Piriformospora indica suppresses the symptoms produced by Banana bract mosaic virus by inhibiting its replication and manipulating chlorophyll and carotenoid biosynthesis and degradation in banana

Banana bract mosaic virus (BBrMV) infection results in characteristic reddish streaks on pseudostem and chlorotic spindle lesions on leaves leading to traveler's palm appearance and complete crop loss depending on the stage of infection in banana plants. Here, we discuss the influence of P. indica colonization (a beneficial fungal root endophyte) on BBrMV infection, specific viral component genes responsible for symptom development, chlorophyll and carotenoid biosynthesis, and degradation in BBrMV-infected banana plants. P. indica colonization significantly and substantially reduced the severity of Banana bract mosaic disease (BBrMD) in addition to increased growth, development and yield of banana plants. The percent disease incidence (PDI) of BBrMV ranges from 50 to 70 per cent in plants raised from suckers and from 58 to 92 per cent in TC plants under artificial inoculation. P. indica-colonized plants inoculated with BBrMV resulted in an enhanced plant height, root length, leaf width, and leaf length of 72, 88, 90, and 60 per cent, respectively, compared to BBrMV alone-infected banana plants along with the reduced disease severity. BBrMV infection showed a drastic decrease of chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b, and total chlorophyll contents by down-regulating chlorophyll biosynthesis (Chlorophyll synthase-CHLG) and upregulating chlorophyll degradation (Chlorophyllase-CLH1 and CLH2 and Pheophytin pheophorbide hydrolase-PPH) genes; and by up-regulating carotenoids biosynthesis (Phytoene synthases-PSY1 and PSY2) and down-regulating its degradation (Phytoene desaturase-PDS) genes compared to P. indica-colonized banana plants challenge inoculated with BBrMV. P. indica also inhibited the expression of the viral genes (P3 and HC-Pro) involved in symptom development. P. indica-colonized banana plants reduced the BBrMV symptoms severity by enhancing chlorophyll biosynthesis; and decreasing chlorophyll degradation and carotenoid biosynthesis and degradation; and inhibiting the viral genes responsible for symptom development in addition to enhanced growth and yield of banana plants.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s13205-024-03983-y.

Improving the efficiency of induction motor drive by flux and torque control: A hybrid LSE-RERNN approach

A hybrid technique is proposed in this manuscript for the optimal design of an induction motor (IM) drive for the dynamic load profiles during torque and flux control. The proposed hybrid method combines a Ladder-Spherical-Evolution-Search-Algorithm (LSE) and a recalling-enhanced recurrent-neural network (RERNN), which is called an LSE-RERNN technique. The major objective of the proposed method is to minimize IM losses while maintaining control over speed and torque. The proposed method effectively tunes the gain parameter of the PI controller for flux and torque regulation. The LSE methodgenerates a set of gain parameters optimally predicted by RERNN. The method reduces losses without prior knowledge of load profiles, achieving energy savings for steady-state optimum flux. The performance of the proposed technique is done in the MATLAB and is compared with different existing techniques. The value of the proposed method for the mean is 0.328, the standard deviation (SD) is 0.00334, and the median is 0.4173. The loss of the proposed method is much less than 0.3 W while compared to different existing approaches. Moreover, the computation time of the proposed approach is lesser than the existing techniques.

From QTL to variety-harnessing the benefits of QTLs for drought, flood and salt tolerance in mega rice varieties of India through a multi-institutional network

Rice is a staple cereal of India cultivated in about 43.5Mha area but with relatively low average productivity. Abiotic factors like drought, flood and salinity affect rice production adversely in more than 50% of this area. Breeding rice varieties with inbuilt tolerance to these stresses offers an economically viable and sustainable option to improve rice productivity. Availability of high quality reference genome sequence of rice, knowledge of exact position of genes/QTLs governing tolerance to abiotic stresses and availability of DNA markers linked to these traits has opened up opportunities for breeders to transfer the favorable alleles into widely grown rice varieties through marker-assisted backcross breeding (MABB). A large multi-institutional project, "From QTL to variety: marker-assisted breeding of abiotic stress tolerant rice varieties with major QTLs for drought, submergence and salt tolerance" was initiated in 2010 with funding support from Department of Biotechnology, Government of India, in collaboration with International Rice Research Institute, Philippines. The main focus of this project is to improve rice productivity in the fragile ecosystems of eastern, northeastern and southern part of the country, which bear the brunt of one or the other abiotic stresses frequently. Seven consistent QTLs for grain yield under drought, namely, qDTY1.1, qDTY2.1, qDTY2.2, qDTY3.1, qDTY3.2, qDTY9.1 and qDTY12.1 are being transferred into submergence tolerant versions of three high yielding mega rice varieties, Swarna-Sub1, Samba Mahsuri-Sub1 and IR 64-Sub1. To address the problem of complete submergence due to flash floods in the major river basins, the Sub1 gene is being transferred into ten highly popular locally adapted rice varieties namely, ADT 39, ADT 46, Bahadur, HUR 105, MTU 1075, Pooja, Pratikshya, Rajendra Mahsuri, Ranjit, and Sarjoo 52. Further, to address the problem of soil salinity, Saltol, a major QTL for salt tolerance is being transferred into seven popular locally adapted rice varieties, namely, ADT 45, CR 1009, Gayatri, MTU 1010, PR 114, Pusa 44 and Sarjoo 52. Genotypic background selection is being done after BC2F2 stage using an in-house designed 50K SNP chip on a set of twenty lines for each combination, identified with phenotypic similarity in the field to the recipient parent. Near-isogenic lines with more than 90% similarity to the recipient parent are now in advanced generation field trials. These climate smart varieties are expected to improve rice productivity in the adverse ecologies and contribute to the farmer's livelihood.

