<p><strong>Background:</strong> To improve the prevention and control of diseases and level of feeding management of newborn calves, diversity analysis of their gut microbiota was conducted to explore the changes in their gut microbiota during different seasons.<br />
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<strong>Methods</strong>: Based on metagenomic sequencing and high-throughput sequencing techniques, the diversity of gut microbiota, functional abundance, and differences in resistance genes of diarrhea calves in different seasons were analyzed.&nbsp;&nbsp;<br />
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<strong>Result:</strong> At the phylum level, Firmicutes and Actinobacteria have always been significant dominant microbiota in the four seasons; at the genus level, Bacteroides exists in all four seasons; the variation pattern of microbial communities in different seasons and the relative abundance will change in different seasons. The analysis of Beta diversity shows that compared to the gut microbiota of calves in summer and autumn, the diversity and richness of the microbiota in winter and spring are relatively high. The annotation of the gut microbiota of diarrhea calves through the KEGG database showed that the proportion of genes with metabolic function (Metabolism) was the highest. The annotation gene results showed that amino acid metabolism was the most abundant among metabolic functions. Through functional annotation of CARD, it was found that the types and numbers of antibiotic resistance genes corresponding to the gut microbiota of calves vary in different seasons, with tetW/N/W (the gene name should be in italics) being the main enriched antibiotic resistance gene type. At the same time, potential pathogenicity prediction also found a significant increase in disease risk in the winter group. Spring and winter being the seasons with high incidence of digestive tract diseases in calves.</p>


<p>Changes in Intestinal Microflora Diversity of Diarrhea Calves among Different Seasons using Metagenomic Sequencing Analysisor</p>


<div style="text-align: justify;">Genetic diversity among 54 genotypes of field and garden pea of India were studied using 30 RAPD primers. A total of 168 amplicons were scored, of which 154 were polymorphic revealing 89.3% of polymophism. Out of 30 RAPD primers tested, 22 primers produced clear and reproducible bands. The number of products generated by these primers ranged from 04 to 14 with primer OPU-17 giving maximum (14) and primer OPC-08 giving minimum number of amplicons (04). Genetic similarity estimates based on the binomial data using Jaccard&rsquo;s coefficient ranged from 0.34 (Kaza-2/IC-218991) to 0.89 (IC-209118/IC-209123) with an average similarity index of 0.54 exhibiting considerable diversity among the pea genotypes studied. The dendrogram showed clear pattern of clustering according to the source of germplasm. This study indicated that Himalayan region germplasm exhibited higher diversity.&nbsp;</div>

Diversity analysis of pea genotypes using RAPD markers

<div><strong>Background: </strong>Intercropping and mixed cropping based on two or more different crops have been widely used in Insect Pest Management to manage the population density of insect pests in various crops like maize with soybean, sorghum with soybean and sunflower with soybean. Genotypic diversity is the mixture or combination of various varieties/lines/genotypes of a crop. It decreases the insect-pests population by unfitness of crop to them due to intraspecific diversity such as mixture of susceptible and resistant varieties. Also, it increases the natural enemy population more due to longer period of flowering, availability of wide diverse food, more movement of herbivores <em>etc</em>. This concept has also been used successfully to manage insect-pests in maize, wheat and potato. In India, this connect is used in very small scale in crop. The objective of this study was to determine effects of genotypic diversity by comparing the population densities of major insect pests between monoculture of single variety and mixture of varieties.<br />
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<strong>Methods: </strong>To test the effects of genotypic diversity on soybean insect-pest and their natural enemy population an experiment was laid in<em> kharif </em>2018 and 2019 at the ICAR-Indian Institute of Soybean Research, Indore. All recommended agronomic package of practices were followed for raising of crop. Randomized block design with three replication having plot size of 9 rows of 5 meter row length was used. Totally 20 treatments were chosen for this experiment and out of 20 four treatments namely, T1, T6, T11 and T16 were the treatments of four varietal mixture treatments of almost similar maturity duration and agronomic traits and rest of treatments were of sole varietal treatments. Observations were made on insect-pests from 10 selected plants in each plot on three leaves selected at top, middle and lower portion of plant.<br />
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<strong>Result: </strong>Effects of genotypic diversity in soybean revealed that for whitefly management T11 (NRC-86, JS-335, JS-2098 and RKS-45) was found most effective treatment. In case of mite, thrips and treehoppers management T1 (JS-9560, JS-20-34, MAUS-47 and MAUS-1460) was found most effective treatment. For leafhopper and mealy bug T6 (JS-9305, JS-2029, RVS-2001-4 and Dsb-28-3) was found most effective treatment. While for spittlebug T16 (NRC-37, JS-9752, RSC-1046 and RKS-113) was found most effective treatment. So, genotypic diverse treatments were found more effective than their respective sole varietal treatments.</div>

