Ved Prakash Rai

Genetic diversity studies and identification of SSR markers associated with Fusarium wilt (Fusarium udum) resistance in cultivated pigeonpea (Cajanus cajan).

Genetic diversity and identification of simple sequence repeat markers correlated with Fusarium wilt resistance was performed in a set of 36 elite cultivated pigeonpea genotypes differing in levels of resistance to Fusarium wilt. Twenty-four polymorphic sequence repeat markers were screened across these genotypes, and amplified a total of 59 alleles with an average high polymorphic information content value of 0.52. Cluster analysis, done by UPGMA and PCA, grouped the 36 pigeonpea genotypes into two main clusters according to their Fusarium wilt reaction. Based on the Kruskal–Wallis ANOVA and simple regression analysis, six simple sequence repeat markers were found to be significantly associated with Fusarium wilt resistance. The phenotypic variation explained by these markers ranged from 23.7 to 56.4%. The present study helps in finding out feasibility of prescreened SSR markers to be used in genetic diversity analysis and their potential association with disease resistance.

Microarray analyses for identifying genes conferring resistance to pepper leaf curl virus in chilli pepper (Capsicum spp.).

Pepper leaf curl virus (PepLCV) is a serious threat to pepper (Capsicum spp.) production worldwide. Molecular mechanism underlying pepper plants response to PepLCV infection is key to develop PepLCV resistant varieties. In this study, we generated transcriptome profiles of PepLCV resistant genotype (BS-35) and susceptible genotype (IVPBC-535) after artificial viral inoculation using microarray technology and detail experimental procedures and analyses are described. A total of 319 genes differentially expressed between resistant and susceptible genotypes were identified, out of that 234 unique genes were found to be up-regulated > 2-fold in resistant line BS-35 when compared to susceptible, IVPBC-535. The data set we generated has been analyzed to identify genes that are involved in the regulation of resistance against PepLCV. The raw data have been deposited in the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database under accession number GSE41131.