Publications by authors named "Neeraja C"

Biofortification of staple food crops with zinc (Zn) is considered a sustainable strategy to prevent deficiency, but evidence on their health impact is awaited. The weaning Wistar/Kyoto male rats were fed on a Zn-deficient diet (ZDD, < 0.1 ppm) for 4 weeks followed by repletion (pair feeding) with control rice diet without (CRD; 5.

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  • - Rice struggles in acidic soils due to nutrient deficiencies and metal toxicities, prompting a study to identify genotypes that perform well in low phosphorus conditions.
  • - Researchers evaluated 234 rice genotypes over two seasons and found 46 low-phosphorus tolerant lines, with specific accessions showing better yields than standard checks.
  • - A genome-wide association study uncovered 10 quantitative trait nucleotides related to yield and phosphorus utilization efficiency, along with 34 candidate genes that could guide future rice breeding efforts.
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Unlabelled: Maize kernel protein is deficient in sulfur-containing essential amino acid such as methionine. The gene encodes methionine-rich 18-kDa δ-zein in maize kernels. In this study, we sequenced full-length of gene (820 bp) among 10 maize inbreds, revealing 43 SNPs and 22 (average length-7.

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  • Maize oil is increasingly in demand for various industries, highlighting the need for sustainable production methods.
  • Researchers evaluated 48 maize genotypes with different genetic traits across three locations to analyze their oil content and fatty acid profiles.
  • Double-mutant genotypes showed significantly improved oil content and healthier fatty acid profiles compared to wild-types, suggesting they could provide health benefits and support maize breeding programs to meet market demands.
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Phytic acid or inositol hexakisphosphate (InsP) and its dephosphorylated forms (InsP, InsP & InsP) are integral to cellular functions and confer several health benefits. The present study was aimed to develop a cost effective and high sample throughput RP-HPLC-RID method for routine quantification of lower inositol phosphates in both raw and processed cereals and pulses. For this asuitable mobile phase composition was formulated and two columns (MacroporusHamilton PRP-1 Vs Waters Symmetry C18) were compared in terms ofsystem specificity,linearity, accuracy and precision.

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  • The study aimed to enhance the nutritional quality of maize by increasing kernel oil content and improving the bioavailability of fat-soluble vitamins using advanced genetic techniques like marker-assisted selection (MAS).
  • Maize hybrids developed in the study showed a significant increase in oil content (from 4.80% to 6.73%) and beneficial fatty acid profiles, including higher oleic acid and lower palmitic acid, while also retaining higher levels of provitamin A, vitamin E, and essential amino acids.
  • These improved hybrids maintained comparable yields and growth characteristics to original maize varieties, making them a promising solution to combat malnutrition and meet the growing demand for healthy oils sustainably.
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  • Rice blast and bacterial leaf blight (BLB) significantly impact rice yields globally, causing losses of 20-50%, especially in regions like India with severe infections.* -
  • The study involves the improved rice line TH-625-491, which carries multiple resistance genes against BLB and blast; these were validated and backcrossed to enhance resistance traits.* -
  • Findings suggest a potential antagonistic effect between genes for bacterial blight and blast resistance, as certain gene combinations exhibited better resistance to blast alone compared to those including both types of resistance.*
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  • - Sheath blight disease in rice, caused by the fungus Rhizoctonia solani AG1-IA, leads to significant losses in yield and quality, making the discovery of resistance genes crucial for effective management.
  • - A study utilizing RNA sequencing on six diverse rice genotypes identified 352 differentially expressed genes related to sheath blight resistance, with a focus on one gene, Oschib1, linked to resistance variations.
  • - The Oschib1 gene, which encodes a classIII chitinase, was cloned from a resistant rice type and over-expressed in a susceptible variety, resulting in increased resistance to the fungus, demonstrating a dose-dependent effect on the plant's defense response.
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  • * It involved analyzing grain weight, amylose, and amylopectin content, as well as gas exchange parameters during the grain filling stage across different rice varieties.
  • * Results showed that grain filling starts simultaneously in multiple branches and that while amylose and amylopectin increased with individual grain weight, their relationship varied by variety; also, gene expression related to starch synthesis differed, with some genes affecting the gel consistency of the rice.
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Plants perceive environmental fluctuations as stress and confront several stresses throughout their life cycle individually or in combination. Plants have evolved their sensing and signaling mechanisms to perceive and respond to a variety of stresses. Epigenetic regulation plays a critical role in the regulation of genes, spatiotemporal expression of genes under stress conditions and imparts a stress memory to encounter future stress responses.

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Higher grain yield in high-yielding rice varieties is mostly driven by nitrogen (N) fertilizer applied in abundant amounts leading to increased production cost and environmental pollution. This has fueled the studies on nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) to decrease the N fertilizer application in rice to the possible extent. NUE is a complex physiological trait controlled by multiple genes, but yet to be completely deciphered in rice.

