Selective manipulation of the inositol metabolic pathway for induction of salt-tolerance in indica rice variety.

Halophytes are rich sources of salt stress tolerance genes which have often been utilized for introduction of salt-tolerance character in salt-sensitive plants. In the present study, we overexpressed PcINO1 and PcIMT1 gene(s), earlier characterized in this laboratory from wild halophytic rice Porteresia coarctata, into IR64 indica rice either singly or in combination and assessed their role in conferring salt-tolerance. Homozygous T/T transgenic plants revealed that PcINO1 transformed transgenic rice lines exhibit significantly higher tolerance upto 200 mM or higher salt concentration with negligible compromise in their growth or other physiological parameters compared to the untransformed system grown without stress.

Leaching behaviour of pendimethalin causes toxicity towards different cultivars of Brassica juncea and Brassica campestris in sandy loam soil.

An experiment was conducted at the farm of Zonal Adaptive Research Station, Uttar Banga Krishi Viswavidhyalaya, Pundibari, Cooch Behar, West Bengal to evaluate the effect of pendimethalin on the yield, weed density and phytotoxicity in different varieties of rai (Brassica juncea) and yellow sarson (B. campestris var. yellow sarson) under higher soil moisture regime in Terai region of West Bengal.

Formulation of nutrient medium for in vitro somatic embryo induction in Plantago ovata forsk.

A nutrient medium has been formulated by altering the macro- and micro-elemental concentration in the culture medium for in vitro somatic embryo induction of economically important medicinal plant Plantago ovata Forsk .A comparison was made between induced embryos with normal embryos (produced in Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium) to observe frequency of embryo induction and also to determine regeneration efficiency. In the present investigation, three different media have been formulated.