The availability of global satellite‐based precipitation datasets provides an asset to accomplish precipitation dependent analysis where gauge based precipitation datasets are not available or ...limited. In this study, we have taken three most popular and globally accepted satellite‐based daily gridded (0.25° × 0.25°) precipitation datasets such as Climate Hazards Group InfraRed Precipitation with Station data (CHIRPS), Satellite Soil Moisture to Rain (SM2RAIN‐ASCAT) and Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM now available as Global Precipitation Measurement GPM) for 10 years (2007–2016) time‐series durations to test their reliability across India. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) observed daily gridded (0.25° × 0.25°) precipitation data have been taken as reference data to compare the other three satellite‐based gridded precipitation datasets by developing standard extreme precipitation indices (SEPIs). The precipitation extremity has been tested in the wet season (June–July–August–September) and throughout the year. We have also analysed the extreme behaviour of precipitation (in both upper and lower tails) using quantile‐quantile (Q–Q) regression analysis after selecting 33 random precipitation grids across India. The overall analysis results showed that all satellite‐based datasets have significant spatial heterogeneity in estimating precipitation extremes accurately which varies across India. Among all satellite‐precipitation datasets, TRMM found closer to IMD than SM2RAIN‐ASCAT and CHIRPS. The frequency based SEPIs showed that CHIRPS, TRMM and SM2RAIN‐ASCAT have similarities to IMD precipitations. The intensity‐based SEPIs show that TRMM and CHIRPS have significant similarities with IMD precipitations. The wet season‐based analysis results showed that TRMM and CHIRPS are closer to IMD precipitations than SM2RAIN‐ASCAT satellite‐precipitations. Overall TRMM and CHIRPS datasets performed well across most regions in India, while SM2RAIN‐ASCAT dataset has performed poorly in India, especially for extreme precipitation cases. Q–Q plots show that each satellite‐based precipitation dataset captured most of extreme cases in different quantile intervals with respect to IMD precipitation; however, SM2RAIN‐ASCAT has slightly under‐performed at many regions in India.
Flowchart of methodology adopted for this study.
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BFBNIB, FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
Drought indices are used to monitor drought conditions of a region. Various drought indices (DIs) have been proposed in past few decades, but some of those are region specific and have limitations of ...applicability in other climatic conditions. Also, multiple time steps of DIs make it hard to decide that which time step is the best to show the drought condition.
Present study aims to compare Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI), Effective Drought Index (EDI), statistical Z-Score, China Z-Index (CZI), Rainfall Departure (RD), Rainfall Decile based Drought Index (RDDI) for their suitability in drought prone districts of the Ken River Basin, located in central India, where the rainfall is concentrated in the monsoon season (June–September) and frequent occurrence of severe drought events are common. All selected DIs with multiple time steps are applied to compute the severity for five time steps of 1, 3, 6, 9, and 12-month, and compared with each other and EDI.
The study reveals that (1) 1-month time step in all DIs may produce erroneous estimates of drought duration. (2) The drought indices computed for 9-month time step are best correlated with each other. However, the drought duration and the drought frequencies estimated using RD and RDDI are in disagreement with other DIs, therefore, these are not suitable for this area where the summer concentration of precipitation is very high. (3) The DIs are highly correlated at same time steps and can alternatively be used. However, they are poorly correlated at dissimilar time steps, which makes it hard to assess whether the drought occurred or not. (4) Because there are no objective rules to select the appropriate time step, and the identified drought duration varies too much with different time steps, it is very hard again to assess when the drought occurred.
However, EDI, that has self-defined time step in itself, and free from time step problem, (1) is correlated better with other DIs for all time steps and effective on long and short drought together, with highest correlation at 9-month time steps, (2) identifies the drought condition earlier than any other indices, therefore, (3) is found to be more suitable drought index for the study basin. This is in agreement with the result of EDI application in Korea, Japan, Turkey, Australia and Iran though the methods of its testing are different.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
Plantago ovata is an economically and medicinally important plant of the family Plantaginaceae. It is used extensively for the production of seed husk for its application in pharmaceutical, food and ...cosmetic industries. In the present study, the transcriptome of P. ovata ovary was sequenced using Illumina Genome Analyzer platform to characterize the mucilage biosynthesis pathway in the plant. De novo assembly was carried out using Oases followed by velvet. A total of 46,955 non-redundant transcripts (≥100 bp) using ~29 million high-quality paired end reads were generated. Functional categorization of these transcripts revealed the presence of several genes involved in various biological processes like metabolic pathways, mucilage biosynthesis, biosynthesis of secondary metabolites and antioxidants. In addition, simple sequence-repeat motifs, non-coding RNAs and transcription factors were also identified. Expression profiling of some genes involved in mucilage biosynthetic pathway was performed in different tissues of P. ovata using Real time PCR analysis. The study has resulted in a valuable resource for further studies on gene expression, genomics and functional genomics in P. ovata.
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DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
This paper proposes a methodology for assessment of drought vulnerability at spatial and temporal scales using physiographic, climatic and hydrologic factors by integrating relative influence of ...different factors at the scale of hydrologic response units (HRUs). In the proposed methodology, an index termed as “Integrated Drought Vulnerability Index (IDVI)” is devised as an indicator of vulnerability to drought. The SWAT model has been applied to demarcate HRUs and estimation of soil moisture in the study basin. Spatial information of different influencing factors is categorized into various sub-classes, and maps have been prepared using ArcGIS. In this analysis, monthly rainfall departure is considered as climatic factor and Soil Moisture Deficit Index as hydrologic factor. The applicability of the proposed methodology is demonstrated on the Ken River basin, located in the Bundelkhand region in central India. Using the proposed methodology, maps showing spatial distribution of relative vulnerability to drought have been obtained at the level of HRU. The HRUs with higher value of IDVI represent the areas with relatively high degree of vulnerability to drought and vice versa. The maps thus obtained have been validated using the documented information. The present methodology provides better insight for drought mitigation actions.
