eBook Chapters

Abstract

India with population of 1.30 billion in which 47 per cent is engaged in agriculture earnestly needs efficiently use of biotechnology and genetic engineering for transforming agriculture sector. Biotechnological tools offer great opportunities for increasing agricultural production and can play an important role towards the attainment of production sustainability of crops. Biotechnological tools have the potential to release burgeoning pressure on agriculture and allied sectors; ecology and environment; plant, animal and microbial biodiversity; and allied resources such as land and water with improved and sustainable agricultural productivity which enhances food security. Agricultural biotechnology, including tissue culture, DNA-marker-assisted breeding and genetic engineering (GE) technology have potential to increase stress tolerant, selection efficiency, crop adaptation, crop productivity and food security in more efficiently manner through the development of improved varieties with increased yields, nutritional content and storage characteristics. Genetic engineering tools should continue to build capacity in this technology, giving priority to traits and crops that are of economic importance such as drought tolerance in maize, rice, beans; cold tolerance in rice; increased nutritional value and improved shelf life in fruits and vegetables. Crop varieties and livestock with improved characteristics have been developed using tools such as marker-assisted breeding and genetic engineering. Molecular pharming is one of the applications of genetically modified crops and livestock for the production of pharmaceutical proteins. Reproductive technologies are alternative ways for genetic improvement of livestock. The development of molecular diagnostics and vaccine technology as a tool improved the ability to detect and treat several diseases of livestock. The advancements in biotechnological tools such as protein engineering and metabolic engineering play a significant role in production of a large number of valuable and high quality industrial products.

Introduction Worldwide, 40% of a crop is lost to insect damage, particularly in developing countries. Some of the major insect pests belong to the Lepidoptera and Coleoptera, and their larval or grub stages cause major damage to economically important crops including tobacco, cotton, corn, sorghum, tomato, sunflower, pulses, wheat, and lucerne. Recently, some insecticides have been primarily used for agricultural pests. Over the years, most pesticides have led to insecticide resistance in major lepidopterans, a reduction in natural enemy populations, and harm to mammals and the environment.

10.1 INTRODUCTION

‘Tissue culture’ is commonly used as a blanket term to describe all types of plant cultures, viz., callus, cell, protoplast, anther, meristem, embryo and organ cultures (George, 1993). It relies on the phenomenon of cell totipotency. The different techniques of culturing plant tissues may offer certain advantages over traditional methods of propagation.

Growing plants in vitro in a controlled environment, with in-depth knowledge of the culture conditions and the nature of the plant material, ensures effective clonal propagation of genetically superior genotypes of economically important plants. Micropropagation has become an important part of the commercial propagation of many plants (George and Sherrington, 1983; and Zimmerman et al., 1986) because of its advantages as a multiplication system (Pierik, 1997 and Razdan, 2003). Several techniques for in vitro plant propagation have been devised, including the induction of axillary and adventitious shoots, the culture of isolated meristems and plant regeneration by organogenesis and/or somatic embryogenesis (Williams and Maheswaran, 1986; and Gautheret, 1985).

Tissue Culture is becoming as an alternative means to vegetative propagation of plants. In vitro growing plants are usually free from bacterial and fungal diseases. Virus eradication and maintenance of plants in virus free stage can also be rapidly achieved in cultures (Sharma, 2016).

Introduction

Plants are often subjected to unfavorable environmental conditions – abiotic factors, causing abiotic stresses - that play a major role in determining productivity of crop yields but also the differential distribution of the plants species across different types of environment. Some examples of abiotic stresses that a plant may face include decreased water availability, extreme temperatures (heating or freezing), decreased availability of soil nutrients and/or excess of toxic ions, excess of light and increased hardiness of drying soil that hamper roots growth. The ability of plants to adapt and/or acclimate to different environments is directly or indirectly related with the plasticity and resilience of photosynthesis, in combination with other processes, determining plant growth and development, namely reproduction. A remarkable feature of plant adaptation to abiotic stresses is the activation of multiple responses involving complex gene interactions and crosstalk with many molecular pathways.

Pineapple is a short-stemmed herbaceous plant that necessitates a significant amount of planting material. For example, depending on the intensity of planting and the cultivar used, one hectare of cultivation needs 35,000 to 70,000 planting parts. Realizing the need for quick multiplication, Ma (1968) devised a method for quick pineapple multiplication using the decapitation technique. Later a technique for rapid in vitro propagation has been developed. Since then, numerous reports on crop micro-propagation using tissue culture techniques have been published. On supplemented MS medium, different types of explants, such as leaf base, shoot base, excised lateral buds and tips from crowns, young-leaf segments, and excised leaf buds, have been used to regenerate plants. Plantlets raised in this manner thrived in the field. In vitro mutation may also be induced using tissue culture techniques. Shoot tips from in vitro grown plantlets may be treated with chemical mutagens (EMS) or irradiated with gamma rays to produce mutants with superior traits such as spineless leaves, larger fruits, improved pulp consistency, or disease resistance. Similarly, somaclonal variants can be screened out early to improve f ield results.

