Sumita Sen | Cornell University (original) (raw)

Papers by Sumita Sen

HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe), 2011

African Journal of Agricultural Research, Mar 24, 2016

For photosynthesizing plants, studies on the effect of different levels of Nitrogen on chlorophyl... more For photosynthesizing plants, studies on the effect of different levels of Nitrogen on chlorophyll could let us know about the overall physiological status of the plant under different environmental conditions. Objective of our study was to understand if there was any difference among the ten recombinant inbred lines (RILs) of IBM population and their parents B73 and Mo17 for chlorophyll content and dry matter accumulation in their response to the N stress. Five IBM genotypes that carry predominantly B73 alleles and five IBM genotypes that carry Mo17 alleles at 5 quantitative trait loci (QTL) regions associated with root traits and N use efficiency from the published Maize Genome Database were evaluated in this study along with their parents. Plants were grown in the Guterman Green House (Cornell University, USA). Two nitrogen treatments (solution with high N contained 65.79 g Ca (NO3)2 4H2O in 100L of 1X solution making 5.0mM NO3 and solution with low N contained 2.63 g Ca (NO3)2 4H2O in 100L of 1X solution making 0.2 mM NO3) were given. Plant traits like leaf dry weight, stalk dry weight and root dry weight were observed. Chlorophyll content was estimated to measure the effect of different N levels on photosynthetic activity. Genotype with high in B73 composition had relative advantage over Mo17 in chlorophyll content, and dry weight of roots under low N condition. The highest root-shoot ratio under low and high N was observed in IBM056 and IBM153 respectively. Except for IBM153 and IBM337, all other genotypes showed reduced LFS at high N. The result showing lower root-shoot ratio and leaf fraction of shoot (LFS) under the high N treatment suggests that shoot growth increases more than root growth in response to increased N application and that within the shoot, stem growth increases more than leaf growth. Results support the conclusion that under low N condition, shoot growth is retarded than root growth.

Agricultural Reviews, 2012

The increased population pressure has led to the maximum use of chemical fertilizers especially i... more The increased population pressure has led to the maximum use of chemical fertilizers especially in the major crops such as rice, wheat and maize production. In the United States, excess application of nitrate-nitrogen in maize cultivation is becoming a major issue because of increased ground water contamination. The nitrogen used by the maize plant is very low; often most of the applied nitrogen is lost through leaching. Root traits, amount of nitrogen present in the soil, soil pH, competition for available nitrogen between the weed and crop plant are challenges in improving nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) in maize breeding program. Effective root system is important in breeding maize for NUE as it is the root system that takes up nutrients from the soil and can help prevent leaching of nitrogen. The trait – NUE often becomes a limiting factor due to low frequency of NUE alleles in maize. Identifying genotypes with efficient root system and improved NUE for developing suitable hybrids would reduce yield loss in maize. It will also have positive effect on the environment by lowering down the excessive nitrogenous fertilizer application.

Asian Journal of Plant Science & Research, 2015

Salt stress makes the agricultural lands unproductive and is an obstacle towards obtaining higher... more Salt stress makes the agricultural lands unproductive and is an obstacle towards obtaining higher crop yield. To investigate the physiological and biochemical basis of salt stress adaptation in rice plants due to inoculation with plant growth promoting bacteria, two rice genotypes namely ADT43 and IR50 treated with Plant Growth Promoting Rhizobacteria (PGPR Pseudomonas strains PF1 and TDK1) were subjected to 100mM sodium chloride (NaCl), following International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) method in NLC Laboratory of Department of Crop Physiology of Tamil Nadu Agricultural University. Results of our study indicate that enzymatic activities (peroxidase, catalase and nitrate reductase) required to alleviate salt stress were much higher in the plants treated with plant growth promoting rhizobacteria strains PF1 and TDK1 compared to the plants with no external treatment. Among all the treatments ADT43 treated with TDK1 showed the best performance with high enzymatic activities. Phytor...

Asian Journal of Plant Science & Research, 2013

Asian Journal of Plant Science & Research, 2014

Large areas of the world are not usable from the agricultural perspective due to the constraints ... more Large areas of the world are not usable from the agricultural perspective due to the constraints posed by nature and human activities making the soil less or unproductive. Soil salinity is a major abiotic stress worldwide. The development of salt-tolerant crops is not always an economical approach for sustainable agriculture, whereas microbial inoculation to alleviate salt stress is a better option because it minimizes production costs and environmental hazards. Plant Growth Promoting Rhizobacteria (PGPR) have been indicated as efficient growth enhancer of crop plants and the growth promoting effect under stress conditions has also been suggested to be beneficial for crop production. In this study two rice genotypes ADT43 and IR50 treated with PGPR (Pseudomonas strains PF1 and TDK1) were subjected to 100mM NaCl, following IRRI method under laboratory environment. The salt stress symptoms included stunted growth, poor root growth and the leaves from the tip turned to white. The resul...

