'LAESI' Technology for Direct Molecular Imaging of the Herbicide Active Ingredients

Department of Botany of Purdue’s College of Agriculture, Purdue University will use Protea’s LAESI ® DP - 1000 Instrument  System for direct molecular analysis in their herbicide research. The system will be used for  the molecular  imaging of  herbicide active ingredients  and other  related  compounds to optimize  herbicide application sand improve weed management.  Purdue University has acquired this system from Protea Biosciences Group, Inc. (“Protea”).

Botanist from North 24 Parganas, West Bengal Reports a New Species, Amaranthus parganensis

Dr Saubhik Das, a botanist from Taki Government College (affiliated with West Bengal State University), North 24 Parganas of West Bengal discovered a new species, Amaranthus parganensis. The new species has been described from the lower Gangetic Plain of West Bengal, India. Its morphology and distributional range suggest that it is related to A. tricolor L., both adapted to tropical climate, having a sympatric distribution and similar ecology.

His findings has been published in the latest issue ( 4th issue of 23rd volume) of the journal, 'Novon: A Journal for Botanical Nomenclature' which is an official journal of Missouri Botanical Garden. 

Few months back Dr Saubik reported another new species of Amaranthus which he claims to be new to science and named it Amaranthus bengalense. This was published in 5th issue of 185th volume of the journal 'Phytotaxa'.

A New, 'Agar Embedding Method' for Eliminating Bacterial Contamination in Plant Tissue Culture

Bacterial contamination is a major problem in plant tissue culture, resulting in loss of experimental strains or preventing use of field-collected isolates. Plant scientists (Carey et al, 2015) from the University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, USA developed an 'agar embedding method' for eliminating bacteria from experimental cultures of the mosses Ceratodon purpureus and Physcomitrella patens. They blended moss protonema that had been inoculated with bacteria and embedded the cell fragments in antibiotic-containing, low-concentration agar. The plants were placed in a growth chamber and allowed to grow until the moss grew out of the media. The plants were then transferred to new plates and observed for contamination. The embedding method consistently outperformed standard procedures. The embedding method places moss in direct contact with antibiotics, arresting bacterial replication and allowing moss to outgrow contamination. They expects this method will prove valuable for other plants capable of clonal propagation by blending. The detailed methodology and results were published online in the journal 'Applications in Plant Sciences'

How Plant Scientists Can Meet the Urge of the Prime Minister, Mentioned at the 102nd Indian Science Congress

Rabish Chandra
@rabishchandra on twitter. (Views are personal)

The five days long sojourn of 102nd Indian Science Congress today on 7th January 2015 came to an end. The congress started on 3rd of January and was inaugurated by the prime minister Shri Narendra Modi. During his inaugural address the prime minister called for efforts to ensure that science, technology and innovation reach the poorest, the remotest and the most vulnerable person. He made remarks relevant to plant sciences and agriculture also. Plant scientists need to focus and develop a full proof strategy to meet the urge of the prime minister. Urge of the prime minister and the strategies of the plant scientist accordingly, indeed will take the science to the poorest and remotest person of the nation. Let us see few relevant remarks made by the prime minister and author's suggestions for plant scientists to meet the urge of the prime minister.

Jharkhand based plants and environment journal 'The Biobrio' published its maiden issue.

The maiden issue of  'The Biobrio- An international quarterly peer reviewed journal of life sciences (ISSN. 2393-9508)' has been published. Dr. Jyoti Kumar, Chief Editor of the journal informed that the print copy of the same will be released during National Symposium on "Advances in Phytopathological Research in Globalized Era with Reference to Eastern Region" on 29-30 January, 2015 at University Department of Botany, Ranchi University, Ranchi. However the issue is available online at www.thebiobrio.in , mentioned Dr. Ritesh Kumar, Managing Editor of the Journal.

National Symposium on Advances in Phytopathological Research in Globalized Era

National Symposium

 on
"Advances in Phytopathological Research in Globalized Era with Reference to Eastern Region"