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<p>​Effects of Genotypic Diversity on Insect-pests of Soybean</p>


<div style="text-align: justify;">Information on the physico-chemical, engineering and functional properties of soybean is pertinent to design equipment for the grading, pretreatments and processing. It will also help to decide the right end-use of the valuable crop as it has various diverse applications. This study evaluated these properties of two popular cultivars of soybean grown in Punjab, India viz. SL-744 and SL-958 and the investigations revealed that the grains of SL-958 are bolder and heavier than SL-744 with lighter color, greater hydration capacity, swelling capacity and volume making it more suitable for applications which require soaking and heat processing. SL-744 exhibits higher water absorption and oil absorption capacities as well as foaming capacity hence it can be used in baking industry where these properties are desirable for improving the texture, consistency and flavor of the prepared products.&nbsp;</div>

Physico-chemical, engineering and functional properties of two soybean cultivars

<div style="text-align:justify">Modern intensive monocropping system is becoming unproductive, pest ridden, loss incurring, and resource depleting and hence turning out to be untenable. Lack of discrimination in input use by farm managers and overall poor management are accelerating degradation and desertification processes, and loss of biodiversity particularly add in endangered regions. &nbsp;While, properly designed diverse and strategically located tree/seasonal crop based land use systems can contribute to ecologic services by mitigation land degradation, climate change and desertification, while conserving natural resources and biodiversity. Besides providing, diverse goods and services, on-farm diversity can be considered as an adoptive strategy in areas climatically and biologically vulnerable. Being a potential C sink, tree based land use systems can also mitigate negative impacts of CO2 emission. As green belt/bank these have an important role in maintaining air, water and soil quality in mining and industrial areas. The so-called cellulosic feedstocks can be grown on marginal land, enhance soil fertility by promoting the growth of various soil organisms, and provide a climate- friendly source of energy. There are plenty of underexploited but potential plant species which can find niche in the existing agroecosystems with substantial addition to total production while contributing sufficiently to ecological services. These needs to be identified and useful models are developed for specific situations.</div>

On-farm crop diversity for sustainability and resilience in farming - A review

<div><strong>Background:</strong> <em>Myostatin </em>(<em>MSTN</em>) is a highly conserved protein that acts as a negative regulator of skeletal muscle growth. <em>MSTN</em> gene is closely associated with multiple biological functions and its mutations are directly linked to muscle development in different species.&nbsp;Loss of <em>MSTN </em>functionality causes the phenotype to appear in the form of &lsquo;double musculature&rsquo;, among others in cattle, sheep and house mice.<br />
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<strong>Methods:</strong> The mixed DNA pool of Boer and Dazu black goats to sequence <em>MSTN</em> coding and noncoding regions. Snapshot typing technology was used to analyse three goat production types, namely, Boer (meat goats), Nubian (breast and meat dual-use goat), Dazu black (local breeds) and Youzhou black goats (local breeds). Polymorphic loci in <em>MSTN</em> were used from four goat populations to&nbsp;construct haplotypes and calculate haplotype frequency distribution through NETWORK and MEGA to construct a phylogenetic tree and visualize phylogenetic relationship.<br />
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<strong>Result: </strong>From these populations, 18 haplotypes were constructed using 20 polymorphic loci. Phylogenetic analysis revealed a significant difference in the haplotype distribution of <em>MSTN</em> in different goat production types. The 18 haplotypes were divided into two clusters. The haplotypes carried by the Boer goat belonged to Cluster I and those carried by the Nubian goat and two local goat breeds belonged to both clusters. Chinese local goats and complex production goats carried more haplotypes of <em>MSTN </em>and had a richer genetic diversity than other production types did. Moreover, local and complex production goats had high-frequency haplotypes of the <em>MSTN</em> of meat goats and had high potential for breeding.</div>


