CRISPR/Cas-Mediated Gene Editing in Plant Immunity and Its Potential for the Future Development of Fungal, Oomycete, and Bacterial Pathogen-Resistant Pulse Crops.

Pulses provide myriad health benefits and are advantageous in an environmental context as a result of their leguminous nature. However, phytopathogenic fungi, oomycetes and bacteria pose a substantial threat to pulse production, at times leading to crop failure. Unfortunately, existing disease management strategies often provide insufficient control, and there is a clear need for the development of new pulse cultivars with durable and broad-spectrum disease resistance.

Forage Height and Above-Ground Biomass Estimation by Comparing UAV-Based Multispectral and RGB Imagery.

Crop height and biomass are the two important phenotyping traits to screen forage population types at local and regional scales. This study aims to compare the performances of multispectral and RGB sensors onboard drones for quantitative retrievals of forage crop height and biomass at very high resolution. We acquired the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) multispectral images (MSIs) at 1.

Genomic prediction of switchgrass winter survivorship across diverse lowland populations.

In the North-Central United States, lowland ecotype switchgrass can increase yield by up to 50% compared with locally adapted but early flowering cultivars. However, lowland ecotypes are not winter tolerant. The mechanism for winter damage is unknown but previously has been associated with late flowering time.

"Impact of Preoperative Biliary Drainage in Patients Undergoing Pancreaticoduodenectomy" - a Prospective Comparative Study from a Tertiary Care Centre in India.

Preoperative biliary drainage (PBD) was primarily introduced to reduce perioperative complications following hepato-pancreato-biliary surgeries. There is no proper consensus on the routine use of PBD before pancreaticoduodenectomy (PD). This is a prospective observational study of patients who underwent PD between July 2013 and December 2014.

Genetic control of source-sink relationships in grain sorghum.

QTL hotspots identified for selected source-sink-related traits provide the opportunity for pyramiding favorable alleles for improving sorghum productivity under diverse environments. A sorghum bi-parental mapping population was evaluated under six different environments at Hays and Manhattan, Kansas, USA, in 2016 and 2017, to identify genomic regions controlling source-sink relationships. The population consisted of 210 recombinant inbred lines developed from US elite post-flowering drought susceptible (RTx430) and a known post-flowering drought tolerant cultivar (SC35).

Genetic loci associated with winter survivorship in diverse lowland switchgrass populations.

High winter mortality limits biomass yield of lowland switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.) planted in the northern latitudes of North America. Breeding of cold tolerant switchgrass cultivars requires many years due to its perennial growth habit and the unpredictable winter selection pressure that is required to identify winter-hardy individuals.

Effect of seed hydro-priming durations on germination and seedling growth of bitter gourd (Momordica charantia).

The yield and quality of an annual crop are highly dependent on uniform and rapid germination of the seeds. In case of bitter gourd (Momordica charantia), the germination and field emergence is always a problem as seeds have thick and hard seed coat. Pre-sowing hydro-priming is one of the most suitable, affordable, easily available, and cost-effective techniques in breaking down seed dormancy to enhance germination.

Assessment of Airway Parameters for Predicting Difficult Laryngoscopy and Intubation in a Tertiary Center in Western Nepal.

Background: The screening tests used for pre-operative evaluation of airway to predict difficult laryngoscopy and intubation have variable diagnostic accuracy. The unanticipated poor laryngeal view is gold standard for defining difficult intubation. We aimed to find out the prevalence of difficult laryngoscopy and intubation, which airway parameter better predicts difficult intubation and whether difficult laryngoscopy is associated with difficult intubation or not.

Quantitative Trait Loci for Freezing Tolerance in a Lowland x Upland Switchgrass Population.

Low-temperature related abiotic stress is an important factor affecting winter survival in lowland switchgrass when grown in northern latitudes in the United States. A better understanding of the genetic architecture of freezing tolerance in switchgrass will aid the development of lowland switchgrass cultivars with improved winter survival. The objectives of this study were to conduct a freezing tolerance assessment, generate a genetic map using single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers, and identify QTL (quantitative trait loci) associated with freezing tolerance in a lowland × upland switchgrass population.

Genomic Prediction for Winter Survival of Lowland Switchgrass in the Northern USA.

The lowland ecotype of switchgrass has generated considerable interest because of its higher biomass yield and late flowering characteristics compared to the upland ecotype. However, lowland ecotypes planted in northern latitudes exhibit very low winter survival. Implementation of genomic selection could potentially enhance switchgrass breeding for winter survival by reducing generation time while eliminating the dependence on weather.