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  • The demand for maize oil is rising due to its industrial uses and importance in nutrition and animal feed, making oil content and composition key factors in the market.
  • A study examined 292 diverse maize inbred lines to analyze genes associated with kernel oil, finding varying frequencies of mutant and wild-type alleles in critical genes.
  • The research highlights the potential of certain maize genotypes that carry favorable alleles for breeding programs aimed at developing high-oil maize, marking a significant advancement in genetic understanding.
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  • Vitamin E deficiency can lead to various neurological issues, and while maize hybrids with a favorable vte4-allele are rich in α-tocopherol, their effectiveness is compromised during storage due to tocopherol degradation.
  • The study focused on the impact of the lipoxygenase enzyme and the LOX3 gene on tocopherol retention in two maize inbreds over six months, revealing significant tocopherol loss, with one inbred (HKI323-PVE) showing better retention correlated with lower lipoxygenase activity and LOX3 expression.
  • The findings suggest that HKI323-PVE, with its higher tocopherol retention and lower enzymatic degradation, could be a valuable resource for improving vitamin E
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  • * The study analyzed both wild and mutant alleles' expression in maize inbreds at various stages of kernel development, finding a 29.30% reduction in phytic acid in mutant inbreds, along with significantly higher levels of lysine, tryptophan, and provitamin-A.
  • * Results highlighted positive correlations between phytic acid and transcript levels while showing negative correlations with nutrient levels, marking this as the first detailed study on these gene expressions in maize across different
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Globally, micronutrient (iron and zinc) enriched rice has been a sustainable and cost-effective solution to overcome malnutrition or hidden hunger. Understanding the genetic basis and identifying the genomic regions for grain zinc (Zn) across diverse genetic backgrounds is an important step to develop biofortified rice varieties. In this case, an RIL population (306 RILs) obtained from a cross between the high-yielding rice variety MTU1010 and the high-zinc rice variety Ranbir Basmati was utilized to pinpoint the genomic region(s) and QTL(s) responsible for grain zinc (Zn) content.

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Recent predictions on climate change indicate that high temperature episodes are expected to impact rice production and productivity worldwide. The present investigation was undertaken to assess the yield stability of 72 rice hybrids and their parental lines across three temperature regimes over two consecutive dry seasons using the additive main effect and multiplicative interaction (AMMI), genotype and genotype × environment interaction (GGE) stability model analysis. The combined ANOVA revealed that genotype × environment interaction (GEI) were significant due to the linear component for most of the traits studied.

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Malnutrition is considered as major public health concern and is emerging challenge to food and nutrition security particularly in developing countries. Rice is the staple food and consumed by the half of the world's population which is the source of daily requirement of the nutrients. Attempts are being made to fortify rice with micronutrients, but the loss or retention of these micronutrients in different cooking methods is not well studied and documented especially in fortified rice.

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Genetic improvement of rice for grain micronutrients, viz., iron (Fe) and zinc (Zn) content is one of the important breeding objectives, in addition to yield improvement under the irrigated and aerobic ecosystems. In view of developing genetic resources for aerobic conditions, line (L) × tester (T) analysis was conducted with four restorers, four CMS lines and 16 hybrids.

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Polished rice is one of the commonly consumed staple foods across the world. However, it contains limited nutrients especially iron (Fe) and zinc (Zn). To identify promising recombinant inbred lines (RILs) for grain Zn and single plant yield, 190 RILs developed from PR116 and Ranbir Basmati were evaluated in two environments (E1 and E2).

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Crop improvement for Nitrogen Use Efficiency (NUE) requires a well-defined phenotype and genotype, especially for different N-forms. As N-supply enhances growth, we comprehensively evaluated 25 commonly measured phenotypic parameters for N response using 4 N treatments in six indica rice genotypes. For this, 32 replicate potted plants were grown in the green-house on nutrient-depleted sand.

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Malnutrition has emerged as one of the major health problems worldwide. Traditional yellow maize has low provitamin-A (proA) content and its genetic base in proA biofortification breeding program of subtropics is extremely narrow. To diversify the proA rich germplasm, 10 elite low proA inbreds were crossed with a proA rich donor (HP702-22) having mutant crtRB1 gene.

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Unlabelled: To understand the molecular mechanism of nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) in rice, two nitrogen (N) use efficient genotypes and two non-efficient genotypes were characterized using transcriptome analyses. The four genotypes were evaluated for 3 years under low and recommended N field conditions for 12 traits/parameters of yield, straw, nitrogen content along with NUE indices and 2 promising donors for rice NUE were identified. Using the transcriptome data generated from GS FLX 454 Roche and Illumina HiSeq 2000 of two efficient and two non-efficient genotypes grown under field conditions of low N and recommended N and their de novo assembly, differentially expressed transcripts and pathways during the panicle development were identified.

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To identify the genomic regions for yield and NUE of rice genotypes and lines with promising yield under low N, a recombinant inbred population (RIL) developed between BPT5204 (a mega variety known for its quality) and PTB1 (variety with high NUE) was evaluated for consecutive wet and dry seasons under low nitrogen (LN) and recommended nitrogen (RN) field conditions. A set of 291 RILs were characterized for 24 traits related to leaf, agro-morphological, yield, N content and nitrogen use efficiency indices. More than 50 RILs were found promising with grain yield >10 g under LN.

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Polished rice is widely consumed staple food across the globe, however, it contains limited nutrients especially iron (Fe) and zinc (Zn). To identify promising genotypes for grain Zn, a total of 40 genotypes consisting 20 rice landraces, and 20 released high yielding rice varieties were evaluated in three environments (wet seasons 2014, 2015 and 2016) for nine traits including days to 50% flowering (DFF), plant height (PH), panicle length (PL), total number of tillers (TNT), single plant yield (SPY), Fe and Zn in brown (IBR, ZBR) and polished rice (IPR, ZPR). Additive Main Effect and Multiplicative Interaction (AMMI), Genotype and Genotype × Environment Interaction (GGE) analyses identified genotypes G22 (Edavankudi Pokkali), G17 (Taraori Basmati), G27 (Chittimuthyalu) and G26 (Kalanamak) stable for ZPR and G8 (Savitri) stable for SPY across three environments.

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