Introduction

The primary problem facing humanity at the start of the new millennium is to provide sufficient sustenance for every person living on this continent, given the rapidly growing populations of the majority of Asian countries. As the amount of land per person continues to decline, several strategies are being used to boost agricultural output from these finite resources in order to satisfy the growing demand of the population. But maintaining adequate soil health levels to support healthy plant development is the fundamental requirement for maintaining food production from these shrinking land areas. Questions concerning the over-reliance on mineral fertilizers to maintain the health and, consequently, the productivity of this continent’s arable soils are frequently raised by the recent trend of consistently decreasing the use efficiency of mineral fertilizers under highly productive systems coupled with issues of gradual deterioration of soil health due to indiscriminate use of fertilizers. It is widely acknowledged that mineral fertilizers are limited to providing plant nutrients to soils; they are not able to address other physical, chemical, or biological aspects of soil health. Conversely, organic materials are far more beneficial in this regard. In light of this, the idea of an integrated plant nutrition system that incorporates both organic and inorganic nutrient sources has been developed and is gaining traction (Chattopadhyay, 2005). Because most tropical and subtropical nations’ arable soils have low levels of organic matter due to high temperatures and increased microbial activity, the integration of mineral fertilizers and organic manures is particularly important for many Asian countries (Gaur, 2006).

Introduction

Wool which obtained primarily from sheep is an essential textile fiber that is used across the world. Whether for clothing, canvas work, carpets, or even upholstery, wool is a vital resource supporting many industries and occupations. This natural fiber has many benefits, such as being biodegradable, easy to clean and even having a natural structure that traps air which is excellent for heat retention. The annual wool production is 2 million tones. China ranks first in terms of global wool production. With a production of more than 333,624 tonnes of wool in 2020, China accounts for approximately 19% of the global wool clip. Australia produces 16% of global wool and is by far the largest wool exporter in the world. There has been a constant increase in the demand of wool products worldwide. This has made scientists to try to improve livestock and livestock associated derivatives. The conventional system along with the recent biotechnological interventions will be helpful for enhancing wool quality and production.

1. Introduction

 Banana is the developing world’s fourth most important food crop (after rice, wheat and maize) accounting for 70 million metric tons per annum (FAO stat, 2007 faostat.fao.org/site/567/Desktop Default.aspx?). Banana is also the second highest fruit crop in the world, representing a wide range of varieties of cooking and dessert types, providing a staple, nutritious inexpensive food for millions of people. The word “banana” is a general term embracing a number of species or hybrids in the genus Musa of the family Musaceae known simply as the banana family. Two Musa species namely Musa acuminata and Musa balbisiana, out of the 28 described were first noted in 1865 by Kurz as being the origin of most of the commercial clones (Stover and Simmonds 1987). Cultivated clones are parthenocarpic, mostly sterile with starchy fruits. Indeed, wild types are very fertile; their fruits are full of seeds with little starch, and are seldom fit for human consumption. Its abundance, varietal diversity, availability round-the-year and low cost make banana an important commodity for the religious occasions in many tropical countries. The vegetable bananas, generally grouped under ‘Plantains’ are larger, more angular than dessert type and are generally intended for cooking unripe, although ripened ones are quite like dissert bananas.

Introduction

The horticulture sector has been a driving force in stimulating a healthy growth trend in Indian agriculture. This sector contributes around 28 per cent of the GDP from about 13.08 per cent of the area and 37 percent of the total exports of the agricultural commodities (Rather et al., 2013)  India is currently producing 257.2 million tonnes of horticulture produce from an area of 23 million ha. Over the last decade, the area under horticulture grew by about 3.8% per annum but production rose by 7.6% per annum. The higher growth rate in horticulture was brought about by improvement in productivity of horticulture crops, which increased by about 28% between 2001-02 and 2011-12. (Anonymous, 2012)

1. INTRODUCTION

Food processing involves the use of wide range of unit operations and technologies to transform the raw, bulky and perishable food into more shelf-stable, palatable and marketable food products. Food processing is one of the most effective solution to reduce the wastages, improves the quality and safety aspects of food products, increase the food availability and marketability. Fruits and vegetables are considered as an integral part of any dietary system as these are rich sources of vitamins, minerals and dietary fibres. India is the second largest producer of fruits and vegetables after Brazil and China which contributes 10 % of world fruit production and 14 % of world vegetable production. Fruits and vegetables are more prone to spoilage as compared to cereals due to their nature and composition. The spoilage can be occurr at the time of harvesting, handling transportation, storage, marketing and processing that results in lot of wastage in the form of seeds, pulps, peels etc. Efficient management of these wastes can help in preserving vital nutrients of fruits and vegetables, and bringing down the cost of production of processed foods, besides minimizing pollution hazards. In India, processing of fruits and vegetables is extremely low as compared to the developed countries.

Biotechnology can help in the bio-processing of fruits and vegetables for the production of novel products having better sensory and nutritional qualities, improved shelf life. Bio-processes involve the use of different micro-organisms and enzymes along with modern biotechnological techniques like genetic engineering.

Small size grains namely millets are produced by extraneous grasses and the word millet is derived from ‘‘mille’ a French word synonymous to thousand indicating handful of millet grains in a handful measure contains thousand grains (Taylor and Emmambux, 2008). Small millets and pseudo cereals belong to Gramineae family and were major ancient foods of Asian and African continents while Western countries used them as only bird feed.

9.1 INTRODUCTION

India is the second largest producer of fruit crops with annual production of 68.4 million metric tonnes from an area of 6.1million ha (Anon 2010). The national horticulture mission commenced in 2005 had fixed a target to double the horticultural production by 2011-12. According to the available production data of horticultural crops, it seems that we are very close to achieve our target. But, if the loss caused by biotic and abiotic stresses is accounted, a sound conclusion can be drawn that still there is a huge scope for productivity improvement in fruit crops.

Among biotic factors bacteria, fungi, nematodes, viruses and insect pests, diseases and other pests are widely recognized as the biggest threat to the sustainable production of fruit crops. Every fruit crop is infected with one or other pathogen/pest, which causes a significant reduction in yield. The disease alone both in field and storage accounts for 25-30 per cent losses (Rangaswami and Mahadevan 2002). Along with diseases, insect-pests also cause reduction in the yield. About 600 insect and mite pests have been reported in temperate fruits alone in India (Sharma and Singh 2006).

