eChapters

Introduction

Agriculture as a primary sector in India is mostly production oriented. Global agriculture is experiencing significant changes in terms of technological and digital revolution, rapid urbanization, faster growth in middle income groups, changing food habits, market oscillations, and above all, climate change. During the last 50 years, India has recorded 4 to 10-fold increase in agriculture and food production(food grains-290 MT, horticultural produce -315 MT, milk production nearly 180 MT, and fish production approaching 12 MT), rendering the country as the second largest agrarian economy in the world (Singh, 2019). Despite the excellent progress, the country is home to over one third of the world’s small and marginal farm holders, with scattered land holding. Eighty f ive percent of the farmers are small and marginal. On the other hand, world’s population is growing and to meet the growing food demand there is a need to increase agricultural output by at least 60 percent globally, and 100 percent in developing countries (FAO, 2014a)

Introduction

Agriculture has historically been the primary source of income in India. It has the potential to alleviate poverty, increase income, and enhances food security for 80% of both the world’s poor and people who reside in rural areas primarily work in agriculture. One of the most effective strategies to eradicate extreme poverty, increase shared prosperity, and feed an estimated 9.7 billion people by 2050 is agricultural development. Compared to other modes, the agro - based sector’s progress is two to four times more successful in enhancing the earnings of the poorest people (www.worldbank.org).

Nearly 5 billion hectares, or 38% of the world’s land surface, is used for agriculture. Around one of this is devoted for farming, and the remaining two thirds are pastures and meadows for grazing animals. Over 10% of cropland is assigned to permanent crops like cocoa plantations, oil palm plantations, and fruit tree orchards. Yet another 21% of land is primed for irrigation, a crucial agricultural land management technique.

Introduction

Urbanization, a vital global phenomenon, refers to the process of city establishment and growth; the term commonly connotes population increase in the city from internal growth and immigration as well as their spatial expansion (Revi, 2007). Recent developments, uncontrolled population growth have been linked with the process of urbanization. Urban areas cover 3% of the global land but it gives shelter to nearly 26% of the global population (U.S. De, 2009). Increase in population growth and industrialization is posing threat to natural resources such as land air and water. Anthropogenic factors have led to change in land use pattern, high energy consumption, high level of generation of waste etc. As per UN survey, by 2050, approximately 70 percent of the global population will be living in cities (UN, World Urbanization Prospects, 2014). Unplanned growth is damaging the existing ecosystems along with that causing climate change and loss of biodiversity.

12.1. Origin and distribution

• Native of Persia and neighbouring tracts of Western and Southern Asia

• In India, North Guj arat, Raj asthan, Haryana and Bihar are the maj or states.

• Husk and peel - exported to USA, Germany, UK and France

12.2. Economic importance

• Psyllium from Greek meaning flea, in reference to colour, size and shape.

• Economic part - Seed coat, husk used in indigenous medicine. Seeds contain glucoside and tannin.

• Works as an anti-diarrhoea drug.

• Seed - Pentose, a sugar is isolated.

Scientific name: Plantago ovata Forsk.
Family: Plantaginaceae
Isabgol, or Psyllium husk or Blond psyllium, belongs to the family Plantaginaceae. This medicinal herb has been used for centuries in India, particularly for its seed's therapeutic properties. The name "Isabgol" originates from Persian, with "Isab" meaning horse and "Gol" meaning ear, describing the seed's distinctive shape. Isabgol is cultivated globally and is valued for its medicinal and industrial applications. The seed's medicinal properties make it an effective remedy for constipation and digestive issues. Additionally, Isabgol is used in the food industry to produce various products, such as candies, biscuits, and ice cream.
Origin and distribution
Isabgol (Plantago ovata) is native to the Mediterranean region, West Asia, and parts of Pakistan, including Sindh and Sutleg. Its distribution also extends to the Canary Islands, Southern Spain, the Middle East, North Africa, and North- Western Asia.
Botany
It is 10-15 cm tall short-stemmed annual herb. Flowers in terminal spikes; fruit is a capsule. Theflowers are white in colour and minute. It is highly selfpollinated. The capsule is ovate, 8 mmlong, releasing the smooth, dull, ovate seeds. The seeds are covered with a translucent membrane, known as the husk. The husked seeds are dark red and hard.

The cotton aphid: Aphis gossypii: Aphididae

Symptoms of Damage

Both nymphs and adults cause the damage by sucking the plant sap from shoot tips, pods and leaves. Severe infestation may result in complete drying of affected parts. Attacked leaves curl up, wither and fall. These are yellowish green or brown coloured aphids. The total life cycle from first instar nymph to adult occupies an average of 8-10days. It reproduces parthenogenetically and viviparously. The female may produce 10-30 young ones in a life span of 10-12 days. The nymphs transform into adult in 5-8 days after passing through four moults. 

