Previously unpublished documents released by former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden confirm that some of the spy agency’s top-secret code has been leaked or hacked, The Intercept reported Friday.
To be directed by national award-winning director Praveen Sattaru, the film `Pullela Gopichand’ will be the first on an Indian badminton player.
P. V.Sindhu went down fighting to Spain’s Carolina Marin in the women’s badminton singles final at the Rio Olympics on Friday, giving India its second medal at the Rio Games and becoming the first Indian woman to win a silver medal at the Olympics.
Bananas – one of the world’s top five staple foods – may become extinct in just five to 10 years due to fast-advancing fungal diseases, scientists have warned.
Researchers at the University of California, Davis discovered how three fungal diseases have evolved into a lethal threat to the world’s bananas.
The discovery better equips researchers to develop hardier, disease-resistant banana plants and more effective disease-prevention treatments.
“We have demonstrated that two of the three most serious banana fungal diseases have become more virulent by increasing their ability to manipulate the banana’s metabolic pathways and make use of its nutrients,” said Ioannis Stergiopoulos, from UC Davis.
“This parallel change in metabolism of the pathogen and the host plant has been overlooked until now and may represent a ‘molecular fingerprint’ of the adaption process,” he said.
The banana is one of the world’s top five staple foods.
About 100 million tonnes of bananas are produced annually in nearly 120 countries.
However, the global banana industry could be wiped out in just five to 10 years by fast-advancing fungal diseases.
That would prove devastating to millions of small-scale farmers who depend on the fruit for food, fibre and income.
Already, Sigatoka – a three-fungus disease complex – reduces banana yields by 40 per cent.
The Sigatoka complex’s three fungal diseases – yellow Sigatoka (Pseudocercospora musae), eumusae leaf spot (Pseudocercospora eumusae) and black Sigatoka (Pseudocercospora figiensis) – emerged as destructive pathogens in just the last century.
Eumusae leaf spot and black Sigatoka are now the most devastating, with black Sigatoka posing the greatest constraint to banana production worldwide.
All commercial “dessert” bananas are of the Cavendish variety and are grown from shoot cuttings.
“The Cavendish banana plants all originated from one plant and so as clones, they all have the same genotype – and that is a recipe for disaster,” Stergiopoulos said, noting that a disease capable of killing one plant could kill them all.
Researchers sequenced the genomes of eumusae leaf spot and black Sigatoka, comparing their findings with the previously sequenced yellow Sigatoka genome sequence.
They discovered that this complex of diseases has become lethal to banana plants not just by shutting down the plant’s immune system but also by adapting the metabolism of the fungi to match that of the host plants.
As a result, the attacking fungi can produce enzymes that break down the plant’s cell walls. This allows the fungi to feed on the plant’s sugars and other carbohydrates.
The research was published in the journal PLOS Genetics.
Renowned sand artist Sudarsan Pattnaik created a sand sculpture at Puri beach of Odisha congratulating badminton player P V Sindhu on winning silver medal in Rio Olympics and also her coach Gopichand.
In the first gesture to fulfil his pledge that he and his wife made last year, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has sold $95 million of the social networking giant’s shares.
Irom Sharmila, who recently ended her fast-unto-death, had a pleasant surprise on Friday when her mother, Sakhi, came to meet her after 16 years.
Two NASA astronauts left the International Space Station on Friday for a 6-1/2-hour spacewalk to install a parking spot for upcoming commercial space taxis, which will end US reliance on Russia for rides to the orbiting outpost. Station commander Jeff Williams and flight engineer Kate Rubins floated outside the station’s airlock at about 8:15 AM EDT (1215 GMT) and headed toward the berthing slip once used by NASA’s now-retired space shuttles, a NASA TV broadcast showed.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday visited annexed Crimea to boost security measures there, just days after accusing Kiev of attempting an armed incursion into the peninsula.