Beside biotic factors, abiotic factors (salt, drought, low and high temperature) also limit the potential yield of fruit crops. It is estimated that nearly 10 million ha is affected by salinity/alkalinity in India (Singh 2006). Moreover, fruit cultivars are also to be modified for yield and traits of consumers preference e.g. seedlessness in grapes and citrus.

Genetic improvement can be achieved by following the conventional breeding approaches, when the gene of interest is present in related cultivars/species and the crop is sexually crossable. But due to long juvenility and genetically prevalent problems like incompatibility, sterility in most of the fruit crops and apomixis in citrus, mango and apple, conventional techniques seem to have limited role in the improvement of fruit crops.

Various biotechnological approaches either alone or in combination with conventional breeding approaches can provide a direct solution for the genetic improvement of fruit crops.

Biotechnology is one of the most exciting and revolutionary sciences of 21st century. According to Convention on Biological Diversity, biotechnology is defined as “any technological application that uses biological systems, living organisms, or derivatives thereof, to make or modify products or processes for specific use”. Biotechnology has proven its immense applications at every step of human life such as, health care, crop improvement, development of valuable products and abatement of environmental problems. Agricultural biotechnology is the area of biotechnology involving its applications to agriculture. Agricultural biotechnology has been practiced for a long time, as people have sought to improve agriculturally important plants/ organisms by selection and breeding.

Summary

Idealistic theories of property are projected to offer general and explicit statements of the justification for deciding legal and moral questions about the status property claims. Debates over property rights in biotechnology were occasioned by specific legislative proposals such as the US Animal Patent Act of 1986, and by filing of patent applications for DNA sequences and processes in the early 1990s. While these debates make sporadic petition to philosophical theories of property, moral claims were entwined with questions about filing requirements, tests for worth, and the rules for licensing and defending patents. The comparative scarcity of discussion on intellectual property at that time dictated the general approach of the chapter: Review basic philosophical approaches to property rights, and speculate on how one might use these approaches in constructing an argument pertinent to agricultural biotechnology. This chapter deals with different approaches to intellectual property in the field of Plant Sciences especially the Biotechnology. It incorporate many different types of intellectual property and a variety of incommensurable values play a role in the justification of intellectual property.

Origin, History and Definition

The term biotechnology was coined by Karl Ereky, a Hungarain engineer, in 1919. The origin of biotechnology can be traced back to prehistoric time when armers and gardeners have been making use of hybridization and grafting among plants with a view to bring about an improvement in existing attributes. Using these approaches, several hundred varieties in ornamental plants were produced. Microorganisms were already used for processes like fermentation, formation of yoghurt and cheese from milk, vinegar from molasses, production of butanol and acetone from starch by Clostridium acetobutylicum or the production of antibiotics like penicillin from Penicillium notatum. Four defferent phases of biotechnological research were witnessed during the last century. In 1920, Chain Weizmann used Clostridium acetobutylicum to convert starch into butanol and acetone (during world war I, acetone was used as an essential component of explosives). Alexander Fleming in 1929 discovered penicillin from Penicillium notatum and wounded soldiers were given treatment using this antibiotic during world was II. In 1970s with the discovery of restriction enzymes, which led to the development of recombinant DNA, technology brought a revolution in the field of biology. The latest phase in the history of biotechnology is the study of structure and function of whole genome (DNA) and whole proteome (protein). This area of research is described as genomics and proteomics, respectively. Some more important activities in the field of biotechnology are given in Table1

In fact, biotechnology is the product of interaction between science of biology and technology. It is the technological exploitation and control of biological system. Biotechnology has wide range of its uses and accordingly Office of Technology Assessment described biotechnology as: (i) old biotechnology that includes fermentation, i.e. formation of vinegar from molasses and that of cheese and yoghurt from milk, production of antibiotics from certain fungi and process of baking and brewing and (ii) new biotechnology that includes the techniques of recombinant DNA and PCR polymerase chain reaction, cell culture and fusion and bioprocessing which became possible only through the researches in molecular biology. However, no efforts have been made to distinguish between old and new biotechnology. Keeping in view the importance of biotechnology, attempts have been made to define it. Following are some of the definitions of biotechnology, however, none of the definitions of biotechnology seems to be complete. The first definition seems to be comprehensive and wide.

Introduction

As per the reports of the United Nations Organization (UNO), the world population is expected to increase to about 9.7 billion by 2050 and to 10.4 billion by the mid-2080s. The increasing population will result in food scarcity and hunger across the world. To meet the demand for food to feed the people and meet the present aim of WHO of “Zero Hunger by 2030”, agriculture and livestock production needs to be increased. However, according to the ICAR Vision 2050 document, growth of the livestock sector is expected to be higher than the agriculture due to different factors like urbanization and changing food habits among the population residing in the urban area, lack of technology among the small and marginal farmers, reducing operational land, water scarcity, reduced irrigation infrastructure, climate change, etc. to name a few. But to achieve food security through the livestock sector, animal health and production of the animals need to be addressed.

