Ram Sanmukh Upadhyay's research while affiliated with Banaras Hindu University and other places

Two species of Ceratosporella collected on leaf litter of Mohru Oak Quercus floribunda in Uttarakhand, India, are described herein and compared with closely allied species. They are Ceratosporella deviata and Ceratosporella cheiroidea. Among them, C. cheiroidea is newly recorded from India. Morphological descriptions, illustrations, and comments are provided for the aforementioned species.

In this study, we identified and characterize a plant pathogenic isolate, collected from naturally infested bean (Phaseolus vulgaris var. Anupama) seedlings presenting root rot symptoms from an agricultural land of the Prayagraj district, Uttar Pradesh, India. Based on morphological features, growth characteristics and the ITS sequencing-based molecular data, the isolate was assumed very closed to the species of the Pythium genera. However, ITS sequencing data and the BLAST results for gene annotation clustered the identified isolate more closely to the Pythium catenulatum (p-value e-value), and therefore, confirmed as P. catenulatum. The pathogenicity assay confirmed the role of the isolate as a root rot causing pathogen. Furthermore, the isolate was tested for its growth under in-vitro conditions against several environmental parameters including temperature, pH, salt, drought and metals. The Biolog FF MicroPlate method assessed the carbon utilization profile and reported the ability of the isolate in utilizing both carbohydrates and amino acids as a primary energy source. Moreover, in-vitro colony growth inhibition assay performed with different agrochemicals (fungicides and insecticides) and the dyes determined their efficacy in suppressing the growth and development of the isolated pathogen. The dual culture assay of the isolate along with several fungal and bacterial strains confirmed the antagonistic potential of some tested microbes in delimiting the growth of the pathogen. Overall, the study provides a new sustainable, effective and eco-friendly solution for controlling the root rot pathogen.

The biogeochemical cycling of elements involves the interactions between the biosphere and the surroundings in the form of cycling of elements throughout the different spheres viz., atmosphere, hydrosphere, and lithosphere. This chapter elucidates the effects of salinity stress on biogeochemical cycle and soil microorganisms that directly or indirectly affect the crop production. Nutrient uptake, primary productivity, and other biological processes are widely affected by nutrient limitation in terrestrial ecosystems. Nutrient cycling is one of the most important phenomena that occur in an ecosystem. The nutrient cycle represents the use, movement, and recycling of nutrients in the environment. Salt stress has an overall negative effect on carbon cycle which is implemented by its effect on various components of carbon cycle viz. photosynthesis, and microbial decomposers. Oxygen and water cycle or hydrological cycle are two biogeochemical cycles through which oxygen and water moves through biotic and abiotic components of earth and are essential for survival of life.

Plant growth‐promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) are diverse groups of plant‐associated microorganisms, which can reduce the severity or incidence of disease during antagonism among bacteria and soil‐borne pathogens, as well as by influencing a systemic resistance to elicit defense response in host plants. An amalgamation of various strains of PGPR has improved the efficacy by enhancing the systemic resistance opposed to various pathogens affecting the crop. Many PGPR used with seed treatment causes structural improvement of the cell wall and physiological/biochemical changes leading to the synthesis of proteins, peptides, and chemicals occupied in plant defense mechanisms. The major determinants of PGPR‐mediated induced systemic resistance (ISR) are lipopolysaccharides, lipopeptides, siderophores, pyocyanin, antibiotics 2,4‐diacetylphoroglucinol, the volatile 2,3‐butanediol, N‐alkylated benzylamine, and iron‐regulated compounds. Many PGPR inoculants have been commercialized and these inoculants consequently aid in the improvement of crop growth yield and provide effective reinforcement to the crop from disease, whereas other inoculants are used as biofertilizers for native as well as crops growing at diverse extreme habitat and exhibit multifunctional plant growth‐promoting attributes. A number of applications of PGPR formulation are needed to maintain the resistance levels in crop plants. Several microarray‐based studies have been done to identify the genes, which are associated with PGPR‐induced systemic resistance. Identification of these genes associated with ISR‐mediating disease suppression and biochemical changes in the crop plant is one of the essential steps in understanding the disease resistance mechanisms in crops. Therefore, in this review, we discuss the PGPR‐mediated innovative methods, focusing on the mode of action of compounds authorized that may be significant in the development contributing to enhance plant growth, disease resistance, and serve as an efficient bioinoculants for sustainable agriculture. The review also highlights current research progress in this field with a special emphasis on challenges, limitations, and their environmental and economic advantages.