Nitrogen deficiency causes significant reduction in yield in maize. The objectives of present stu... more Nitrogen deficiency causes significant reduction in yield in maize. The objectives of present study was to evaluate the performance of various shoot traits in selected maize genotypes for tolerance to low nitrogen stress and to understand the morphological changes that take place in the plants under nitrogen stress condition. The intermated B73-Mo17 (IBM) recombinant inbred lines were used, because the parents differ in response to nitrogen stress while the recombinant inbred lines have been thoroughly genotyped. Ten IBM genotypes from the published Maize Genome Database database were evaluated in this study along with their parents B73 and Mo17. Plants were grown in Guterman Green House of Cornell University, USA. Two nitrogen treatments (solution with high N contained 65.79 g Ca (NO3)2 4H2O in 100L of 1X solution making 5.0mM NO3 and solution with low N contained 2.63 g Ca (NO3)2 4H2O in 100L of 1X solution making 0.2 mM NO3) were given to understand the effect of different nitrogen levels. Genotypes were a significant source of variation for all leaf traits except leaf width. Genotype by nitrogen treatment interaction was significant for shoot length and stalk length. Most of the IBM RILs performed better than the parents in terms of stalk length at low N. Parent B73 had longer leaf length (at low N) and shoot length (at both N levels) than Mo17, indicating that in B73, photoassimilates were transferred towards the development of leaves rather than towards stalk elongation (stalk length was similar for B73 and Mo17 at low N). IBM284 had the highest shoot length under both low and high nitrogen conditions. IBM337 had relatively long stems at low nitrogen but responded very little to additional N and thus had the shortest stems at high N compared to other genotypes. The parents B73 and Mo17 had positive effect on inheritance of stress tolerance as genotypes with high B73 composition performed as good as the parent B73 for all shoot traits except the leaf width.

Large areas of the world are not usable from the agricultural perspective due to the constraints ... more Large areas of the world are not usable from the agricultural perspective due to the constraints posed by nature and
human activities making the soil less or unproductive. Soil salinity is a major abiotic stress worldwide. The
development of salt-tolerant crops is not always an economical approach for sustainable agriculture, whereas
microbial inoculation to alleviate salt stress is a better option because it minimizes production costs and
environmental hazards. Plant Growth Promoting Rhizobacteria (PGPR) have been indicated as efficient growth
enhancer of crop plants and the growth promoting effect under stress conditions has also been suggested to be
beneficial for crop production. In this study two rice genotypes ADT43 and IR50 treated with PGPR (Pseudomonas
strains PF1 and TDK1) were subjected to 100mM NaCl, following IRRI method under laboratory environment. The
salt stress symptoms included stunted growth, poor root growth and the leaves from the tip turned to white. The
results of the experiment indicated that the plant height, root length, dry weight of shoot and root were significantly
increased due to Pseudomonas strain treatment even under salt stress whereas the plants grown without any
treatment had less growth. ADT43 genotype treated with Pseudomonas strain TDK1 recorded better plant
development under salt stress.

Abiotic stress such as low nitrogen content present in the soil is responsible for reduced yields... more Abiotic stress such as low nitrogen content present in the soil is responsible for reduced yields throughout the world. Plant breeders aim to develop plants that can adapt to such environments. There is a need for more efficient root systems tolerant to an array of abiotic stresses. The objective of this study was to assess the root systems of 10 maize intermated B73-Mo17 (IBM) genotypes and their parents B73 and Mo17 for their growth and morphology and their response to low nitrogen. The aim was to test the hypothesis that published QTL regions related to root traits and nitrogen use efficiency could be used to select recombinant inbred lines (RILs) that would differ in their response to nitrogen stress based on which parental background predominated at these QTL regions. Ten IBM genotypes from the published Maize Genome Database were evaluated in this study along with their parents B73 and Mo17. Five IBM genotypes were chosen that carry predominantly B73 alleles at five quantitative trait loci (QTL) regions associated with root traits and nitrogen use efficiency and five genotypes were chosen that carried predominantly Mo17 alleles in these regions. Plants were grown in Guterman Green House of Cornell University, USA. Two nitrogen treatments (low and high) were given to note the effect of different nitrogen levels. Plants were grown and nitrogen stress symptoms were observed over time. Various root traits like root length, branching, adventitious roots, lateral roots, primary root length, and root dry weight were observed. Results showed that nitrogen treatment variation was significant for all traits measured except root length and numbers of adventitious, lateral, and primary roots. Genotype by nitrogen treatment interaction was significant for root dry weight. At high nitrogen, IBM189 showed the highest value of root dry weight and IBM337 had the lowest value. Based on the root dry weight under low nitrogen condition, the genotypes were classified into three categories: susceptible, moderate and resistant. Significant groupings from the most susceptible to most resistant were: Mo17, IBM337, IBM189, IBM248, IBM280=IBM153, IBM055=B73, IBM346, IBM284, IBM236, IBM056. A relationship between root length and nitrogen stress resistance was not found in this study. Genotype with high in B73 composition had relative advantage over Mo17 in dry weight of roots under low nitrogen condition. It is relatively difficult to measure the effect of nitrogen levels on various root traits.

HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe), 2011

African Journal of Agricultural Research, Mar 24, 2016

Agricultural Reviews, 2012

Asian Journal of Plant Science & Research, 2015

Asian Journal of Plant Science & Research, 2013

Asian Journal of Plant Science & Research, 2014

Large areas of the world are not usable from the agricultural perspective due to the constraints ... more Large areas of the world are not usable from the agricultural perspective due to the constraints posed by nature and
human activities making the soil less or unproductive. Soil salinity is a major abiotic stress worldwide. The
development of salt-tolerant crops is not always an economical approach for sustainable agriculture, whereas
microbial inoculation to alleviate salt stress is a better option because it minimizes production costs and
environmental hazards. Plant Growth Promoting Rhizobacteria (PGPR) have been indicated as efficient growth
enhancer of crop plants and the growth promoting effect under stress conditions has also been suggested to be
beneficial for crop production. In this study two rice genotypes ADT43 and IR50 treated with PGPR (Pseudomonas
strains PF1 and TDK1) were subjected to 100mM NaCl, following IRRI method under laboratory environment. The
salt stress symptoms included stunted growth, poor root growth and the leaves from the tip turned to white. The
results of the experiment indicated that the plant height, root length, dry weight of shoot and root were significantly
increased due to Pseudomonas strain treatment even under salt stress whereas the plants grown without any
treatment had less growth. ADT43 genotype treated with Pseudomonas strain TDK1 recorded better plant
development under salt stress.