Abstract

Over the years, global climate change has negatively impacted the resources of western Himalayan region and the diversity of floral wealth has been endangered. The endangered livelihoods of agriculture based sector call for incorporating stress resistance by sustained effort that includes resort to infusion of new technologies. Biotechnology offers possible solutions to many of the intractable problems. Development and commercialization of transgenic crops have witnessed phenomenal growth in recent years. An array of traits viz. insect pest resistance, herbicide tolerance, abiotic stress tolerance, augmentation of nutritional qualities etc. have been targeted and successfully modified through plant genetic engineering. The global area of transgenic crops has seen a tremendous increase to attain 148 million hectares in 2010. Progress in understanding plant genome structure and function by high throughput characterization of genome, transcriptome, proteome and metabolome is providing new opportunities to deal with complex traits that result from interactions of a large number of genes. The other significant application of biotechnology in crop improvement has been “Marker Assisted Selection” (MAS). Development and integration of DNA based markers in the selection process has empowered the breeder to identify the desired genotypes without any interference of environmental effect or tissue specificity of expression. Cultivation of MAS derived crop varieties in the country bears testimony to the success of this technology.

1.    Introduction    496

2.    Strain Development Technologies    496

    2.1.    Screening of natural variants of microorganisms, 496
    2.2.    Genetic manipulation of microorganisms, 498
        2.2.1.    Random mutagenesis and selection, 498
        2.2.2.    Conjugation, 504
        2.2.3.    Transduction, 504
        2.2.4.    Transposition, 506
        2.2.5.      Hybridization, 507
        2.2.6.    Rare Mating, 509
        2.2.7.    Cytoduction, 510
        2.2.8.    Protoplast fusion, 511
        2.2.9.    Transformation, 511
        2.2.10.    Gene cloning and transformation (Recombinant DNA technology), 513

Any technique that uses living organisms or substances from these organisms to make or modify a product or to improve plant or animal or to develop microorganism for specific uses, can be termed biotechnology. Biotechnology involves microbes or cells derived from plants and animals for efficient production of useful products for mankind. The use of microbes for production of alcohol and penicillin, to name a few, is well known. However, in the last 25 years, several novel organisms, yielding useful products have been created by genetic engineering. Today, there is a wide application of biotechnology in human medicine, agriculture and animal husbandry in the area of diagnosis prophylaxis and therapy.

Aquaculture industry has undergone a sea change world over in the last three decades. The important needs of the industry are development of fast growing disease resistant fish and shellfish varieties, development of cheap and effective vaccines, disease diagnostics, cell lines sand probiotics. Efforts on these lines have already begun since 3-4 decades and results are highly promising. Some of the biotechnologies employed in aquaculture health management (Plate 15) are fish cell lines, monoclonal antibodies and nucleic acids for diagnostics sub unit and nucleic acid vaccines for prophylaxis, transgenes for disease resistance, gene editing in fishes and their pathogens and probiotics for bioremedial measures.

A. Cell Lines for Health Management

Cell lines are transformed cells that are adapted well to grow and multiply outside the host in in vitro culture systems. Cells lines can be developed from fast growing tissues of young fish. There are two methods of developing cell lines (1) Explant method, (2) Enzymatic method. Cell lines are grown in sterile plastic or glass containers containing appropriate medium having nutrients salts, antibiotics, buffers, serum etc. Minimum essential medium (MEM) is the common medium employed for fish cell line. Cell lines are developed, characterised and deposited in national and international repositories, which can be procured for use in research and industry.

Biotechnology can be defined as utilization of materials and methods for benefit of mankind by the utilization of microorganisms and biological agents. It is an area with a tremendous potential in solving basic problems of food, fibre, fuel and medicines in developing countries. According to the office of the Technology Assessment of the US Congress, biotechnology can be defined as any technique that uses living organisms to make or modify a product, to improve plants or animals or to develop micro organisms for specific uses. Flower industry has always increasing demand for new forms, colours and types of flowers. Biotechnology has made significant advances in the improvement of ornamental crops and development of new varieties has great potential to be utilized in future. Utilization of this technology can be done in floriculture under two broad subheads viz., tissue culture and genetic engineering.

TISSUE CULTURE

The major commercial utilization of tissue culture has been micropropagation, which is an alternative to vegetative propagation. Micropropagation permits true to type multiplication of a desired genotype using in vitro culture techniques. Micropropagation process can produce a large number of propagules in a relatively short time and space under controlled conditions. It has already revolutionized production process of several nurseries. The dream of multiplying disease free plants in required quantity on the specified time schedule in an industrial way has become true due to micropropagation. Some of the important floricultural crops that are successfully propagated in vitro in Indian laboratories are given below with their explant source:

Carnation: Leaf segments, internodes, petals

Gerbera: Leaf, petiole, flower stalk segments

Gladiolus: Inflorescence stalk, leaf sections

Orchids: Epidermal peelings, leaf segments, root tips

Rose: Internodal segments, petals, leaf segments, immature embryos, root segments

The main purpose of herbal drug technology is to convert botanical materials into medicines with a focus on standardization and quality control with proper integration of modern scientific techniques and traditional knowledge. The use of chromatographic techniques and marker compounds to standardize botanical preparations has limitations because of their variable sources and chemical complexity. DNA-based molecular markers have utility in fields like taxonomy, physiology, embryology, genetics etc. DNA based techniques have widely been used for authentication of plant species of medicinal importance. Pharmacognosy mainly addresses the quality related issues using routine botanical and organoleptic parameters of crude drugs, and chemoprofiling assisted characterization with chromatographic and spectroscopic techniques. The new pharmacognosy includes all the aspects of drug development and discovery where the biotechnology driven applications play an important role. Current focus on chemotype-driven fingerprinting and related techniques require integration with genotype-driven molecular techniques so that an optimal characterization of botanical materials is possible. This review provides a brief account of various DNA based technologies that are useful in genotyping and quick identification of botanicals with suitable examples.

