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Dinanath grass ( Pennisetum pedicellatum Trin. ) is an extensively grown forage grass known for its significant drought resilience. In order to comprehensively grasp the adaptive mechanism of Dinanath grass in response to water deficient conditions, transcriptomic and metabolomics were applied in the leaves of Dinanath grass exposed to two distinct drought intensities (48-hour and 96-hour). Transcriptomic analysis of Dinanath grass leaves revealed that a total of 218 and 704 genes were differentially expressed under 48- and 96-hour drought conditions, respectively. The genes that were expressed differently (DEGs) and the metabolites that accumulated in response to 48-hour drought stress mainly showed enrichment in the biosynthesis of secondary metabolites, particularly phenolics and flavonoids. Conversely, under 96-hour drought conditions, the enriched pathways predominantly involved lipid metabolism, specifically sterol lipids. In particular, phenylpropanoid pathway and brassinosteroid signaling played a crucial role in drought response to 48- and 96-hour water deficit conditions, respectively. This variation in drought response indicates that the adaptation mechanism in Dinanath grass is highly dependent on the intensity of drought stress. In addition, different genes associated with phenylpropanoid and fatty acid biosynthesis, as well as signal transduction pathways namely phenylalanine ammonia-lyase, putrescine hydroxycinnamoyl transferase, abscisic acid 8’-hydroxylase 2, syntaxin-61, lipoxygenase 5, calcium-dependent protein kinase and phospholipase D alpha one, positively regulated with drought tolerance. Combined transcriptomic and metabolomic analyses highlights the outstanding involvement of regulatory pathways related to secondary cell wall thickening and lignin biosynthesis in imparting drought tolerance to Dinanath grass leaves. These findings collectively contribute to an enhanced understanding of candidate genes and key metabolites relevant to drought response in Dinanath grass. Furthermore, they establish a groundwork for the creation of a transcriptome database aimed at developing abiotic stress-tolerant grasses and major crop varieties through both transgenic and genome editing approaches.

Pearl millet ( Pennisetum glaucum L. R. Br., syn. Cenchrus americanus [L.] Morrone) is a climate-resilient cereal and a vital fodder source in arid and semi-arid regions. Identification and characterization of diverse inbred lines are essential for developing superior forage composites and hybrids with enhanced yield and stress resilience. In this study, 96 fodder pearl millet inbreds along with four checks were evaluated during rainy season 2024 and summer seasons 2025 for 29 morpho-physiological and root architectural traits, complemented by molecular characterization using 46 polymorphic SSR markers. Significant genotypic variation and strong genotype × season interactions were observed for key yield and physiological traits, indicating substantial environmental responsiveness. Correlation analyses identified stem girth, plant height, dry matter yield, and major root traits as major determinants of green fodder yield. Morphological clustering grouped genotypes into five clusters, with maximum divergence between Clusters II and V. SSR analysis detected 203 alleles across 46 loci (average: 5.28 alleles per locus; PIC = 0.62), and population structure analysis resolved six genetic groups highlighting their potential use as heterotic parents. Based on combined phenotypic and molecular diversity, selected inbreds were randomly intermated to develop eight fodder composites. Two composites exhibited 17–20% higher green fodder yield than the best check cultivar. These results demonstrate that integrating morphological and molecular diversity enables effective parental selection and rapid development of superior high-biomass fodder pearl millet composites.

The development of stable and high-yielding fodder pearl millet genotypes with improved quality traits is crucial for enhancing livestock productivity under diverse environments. In this study, twenty-six elite genotypes, including brown midrib (bmr) lines and two check cultivars, were evaluated across four locations, which fall broadly under two agro-climatic zones of India, during the summer season of 2024 to assess their stability for yield and fodder quality traits. Significant genotypic differences and genotype × environment interactions (GEIs) were observed for all traits, indicating substantial genetic variability and environmental influence on trait expression. Additive Main Effects and Multiplicative Interaction (AMMI) and Weighted Average of Absolute Scores (WAAS) analyses identified IGPM 100 as a high-yielding and stable genotype across environments, whereas Baif Bajra 1 and IGBV 97 exhibited specific adaptation. Among quality traits, ICMbmr 2401, ICMbmr 2402, and ICMbmr 2404 recorded consistently low lignin content, confirming their potential for improving forage digestibility. Further, ICFPM 05 recorded high tillering and longer leaves, while ICMFV 2308 exhibited late flowering across locations, indicating their potential for use in developing leafy, late-flowering genotypes. The multi-trait stability index (MTSI) efficiently identified IGPM 100, ICFPM 02, ICMbmr 2404, and IGBV 9 as superior and stable genotypes across multiple traits. High selection differentials for green fodder yield and negative differentials for lignin and fibre fractions highlight the possibility of a simultaneous improvement in yield and quality traits. Overall, the integration of AMMI, WAAS, and MTSI models facilitated the identification of broadly adapted and trait-specific genotypes, which, after evaluating their combining ability, can be used for developing fodder pearl millet composites and hybrids.

