Abhijit Sarkar

University of Gour Banga · Department of Botany

Agriculture has traditionally been the most significant, stable sector in the economy because it generates and supplies raw materials for the food, and feed industries. Due to the limited natural resources (land, soil, water, etc.) and the world’s growing population, agricultural expansion must be economically feasible, eco-friendly, and efficient....

Rapid urbanization, over-population, and industrialization induce rise in freshwater scarcity considerably and are responsible for the generation of wastewater in larger amounts. Disposal of untreated wastewater causes eutrophication, and water pollution, disturbing the aquatic ecosystem beyond repair. On the other hand, growing global food demand...

Particulate matter (PM) pollution poses a severe threat to the environment and health worldwide. This study aimed to evaluate the mass concentration, physicochemical characteristics, and emission sources of aerodynamic diameters of 1m (PM1) within an urban sprawl situated in the eastern Indo-Gangetic basin over three years (2017–2019). The study en...

Introduction: The significant impact of climate change on temperature is an important topic of discussion as it rises globally. Hence, the present study is designed to investigate the profound influence of climate change on temperature by considering the North Indian States. Methods: In this comprehensive case study, CMIP6 models are used to invest...

Recent regulations on exhaust emissions have led to an increase in non-exhaust emissions, which now surpasses exhaust emissions. Non-exhaust emissions are mainly generated from brake and tire particle abrasion, road wear, and re-suspended road dust. In Asia, non-exhaust emissions have increased significantly over the past 50 years, resulting in alm...

In the present era of global climate change, the scarcity of potable water is increasing both due to natural and anthropogenic causes. Water is the elixir of life, and its usage has risen significantly due to escalating economic activities, widespread urbanization, and industrialization. The increasing water scarcity and rising contamination have c...

Drought, hot temperatures, salinity, and rising carbon dioxide levels all have an impact on plant development that creates a significant challenge for agricultural production. Concerns about the consequences of climate change on natural resources, diversification, and global food security have made this a prominent topic. Environmental stress adapt...

Rice is one of the most popular staple crops consumed by over 50% of the worldwide population. In the rhizospheric area of the plant, especially in the region of the rice mycorrhizosphere, varieties of interactions occur between microbes-plant-soil. Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) have a very close partnership with bacterial communities in the e...

The tomato is well-known for its anti-oxidative and anti-cancer properties, and with a wide range of health benefits is an important cash crop for human well-being. However, environmental stresses (especially abiotic) are having a deleterious effect on plant growth and productivity, including tomato. In this review, authors describe how salinity st...

Particulate matter (PM) pollution poses a significant risk to many ecosystems; as sessile organisms, plants are at particular risk from PM pollution since they cannot move away from it. Microorganisms are essential components of ecosystems that can help macro-organisms to cope with pollutants (such as PM). In the phyllosphere (the aerial/above-grou...

The issue of air pollution from particulate matter (PM) is getting worse as more and more people move into urban areas around the globe. Due to the complexity and diversity of pollution sources, it has long been hard to rely on source control techniques to manage this issue. Due to the fact that urban trees may provide a variety of ecosystem servic...

Management of organic waste is a burning concern in the modern world. Among all the conventional and advanced methods, composting is one of the most popular and sustainable methods for waste management. Organic wastes such as food materials, vegetable residues, fodder, sludge, animal dung, eggshell, agricultural wastes are used for composting proce...

In the current scenario, e-waste is a growing concern for every nation in the world; because every year, its production gives a shocking outcome. Here, we have taken an attempt to determine the link between business opportunities and recycling of e-waste by applying microbial activities. To build such a research hypothesis, the advances in the biot...

Hepatocellular carcinoma is among the leading causes of cancer-related deaths worldwide and needs efficient and feasible approach of treatment. Present study focuses on exploring the anticancer activity of a secondary metabolite called siderophore of Aspergillus nidulans against hepatocellular carcinoma cell line HepG2. These small peptides are pro...

“Biological control is the reduction of the amount of inoculum or disease producing activity of a pathogen accomplished by or through one or more organisms other than man.’’ The above-stated definition of biological control was proposed by Cook and Baker (1983). This can be executed by (1) the introduction of an avirulent or less virulent strain of...

High concentrations of tropospheric ozone (O3) is a serious concern in India. The generation and atmospheric dynamics of this trace gas depend on the availability of its precursors and meteorological variables. Like other parts of the world, the COVID-19 imposed lockdown and restrictions on major anthropogenic activities executed a positive impact...

