Ritu Kapoor

A one-pot regioselective synthetic route to vinyl sulfones from terminal epoxides in aqueous media

A highly efficient LiBr catalysed regioselective synthesis of vinyl sulfones from readily available terminal epoxides and sodium sulfinates in a one-pot procedure using water as a reaction medium is reported. The protocol is adorned with several attributes of green chemistry like recycling of the catalyst, atom-economy and an aqueous medium.

One-Pot Reductive Sulfenylation and Thiocyanation of Carbonyl Compounds in Ionic Liquid Media

The first example of an efficient one-pot reductive sulfenylation and thiocyanation of carbonyl compounds in environmentally benign ionic liquid (IL) media is reported. The process involves reduction of carbonyl compounds with NaBH4 in the IL [bmim]BF4 followed by I2-catalyzed reaction of the resulting alcohols with aromatic / aliphatic thiols or ammonium thiocyanate in the same vessel to afford sulfides or thiocyanates, respectively, in excellent yields (78–93%). Notably, the protocol precludes the necessity to prepare and isolate the intermediate alcohols in a separate step as they are formed in situ, and the IL used can be recycled easily for further use without any loss of efficiency.

Identification of long non-coding RNA in rice lines resistant to Rice blast pathogen Maganaporthe oryzae

Rice blast disease caused by a fungus Magnaporthae oryzae is one of the most important biotic factors that severely damage the rice crop. Several molecular approaches are now being applied to tackle this issue in rice. It is of interest to study long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) in rice to control the disease. lncRNA, a non-coding transcript that does not encode protein, is known to play an important role in gene regulation of various biological processes. Here we describe a computational pipeline to identify lncRNA from a resistant rice line. The number of lncRNA found in resistant line was 1429, 1927 and 1981 in mock and M. oryzae (ZB13 and Zhong) inoculated samples, respectively. Functional classification of these lncRNA reveals a higher number of long intergenic non-coding RNA compared to antisense lncRNA in both mock and M. oryzae inoculated resistant rice lines. Many intergenic lncRNA candidates were identified from resistant rice line and their role to regulate the resistance mechanism in rice during M. oryzae invasion is implied.

Prospects of Understanding the Molecular Biology of Disease Resistance in Rice

Rice is one of the important crops grown worldwide and is considered as an important crop for global food security. Rice is being affected by various fungal, bacterial and viral diseases resulting in huge yield losses every year. Deployment of resistance genes in various crops is one of the important methods of disease management. However, identification, cloning and characterization of disease resistance genes is a very tedious effort. To increase the life span of resistant cultivars, it is important to understand the molecular basis of plant host–pathogen interaction. With the advancement in rice genetics and genomics, several rice varieties resistant to fungal, bacterial and viral pathogens have been developed. However, resistance response of these varieties break down very frequently because of the emergence of more virulent races of the pathogen in nature. To increase the durability of resistance genes under field conditions, understanding the mechanismof resistance response and its molecular basis should be well understood. Some emerging concepts like interspecies transfer of pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) and transgenerational plant immunitycan be employed to develop sustainable broad spectrum resistant varieties of rice.

Status and Prospects of Next Generation Sequencing Technologies in Crop Plants

The history of DNA sequencing dates back to 1970s. During this period the two first generation nucleotide sequencing techniques were developed. Subsequently the Sangers dideoxy method of sequencing gained popularity over Maxam and Gilberts chemical method of sequencing. However, in the last decade, we have observed revolutionary changes in DNA sequencing technologies leading to the emergence of next-generation sequencing (NGS) techniques. NGS technologies have enhanced the throughput and speed of sequencing combined with bringing down the overall cost of the process over a time. The major applications of NGS technologies being genome sequencing and resequencing, transcriptomics, metagenomics in relation to plant-microbe interactions, exon and genome capturing, development of molecular markers and evolutionary studies. In this review, we present a broader picture of evolution of NGS tools, its various applications in crop plants, and future prospects of the technology for crop improvement.