Water contamination by heavy metals is a worldwide issue undermining the whole biosphere and influencing the life of a huge number of individuals around the globe. Not exclusively is water contamination by metals one of the chief worldwide hazard factors for sickness, ailments and death, yet it likewise adds to the nonstop reduction of the accessible drinkable water around the world. These metals are discharged from an assortment of sources such as mining, urban sewage, smelters, tanneries, textile industry and chemical industry. Technologies utilized for their expulsion from aquatic bodies incorporate reverse-osmosis, ion-exchange, electrodialysis, adsorption, etc. Most of these technologies are quite costly, energy intensive and metal specific. These conventional technologies for the expulsion of the dangerous heavy metals are most certainly not practical and further create colossal amount of harmful chemical sludge. Delivering valuable solutions, which are easy to implement and affordable, often remains a challenge. Bioremediation is considered as one of the safer, cleaner, cost effective and promising sustainable approach for heavy metal removal from waste water. The objective of this chapter is to conduct a comprehensive review on different sustainable tools for treating heavy metals present in the water.

In the present report, Obelidium megarhizum Willoughby was isolated, described and illustrated based on morphological traits. The species is mainly recognized by the presence of conspicuous sub-apical spine or barb bearing thin-walled sporan-gium and relatively coarse rhizoidal system. Short description, comments, color photo, and illustration, accompanied by its comparison with other allied taxa of the genus are provided in this paper for this relatively rare species. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first generic record of O. megarhizum outside UK, USA, and Poland.

The beneficial association and interaction of rhizocompetent microorganisms are widely used for plant biofertilization and amelioration of stress-induced damage in plants. To explore the regulatory mechanism involved in plant defense while associating with beneficial microbial species, and their interplay when co-inoculated with pathogens, we evaluated the response of tomato defense-related WRKY gene transcripts. The present study was carried out to examine the qRT–PCR-based relative quantification of differentially expressed defense-related genes in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.; variety S-22) primed with Trichoderma erinaceum against the vascular wilt pathogen (Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. lycopersici). The tissue-specific and time-bound expression profile changes under the four different treatments “(unprimed, Fol challenged, T. erinaceum primed and Fol+ T. erinaceum)” revealed that the highest upregulation was observed in the transcript profile of SlWRKY31 (root) and SlWRKY37 (leaf) in T. erinaceum bioprimed treated plants at 24 h with 16.51- and 14.07-fold increase, respectively. In contrast, SlWRKY4 showed downregulation with the highest repression in T. erinaceum bioprimed root (24 h) and leaf (48 h) tissue samples with 0.03 and 0.08 fold decrease, respectively. Qualitative expression of PR proteins (chitinases and glucanases) was found elicited in T. erinaceum primed plants. However, the antioxidative activity of tomato superoxide dismutase and catalase increased with the highest upregulation of SOD and SlGPX1 in Fol + T. erinaceum treatments. We observed that these expression changes were accompanied by 32.06% lesser H2O2 production in T. erinaceum bioprimed samples. The aggravated defense response in all the treated conditions was also reflected by an increased lignified stem tissues. Overall, we conclude that T. erinaceum bio-priming modulated the defense transcriptome of tomato after the Fol challenged conditions, and were accompanied by enhanced accumulation of defense-related WRKY transcripts, increased antioxidative enzyme activities, and the reinforcements through a higher number of lignified cell layers.