<div style="text-align:justify">Genetic Diversity Identification and Haplotype Distribution of <em>Myostatin</em> Gene in Goats</div>


<div><strong>Background:</strong> Indian domesticated chickens have a wide variety of phenotypes. Unlike other chicken breeds, Kadaknath chicken has black meat and is used by indigenous tribal people for its invigorating and therapeutic properties. To look for the functional traits that might be contributing towards the acclaimed benefits, free radical scavenging capacity and metal chelating ability of Kadaknath meat were explored for the first time in comparison to the commercial Cobb broiler.&nbsp;<br />
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<strong>Methods: </strong>During the period 2018-2020, breast and thigh meat were collected from chickens (n=20/ group) at their commercial slaughter age. Meat extract was used for qualitative evaluation of protein as well as the antioxidant capacity utilizing diverse<em> in vitro</em> methods corresponding to different antioxidation mechanisms.<br />
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<strong>Result:</strong> Protein concentration (g/100g of tissue) in Kadaknath breast (25.25 &plusmn; 0.31) and thigh (19.98 &plusmn; 0.29) meat was significantly (P &lt; 0.05) higher than the Cobb. Breast meat had better scavenging capacity than the thigh. The superiority of the antioxidant capacity of Kadaknath meat was explicitly established by more than one in vitro assay. Free radical scavenging assays <em>viz</em>. 2,2-azinobis (3-ethyl-benzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) (ABTS); 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and Cupric reducing antioxidant capacity (CUPRAC) had significantly (P &lt; 0.05) higher values for Kadaknath in comparison to the Cobb broiler meat. Ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) values (mM Fe<sup>2+</sup>/g of tissue) were also more in breast meat of Kadaknath (26.97&plusmn;0.37) than the Cobb (15.24&plusmn;0.40). Similarly, FRAP values were higher in Kadaknath (33.85&plusmn;0.47) than the Cobb (19.2&plusmn;0.31) thigh meat. Kadaknath had higher antioxidant capacity as reflected by metal chelation inhibition value. These findings help to explain the unique nutritional and functional characteristics of Kadaknath black-bone chicken and provide basic research data for exploring the commercial potential of its meat in the fields of functional foods, cosmeceuticals and nuutraceuticals.</div>


<div>First Report on Better Functional Property of Black Chicken Meat from India</div>


<div style="text-align: justify;">Dietary fibre is an important component of diet conferring plethora of health benefits and helps in prevention of various diseases. Plant foods are particularly associated with high amounts of dietary fibre. Large amount of pomace produced from juice and wine industries presents cheap source of dietary fibre. Fruit and vegetable pomace represents a novel ingredient for fibre enrichment in bakery products owing to its better functionality due to balanced ratio of soluble/insoluble fibre, better hydration properties, better fermentability and presence of phytochemicals. Source of pomace and its processing to form powder by various pre-treatments, drying techniques and size reduction has influence on its functionality. Fruit and vegetable pomace can be used to improve the functionality of food by the virtue of its functional properties. Variety of fruit and vegetable pomaces are used in wide array of bakery products like biscuits, buns, cookies, crackers, cakes, muffins, wheat rolls and scones. &nbsp;Fruit pomaces tend to amalgamate well with bakery products and confer them better sensory properties. An important intervention of fruit and vegetable pomace is the improvment of the storage quality of baked products due to its associated antioxidants. Thus, fruit and vegetable pomace can be used as effective functional ingredient for development of fibre rich bakery products.&nbsp;</div>