Sweet corn has gained worldwide popularity. Traditional sweet corn possesses low concentration of essential nutrients such as lysine (0.15–0.25%), tryptophan (0.03–0.04%) and provitamin-A (proA 3–4 ppm), and deficiency leads to serious health problems in humans. Here, stacking of shrunken2 (sh2), opaque2 (o2), lycopene epsilon cyclase (lcyE) and β‐carotene hydroxylase (crtRB1) genes were undertaken in the parents of four hybrids viz., APQH1, APHQ4, APHQ5 and APHQ7 using marker-assisted backcross breeding (MABB). Gene-linked markers (umc2276 and umc1320) for sh2, while gene-based markers for o2 (umc1066 and phi057), lcyE (5′TE-InDel) and crtRB1 (3′TE-InDel), were used for genotyping in BC1F1, BC2F1 and BC2F2. Selected backcross progenies showed high recovery of recurrent parent genome (92.4–97.7%). The reconstituted sweet corn hybrids possessed significantly high lysine (0.390%), tryptophan (0.082%) and proA (21.14 ppm), coupled with high kernel sweetness (brix 18.96%). The improved sweet corn hybrids had high cob yield (12.22–15.33 t/ha) across three environments. These newly developed biofortified sweet corn hybrids possess great significance in providing balanced nutrition. This is the first report of combining sh2, o2, lcyE and crtRB1 genes for enrichment of sweet corn hybrids with multiple essential nutrients.

The sorption behavior of pesticides applied during cultivation of crops is affected by amendments such as farm yard manure (FYM) and vermicompost (VC) during land preparation. Among pesticides, atrazine, a widely used herbicide in many crops, was analyzed for its kinetics and sorption behavior through the addition of FYM and VC in sandy loam soil. The pseudo-second-order (PSO) model best fit the kinetics results in the recommended dose of FYM and VC mixed soil. More atrazine was sorbed onto VC mixed soil than FYM mixed soil. In comparison to control (no amendment), both FYM and VC (1, 1.5, and 2%) increased atrazine adsorption, but the effect varied with dosage and type of amendment. The Freundlich adsorption isotherm adequately explained atrazine adsorption in soil/soil + (FYM/VC) mixtures, and the adsorption was highly nonlinear. The values of Gibb’s free energy change (Δ G ) were negative for both adsorption and desorption in soil/soil + (FYM/VC) mixtures, suggesting sorption was exothermic and spontaneous in nature. The results revealed that the application of amendments used by farmers interferes the availability, mobility, and infiltration of atrazine in the soil. Therefore, the findings of this study suggest that amendments such as FYM and VC can be effectively used to minimize the residual toxicity of atrazine-treated ago-ecosystems in tropical and sub-tropical regions.

Privacy preserving data publishing is one of the most demanding research areas in the recent few years. There are more than billions of devices capable to collect the data from various sources. To preserve the privacy while publishing data, algorithms for equivalence class generation and scalable anonymization with k-anonymity and l-diversity using MapReduce programming paradigm are proposed in this article. Equivalence class generation algorithms divide the datasets into equivalence classes for Scalable k-Anonymity (SKA) and Scalable l-Diversity (SLD) separately. These equivalence classes are finally fed to the anonymization algorithm that calculates the Gross Cost Penalty (GCP) for the complete dataset. The value of GCP gives information loss in input dataset after anonymization.

We present a potential tool to monitor growth of a crack in a glass plate using interferometry, where fringes characteristic of optical dislocations can be seen. It is experimentally observed that interference fringes can be used to visualize the stress field that is activated near the tip of a crack. In an interferometric setup, an optical wave-front is transmitted through the crack site of glass plate which results in a local phase jump in the test beam. This phase jump reveals itself in the fringe pattern in the form of fork fringes, where branching of fringes is seen at the crack tip and along the crack line. Using the Fourier transform fringe analysis method and phase-unwrapping method, we optically track the crack tip. The positions of fork fringes provide the location and trajectory of crack tip.

Medicinal plants can be used as natural therapeutics to treat diseases in humans. Enteric bacteria possess efflux pumps to remove bile salts from cells to avoid potential membrane damage. Resistance to bile and antibiotics is associated with the survival of Salmonella enterica subspecies enterica serovar Typhimurium (S. typhimurium) within a host. The present study aimed to investigate the binding affinity of major phytocompounds derived from 35 medicinal plants of the North Western Himalayas with the RamR protein (PDB ID 6IE9) of S. typhimurium. Proteins and ligands were prepared using AutoDock software 1.5.6. Molecular docking was performed using AutoDock Vina and MD simulation was performed at 100 ns. Drug likeness and toxicity predictions of hit phytocompounds were evaluated using molinspiration and ProTox II online servers. Moreover, docking, drug likeness, and toxicity results revealed that among all the selected phytocompounds, beta-sitosterol exhibited the most efficacious binding affinity with RamR protein (PDB ID 6IE9) and was nontoxic in nature. MD simulation data revealed that beta-sitosterol in complex with 6IE9 can be used as an antimicrobial. Furthermore, beta-sitosterol is stable in the binding pocket of the target protein; hence, it can be further explored as a drug to inhibit resistance-nodulation-division efflux pumps.