The geographical area of the union territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands is 8, 24,900 ha with 86.9 % of it under reserve and protected forests. The humid tropical climate that prevails in the Andaman and Nicobar islands provides a unique opportunity to grow various crops. Owing to a number of factors, hardly 4.8% of the area is under cultivation. Maximizing the productivity and farm income mainly depends on effective management of natural resources like rain, soil, land as well as labour present in the Island ecosystem.  On an average, the Islands receive 3074 mm of rainfall distributed over 8 months. The rainfall is intense from June to September and may have even up to 30 rainy days per month sometimes, however, from January to April, the rainfall is scanty or absent, particularly in March. The undulating terrain results in severe water crisis during the period which is aggravated by higher evapotranspiration. The Islands receive south-west monsoon from May to September and north-east monsoon during October to January. The topography of A&N Island is undulating with a stiff terrain exposed to soil erosion due to heavy rainfall.  The crop growing season can be divided in to two major seasons viz., wet 
and dry seasons.

It 9001:2000 Means customer satisfaction and continuous improvement

ISO (International Organization for Standardization) is a worldwide federation of national Standards bodies from each country. The object of ISO is to promote the development of Standardization and related activities in the world with a view to facilitating international exchange of goods and services, and to developing cooperation in the spheres of intellectual, scientific, technological and economic activity. The results of ISO technical work are published as International Standards.

Quality management Systems (QMS) certification as per ISO 9001 : 2000 is an important opportunity that can enable the companies acquire the label of an enterprise caring for the customer needs and improve their economic performance at the same time. QMS provides an organization a systematic structured documented and effective approach to consistently maintain the product quality meeting customer requirements.

Hunter and Mohler discovered the isozymes. In 1959 Markert and Moler introduced the concept of isozymes, which they defined as the different molecular forms in which proteins may exist with the same enzymatic specificity (Buth 1984). This means that different variants on the same enzymes have identical or similar functions and are present in the same individual. As such, their importance for understanding gene action in development and differentiation was exploited during the1960s in both animals and plants. Nevertheless, isozymes played a minor role in research on plant biochemistry until 1966 when genetic polymorphism for isozymes within the same population was discovered (Stebbins 1989, Wendel 1989). That revealed the possibility for population genetics to make precise quantitative estimates of genetic variability based upon one parameter of the molecular structure of the primary products of the genes themselves.

Plant population genetics were not long in following their zoological colleagues and the investigation of both animals and plants increased explosively. This application, however, necessitated a partitioning of the isozyme concept, since the relevant isozyme subset, defined by Prakash (Buth 1984) as the variant proteins produced by allelic forms of the same locus, to avoid the now common confusion with isozymes which are the various polymer produced from monomers specified by different loci. The development of genetic distance or similarity coefficients (Lukasová 1985) allowed the summarization of isozyme data for intersample comparisons and so quantified isozyme data were soon applied to comparative studies of taxa.

Polysomes consist of two or more ribosome traversing a strand of mRNA, translating the nucleotide sequence into the corresponding amino acid sequence. Usually at any time, many ribosomes are translating an mRNA simultaneously forming a structure called a polyribosome or polysomes. One reason for isolating polyribosomes is to resolve them on sucrose gradients to determine the extent of ribosome loading. The second main reason is to provide a source of mRNA for in vitro translation.

Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) are diverse biopolyesters synthesized by many bacteria as carbon and energy reserved materials under unbalanced growth conditions. Sand-dunes have low nutrient contents especially nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) thus could harbor potential PHA accumulating bacteria. There is no report of isolation of PHA producing bacteria from the sand-dunes environment.  Sand samples of rhizosphere and non-rhizosphere regions of the coastal sand-dunes were processed on Nutrient Agar and TYG-Agar media for isolation of heterotrophic bacteria.

Introduction

Solanum trilobatum L., an important medicinal plant, belonging to Solanaceae is widely distributed in South Asia and has been used in Indian traditional medicinal systems of Siddha and Ayurveda. The members of Solanaceae accumulate steroidal alkaloids based on a C₂₇ cholestane skeleton, e.g. solasodine and tomatidine. Recently, mixtures of solasodine glycosides have been successfully used for the treatment of certain human skin carcinomas (Cham, 1994). Solasodine glycosides have antineoplastic activity in cell culture, animals and in humans (Cham and Daunter1990). It has been demonstrated that specific endogenous lectins which are present on the plasma membranes of susceptible cells recognize and bind the sugar moiety of the solasodine glycosides and the glycosides are subsequently internalized and cause cell death (Cham and Daunter1990). Hence the present study was undertaken to isolate the solasodine from S. trilobatum.

Introduction

Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) consist of chiefly of lymphocytes and monocytes. Purified PBMCs are used in vitro to evaluate a variety of functions of lymphocytes viz; a) proliferation to mitogenic (PHA, Con-A) stimulation, b) monitoring of prior sensitization in antigen recall assays by scoring lymphocyte proliferation, c) immunophenotyping for surface markers as well as intracellular molecules in monocytes and lymphocytes etc. Activation of monocytes/macrophages by small molecules, cytokines and pathogen components can also be monitored. PBMCs can also be used for a variety of structural and functional studies for addressing issues in human immunology such as scoring for apoptosis and production of cytokines as well as other mediators in vitro.

