Publications by authors named "Anshul Watts"

Most of the released high-yielding hybrids of have a low 1000-seed weight (TSW) with no increment in the percent oil content (OC), and, therefore, these hybrids have poor acceptance among the farmers in India. It is, thus, imperative to understand the genetic basis of these traits and deploy them in commercial hybrid breeding programs. The present study utilized a set of 15 diverse genotypes with TSW and OC ranging from 1.

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This comprehensive review underscores the application of genome editing in plant reproductive biology, including recent advances and challenges associated with it. Genome editing (GE) is a powerful technology that has the potential to accelerate crop improvement by enabling efficient, precise, and rapid engineering of plant genomes. Over the last decade, this technology has rapidly evolved from the use of meganucleases (homing endonucleases), zinc-finger nucleases, transcription activator-like effector nucleases to the use of clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)/CRISPR-associated protein (CRISPR/Cas), which has emerged as a popular GE tool in recent times and has been extensively used in several organisms, including plants.

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Article Synopsis
  • Drought significantly affects crop yields, particularly in India where 24% of Indian mustard is grown under rainfed conditions, necessitating the development of drought-tolerant varieties.
  • The study involved creating introgression lines from B. carinata to B. juncea and evaluating their performance for seed yield and related traits under both rainfall-dependent and irrigated conditions across multiple environments.
  • A total of 29 QTLs associated with drought tolerance were identified, with a notable contribution from B. carinata, particularly on the B genome, highlighting several candidate genes linked to stresses and paving the way for future improvements in drought resilience in mustard crops.
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Article Synopsis
  • - The study focused on creating introgression lines (ILs) through interspecific hybridization, which led to hybrids showing improved productivity and adaptability in terms of yield traits.
  • - Researchers crossed 40 ILs with their parent strains to produce introgression line hybrids (ILHs) and test hybrids (THs), calculating mid-parent and standard heterosis for various yield-related traits.
  • - Significant findings included that certain traits like seed weight and siliqua characteristics contributed heavily to yield, and the analysis identified important genetic segments and potential genes that enhance these traits in ILHs, demonstrating the effectiveness of interspecific hybridization in increasing genetic diversity.
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Histone proteins play a critical role in the primary organization of nucleosomes, which is the fundamental unit of chromatin. Among the five types of the histones, histone H3 has multiple variants, and the number differs among the species. Amongst histone H3 variants, centromeric histone H3 (CENH3) is crucial for centromere identification and proper chromosomal segregation during cell division.

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In this study, the role of the signalling molecule nitric oxide (NO) in magnetopriming-mediated induction of salinity tolerance in soybean seeds is established. The cross-talk of NO with germination-related hormones gibberellic acid (GA), abscisic acid (ABA) and auxin (IAA) for their ability to reduce the Na/K ratio in the seeds germinating under salinity is highlighted. Salt tolerance index was significantly high for seedlings emerging from magnetoprimed seeds and sodium nitroprusside (SNP, NO-donor) treatment.

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Drought is a major abiotic stress that affects crop productivity. Endophytic bacteria have been found to alleviate the adverse effects of drought on plants. In the present study, we evaluated the effects of two endophytic bacteria Shewanella putrefaciens strain MCL-1 and Cronobacter dublinensis strain MKS-1 on pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum (L.

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We have evaluated the contribution of nitric oxide (NO) in static magnetic field (SMF-200 mT for 1h) induced tolerance towards UV-B stress in soybean seedlings using various NO modulators like sodium nitroprusside (SNP), inhibitor of nitrate reductase (NR) sodium tungstate (ST), NO synthase (NOS) inhibitor N(G)-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester (L-NAME) and diphenylene iodonium (DPI) a NADPH oxidase inhibitor. The UV-B exposure significantly reduced germination, seedling growth together with activities of total amylase, NOS and NR in seedlings from un-primed seeds whereas SMF-primed seedlings showed significant enhancement in all these parameters along with higher level of NO/ROS. The supply of NO donor, SNP further improved all the seedlings parameters in un-primed and SMF-primed seeds after UV-B exposure.

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Haploids and doubled haploids are invaluable for basic genetic studies and in crop improvement. A novel method of haploid induction through genetic engineering of the Centromere Histone Protein gene, , has been demonstrated in Arabidopsis. The present study was undertaken to develop haploid inducer (HI) lines of based on the principles elaborated in Arabidopsis.

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Centromeres are epigenetically specified by the centromeric histone H3 protein (CENH3). The timing and level of expression of CENH3 is tightly regulated to match the demands of the host cell. So far in plants, only CENH3 promoter of Arabidopsis thaliana (L.

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