Seed and seedling morphology of twelve species of Apocynaceae have been studied. Seeds have been collected, characterized and grown in the seedbed of the garden of Botany Department to raise seedlings for comparison with natural ones for authentication. Seedlings have also been collected from the forest floor in appropriate season. Seedlings are ch...

The free radicals along with several reactive oxygen species (ROS) and reactive nitrogen species (RNS) are known to play a dual role in the biological living system which carries a substantial importance in terms of signal networking in plants. The production of these active molecules in different cellular compartments eventually led to oxidative d...

Background and aim: Air pollution has emerged as a serious global issues. Among anthropogenic sources, only mobile sources, i.e., vehicles contribute 70% of total air pollution as it emit higher amount of air pollutants into the ambient atmosphere, which create negative impact on air quality. To reduce such impact, environmentalists and policy make...

Seedlings of eight weeds and seven crops are described and quantitatively analyzed with six chemical parameters viz. leaf extract pH, ascorbic acid contents, total chlorophyll content, protein content, total phenolic content and peroxidase activity. Morphological traits of seedlings of both crops and weeds are used for the preparation of artificial...

Air pollution is a serious concern with the developing economics in India and gets more severe when it has major cities ranked among the top 30 polluted cities worldwide. To find a solution, different programs and/or policies have been launched for air quality management country-wide. Unfortunately, no such plan could effectively solve the purpose...

Microorganisms produce various secondary metabolites for growth and survival. During iron stress, they produce secondary metabolites termed siderophores. In the current investigation, antifungal activity of catecholate siderophore produced by Escherichia coli has been assessed against Aspergillus nidulans. Exogenous application of the bacterial sid...

Sheath Blight (ShB) disease of rice is a disease of significant importance caused by the fungus Rhizoctonia solani AG1-IA. Several published reports state that the disease is capable to destroy rice yield and grain quality up to 50%. DeCandolle (1815) first introduced the genus concept of Rhizoctonia and the fungus, R. solani AG1-IA (Teleomorph Tha...

Heavy metals are known to possess toxic effect against prokaryotes as well as eukaryotes. Bacillus subtilis, a gram-positive bacterium, finds several useful applications such as biofertilization and antibiosis, but such applications get compromised due to limited bacterial survival during heavy metal stress. In the present study, experimental measu...

A tremendous progress towards meeting food security, commonly known as “green revolution”, was gained in the twentieth century by utilizing conventional plant breeding methods. However, in the twenty-first century we collectively face numerous challenges including alleviating hunger, a nutritious diet for the poorer populations, quality food for al...

Following last few decades, global agriculture is facing tremendous challenges from diverse issues like increasing population, unrestrained urbanization, and uncontrolled environmental pollution and so on. Productivity of major crops has been declined severely leading to higher global hunger index as well as uncontrollable food crisis both in quant...

Increasing population and unsustainable exploitation of nature and natural resources have made “food security” a burning issue in the 21st century. During the last 50 years, the global population has more than doubled, from 3 billion in 1959 to 6.7 billion in 2009. It is predicted that the human population will reach 8.7 - 11.3 billion by the year...

The drastic changes in the amount of significant secondary air pollutant tropospheric ozone (O3) severely damage the crop productivity worldwide directly by generating oxidative stress in cellular compartments. Apart from that being the third major greenhouse gas, Dobson unit advancement in production of O3 causes elevation of temperature by 0.02 K...

The aim of this study was to evaluate the responses of herbaceous plants in dust capturing potential (DCP) and leaf functional traits under ambient PM10 pollution alongside SH-10 in Malda district. The study was carried out during the post-monsoon and pre-monsoon of 2019 and assessed that the 24 h average concentration of PM10 was 88.6, 87.4 and 12...

A culture-independent DNA metabarcoding analysis of the bacterial communities was carried out throughout a complete vermicomposting cycle of municipal solid waste material using the earthworm Eisenia fetida. 16S rRNA amplicons from the initial material (0 days), an intermediate (42 days), and a final stage (84 days) were sequenced in an Illumina NG...

Higher temperature conditions during the final stages of rice seed development (seed filling and maturation) are known to cause damage to both rice yield and rice kernel quality. The western and central parts of Japan especially have seen record high temperatures during the past decade, resulting in the decrease of rice kernel quality. In this stud...

Qualitative and quantitative traits of seedlings of twenty crop field dicot weeds belonging to twelve families have been analysed. Major quantitative traits are considered for one way analysis of variance (ANOVA) using Duncan Multiple Range test to trace whether they show parallel behaviour or not with qualitative traits for distinction among the t...