Background information

Blood is a liquid mixture comprised of plasma, cells and proteins. The liquid portion, plasma, makes up half of the blood volume, and cells the other half. Isolation of lymphocytes is a common procedure in immunology and cell biology that involves separating and collecting lymphocytes.

Introduction

Photosynthetic bacteria are autotrophs and anaerobes. These bacteria produce Hydrogen sulphide. These are predominant in the bottom of stagnant water enriched with mud.

Requirements

1. Mud sample
2. Enrichment medium of Photosynthetic bacteria or salt solution (1.0g/lt. of (NH⁴)₂SO⁴ 1 g; K²HPO⁴, 1 g; MgSO⁴,0.2g; NaCl, 5g; pH 7.2)
3. Sterilized bottle with plug
4. Fluorescent tube

Isolation of Protoplasts

Protoplast is the living material of the cell however an isolated protoplast is the cell from which the  cell wall is removed. In plant breeding programme many desirable combination of characters could not be transmitted through the conventional method of genetic manipulation. Higher plants that could lead to the genetic process involving fusion between the subsequent developments of a product to a hybrid plant is known as somatic hybridization. Plant protoplasts can be isolated from cells by two methods:

Introduction

The actinomycetes are gram positive, non-motile, non-sporulating and nonacid fast bacteria. Sometimes these are called ray fungi and are connecting link between the bacteria and the true fungi. They possess a very fine vegetative mycelium that does not fragment into bacillary or coccoid forms and therefore their colonies on agar are commonly cohesive or tough in consistency. In many soils, the actinomycetes accounts from 10 to 25% of the total count on agar plates. Their number is higher in soils of low moisture content than in wet soils. They are responsible for degrading more resistant carbon material in soil like humus. They are also important flora of manure heaps. Most of these, particularly Streptomyces, produce antibiotics and so are of a great value

Introduction

Soil is the natural habitat of a number of microbes viz. bacteria, fungi, actinomycetes, algae and many viruses. Out of these, bacteria are morphologically very simple as made up of just one cell of small size, therefore can multiply rapidly. Each viable bacterium at appropriate dilution can develop into a colony. Hence by counting the number of these colonies which develop on a selective growth medium, the number of viable cells of bacteria present in soil can be ascertained. Since the number of the bacteria present in soil is very high, the soil suspension is to be sufficiently diluted to reduce the number of colonies and to prevent their overlapping. The number of colonies formed from a diluted sample multiplied by the extent of dilution (dilution factor) gives the number of viable cells present

Introduction

Fungi constitute an important part of microflora of normal soil. In soils, fungal propagules vary from 2 x 10⁴ to 1 x 10⁶ per gram soil. The propagule being considered as fungal hyphae, spore, and hyphal fragments which is capable of giving colony on the plate. Most soil forms have a filamentous organisation capable of reproduction by means of spores. Their development is especially favoured by soils having acidic reactions. Soil fungi has significant role in organic matter decomposition, as a plant pathogens and in the interaction with other soil microorganisms. Agar plate count method is commonly used as a measure of fungal population in soil.

1. Deoxyribo Nucleic Acid (DNA)

DNA is a genetic material, originally confined to nucleus of a cell. In plants, some DNAs are also present in mitochondria and chloroplasts. DNAs are vital macro molecules having high molecular weight.

Isolation of plant DNA is cumbersome or difficult primarily because of the presence of a number of secondary plant products. Secondly, a protocol, which is found suitable for isolation of DNA in one plant, may not work in other. The efficiency of DNA extraction depends on many factors, such as sample material, ionic conditions of the extraction medium and type of lysing agent used etc.

There are two methods, one developed by Dellaporta et al. (1983) and the other by Murray and Thompson (1980) which are most commonly used for extraction of DNA in a number of plant genera.

Murray and Thompson’s (1980) method is described here below with minor modifications.

Special Staining
A. Spore stain
Spores may be spherical or oval and may be central subterminal or terminal in position within the cell. Shape, size and position of the spore in the cell are useful for the identification of sporulated organisms. Spores are difficult to stain and when once stained, they are difficult to decolourize. With Gram’s stain, mature spores remain unstained bodies. Modified Ziehl-Neelsen’s method of staining will be used for the staining of spores.
Composition
a. Concentrated carbol fuchsin
b. Sulphuric acid 0.5 % solution.
c. Loeffler’s alkaline methylene blue
Materials
Old cultures of B. subtilis and Cl. Chauvoei and staining solutions.
Procedure
1. Make smears and fix over flame.
2. Stain with carbol fuchsin and steam for 3 to 4 minutes.
3. Wash with tap water.
4. Decolourize with 0.5% sulphuric acid.
5. Wash with water.
6. Counter stain with Loeffler’s methylene blue for 2 minutes.