Biotechnology is being harnessed in various aspects of the livestock industry to hasten breed development for improved animal health and welfare, enhanced reproduction, and improved nutritional quality and safety of animal-derived foods. Various biotechnology methods are used in improving the breeding stock of animals. These include artificial insemination (AI), embryo transfer (ET), in-vitro fertilization (IVF), sexing of semen and embryos, micromanipulation of oocytes/ embryos, transgenesis, somatic cell nuclear transfer and the emerging technology on genomics and marker-assisted selection (MAS). Artificial Insemination: One of the earliest perfected technology is artificial insemination (AI) where new breeds of animals are produced through the introduction of the male sperm from one superior male to the female reproductive tract without mating. AI reduces transmission of venereal disease, lessens the need of farms to maintain breeding males, facilitates more accurate recording of pedigrees, and minimizes the cost of introducing improved genetics. Various technologies have evolved that led to the efficient use of AI in developing desired livestock, including the methods of freezing semen or cryopreservation and sperm sexing.

Abstract

Tea [Camellia sinensis (L.) O. Kuntze], of family Theaceae, is an important cash crop  worldwide. It is an evergreen shrub cultivated in humid and sub-humid tropical, sub-tropical, and temperate regions of the world, and grows mainly on acidic soils. Due to limitation of expansion of tea cultivation in new land, import of low cost high quality tea, increasing vertical productivity is the best option of Indian tea Industry. The primary need of the tea industry today is to develop high yielding clones with better quality and stress tolerance potential. Conventional tea research has contributed appreciably to the genetic improvement of tea over the past several decades, but it is time-consuming and labor intensive.

11.14. Nanotechnology 11.14.1. Concept • Nanotechnology is science, engineering, and technology conducted at the nanoscale, which is about 1 to 100 nanometers. • Physicist Richard Feynman is considered as father of nanotechnology. The idea and concepts behind nanoscience and nanotechnology started with a talk entitled “There is Plenty of Room at the Bottom” by physicist Richard Feynman at an American Physical Society Meeting at the California Institute of Technology on December 29, 1959, long before the term nanotechnology was used. In his talk, Feynman described a process in which scientists would be able to manipulate and control individual atoms and molecules. Over a decade a later, in his explorations of ultra precision machining, Professor Norio Taniguchi coined the term nanotechnolog

Plant Pathogen

Pathogen is an inducer of disease.

A pathogen can therefore be defined as any factor that induces unresolved impairment or disruption of one or more important plant functions.

Some plant functions such as nutrient uptake, are highly localized. Others, such as respiration, occur in all living tissues. Still others, such as photosynthesis and photorespiration, are extensively coordinated. Pathogen effects therefore range from very local to very general.

It is difficult to define ‘stress’ precisely. In engineering and the physical sciences, it is usually defined as the force applied per unit area. But as far as in biology, stress it is usually described more loosely as any factor that disturbs normal functioning of an organism. Any environmental factor potentially unfavorable to plant is termed as stress.

The effect of stress on plant condition is called strain. Stress is the action, whereas strain is the reaction. Stress may be defined as external conditions that adversely affect growth, development and productivity. Stress may further classified as:

• Zero stress: This is the level of exposure of plants to environmental factors that leads to neither injury nor reduction in growth and yield of crops.
• Stress escape: Capacity of the plant to complete its life cycle during wet season before onset of stress.

Abstract

Mungbean [Vigna radiata (L.) Wilczek] is an important pulse crop grown in India. It is a short duration annual with yellow flowers and fuzzy brown pods. Majority of the mungbean grown in India is under rainfed conditions and the productivity of mungbean is not upto the mark to meet the daily dietary requirement of a populous country like India. The biotic and abiotic stresses in mungbean, majorly MYMV, powdery mildew, drought, salinity, water logging etc leaves a severe yield loss in mungbean crop. Among them, MYMV and powdery mildew diseases show yield losses accounting upto 85% and 40%, respectively in severe conditions. The present review paper is based on the study of both biotic and abiotic stresses and the recent advances in breeding for resistance to stresses. A detail explanation of major diseases and insect pests affecting mungbean are discussed along with the information of genomic resources and research done in mungbean in recent years. Recently SSR’s have been using widely for all molecular level research work like genetic diversity, constructing linkage maps for identifying QTL’s, marker assisted breeding etc. in mungbean. The resistant varieties developed against these biotic and abiotic stresses are listed which are very important for attaining a prominent yield in mungbean.

Stress is an intrinsic part of biological systems, and successfully adapting to stimuli that induce stress is essential for the survival of dryland crops and farm animals kept in a complex and ever-changing environment. Here the biotic stresses of crop plants are treated and not that of farm animals to avoid the expansion of the volume of the chapter. Biotic stress in plants is caused by living organisms, specifically viruses, bacteria, fungi, nematodes, insects, arachnids, and weeds. In contrast to abiotic stress caused by environmental factors such as drought and heat. Biotic stress agents directly deprive their host of its nutrients leading to reduced plant vigour and, in extreme cases, death of the host plant. In agriculture, biotic stress is a major cause of pre- and postharvest losses. Plants respond to biotic stress through a defence system (Atkinson and Urwin, 2012).

2.1 Insect Pests

Insects are often a major obstacle to the successful production of cucurbits (York, 1992). They can severely reduce yield, injure or kill plants, spread diseases and adversely affect fruit quality. A number of insect pests, mites and nematodes have been found to infest cucurbitaceous vegetables but fortunately, in India, fruit flies and a few species of beetles are of economic importance; aphids and blister beetles though of regular occurrence, seldom cause severe damage.
 
Other insect pests reported to infest the cucurbitaceous vegetables are pumpkin caterpillar, Diaphania indica (Sounders), snake gourd semilooper, Plusia peponis Fab., white fly, Bemisia tabaci Genn., stink bugs, Apspongopus spp. and flea beetle, Phyllotreta spp. etc. These biotic pressures on the crops are increasing day by day due to round-the-year intensive cultivation of photo and thermo insensitive cultivars as well as indiscriminate use of toxic agro-chemicals in the present era of chemicalized agriculture.