6a-Nitro-6-(2,2,7,7-tetra-methyl-tetra-hydro-3aH-bis-[1,3]dioxolo[4,5-b:4',5'-d]pyran-5-yl)-6a,6b,7,8,9,11a-hexa-hydro-6H-spiro-[chromeno[3,4-a]pyrrolizine-11,11'-indeno-[1,2-b]quinoxaline]

In the title compound, C39H38N4O8, the quinoxaline and indene subunits are essentially planar, with maximum deviations of 0.071 (2) and 0.009 (2) Å, respectively. The indeno-quinoxaline system forms a dihedral angle of 72.81 (3)° with the chromenopyrrolizine system. The two dioxolane rings, as well as the pyran ring of the chromeno group and the terminal pyrrolizine, each adopt an envelope conformation with O and C as flap atoms. The central pyrrolizine ring adopts a twisted conformation. Intra-molecular C-H⋯O and C-H⋯N hydrogen bonds occur. The crystal structure exhibits C-H⋯O hydrogen bonds, and is further stablized by C-H⋯π inter-actions, forming a two-dimensional network along the bc plane.

Methyl 3′-benzyl-4′-(2-chlorophenyl)-1′-methyl-2-oxospiro[indoline-3,2′-pyrrolidine]-3′-carboxylate

In the title compound, C₂₇H₂₅ClN₂O₃, the methyl­pyrrolidine ring adopts an envelope conformation with the N atom at the flap. The mean plane of the pyrrolidine ring makes dihedral angles of 82.1 (1), 84.4 (1) and 79.8 (1)°, respectively, with the adjacent benzene ring, the mean plane of the indoline ring system and the phenyl ring. The mol­ecular structure is stabilized by intra­molecular C—H⋯O hydrogen bonds. In the crystal, mol­ecules are linked into chains along [101] by N—H⋯O hydrogen bonds. C—H⋯π inter­actions are observed between the chains.

Methyl 2-[(2-chloro-quinolin-3-yl)(hy-droxy)meth-yl]acrylate

There are two independent mol-ecules (A and B) in the asymmetric unit of the title compound, C14H12ClNO3. The mean planes of the methyl ester unit (Cmeth-yl-O-C=O; r.m.s. deviation = 0.051 Å for mol-ecule A and 0.016 Å for mol-ecule B) and the chloro-quilonine ring system (r.m.s. deviation = 0.023 Å for mol-ecule A and 0.014 Å for mol-ecule B) form dihedral angles of 63.5 (1)° in mol-ecule A and 78.1 (1)° in mol-ecule B. The main difference between the two independent mol-ecules is reflected in the (H)O-C-C=C(H2) torsion angle which is -109.7 (2)° in mol-ecule A and 10.6 (2)° in mol-ecule B. An intra-molecular O-H⋯O hydrogen bond is observed in mol-ecule A. In the crystal, mol-ecules A and B are linked into pairs via bifurcated O-H⋯(N,Cl) hydrogen bonds and a weak C-H⋯O hydrogen bond links pairs of mol-ecules into chains along [100].

2-[(2-Chloro-quinolin-3-yl)(hy-droxy)meth-yl]acrylo-nitrile

In the title compound, C13H9ClN2O, the dihedral angle between the acrylo-nitrile C=C-CN plane and the quilonine ring system is 71.3 (2)°. In the crystal, mol-ecules are linked by O-H⋯N hydrogen bonds, forming chains along [01-1]. The chains are linked into a three-dimensional network through C-H⋯N inter-actions.

Methyl (E)-2-[(2-nitro-phen-oxy)meth-yl]-3-phenyl-acrylate

The title compound, C₁₇H₁₅NO₅, adopts an E conformation with respect to the C=C double bond of the phenyl­acrylate unit. The phenyl ring and methyl acrylate group of the phenyl­acrylate unit are disordered over two sets of sites with site-occupancy ratios of 0.705 (5):0.295 (5) and 0.683 (3):0.317 (3), respectively. The mean plane through the benzene ring of the phenyl acrylate makes dihedral angles of 88.4 (8) (major component) and 86.7 (8)° (minor component) with the nitro­phen­oxy ring; the dihedral angle between the two components is 3.64 (6)°. Intra­molecular C—H⋯O interactions stabilise the molecular structure. In the crystal, C—H⋯O inter­actions result in a chain of mol­ecules running along the b axis.

(E)-Methyl 2-[(2-formyl-6-meth-oxy-phen-oxy)meth-yl]-3-phenyl-acrylate

The title compound, C(19)H(18)O(5), crystallizes with two independent mol-ecules (A and B) in an asymmetric unit in both of which the two aromatic rings are in a bis-ectional orientation as evidenced by the dihedral angle between them [41.7 (1)° in mol-ecule A and 35.6 (1)° in mol-ecule B]. Both mol-ecules adopt an E configuration with respect to the C=C bond. An intra-molecular C-H⋯O hydrogen-bond occurs in mol-ecule A. The crystal packing features inter-molecular C-H⋯O inter-actions.

(E)-Methyl 2-[(4-bromo-2-formylphenoxy)methyl]-3-phenylacrylate

The C=C double bond in the title compound, C₁₈H₁₅BrO₄, adopts an E configuration. The two rings are almost orthogonal to each other, making a dihedral angle of 82.8 (1)°. An intra­molecular C—H⋯O hydrogen bond occurs. The crystal structure is stabilized by inter­molecular C—H⋯O hydrogen bonds.