Maize (Zea mays L.) ranks within the top three widely cultivated and consumed crops worldwide. More than one-third of the global population at both developed and underdeveloped countries depend on maize as their primary dietary supplement. During late 1990's, quality protein maize (QPM) hybrid was developed mainly to provide higher amounts of both...

In juvenile condition, plants have a very small amount of resource which is preserved in seeds and they have to allocate this resource from endosperm or cotyledons to different organs according to the requirements until they become capable of photosynthesis. The strategy for photosynthate allocation varies among seedlings depending on their habit a...

With modern day urbanization and industrialization, heavy metal (HM) contamination has become a prime concern for today’s society. The impacts of metal contamination on agriculture range from the agricultural soil to the produce in our food basket. The heavy metals (HMs) and metalloids, including Cr, Mn, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Cd, Sn, Hg, Pb, among others...

Electrophoretic separation of humic acids obtained from soil was attempted through denaturing polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (dn-PAGE) by modifying the known methods. The modifications of sample preparation and gel composition led to significant improvement in both visibility and intensity of humic acid profile. The comparative profile showed a...

Environmental and economic implications linked with the proper ecofriendly disposal of modern day wastes, has made it essential to come up with alternative waste management practices that reduce the environmental pressures resulting from unwise disposal of such wastes. Urban wastes like biosolids are loaded with essential plant nutrients. In this v...

Increasing population and unsustainable exploitation of nature and natural resources have made “food security” a burning issue in the 21st century. During the last 50 years, the global population has more than doubled, from 3 billion in 1959 to 6.7 billion in 2009. It is predicted that the human population will reach 8.7 - 11.3 billion by the year...

Access to adequate food and nutrition is a fundamental human right. However, a significant population worldwide presently suffers from malnutrition and inadequate access to food. To meet the goal of zero hunger and malnutrition, agricultural production must maintain pace with increasing food demand. This goal is being challenged by rapidly changing...

Industrialization and urbanization together have a cumulative effect on generating significant amounts of urban solid waste which leads to increasing threats to the environment. India with a population of about 1.27 billion people alone generates about 0.2–0.5 kg of waste day−1 capita−1 of which around 40–50 % is organic in nature. According to pub...

Ihe Balurghat block is located between 25°13'0" N and 88°47 0" E within Dakshin Dinajpur District of West Bengal having an area of about 369.39 sq. km. Weeds are unwanted herbs, under shrubs, shrubs and climbers growing in crop fields, road sides, wall of covering area, waste places, etc. Juvenile morphology OI ten weed species has been studied fro...

The seedling morphology of eight tree species viz., Acacia auriculiformis, Bombax ceiba, Bridelia retusa, Wrightia antidysenterica, Lagerstroemia speciosa, Litsea glutinosa, Syzygium jambos and Tectona grandis have been studied and an artificial key has been made for identification from natural habitat. Some critical factors such as, soil rigidity,...

The sheath blight of rice pathogen Rhizoctonia solani Kühn AG1-1A has long been known as a major crisis in global rice production. The present study aimed to compare the efficacy of four triazole fungicides at different doses on the growth and development of R. solani Kühn AG1-1A. Obtained results demonstrated inhibitory effects of all four fungici...

Following the late twentieth century, the major pattern of land use has forced to segregate the agricultural practice from traditional biodiversity conservation. Over dominance of high throughput technological applications have neglected conventional native approaches. Rural communities still depend on key components of biodiversity and ecosystem s...

Seedling morphology of fiteen weeds of some major crops like potato, brinjal, wheat, rice, tomato, maize, pumpkin, bitergourd, ridgegourd, etc. occurringin Kaliachak II Block has been studied. An artificial key has been prepared utilizing the juvenile traits for immediate identification. Seed weight and thickness of paracotyledons of the seedlings...

Weeds are mainly considcred as serious problem in agriculture. They use to reduce arop production in various ways. ln the current study, phenotypic traits of twenty werd seedlings belonging to twelve families under Magnotiopsida have been studied from thirteen major Rabi crops growing in and around Kaliachak II Block ofMalda district, Wcst Bengal....

Juvenile traits of twenty weeds belonging to four families under Magnoliopsida have been studied among fifteen major Rabi crops ofBalurghat Block of Dakshindinajpur Seedlings are descdbed considering both qualitative and quantitative traits. Qualitative traits of seedlings have been considered for the constuction of artificial key and phenograms. H...

Over the last couple of decades, rapid urbanization, unplanned industrialization, and a rising population jointly created several issues worldwide, particularly in developing and underdeveloped countries. One such issue that requires urgent attention is the ever-increasing waste problem which has become an exasperation for regional and local govern...

