Allocation for Agricultural Research and Education in Budget 2013-14.

  Shri P Chidambram, Finance Minister, Government of India proposed an allocation of Rs.27,049 crore to Ministry of Agriculture, of this, agricultural research will be provided Rs.3,415 crore.

         He proposed to support the eastern Indian States (Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh and West Bengal) with an allocation of Rs.1000 crore in 2013-14 to continue green revolution in terms of rice production.

        

Understanding Vitamin C Synthesis in Plants for Ecological Adaptation

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    Vitamin C (Ascorbic Acid) plays important roles in the growth and development of plants.Its metabolism and function had been studied in depth by Nicholas Smirnoff. Broadly the function of ascorbic acid in plants may be divided into four categories, i.e, i) antioxidant, ii) enzyme co-factor, iii) electron transport and iv) Oxalate and tartrate synthesis. Antioxidant function is relevant with photoprotection.

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Blue Fluorescent Emissions from Carnivorous Plant Attracts Prey: Indian Scientists

     Scientists from Jawaharlal Nehru Tropical Botanic Garden and Research Institute, Pacha-Palode, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India have reported a new prey capture mechanism in some species of carnivorous plants. They found the existence of distinct blue fluorescence emissions at the 'capture spots' of Nepenthes, Sarracenia, Drosera, Pinguicula, Dionaea muscipula and Utricularia stellaris at UV 366 nm. When the capture spot was masked by coating a non-fluorescent extract, the pray capture was drastically reduced. The study has been published as a short research paper in  the current issue of  'Plant Biology' 

Indian Botanists first to report application of DAMD markers in Citrus

    Indian Botanists Dr. Susheel Kumar and Dr. K Narayanan Nair from Tissue Culture and Cryopreservation Unit, National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources, New Delhi and  Plant Diversity, Systematics and Herbarium Division, CSIR-National Botanical Research Institute, Lucknow respectively have reported genetic variation and phylogenetic relationships among 50 wild and cultivated accessions of 19 Indian Citrus genotypes using Directed Amplification of Minisatellite DNA (DAMD) markers technique. DMAD is said to be reliable and reproducible DNA profiling technique. This technique have been used to study the genetic diversity for various other plants previously.

                       Citrus  [Photo: http://en.wikipedia.org]

     The report has been published online on Saturday, 16th February 2013 by one of the SpringerLink group Journal, 'Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution'. It is claimed that this is the first report on application of DAMD markers in Citrus.Their study demonstrates the resolving power of DAMD markers for discrimination of individual genotypes of Citrus under its respective species, hybrid or cultivar groups and inferring their genetic and phylogenetic relationships.

Source: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10722-013-9954-7

Drosera - Carnivorous Plant from Jharkhand, India

Dr. Sutanu Lal Bondya
Assistant Professor
PG Dept of Botany, SKM University
Dumka, Jharkhand, India
E-mail: sutanubondya_8@rediffmail.com

        Drosera sp. commonly known as sundews belongs to family droseraceae and is one of the largest genera of carnivrous plants. IUCN in their 'Red Data List' has listed atleast seven genera of Drosera including Indian Sundew - Drosera indica which has been categorised under least concern. Author reports a species of Drosera from Dumka district of Jharkhand, India.

Traditional uses of Drosera

It was found from the local elderly farmers and dwellers that this plant used to grow surrounding the rice field which is usually  little elevated from the remaining field so as to demarcate the individual field. Interestingly farmer was aware of  it's biological pest control, however not scientific. They use to leave the plant as it is. Still they reports that their number has decreased and this may be because people are more use to with chemical pesticides ignoring the natural control of pests. Phyto-sociological disturbance may be another reason for its decrease in number. It is also being used as ethnomedicine by the local healers as one of the ingredients of  ethnic-polyherbal formulation.

Drosera sp. from Dumka, Jharkhand, India    Photo: Dr. Sutanu Lal Bondya

Conservation

This 'red data' listed plant needs more attention and proper conservation is required. As this plant is ethnomedicinally important and can be used as natural control for pests, it can be explored more scientifically and systematically.

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Training Programme on Medicinal Plant Extraction and Product Making

Venue 
Periyar College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Tiruchirapalli, Tamil Nadu 
Organiser
Periyar Technology Business Incubator attached to the Periyar Maniammai University, Thanjavur
Sponsored by
Department of Science and Technology, New Delhi
Partcipants Eligiblity
Diploma/ degree holders in science or technology
Age Group
18-35 Years
Fee 
NIL

Starting date

Third week of February 

Contact Person

Coordinator N.S.Jeganathan , Ph. 9840503339 / 0431 – 2459911

News Source: http://bit.ly/12bcFOM

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Postdoctrol Position

Position  Postdoctoral Molecular Plant Pathologist

Institute The James Hutton Institute, Invergowrie, Dundee, DD2 5DA, Scotland, UK

Academic requirements
Applicants must have a PhD in a relevant subject, such as molecular plant pathology or fungal molecular biology.
 
Skills required
Essential:

• Applicants must show evidence of potential ability to produce good refereed journal papers.
• Ability to plan experiments, and to carry through plans.
• Good writing and communication skills in relation to scientific and non-scientific audiences.

Desirable:

• Good interpersonal skills.

Experience required
Essential:

• Understanding of molecular plant-pathogen interactions and the role of pathogen effectors in the development of infection.
• Experience in working aseptically.
• Experience in fungal transformation.

Desirable:

• Experience in generation and characterisation of knock-out fungal transformants, including pathogenicity testing.
• Experience in bioinformatics.

*Appointment of this post will be made under the terms of the James Hutton Institute Post-Doctoral Training Scheme and is available for 3 years

Further particulars and updates are available from www.hutton.ac.uk/careers.

Closing date Friday 8 March 2013.

The Sixth Mathematics in the Plant Sciences Study Group

[Reproduced from the website'The centre for plant integrative biology a centre for integrative systems biology' http://www.cpib.ac.uk]

The Sixth Mathematics in the Plant Sciences Study Group is taking place 25-28 March 2013 at the University Park campus of the University of Nottingham.

Date and time

The meeting will run from 10:00 on Monday 25 March and finish at 16:00 on Thursday 28 March.

Venue

The meeting will be held in the ESLC building on University Park Campus of the University of Nottingham

Accommodation & Meals

Participants will be staying in en-suite, single rooms in Lenton and Wortley Halls of Residence on University Park Campus. Accommodation for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday nights will be provided free of charge for participants who are external to University of Nottingham. All refreshments, lunches and dinners are provided free of charge for all registered participants.

For more details and any updates please visit  http://www.cpib.ac.uk/events/mpssgvi/