Phytonematodes spend much of their lives inside or in contact with host tissue, and molecular interactions constantly occur and shape the outcome of parasitism.Eggs of these parasites generally hatch in the soil, and the juveniles must locate and infect an appropriate host before their stored energy is exhausted Components of host exudate are evaluated by the nematode and direct its migration to its infection site.Host plants recognize approaching nematodes before physical contact through molecules released by the nematodes and launch a defense response In turn, nematodes deploy numerous mechanisms to counteract plant defenses. A review by Shahid Siddique et al., (2022) focused on these early stages of the interaction between plants and nematodes and discussed how nematodes perceive and find suitable hosts, how plants perceive and mount a defense response against the approaching parasites, and how nematodes fight back against host defenses.

3.1 Biowarfare

Biowarfare, also known as Biological warfare or germ warfare, is the use of biological toxins or infectious agents such as bacteria, viruses, insects, and fungi with the intent to kill, harm or incapacitate humans, animals or plants as an act of war. Biological weapons (often termed “bio-weapons”, “biological threat agents”, or “bio-agents”) are living organisms or replicating entities (like viruses, which are not universally considered “alive”). Entomological (insect) warfare is a subtype of biological warfare.

Offensive biological warfare is prohibited under customary international humanitarian law and several international treaties. 

INTRODUCTION

Strelitzia is known as Bird of Paradise. The uniquely shaped flower of this exotic tropical resembles a head of bird and due to its brilliant orange and blue colour and unusual form, it resembles not any bird but a bird of paradise. Its another common name, Erane flower is another bow to its exotic avian shape. Fantastically handsome flowers aside, this is also a very attractive foliage plant resembling the related heliconia in vegetative appearance. Due to the brilliant colour and unique appearance of the flower, it is exceptionally popular as a cut flower which appears periodically throughout the year. Therefore, it is cultivated in different countries for cut flower production to supply it in local and export markets. Commercial production of cut bloom is done in California, Hawaii, Israel, France, South Africa and Japan.

Bird of paradise occupies a place of pride in the garden and is an important choice for landscaping. It is grown in backyard and also for mass effect. Plants of strelitzia can be used in the landscape in a low growing ground cover to enhance the beauty of garden. They serve well anchoring island beds when surrounded by lower growing annuals or ground cover. It can also be used in shrub borders and adaptable beauty is perfect for home and commercial interiors.

Zingiberales is an important order in Kingdom Plantae with eight families in which most of them are important as far as commercial horticulture is concerned. The order includes fruits (bananas and plantains), spices (ginger, turmeric, cardamom), medicinal (arrowroot, galangal) and ornamental (Heliconias, Bird of Paradise, Marantas, Canna, Costus, etc) plants. Among the ornamental zingiberales, plants of Strelitziaceae and Heliconiaceae are gaining popularity for its aesthetic preferences and marketable cut flowers. The unique colour and enhanced vase life of inflorescences makes them as flowers of choice. The plants of other families such as Marantaceae, Cannaceae, Costaceae, Zingiberaceae, Lowiaceae and Musaceae are also gaining momentum in floriculture business for their cut foliages and inflorescences. Some plants such as calathias are admired as potted plants and for indoor gardening.

Introduction

Bird of Paradise is known as Strelitzia as its genus is Strelitzia. The shape of flower and its brilliant orange and blue colour it resembles bird and called bird of paradise. Due to unique appearance of the flower, it is exceptionally popular as a cut flower which appears periodically throughout the year. Commercial production of cut bloom is done in California, Hawaii, Israel, France, South Africa and Japan.

Bird of paradise occupies a place of pride in the garden and is an important choice for landscaping. It is grown in backyard and also for mass effect. Plants of strelitzia can be used in the landscape in a low growing ground cover to enhance the beauty of garden. They serve well anchoring island beds when surrounded by lower growing annuals or ground cover.

To streamline the slaughter activities throughout country and to produce the quality meat for domestic as well export market, Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) formulated certain standards related to abattoir and other food items. It also harmonizes the standards as per the requirement of importing country. So that traders can easily meet out the demand of importing country. Under the standard provisions of BIS, each and every aspect of abattoir as well as its processing aspect is very well described in these standards. These standards are written and documented and easily available to know how about their implementations.

Bitter gourd (Momordica charantia) is a widely grown vegetable variety in India. It is one of the important members of the family Cucurbitaceae. The seed production can be done throughout the year in tropical climate and during spring, summer and rainy season in subtropical climates. In Tamil Nadu September – October is suitable for seed production. In hills seed production can be done during summer season.

It is rich in iron and Vit –C and native of tropical Asia particularly eastern India and Southern China (Sheshadri 1986 Mini Raja et al., 1993).
 
Botany: Monoecious annual, staminate flowers small, yellow and borne on slender pedicel. Pistillate flowers solitary have small pedicel, flowers are yellow, leaves segmented pentamerous. Filaments 3, two are bilocular and one is unilocular. There are three short styles ended with three bilobed or divided stigmas.

Chromosome 2n=22: 6-centromere in middle, 3-submedian, 2-subterminal  (Vargheuse, 1973) 

Momordica dioica: 2n=28

Momordica cochincniensis: Sweet gourd of Assam

Germplasm

KAU-Vellanikara, IIHR-Bangalore, NDUAT-Faizabad, CSAUAT-VRS, Kalyanpur, BPUA&T-Pantnagar and IARI- New Delhi are the major sources of bitter gourd germplasm.

