Hot pepper (Capsicum annum L.) is a major spice crop and is used worldwide for its nutritional value. In the field, its plant is susceptible to various fungal diseases, including fusarium wilt, caused by soil-borne fungus Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. capsici, which can survive in the soil for several years. The infected plant can be recognized by the yellowing of older leaves and downward curling of apical shoots, followed by plant wilting and ultimately the death of the plant. The resistance mechanism in plants is controlled by a single dominant gene, and conventional plant breeding techniques are used to develop a wilt-resistant germplasm. Non-conventional techniques such as gene pyramiding and expression enhancement of antifungal genes could be used to shorten the time to develop resistance against fusarium wilt in hot peppers. In this review, we discuss different aspects of the disease and the molecular basis of resistance in chili/hot pepper plants. Furthermore, this review covers the scope of conventional and non-conventional breeding strategies and different management approaches used to tackle the disease.

Populus trichocarpa (Black cottonwood) is a dominant timber-yielding tree that has become a notable model plant for genome-level insights in forest trees. The efficient transport and solubility of various glycoside-associated compounds is linked to Family-1 UDP-glycosyltransferase (EC 2.4.1.x; UGTs) enzymes. These glycosyltransferase enzymes play a vital role in diverse plant functions, such as regulation of hormonal homeostasis, growth and development (seed, flower, fiber, root, etc.), xenobiotic detoxification, stress response (salt, drought, and oxidative), and biosynthesis of secondary metabolites. Here, we report a genome-wide analysis of the P. trichocarpa genome that identified 191 putative UGTs distributed across all chromosomes (with the exception of chromosome 20) based on 44 conserved plant secondary product glycosyltransferase (PSPG) motif amino acid sequences. Phylogenetic analysis of the 191 Populus UGTs together with 22 referenced UGTs from Arabidopsis and maize clustered the putative UGTs into 16 major groups (A–P). Whole-genome duplication events were the dominant pattern of duplication among UGTs in Populus. A well-conserved intron insertion was detected in most intron-containing UGTs across eight examined eudicots, including Populus. Most of the UGT genes were found preferentially expressed in leaf and root tissues in general. The regulation of putative UGT expression in response to drought, salt and heat stress was observed based on microarray and available RNA sequencing datasets. Up- and down-regulated UGT expression models were designed, based on transcripts per kilobase million values, confirmed their maximally varied expression under drought, salt and heat stresses. Co-expression networking of putative UGTs indicated their maximum co-expression with cytochrome P450 genes involved in triterpenoid biosynthesis. Our results provide an important resource for the identification of functional UGT genes to manipulate abiotic stress responsive glycosylation in Populus.

The regeneration of the high-yielding multilocular types has not been attempted, although successful regeneration and transformation in brassica have been done. Here, we report efficient regeneration and transformation protocols for two B. rapa genotypes; UAF11 and Toria. The B. rapa cv UAF11 is a multilocular, non-shattering, and high-yielding genotype, while Toria is the bilocular type. For UAF11 8 shoots and for Toria 7 shoots, explants were observed on MS supplemented with 3 mg/L BAP + 0.4 mg/L NAA + 0.01 mg/L GA₃ + 5 mg/L AgNO₃ + 0.75 mg/L Potassium Iodide (KI), MS salt supplemented with 1 mg/L IBA and 0.37 mg/L KI produced an equal number of roots (3) in UAF11 and Toria. For the establishment of transformation protocols, Agrobacterium-mediated floral dip transformation was attempted using different induction media, infection time, and flower stages. The induction medium III yielded a maximum of 7.2% transformants on half-opened flowers and 5.2% transformants on fully opened flowers in UAF11 and Toria, respectively, with 15 min of inoculation. This study would provide the basis for the improvement of tissue culture and transformation protocols in multilocular and bilocular Brassica genotypes.