The International Plant Proteomics Organization (INPPO) is a global platform of the plant proteomics community or, more generally, the scientific community that uses proteomics to address plant biology. Organizing an international conference is one of its initiatives to promote plant proteomics by involving and gathering scientists/researchers/stud...

Plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) are a group of beneficial microorganisms that colonize at plant rhizosphere, and induce plant growth by a wide variety of mechanisms. Over last couple of years, the use of PGPR is steadily increasing in modern agriculture as a possible alternative to replace chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and other sup...

Plant Growth Promoting Rhizobacteria (PGPR) are beneficial bacteria that colonize plant roots and enhance plant growth by wide variety of mechanism. Initially twelve isolates of bacteria designated as DD1to DD12, isolated from the rhizospheric soil of Dhaincha (Sesbania bispinosa) were screened on the basis of their efficiency in PGPR characteristi...

Increased urbanization and industrialization worldwide has resulted in increased releases of solid waste, and enhanced environmental pollution around the globe. There are several categories of solid waste and these include sewage sludge, and municipal solid wastes (Singh et al. 2011). Fly Ash (FA), a coal combustion residue (CCR), is a major type o...

International Plant Proteomics Organization (INPPO) outlined ten initiatives to promote plant proteomics in each and every country. With greater emphasis in developing countries, one of those was to “organize workshops at national and international levels to train manpower and exchange information”. This third INPPO highlights covers the workshop o...

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/ijls.v8i3.10494 International Journal of Life Sciences Vol.8(3): 2014: i-ii

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/ijls.v8i2.10206 International Journal of Life Sciences Vol.8(2): 2014; i

Rhizoctonia solani Kuhn, is one of the most important pathogen of rice causing the sheath blight disease which accounts for heavy crop losses in all the major rice growing areas of the world, including tropical Asia. The proliferation of this soil borne pathogen depends on many abiotic factors. The two most common factors associated with the growth...

In the present study, the response of kidney bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L. cv. Pusa Komal) plants was evaluated under three different levels of ultraviolet-B (UV-B), i.e., excluded UV-B (eUV-B), ambient UV-B (aUV-B; 5.8 kJ m(-2) day(-1)), and supplemental UV-B (sUV-B; 280-315 nm; ambient + 7.2 kJ m(-2) day(-1)), under near-natural conditions. eUV-B t...

International Plant Proteomics Organization (INPPO) outlined ten initiatives to promote plant proteomics in each and every country. With greater emphasis in developing countries, one of those was to "organize workshops at national and international levels to train manpower and exchange information". This third INPPO highlights covers the workshop o...

Due to severe heavy nmetals contamination in agricultural soil worldwide, several studies specifically focused on the development of metal accumulating crop plants, which can maintain their optimum growth and production in contaminated soil. Mustard plants (Brassica campestris L.) are in generally considered as the hyper accumulator, can be grown a...

The International Plant Proteomics Organization (INPPO) is a non-profit organization whose members are scientists involved or interested in plant proteomics. Since the publication of the first INPPO highlights in 2012, continued progress on many of the organization's mandates/goals has been achieved. Two major events are emphasized in this second I...

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/ijls.v7i1.8167

Plant proteomics has made tremendous contributions in understanding the complex processes of plant biology. Here, its current status in India and Nepal is discussed. Gel-based proteomics is predominantly utilized on crops and non-crops to analyze majorly abiotic (49 %) and biotic (18 %) stress, development (11 %) and post-translational modification...

High ozone (O 3) concentrations not only damage plant life but also cause considerable losses in plant productivity. To screen for molecular factors usable as potential biomarkers to identify for O 3-sensitive and -tolerant lines and design O 3 tolerant crops, our project examines the effects of O 3 on rice, using high-throughput omics approaches....

Tremendous progress in plant proteomics driven by mass spectrometry (MS) techniques has been made since 2000 when few proteomics reports were published and plant proteomics was in its infancy. These achievements include the refinement of existing techniques and the search for new techniques to address food security, safety, and health issues. It is...

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/ijls.v8i1.9023

Unlabelled: The 'ozone (O3)-responsive transcriptome' behavior in the panicles and grains of rice plant was studied individually through high-throughput oligo-DNA microarray technique. O3 differentially and separately regulated 620 and 130 genes in the panicles and grains. Among the O3-responsive genes, 176 and 444 genes were up- and down-regulate...

Tropospheric ozone (O3) is now considered as the most widespread and toxic gaseous pollutant in our environment. To date, unsustainable resource utilization has turned this secondary pollutant into a major component of global climate change, and a prime threat to agricultural production. The projected levels to which O3 will increase are critically...