Bitter gourd (Momordica charantia L., 2n = 2x = 22, family Cucurbitaceae, monoecious, cross-pollinated but genetically behaving like self-pollinated crop), also known as balsam pear, bitter melon, bitter cucumber, and African cucumber is rich source of vitamin C and iron and credited with medicinal use in management of diabetes. Fruits are cooked with other vegetables, stuffed, stir-fried, or added in small quantities to beans and soups to provide a slightly bitter flavor. The bitterness of most cucurbits is mainly due to cucurbitacins. The bitterness of bitter gourd is due to the cucurbitacin-like alkaloid momordicine and triterpene glycosides (momordicoside K and L) as reviewed by Behera et al. (2010). Bitter gourd is grown on approximately 340,000 hectares across Asia, with India and China accounting for more than half the production. Estimated area of bitter gourd in India is about 80,000 ha with production reaching to 10,00,000 resulting into a productivity of 12 tons/ha. States accounting for major area of bitter gourd are Chhattisgarh, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Tamil Nadu, Haryana and Assam.

Bitter gourd (Momordica charantia L.) is one of the important commercial cucurbitaceous cash crops grown mainly by small holding farmers in Asia where it is cultivated on more than 340,000 ha annually (McCreight et al., 2013). Eastern Asia, possibly Eastern India, or Southern China is most likely the center of origin for bitter gourd (Walters and Decker-Walters 1988; Miniraj et al., 1993). It is also known as bitter melon, bitter cucumber, balsam pear, bitter apple, or bitter squash (Morton, 1967). Fruits are known for abundant source of vitamins and minerals. Delicious preparations are made from fruits after stuffing and frying. It is also consumed in the form of Juice, Tea and Pills. Bitter gourd fruit abounds in phytonutrients (Dhillon et al., 2017) and often used to manage type 2 diabetes as a folk medicine. Clinical studies confirmed that elevated fasting glucose levels in pre-diabetics can be reduced by supplementing the diet with bitter gourd fruits. (Amirthaveni et al., 2018; Krawinkel et al., 2018). Medicinal properties present in the bitter gourd fruits are used in the curing of diabetes, asthma, blood diseases and rheumatism.

The current seed market of bitter gourd in Asia values ≈ 16 million Euros. The bitter gourd seed market in India alone is 400 metric tonnes having value of 350-400 crores. 70 % area is under hybrids and 30 % is covered by open pollinated varieties.

I. FILL UPS

1. _____ vegetable contain anti-diabetic properties.
2. Bittergourd has _____ similar to bovine insulin.
3. Bittergourd is popularly seen as a _____.
4. Bittergourd is a _____ plant.

The silkworm chawki rearing is a vital stage in rearing as it has major influence on cocoon production.  Temperature, humidity and leaf quality are the three key important factors influencing chawki rearing.  Hence, maintaining these conditions at every step is very important and calls for provision of separate chamber. Any alteration in these factors will influence during later ages of silkworm rearing leading to crop losses.  Taking these factors into consideration the Government of India promoted the establishment Chawki Rearing Centres (CRCs) in private sector also.  These CRCs brush the silkworm eggs at one point under controlled conditions and distribute the worms to the needy farmers.
 
In recent years, bivoltine hybrids are becoming more popular in India and particularly in Karnataka.  This is due to the efforts of the Central Silk Board, Karnataka State Department of Sericulture and Japanese International Co-operation Agency.  These Bivoltines have high cocoon shell ratio (24 to 25%), better quality, fetches high cocoon price, better returns, high rendita (5.1 to 6.1) and raw silk percentage (20 to 22%) with filament length of 11502 to 12200 meters.  The farmers could achieve up to 70kgs cocoon yield per 100 Disease Free Layings (DFLs) and quality silk of 2A to 4A grade. 

Black caraway (Bunium persicum Boiss. Fedtsch ) commonly known as kala zeera is a low volume,  high value, under-exploited and  non-perishable crop that finds place  in cold arid  North -Western Himalayan regions of Indian sub-continent. Its fruits are expensive spice and are used in indigenous system of medicine for curing various ailments and disorders. The proper information on botanical identity of the species, its description and distribution, active ingredients, standardized agro-techniques, processing and value addition and marketing potentials, etc. are very scanty. An attempt has been made to gather information on various aspects of kala zeera to promote its cultivation in the cold arid regions of the Himalayan states and its role in improving the socio-economic conditions of the people by cultivating the cash crop.

Introduction

Biomass is a major source of energy in developing countries, particularly in India. Biomass as a fuel used in residential sector of India is a major component of total energy use in India. Type of fuels used in residential sector in India varies with locations and availability of the local fuels and also by way of cooking food in the open fires or in the rural cook stoves (Earthen Chulhas). The majority of the household in the rural sector of the developing countries burns the biomass fuel under traditional open stoves or in advanced closed cook stove (Fullerton et al., 2008). Biomass fuel includes any material of plant or animal origin, which is deliberately burnt by the human being. Approximately, 2 billion people in the developing world use the biomass fuel as the major source of domestic energy (Balakrishnan et al., 2002). Out of residential fuels, 80-90% of the energy requirement in rural India are met with the use of biomass in the form of fuel wood, dung cakes, charcoal and agricultural residue (TEDDY, 2007). Burning of biomass from all these sources is well known to be associated with the emission of smoke/plumes consisting of particulate and gaseous species as these are not energy efficient processes and thus the fuels are not burnt completely. The species emitted and their concentrations depend on the nature of the source of biomass and other factors including the physical parameters associated with the consumption of the biomass. The fate of the initial fire emissions depends strongly on both their composition and the regional state of the atmosphere. Once airborne, the particles begin to grow slightly in size as they age through condensation and coagulation. Despite their high concentrations and widespread distribution in the atmosphere, the sources remain poorly characterized. Biomass burning has drawn global concerns in the past decades for its effects on visibility, human health and global climate by emitting particulate matter (PM) and other gaseous pollutants (Andreae et al., 2005). Biomass burning emits significant global source of PM emissions to the troposphere which leads to deleterious impact on the earth’s atmosphere. It has an impact on the chemical composition of the atmosphere, the formation of photo oxidants and thus on air quality on a regional scale and climate change (Andreae et al., 2005). They also have harmful impact on human health, natural environment and ecological system (Cheng et al., 2000). The various impacts of these emissions have been well studied by Cheng et al. (2000) and Bardouki et al. (2003). Interest in this topic grew when several studies suggested that biomass burning emissions could rival fossil fuel emissions (Crutzen and Andreae, 1990). Biomass burning has received considerable interest (Bowman et al., 2009).