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EMUNI, FIS, FZAB, GEOZS, GIS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, MFDPS, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, SBMB, SBNM, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, VKSCE, ZAGLJ
Plants are continuously exposed to environmental stresses leading to significant yield losses. With the changing climatic conditions, the intensity and duration of these stresses are expected to ...increase, posing a severe threat to crop productivity worldwide. Male gametogenesis is one of the most sensitive developmental stages. Exposure to environmental stresses during this stage leads to male sterility and yield loss. Elucidating the underlying molecular mechanism of environment-affected male sterility is essential to address this challenge. High-throughput RNA sequencing studies, loss-of-function phenotypes of sRNA biogenesis genes and functional genomics studies with non-coding RNAs have started to unveil the roles of small RNAs, long non-coding RNAs and the complex regulatory interactions between them in regulating male fertility under different growth regimes. Here, we discuss the current understanding of the non-coding RNA-mediated environmental stress surveillance and regulation of male fertility in plants. The candidate ncRNAs emerging from these studies can be leveraged to generate environment-sensitive male sterile lines for hybrid breeding or mitigate the impact of climate change on male fertility, as the situation demands.
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•Male gametogenesis is one of the most susceptible developmental stages to environmental stresses.•LncRNAs, miRNAs and phasiRNAs have recently emerged as key sensors of environmental stresses during male gametogenesis.•Non-coding RNAs have potential to mitigate abiotic stress-mediated male sterility and consequent yield losses in plants.•Non-coding RNAs can be used to generate male sterile lines for hybrid breeding and novel biotechnological applications.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
The field of theranostics is a new nuclear medicine tool being utilized in the treatment of different types of cancers. It couples receptor-specific based imaging predicting and guiding response to ...receptor-specific based radionuclide therapies. For example, somatostatin-receptor based imaging (Gallium; 68Ga-dotatate scan) is now predicting and guiding the use of treatment with the somatostatin-receptor radiolabeled somatostatin analog (peptide receptor radionuclide therapy PRRT – Lutetium; 177Lu-Dotatate) for neuroendocrine tumors that express the somatostatin receptors. The United States Food and Drug Administration approved the use of 177Lu-Dotatate PRRT for somatostatin-receptor-positive gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumors only. Here we show proof of concept and results of an outstanding response to this novel therapy in conjunction with immunotherapy in a refractory cancer type where it has not been approved (Merkel Cell Cancer). Our results and data provide proof of principle for considering the use of this novel therapy in a tumor-agnostic approach; similar to approval of immunotherapy for mismatch repair deficient tumors. The response demonstrated has also been unprecedented, likely secondary to use of PRRT with immunotherapy. These observations have profound and broad implications on how to move this novel field of theranostics forward for treatment of many cancer-types.
Heterogeneity amidst healthy individuals at genomic level is being widely acknowledged. This, in turn, is modulated by differential response to environmental cues and treatment regimens, ...necessitating the need for stratified/personalized therapy. We intend to understand the molecular determinants of Ayurvedic way (ancient Indian system of medicine) of endo-phenotyping individuals into distinct constitution types termed "
which forms the basis of personalized treatment. In this study, we explored and analyzed the healthy human gut microbiome structure within three predominant
groups from a genetically homogenous cohort to discover differentially abundant taxa, using 16S rRNA gene based microbial community profiling. We found Bacteroidetes and Firmicutes as major gut microbial components in varying composition, albeit with similar trend across
. Multiple species of the core microbiome showed differential abundance within
types, with gender specific signature taxons. Our study reveals that despite overall uniform composition of gut microbial community, healthy individuals belonging to different
groups have enrichment of specific bacteria. It highlights the importance of
based endo-phenotypes to explain the variability amongst healthy individuals in gut microbial flora that have important consequences for an individual's health, disease and treatment.
The present study is taken up to test the suitability of SWAT (Soil and Water Assessment Tool) model for estimation of runoff and to understand sensitiveness of model input parameters in a ...predominantly forested watershed in Kumaun region of Himalaya. The study area Dabka is a small watershed (69.41 km
2
) lies in North West of Nainital in Uttarakhand. The SWAT is calibrated at an upstream intermediate gauging site Bagjhala draining approximately an area of 65.78 km
2
on monthly basis due to non-availability of observed data at main outlet. A local sensitivity analysis is performed on 13 input variables in terms of model outputs such as water yield, surface runoff and baseflow to gain in depth understanding of the role of different model parameters for their proper selection. The study concluded that model performed well with Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) value 0.242 for calibration and 0.81 for validation. Nash Sutcliffe Efficiency (NSE) for calibration and validation period is obtained as 0.77 and 0.73 respectively whereas Coefficient of determination (R
2
) for calibration and validation period is 0.86 and 0.90 indicating good model performance. The most sensitive model parameters affecting water yield are CN2, GWQMN and SOL_Z. On the basis of sensitiveness of model parameters, the ranking of most sensitive parameters from highest sensitive to relatively lesser sensitiveness on stream flow are CN2, SOL_K and SOL_AWC whereas for base flow SOL_AWC, SOL_Z and GWQMN are found to be more sensitive followed by CN2, ESCO and SOL_K.
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CEKLJ, EMUNI, FIS, FZAB, GEOZS, GIS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, MFDPS, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, SBMB, SBNM, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, VKSCE, ZAGLJ
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