Selenium - An environmentally friendly micronutrient in agroecosystem in the modern era: An overview of 50-year findings.

Agricultural productivity is constantly being forced to maintain yield stability to feed the enormously growing world population. However, shrinking arable and nutrient-deprived soil and abiotic and biotic stressor (s) in different magnitudes put additional challenges to achieving global food security. Though well-defined, the concept of macro, micronutrients, and beneficial elements is from a plant nutritional perspective. Among various micronutrients, selenium (Se) is essential in small amounts for the life cycle of organisms, including crops. Selenium has the potential to improve soil health, leading to the improvement of productivity and crop quality. However, Se possesses an immense encouraging phenomenon when supplied within the threshold limit, also having wide variations. The supplementation of Se has exhibited promising outcomes in lessening biotic and abiotic stress in various crops. Besides, bulk form, nano-Se, and biogenic-Se also revealed some merits and limitations. Literature suggests that the possibilities of biogenic-Se in stress alleviation and fortifying foods are encouraging. In this article, apart from adopting a combination of a conventional extensive review of the literature and bibliometric analysis, the authors have assessed the journey of Se in the "soil to spoon" perspective in a diverse agroecosystem to highlight the research gap area. There is no doubt that the time has come to seriously consider the tag of beneficial elements associated with Se, especially in the drastic global climate change era.

Shoot transcriptome revealed widespread differential expression and potential molecular mechanisms of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) against Fusarium wilt.

Introduction: The yield of chickpea is severely hampered by infection wilt caused by several races of Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. ciceris (Foc). Methods: To understand the underlying molecular mechanisms of resistance against Foc4 Fusarium wilt, RNA sequencing-based shoot transcriptome data of two contrasting chickpea genotypes, namely KWR 108 (resistant) and GL 13001 (susceptible), were generated and analyzed. Results and Discussion: The shoot transcriptome data showed 1,103 and 1,221 significant DEGs in chickpea genotypes KWR 108 and GL 13001, respectively. Among these, 495 and 608 genes were significantly down and up-regulated in genotypes KWR 108, and 427 and 794 genes were significantly down and up-regulated in genotype GL 13001. The gene ontology (GO) analysis of significant DEGs was performed and the GO of the top 50 DEGs in two contrasting chickpea genotypes showed the highest cellular components as membrane and nucleus, and molecular functions including nucleotide binding, metal ion binding, transferase, kinase, and oxidoreductase activity involved in biological processes such as phosphorylation, oxidation-reduction, cell redox homeostasis process, and DNA repair. Compared to the susceptible genotype which showed significant up-regulation of genes involved in processes like DNA repair, the significantly up-regulated DEGs of the resistant genotypes were involved in processes like energy metabolism and environmental adaptation, particularly host-pathogen interaction. This indicates an efficient utilization of environmental adaptation pathways, energy homeostasis, and stable DNA molecules as the strategy to cope with Fusarium wilt infection in chickpea. The findings of the study will be useful in targeting the genes in designing gene-based markers for association mapping with the traits of interest in chickpea under Fusarium wilt which could be efficiently utilized in marker-assisted breeding of chickpea, particularly against Foc4 Fusarium wilt.

Morphological characterization and expression analysis of genes for antioxidants enzymes in gamma rays induced M3 mutants of sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) cultivar TNAUSUF-7.

PURPOSE: Objectives of the present investigation were to investigate the performance of mutant lines (mutant generation 3 (M3) generation) of sunflower obtained through gamma irradiations for yield and yield attributing traits including oil content (%), oil quality in terms of antioxidant activity and to investigate the expression of genes encoding antioxidant enzymes in control and gamma irradiated M3 lines. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Mutant lines (M3 generation) of sunflower variety TNAUSUF-7 obtained from 100 and 130 Gray (Gy) doses of gamma irradiation were evaluated for several traits such as days to 50% flowering, days to maturity, head diameter, number of filled seeds and unfilled seeds per head, fertility %, oil content %, antioxidant activity of oil and expression of genes encoding antioxidant enzymes. All the data were analyzed using different statistical tools. RESULTS: Our results showed that the gamma irradiation dose of 100 and 130 Gy induced significant variations in yield and yield attributing traits especially for days to 50% flowering, days to maturity, fertility %, antioxidant property of sunflower seed oil and expression of genes encoding antioxidant enzymes. CONCLUSIONS: From our results, it can be concluded that the gamma irradiations were effective in creating variations in terms of several traits in sunflower. Many desirable traits like reduced days to 50% flowering and maturity, increased fertility %, increased antioxidant activity of oil were observed in M3 lines. These M3 lines have the potential to be utilized as an inbred line in sunflower hybrid development or it could be used as a source of desirable traits in sunflower breeding programs.

Outcome of Therapeutic Keratoplasty in Hopeless Microbial Keratitis Cases Otherwise Advised Evisceration.

PURPOSE: To study the outcome of therapeutic keratoplasty in severe microbial keratitis cases otherwise advised evisceration. METHODS: A retrospective, single-center clinical audit included 28 patients with severe microbial keratitis presenting from April 2014 to April 2016. Patients with microbial keratitis either affecting more than 2 quadrants of the limbus and/or cases with infections involving more than 180 mm of the cornea who were advised evisceration by more than one ophthalmologist were included. Cases with endophthalmitis were excluded. At 3 months, the outcome was "success" if resolution of infection occurred without recurrence and evisceration was not required. Success was termed "complete" if best vision was 6/24 or better and "partial" otherwise. The outcome was termed a "failure" if infection recurred in the graft or the eye was eviscerated. RESULTS: Mean age of the patients (male:female, 17:11) was 49.5 years, and the mean duration of symptoms before surgery was 28.6 days. Evisceration was required in 2/28 cases. The outcome was "success" in 22/28 cases (78.6%)-complete (10/22); partial (12/22)-and "failure" in 6/28 cases. The outcome was poorer in general in fungal keratitis (n = 16) than bacterial keratitis (n = 7). CONCLUSIONS: Primary evisceration is best avoided in infections limited to the anterior segment. Even in hopeless cases, every eye deserves a fair chance.