Utilization of fruit and vegetable pomace as functional ingredient in bakery products: A review

<div style="text-align: justify;">Functional food is a modified food that claims to improve health or well-being by providing benefits. Functional foods may include such items as cereals, breads and beverages these are fortified with vitamins, some herbs, and nutraceuticals. It was observed that T1 showed highest protein, fat and ash content among various treatments. T1 has highest oxylate content with respect to anti nutritional content. Here expect proximate value fibre impart functional properties to the food which has therapeutic value. T4 has highest phytic acid, flavonoids and tannin had highest amount moisture, fibre, carbohydrate and energy content while T4 has highest total phenol and DPPH scavenging activity with respect to antioxidant. The study suggests that wheat flour, barley flour, garlic powder and black cumin seed powder can be used for ready to eat functional food products and commercial purpose because of its exotic flavour and nutritive value was higher to the products than market products and helps in many metabolic diseases.</div>

Assessment of nutritional and phytochemical composition of composite flour rich in functional compounds

<div><strong>Background: </strong>The variety of indigenous duck germplasm contribute maximum to the poultry industry in India, besides chicken population. In southern part of India, the available duck genetic resource, particularly Arni ducks (comprises of Sanyasi and Keeri ducks) of Tamil Nadu, has its own characteristics with innate potentiality of higher productivity without any input system of management. Genetic characterization and diversity of indigenous duck genetic resources has not been properly studied. In the present study, the genetic diversity of Arni ducks with other indigenous and exotic duck germplasm were analysed with microsatellite markers.&nbsp;<br />
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<strong>Methods: </strong>Genomic DNA was isolated from the blood samples of six duck populations. Molecular characterization was carried out with duck specific FAO recommended microsatellite markers. The genotyping of ducks was done based on the size of 4324 PCR amplicons of 23 microsatellite loci, which were subjected to capillary electrophoresis using automatic sequencer.<br />
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<strong>Result: </strong>A total of 222 alleles in six duck populations across 23 microsatellite loci with a mean of 9.65&plusmn;0.95 alleles were found. Kuttanad duck variety had the highest number of alleles (139) followed by Sanyasi (136), Keeri (129), Muscovy (118), Assam (91) and White Pekin (78) ducks. The mean observed number of alleles was 6.04&plusmn;0.59, 5.91&plusmn;0.76, 5.61&plusmn;3.17, 5.13&plusmn;0.44, 3.96&plusmn;0.76 and 3.39&plusmn;0.40 in Kuttanad, Sanyasi, Keeri, Muscovy, Assam and White Pekin ducks respectively. The overall mean polymorphism information content (PIC) values among the six duck populations was 0.6269. &nbsp;In most of the duck populations, the mean PIC value was more than 0.5 except in Assam (0.4815) and White Pekin (0.3725) ducks. The observed heterozygosity was the highest in Keeri ducks (0.5217) and lowest in White Pekin ducks (0.2766), while, the mean expected heterozygosity was the highest in Sanyasi (0.5628) and lowest in White Pekin (0.4038) ducks. The variations in the observed and expected number of alleles, differences in PIC of various microsatellite loci might be attributed to the genetic variability of the duck populations, number and type of microsatellite primers utilised for analysis and the genetic diversity of the duck breeds under study. Higher FST value indicates the substantial degree of breed differentiation among the studied duck populations.</div>


Changes in Intestinal Microflora Diversity of Diarrhea Calves among Different Seasons using Metagenomic Sequencing Analysisor

Diversity analysis of pea genotypes using RAPD markers

Effects of Genotypic Diversity on Insect-pests of Soybean

Physico-chemical, engineering and functional properties of two soybean cultivars

On-farm crop diversity for sustainability and resilience in farming - A review

Genetic Diversity Identification and Haplotype Distribution of Myostatin Gene in Goats

First Report on Better Functional Property of Black Chicken Meat from India

Utilization of fruit and vegetable pomace as functional ingredient in bakery products: A review

Assessment of nutritional and phytochemical composition of composite flour rich in functional compounds

Genetic Diversity of Six Duck Populations in India