Browsing by Author "Rintu Jha"

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Genomic Approaches for Resistance Against Fungal Diseases in Soybean
(CRC Press, 2023) Rintu Jha; Menka Tiwari; Bandana Devi; Uday Chand Jha; Shailesh Tripathi; Prashant Singh
Soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merr.), an essential leguminous crop, is plagued by several fungal diseases, which is a major worry for soybean farmers worldwide. Significant progress has been made in recent decades in the identification of pathogen-caused diseases, the sources of resistance, and the determination of genomic loci granting resistance to various diseases on linkage maps of soybean. To maintain the sustainability and expansion of soybean production globally, the application of genomics to disease-resistant soybean cultivars is a common goal. Marker-assisted selection and genomic selection have been shown to be effective methods for quickly integrating vertical resistance or horizontal resistance into improved soybean varieties. Vertical resistance is defined as R genes and major effect QTLs, whereas horizontal resistance is a combination of major and minor effect genes or QTLs. In this chapter, we have focused on some important fungal diseases of soybean, and genomic approaches like breeding, identification of QTLs, transcriptomics for differentially expressed genes (DEGs), metabolomics, and proteomics that confer resistance to fungal diseases in all major soybean production regions of the world are provided. We also emphasized the use of modern genomic tools by providing a thorough summary of significant resistance genes and QTLs for soybean improvement. The condensed genetic knowledge also illuminates the future directions for translational genomics research and expedited soybean breeding. The primary goals of soybean crop improvement are centred on the discovery of sources of resistance to various biotic as well as abiotic stresses and the use of these sources for additional hybridization and transgenic processes to generate new cultivars for stress management. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023.
Harnessing genetic variability for shoot and root morphophysiological traits contributing to drought stress tolerance in pre-breeding lines chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) under hydroponics condition
(Indian Society of Genetics and Plant Breeding, 2023) Rintu Jha; Hemant K. Yadav; Uday C. Jha; Rahul Raiya; Pronob J. Paul; Shailesh Tripathi; Prashant Singh
Under the global climate change, drought stress is becoming a recurrent phenomenon influencing plant growth and yield negatively, thus jeopardizing global food security. Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) grown in South Asia as a post-rainy season crop under residual soil moisture, is more often exposed to terminal drought stress, especially during the pod filling stage ultimately results in significant yield reduction in chickpea. Crop wild relatives are natural reservoirs of novel genes, including drought tolerance, that are not often found in cultivated species. Aiming to identify novel drought tolerance sources, a total of 60 pre-breeding lines of chickpea derived from the wild progenitor C. reticulatum and cultivated C. arietinum cross were screened based on various morpho-physiological traits under controlled as well as water-stressed condition in a hydroponic system. Based on the results, 15 PBLs were found to be promising as compared with reported drought-tolerant cultivar ICC 4958 and susceptible genotype ICC17264 (both were used as check). Thus, these identified pre-breeding lines could be potentially used for developing high-yielding drought resilient chickpea genotypes. © The Author(s).
Heritable priming by Trichoderma: A sustainable approach for wheat protection against Bipolaris sorokiniana
(Frontiers Media S.A., 2022) Menka Tiwari; Rajat Singh; Rintu Jha; Prashant Singh
Crop plants encounter a variety of biotic challenges in the field and faces significant reduction in crop yield. In the current scenario of an ever increasing global population, there is an urgent need to protect plant health by using sustainable approach to maximize the crop productivity and to mitigate the food demands. Nowadays, we mostly rely on chemical crop protection techniques, which are causing a number of environmental and health difficulties. Defence priming is a chemical-free, eco-friendly, and sustainable strategy of crop protection, which is also called “green vaccination. In the present study, for the first time, we used Trichoderma as a priming agent to protect wheat crop from spot blotch disease. We have established Trichoderma-mediated defence priming in wheat against Bipolaris sorokiniana for sustainable crop improvement. We have characterised the morphological, disease phenotype, biochemical and yield parameters of Trichoderma-primed and non-primed wheat under disease pressure. Trichoderma-primed plants were found to be more protected against B. sorokiniana as compared to non-primed plants. Biochemical studies indicated that there is no direct defence response after priming stimulus but the defence response was activated only after triggering stimulus in terms of enhanced defence metabolites in primed plants as compared to non-primed plants. In the present study, since defence was activated only when required, that is under disease pressure, there was no unnecessary allocation of resources towards defence. Hence, no yield penalty was shown in primed plants as compared to control. We further evaluated the inheritance of primed state to the next generation and found that progeny of primed parents also performed better than progeny of non-primed parents under disease pressure in terms of protection from B. sorokiniana as well as yield performance. This strategy has the potential to protect crop without any yield penalty and causing environmental degradation. Our research findings indicate that Trichoderma-mediated defence priming could be an alternative approach for improving wheat productivity under biotic stress. To be our best knowledge, this is the first documented report for the Trichoderma-mediated defence priming and induced inheritance in wheat plant. This study will open new arenas in sustainable crop protection strategies for the exploitation of defence priming in crop plants. Copyright © 2022 Tiwari, Singh, Jha and Singh.
