investigate the possible functional regulation of these genes on important agronomic traits, such as plant height and grain number per spike.

Sesame (Sesamum indicum) is an important indigenous oilseed crop but its growth and productivity are severely affected by abiotic stresses. Class III peroxidases are key stress related enzymes that exclusively occur in plant kingdom, however, their specific involvement in sesame remains largely unexplored. The present study aimed to identify the PRX gene family in sesame and elucidate their role in conferring drought stress tolerance in contrasting sesame accessions. Through genome-wide analysis of the PRX gene family, 45 non-redundant members (designated SiPRXs) were identified which were unequally distributed on 13 sesame chromosomes. Motif analysis revealed highly conserved peroxidase domains in all SiPRX proteins. To validate the function of identified SiPRX family members, sesame accessions were phenotyped under drought stress and irrigated conditions. The contrasting drought-tolerant and drought-sensitive accessions were used to study the relative transcript abundance of the selected 15 SiPRX genes by quantitative real-time PCR.Expression analysis revealed differential expression of SiPRX genes between drought-tolerant and drought-sensitive accessions, which was consistent with their physiological responses to drought stress. Our findings provide comprehensive insights into the genomic characterization of the SiPRX gene family in sesame with special reference to drought stress tolerance. These results emphasize the potential utility of SiPRX genes in enhancing drought resilience in sesame with implications for crop improvement strategies.