We redescribe the only previously known species of Myrsidea from bulbuls, M. pycnonoti Eichler. Sixteen new species are described; they and their type hosts are: M. phillipsi ex Pycnonotus goiavier goiavier (Scopoli), M. gieferi ex P. goiavier suluensis Mearns, M. kulpai ex P. flavescens Blyth, M. finlaysoni ex P. finlaysoni Strickland, M. kathleenae ex P. cafer (L.), M. warwicki ex Ixos philippinus (J. R. Forster), M. mcclurei ex Microscelis amaurotis (Temminck), M. zeylanici ex P. zeylanicus (Gmelin), M. plumosi ex P. plumosus Blyth, M. eutiloti ex P. eutilotus (Jardine and Selby), M. adamsae ex P. urostictus (Salvadori), M. ochracei ex Criniger ochraceus F. Moore, M. borbonici ex Hypsipetes borbonicus (J. R. Forster), M. johnsoni ex P. atriceps (Temminck), M. palmai ex C. ochraceus, and M. claytoni ex P. eutilotus. A key is provided for the identification of these 17 species.

A new species

Computational geometry

Fungi are an understudied, biotechnologically valuable group of organisms. Due to 
the immense range of habitats that fungi inhabit, and the consequent need to compete against a diverse array of other fungi, bacteria, and animals, fungi have developed numerous survival mechanisms. The unique attributes of fungi thus herald great promise for their application in biotechnology and industry. Moreover, fungi can be grown with relative ease, making production at scale viable. The search for fungal biodiversity, and the construction of a living fungi collection, both have incredible economic potential in locating organisms with novel industrial uses that will lead to novel products. This manuscript reviews fifty ways in which fungi can potentially be utilized as biotechnology. We provide notes and examples for each potential exploitation and give examples from our own work and the work of other notable researchers. We also provide a flow chart that can be used to convince funding bodies of the importance of fungi for biotechnological research and as potential products. Fungi have provided the world with penicillin, lovastatin, and other globally significant medicines, and they remain an untapped resource with enormous industrial potential.

The amazing potential of fungi: 50 ways we can exploit fungi industrially

Plants are exposed to any number of potentially adverse environmental conditions such as water deficit, high salinity, extreme temperature, submergence, etc. These abiotic stresses adversely affect the plant growth and productivity. Nowadays various strategies are employed to generate plants that can withstand these stresses. In recent years, seed priming has been developed as an indispensable method to produce tolerant plants against various stresses. Seed priming is the induction of a particular physiological state in plants by the treatment of natural and synthetic compounds to the seeds before germination. In plant defense, priming is defined as a physiological process by which a plant prepares to respond to imminent abiotic stress more quickly or aggressively. Moreover, plants raised from primed seeds showed sturdy and quick cellular defense response against abiotic stresses. Priming for enhanced resistance to abiotic stress obviously is operating via various pathways involved in different metabolic processes. The seedlings emerging from primed seeds showed early and uniform germination. Moreover, the overall growth of plants is enhanced due to the seed-priming treatments. The main objective of this review is to provide an overview of various crops in which seed priming is practiced and about various seed-priming methods and its effects.

Seed priming for abiotic stress tolerance: an overview

11 – plant diseases associated with mycoplasma-like organisms

The occurrence of Taphrina rhizophora on Populus alba in Australia

Bipolaris spicifera and exserohilum rostratum causing leaf spots of eucalyptus tereticornis—new record from india

Biocontrol of Rust and Leaf Spot Diseases

Background: Breast lesions comprise a family of heterogeneous entities with variable patterns of presentation, morphology and clinical behaviour. The majority of breast lesions are traditionally classified into benign and malignant conditions and their behaviour can, in the vast majority of cases, be predicted with a reasonable degree of accuracy. Materials and Methods: In this study, 30 cases of benign breast lesions and 50 cases of carcinoma breast were studied. Results: Fibroadenoma was the most common benign lesion found, being most common in third decade of life, followed by fibroadenosis. In the carcinoma group, most common histological type was infiltrating duct carcinoma with maximum cases belonging to the age group of 41-60 years. Both benign breast lesions and carcinoma breast were distributed more in left breast than in right breast.

/pdf/a-review-of-spectrum-of-breast-lesions-in-a-tertiary-care-3pkzyvdkl4.pdf

A Review of Spectrum of Breast Lesions in a Tertiary Care Centre: A Retrospective Study

Development of irrigation schedules that lead to efficient use of water is imperative. For this, crop experiments were conducted in the humid sub-tropical climate region of Western Uttar Pradesh, India, where a plant-based index, crop water stress index (CWSI), has been derived for a crop season of wheat crop. Four irrigation treatments, two equipped with drip irrigation and two with flood irrigation, of 25% MAD (drip), 50% MAD (drip), 50% MAD (flood), and a farmer’s field replication (flood) were experimented in the study. MAD is maximum allowable deficit that represents the soil moisture depletion at which irrigation was applied. Research-grade infrared thermometers were used for field measurements of crop canopy temperature. The empirical approach of CWSI is applied to formulate lower and upper baselines utilizing the air temperature humidity parameters and CWSI values for wheat crop for the pre-heading and post-heading stages are derived. Mean CWSI values for irrigation treatments are found out as 0.03, 0.11, 0.29, and 0.31 for 25% MAD (drip), 50% (drip), 50% (flood), and a farmer’s field replication (flood), respectively, during the crop period with the higher values of CWSI representing more crop water stress. The highest water use efficiency (WUE) of 26.9 kg/ha-mm is observed for 50% MAD (drip) irrigation treatment with a mean CWSI value of 0.11. The farmer’s field replication, which corresponds to the lowest WUE, has by far the highest value of mean CWSI during the post-heading stage. The use of a plant-based index rather than the conventional soil moisture method can be a more effective method to determine water-efficient irrigation schedules. 

Jyoti Kumar Sharma

Papers

The occurrence of Taphrina rhizophora on Populus alba in Australia

Bipolaris spicifera and exserohilum rostratum causing leaf spots of eucalyptus tereticornis—new record from india

Biocontrol of Rust and Leaf Spot Diseases

A Review of Spectrum of Breast Lesions in a Tertiary Care Centre: A Retrospective Study

Crop Water Stress Index for Devising Water Efficient Irrigation Schedules for Wheat Crop