This is the oldest English language journal in genetics. Founded by W. Bateson and R. C. Punnett in 1910, the Journal of Genetics was later edited by J. B. S. Haldane; later, Haldane and his wife, Helen Spurway brought the journal with them to India. After his death in 1964, Mrs. Haldane continued publication of the journal, with Madhav Gadgil and H. Sharat Chandra (Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore) and Suresh Jayakar (Laboratorio de Genetica Biochimica ed Evoluzionistica, Pavia) as editors, until her own death in 1977. In 1985, with the permission of Haldane’s heirs, the Indian Academy of Sciences resumed publication of the journal. The journal retains its traditional interest in evolutionary research that is of relevance to geneticists, even if not explicitly genetic in nature.

The journal of genetics

Natural products with medicinal value are gradually gaining importance in clinical research due to their well-known property of no side effects as compared to drugs. Tinospora cordifolia commonly named as "Guduchi" is known for its immense application in the treatment of various diseases in the traditional ayurvedic literature. Recently the discovery of active components from the plant and their biological function in disease control has led to active interest in the plant across the globe. Our present study in this review encompasses (i) the genetic diversity of the plant and (ii) active components isolated from the plant and their biological role in disease targeting. The future scope of the review remains in exploiting the biochemical and signaling pathways affected by the compounds isolated from Tinospora so as to enable new and effective formulation in disease eradication.

Tinospora cordifolia: One plant, many roles

Tinospora cordifolia mediated facile green synthesis of cupric oxide nanoparticles and their photocatalytic, antioxidant and antibacterial properties

Lentil (Lens culinaris ssp. culinaris), is a self-pollinating diploid (2n = 2x = 14), cool-season legume crop and is consumed worldwide as a rich source of protein (∼24.0%), largely in vegetarian diets. Here we report development of a genetic linkage map of Lens using 114 F2 plants derived from the intersubspecific cross between L 830 and ILWL 77. RAPD (random amplified polymorphic DNA) primers revealed more polymorphism than ISSR (intersimple sequence repeat) and SSR (simple sequence repeat) markers. The highest proportion (30.72%) of segregation distortion was observed in RAPD markers. Of the 235 markers (34 SSR, 9 ISSR and 192 RAPD) used in the mapping study, 199 (28 SSRs, 9 ISSRs and 162 RAPDs) were mapped into 11 linkage groups (LGs), varying between 17.3 and 433.8 cM and covering 3843.4 cM, with an average marker spacing of 19.3 cM. Linkage analysis revealed nine major groups with 15 or more markers each and two small LGs with two markers each, and 36 unlinked markers. The study reported assigning of 11 new SSRs on the linkage map. Of the 66 markers with aberrant segregation, 14 were unlinked and the remaining 52 were mapped. ISSR and RAPD markers were found to be useful in map construction and saturation. The current map represents maximum coverage of lentil genome and could be used for identification of QTL regions linked to agronomic traits, and for marker-assisted selection in lentil.

Construction of intersubspecific molecular genetic map of lentil based on ISSR, RAPD and SSR markers

Tinospora species: An overview of their modulating effects on the immune system

Twenty-seven accessions, collected from different ecologicalregions and altitudes in the northwestern Himalayan regionof India ranging from 400 to 1300 m above mean sea level(table 1), were grown for morphophysiological characteriza-tion Thirty-seven accessions (including 10 more accessionsof unknown origin) were subjected to molecular diversityanalysis using RAPD and ISSR markersThe ﬁeld experiment was laid out in a completely ran-domized block design (CRBD) with three replications Eachreplication comprised of 50 plants per accession The dataon 15 randomly selected plants were recorded on variousmorphophysiological parameters viz plant length (cm), stemdiameter (mm), stomatal density (mm

Ritu Sood

Papers

Genetic diversity analysis of Tinospora cordifolia germplasm collected from northwestern Himalayan region of India