monika dalal

The leaves of necrotic hybrid of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) exhibited high superoxide content associated with increased lipid peroxidation and membrane damage in earlier studies (Khanna-Chopra et al. 1998, Biochem Biophys Res Commun 248: 712-715; Dalal and Khanna-Chopra 1999, Biochem Biophys Res Commun 262: 109-112). In the present study, we investigated the activities of the antioxidant enzymes in the leaves of necrotic wheat hybrids, KalyansonaxC306 (KxC) and WL711xC306 (WLxC) and their parents at different developmental stages. The KxC hybrid exhibited more severe necrosis than WLxC. In KxC, superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity showed no increase over the parents, while WLxC showed an early increase, but it was possibly insufficient to scavenge increased superoxide. Activities of guaiacol peroxidase, ascorbate peroxidase and glutathione reductase were enhanced, while catalase exhibited a decrease in activity, with the appearance of visible necrosis in both the hybrids. The isozy...

ABSTRACT Sorghum is the one of the most important crops gown on the dryland in India and around the globe. It has the capacity to tolerate and adapt to stress conditions in both tropical and temperate climatic conditions. Sorghum is the versatile crop and has potentials to be utilized as alternate energy crop in view of rising petroleum prices. The process of producing bioethanol the sorghum including sweet and high biomass sorghum is described in this review. Sorghum being high biomass producer had potential to be used for production of bioethanol from lignocellulosic biomass than any other dryland cereals. The importance of sorghum as bioenergy feedstock and bioconversion steps involved in the producing bioethanol is discussed in this paper.

... Page 6. 64 Nain et al. ... Planta 217: 367-373. Trontin JF, Harvengt L, Garin E, Lopez-Vernaza MLV, Arancio L, Hoebeke J, Canlet F, and Paques M (2002) Towards genetic engineering of maritime pine (Pinus pinaster Ait.) Ann Forest Sci 59: 687-697.

ABSTRACT Sorghum with its remarkable adaptability to drought and high temperature provides a model system for grass genomics and resource for gene discovery especially for abiotic stress tolerance. Group 3 LEA genes from barley and rice have been shown to play crucial role in abiotic stress tolerance. Here, we present a genome-wide analysis of LEA3 genes in sorghum. We identified four genes encoding LEA3 proteins in the sorghum genome and further classified them into LEA3A and LEA3B subgroups based on the conservation of LEA3 specific motifs. Further, expression pattern of these genes were analyzed in seeds during development and vegetative tissues under abiotic stresses. SbLEA3A group genes showed expression at early stage of seed development and increased significantly at maturity, while SbLEA3B group genes expressed only in matured seeds. Expression of SbLEA3 genes in response to abiotic stresses such as soil moisture deficit (drought), osmotic, salt, and temperature stresses, and exogenous ABA treatments was also studied in the leaves of 2-weeks-old seedlings. ABA and drought induced the expression of all LEA3 genes, while cold and heat stress induced none of them. Promoter analysis revealed the presence of multiple ABRE core cis-elements and a few low temperature response (LTRE)/drought responsive (DRE) cis-elements. This study suggests non-redundant function of LEA3 genes in seed development and stress tolerance in sorghum.