Improving Chickpea Genetic Gain Under Rising Drought and Heat Stress Using Breeding Approaches and Modern Technologies
(Springer Nature, 2022) Uday C. Jha; Harsh Nayyar; Rintu Jha; Prasant Kumar Singh; Girish Prasad Dixit; Yogesh Kumar; Biswajit Mondal; Avinash Kumar Srivastava; Eric J. B. von Wettberg; Pronob J. Paul; Ajaz A. Lone; Srinivasan Samineni; Sailesh K. Tripathi; Kadambot H. M. Siddique
Increasing grain legume production, particularly for chickpea, will provide essential “plant-based dietary protein” and other micronutrients under the changing global climate. Drought and terminal heat stress limit plant growth and negatively affect various phenological events, causing severe yield losses. Among various strategies for improving stress tolerance, the judicious utilization of available genetic variation in the chickpea gene pool could minimize the adverse effects of drought and heat stress, sustaining chickpea yields. In addition, advancements in chickpea genomic resources, from molecular markers, namely, SSR, SNP, and INDELs and tools for association genetics, RNA-seq, to the availability of chickpea genome sequences and efforts of global chickpea germplasm resequencing allow us to identify loci and haplotypes contributing to drought and heat tolerance across the whole genome. Thus, molecular markers have enabled the successful transfer of drought-tolerant traits to elite chickpea cultivars using marker-assisted and haplotype-based breeding approaches. Likewise, the role of drought- and heat-responsive proteins and metabolites could significantly improve our understanding of the molecular mechanisms of drought and heat tolerance in chickpea via proteomics and metabolomics. Moreover, emerging novel breeding technologies (e.g., genomic selection, speed breeding, and genome editing) could enhance the necessary genetic gain to feed the increasing global population under an abruptly changing global climate. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2022.
Integrated breeding approaches to enhance the nutritional quality of food legumes
(Frontiers Media S.A., 2022) Rintu Jha; Hemant Kumar Yadav; Rahul Raiya; Rajesh Kumar Singh; Uday Chand Jha; Lekshmy Sathee; Prashant Singh; Mahendar Thudi; Anshuman Singh; Sushil Kumar Chaturvedi; Shailesh Tripathi
Global food security, both in terms of quantity and quality remains as a challenge with the increasing population. In parallel, micronutrient deficiency in the human diet leads to malnutrition and several health-related problems collectively known as “hidden hunger” more prominent in developing countries around the globe. Biofortification is a potential tool to fortify grain legumes with micronutrients to mitigate the food and nutritional security of the ever-increasing population. Anti-nutritional factors like phytates, raffinose (RFO’s), oxalates, tannin, etc. have adverse effects on human health upon consumption. Reduction of the anti-nutritional factors or preventing their accumulation offers opportunity for enhancing the intake of legumes in diet besides increasing the bioavailability of micronutrients. Integrated breeding methods are routinely being used to exploit the available genetic variability for micronutrients through modern “omic” technologies such as genomics, transcriptomics, ionomics, and metabolomics for developing biofortified grain legumes. Molecular mechanism of Fe/Zn uptake, phytate, and raffinose family oligosaccharides (RFOs) biosynthesis pathways have been elucidated. Transgenic, microRNAs and genome editing tools hold great promise for designing nutrient-dense and anti-nutrient-free grain legumes. In this review, we present the recent efforts toward manipulation of genes/QTLs regulating biofortification and Anti-nutrient accumulation in legumes using genetics-, genomics-, microRNA-, and genome editing-based approaches. We also discuss the success stories in legumes enrichment and recent advances in development of low Anti-nutrient lines. We hope that these emerging tools and techniques will expedite the efforts to develop micronutrient dense legume crop varieties devoid of Anti-nutritional factors that will serve to address the challenges like malnutrition and hidden hunger. Copyright © 2022 Jha, Yadav, Raiya, Singh, Jha, Sathee, Singh, Thudi, Singh, Chaturvedi and Tripathi.
Sorghum Genomics and Pan-Genomics in the Next-Generation Sequencing Era
(CRC Press, 2025) Rintu Jha; Prashant R. Singh; Uday Chand Jha; Akanksha Singh; Bandana Devi
Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench) is one of the principal food crops in arid and semi-arid production ecologies, renowned for its resilience to environmental changes. Its ability to thrive under conditions where other staple crops often fail has earned it the reputation of a climate-smart crop, offering a sustainable solution to food and nutritional insecurity in developing regions. The advent of Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) has revolutionized sorghum genomics, providing unprecedented insights into its genetic diversity, functional genomics, and agricultural applications. Understanding the genetic basis of wide adaptability of sorghum is critical for advancing molecular breeding programs and research on other C4 crops. Recent breakthroughs in functional and comparative genomics have identified key genetic loci and quantitative trait loci (QTLs) associated with agronomic and adaptive traits, offering new opportunities for sorghum improvement. The emergence of pan-genomics marks a paradigm shift, extending beyond single-reference genomes to explore the genetic heterogeneity across diverse sorghum accessions. This approach enhances our understanding of genome diversity and functionality, paving the way for the development of improved sorghum varieties. This chapter highlights the latest advancements in sorghum genomic research, emphasizing the roles of functional genomics and pan-genomics in uncovering and harnessing agronomically significant traits. © 2026 selection and editorial matter, Dinesh Kumar Saini and S. V. Krishna Jagadish; individual chapters, the contributors.