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Blog

Nov 08
13

Genetic engineering of chickpea to understand the mystery behind biochemical regulation in flower and seed coat colour of desi and kabuli genotypes

By | Agriculture, Blog, ECRi, Plant Science, Post

Flower and seed coat colour are important agronomic traits in chickpea that influence consumer preference. Based on their cultivation globally, this legume crop is categorized as “desi” or “kabuli”. Seeds of desi-type chickpeas are generally dark brown and angular with a rough seed coat, while the kabuli type produces light-brown coloured and rounded seeds with smooth seed coats. Recently, a group of scientists in India successfully developed a new genetically engineered selection marker-free stable chickpea line.

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Oct 20
7

If not, Winter: How a super-charged “Speed Vernalization” protocol accelerates flowering in winter cereals

By | Agriculture, Blog, ECRi, Plant Science, Post

As days grow colder and shorter, and many of us find ourselves entrenched in winter, you wouldn’t be mistaken for feeling a noticeable reduction in activity around you. However, in certain crops such as winter wheat and barley, this cold season holds the key to flowering in the spring. This well-studied process, called vernalization, requires the plant to sense appropriate conditions – i.e., low temperature and short day-length – usually early in development to “overwinter” through several inhospitable months.

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Oct 03
3

The push-pull strategy controls stemborers and striga increasing corn yields

By | Agriculture, Blog

Stemborers and Striga weeds cause significant losses to maize production throughout Africa. Maize yield losses due to stemborers can vary from 20-40%. Striga weeds infest 40% of the arable land in sub-Saharan Africa, causing an annual crop loss of US$ 7 to 13 billion. Around the Lake Victoria basin, infestation by Striga weed causes 30 to 100% loss in maize yield. Weeding for Striga control is both time-consuming and labor-intensive. The use of insecticides for stemborer control is not only expensive and harmful to the environment but is also ineffective.

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Sep 01
6
small vegetables

Are “Plastic” Plants Our Future? Understanding and studying phenotypic plasticity

By | Blog, ECRi, Plant Science, Post

Phenotypic plasticity in plants occurs at all biological scales in every organism. Phenotypic plasticity is defined as the physical and/or metabolic responses of organisms to their environment. Some plastic responses may be strategies that enhance fitness in specific environments. In contrast, other forms of plasticity may be symptoms of stress or pathology, all of which may develop at different time scales. A recent review highlights the characterization, costs, cues, and future perspectives of phenotypic plasticity.

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Jul 25
7

Treatment of COVID-19 pandemic with indigenous knowledge of medicinal plants: A Folklore

By | Blog, ECRi, Post

Two years ago, in 2020, the entire world was engulfed in the COVID19 pandemic, which is caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus SARSCoV2. As everyone knows by now, the most common symptoms of this disease are fever, dry cough, fatigue, and headache, and can turn into a progressive and severe pneumonia. However, evidence suggests that COVID-19 patients may also develop a variety of neurological complications. Thousands of people died each day because there was no known treatment. The search for treatments and vaccines for this novel coronavirus disease was on.

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