Introduction

Black cotton soils are formed by the solidification of molten magma; it covers a large area of the Deccan plateau. The depth of this soil is very high in the lower part of the Krishna – Godavari basin. The clay fraction is very high which is responsible for the heavy waterlogging in the area of heavy rainfall and become more vulnerable to soil erosion. The fine fraction of soil not allows draining out through the soil profile and at the same time the rate of evaporation is low. During summer soils suffer from moisture stress and it becomes very hard but at the same time during the rainy season moisture content very high. this imposes severe constraints on conventional agriculture use as a result most of the land remains fallow and subjected to soil erosion due to heavy rain. The nutrient status of the soil is quite good in Vertisol but these constraints limit crop production. To manage black cotton soil for crop production it is advisable to use animal-powered devices for surface soil drainage, Counter cultivation, adoption of a new cropping system will be helpful for better crop production.

Black gram (Vigna mungo, L. Hepper, 2 n = 2 x = 22, family Leguminosae/ Fabaceae, essentially self-pollinated) has a global production of 3.2 million tons where India is the largest producer accounting for more than 70% of the global production followed by Myanmar and Thailand. Indian black gram area, production and productivity in 2010-11 were 3.25 million ha, 1.76 million tons and 522 kg/ha. The corresponding figures for 2015-16 were 3.62 million ha, 1.95 million tons and 537 kg/ha and the corresponding figures for 2016- 17 were 4.48 million ha, 2.83 million tons and 632 kg/ha. For 2017-18 (IV advance estimate), the figures were 5.44 million ha, 3.56 million tons and 655 kg/ha (Directorate of Pulses Development, 2018). These figures show a steady rise in black gram area, production and productivity over the years. This is the third important pulse crop in India after gram and pigeonpea. The three states namely, Madhya Pradesh, UP and Andhra Pradesh alone account for about 50% of the black gram area and production in India.

19.1. Origin and distribution

• Native to Eurasia and introduced in America, Australia and South Africa.

• Grown throughout dry parts of India

19.2. Economic importance

• Whole plant - Useful for rheumatalgia, swellings, cough, asthma, bronchitis, wounds, ulcers, flatulence, dyspepsia, hepatomegaly, otalgia, hiccough, opthalmopathy, vomiting

• Used in cardiopathy, leprosy, skin diseases, fever, splenomegaly, emollient

• As an antiseptic, anti-inflammatory, expectorant, anodyne, vulnerary, digestive, laxative, diuretic, cardiotonic, depurative, diaphoretic, febrifuge, rejuvenating, sedative, alterant and tonic.

19.3. Climate

• Well in tropical and subtropical climate

1.0 INTRODUCTION

Black pepper popularly known as ‘King of spices’ or ‘Black gold’ is one of the important and earliest known spices produced and exported from India. Its original home is the dense evergreen forests of Western Ghats in south India. The flavour and fragrance of this oriental spice had a magic spell in human civilization and culture since very ancient days. Expeditions in search of pepper led to the discovery of new trade routes.

Synonyms : Black leg, quarter ill
This is an acute infectious but non contagious disease of cattle, goat, sheep, swine and deer  caused by Cl. chauvoei characterized by development of focal gangrenous and emphysematous myositis. This gives rise to crepitation and serosanguinous swelling in heavy muscles especially in gluteal muscles and associated with severe toxaemia and high mortality.

Some species of turmeric have been documented from China, Australia, and the South Pacific, despite the fact that turmeric has been farmed all throughout the tropics. Turmeric along with the 110 species is found growing in Tropical Asia, with India, Myanmar, and Thailand having the most diversity. Black turmeric (Curcuma caesia), along with Curcuma aromatica, Curcuma amada, Curcuma aeruginosa, Curcuma longa, and Curcuma zanthorrizha, is one of the economically important species native to India. Curcuma caesia (black turmeric/ black zedoary) is a critically endangered perennial herb in the Zingiberaceae family native to India. Traditional healers employ the Curcuma genus to treat a variety of diseases in ethno medical traditions, but Curcuma caesia Roxb. is a relatively unknown and unexplored medication. In the Indian subcontinent, black turmeric is frequently used as a spice, food preservative, and colouring ingredient. Black turmeric is the most recent spice to be chemically studied, with a few papers describing 100 or more secondary metabolites from this plant, and it will continue to be a source of new bioactive chemicals.

Distribution

Black turmeric is a native of Northeastern and Central India, where it has long been used in traditional rituals and medicinal treatments. Within an altitudinal range of 200–1000 m, the species is found in moist deciduous woods, primarily in Bengal, North East, and Central India. It develops as a woodland ground cover in subtropical to temperate climates.