'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”).

India Only Next to USA in Terms of Number of Crop Pests and Pathogens

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Plant Scientists from UK have studied the economic and physical determinants of the global distribution of crop pests and pathogens. The full report has been published online in New Phytologist on Tuesday (11th February 2014) As a part of their study they observed the pest and pathogen numbers per country, with the largest numbers reported by the USA (1200), India (1063), China (1012), France (999) and Japan (973).

Portable RT-PCR to Diagnose Plant Pathogens in Field

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Scientists from Texas A&M University, United States of America have developed a portable Real Time MicroChip PCR System to diagnose plant pathogens. The development was reported in PLOS ONE.

Death Before Life to Dalbergia Sissoo (Shisham) : Unfolding the Mysteries

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Rabish Chandra

@rabishchandra on twitter

'What will be its life'?...I asked.

'You have to contact a wood expert for that', he said. 

Wood expert!

Yes, he can only tell the life. 

But, I am a botanist, I can also tell it's life. Provided if you can tell the name of the plant of which it is made.

Gentleman, as a botanist you may tell the life of a live plant, but not the dead one and the life of any timber plants is counted only after it dies.

Ok. Ok. But is not made up of Shisham? I mean Dalbergia sissoo.

Biocontrol: Need of the Hour in Indian Agriculture

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Ritesh Kumar
Senior Research Fellow (Plant Pathology)
ICAR Research Complex for Eastern Region-Research Centre

Ranchi-834010 Jharkhand, India 

Email id.- ritesh.nstt@gmail.com

According to Cook and Baker (1983) ‘Biological control is the reduction of the amount of inoculum or disease producing activity of a pathogen accomplished by or through one or more organisms other than man’. The terms “biological control” and its abbreviated synonym “biocontrol” have been used in different fields of biology, most notably entomology and plant pathology. In entomology, it has been used to describe the use of live predatory insects, entomopathogenic nematodes, or microbial pathogens to suppress populations of different pest insects. In plant pathology, the term applies to the use of microbial antagonists to suppress diseases as well as the use of host specific pathogens to control weed populations (Pal et al., 2006). In both fields, the organism that suppresses the pest or pathogen is referred to as the biological control agent (BCA). More broadly, the term biological control may also be applied to the use of the natural products extracted or fermented from various sources. These formulations may be very simple mixtures of natural ingredients with specific activities or complex mixtures with multiple effects on the host as well as the target pest or pathogen.