Genetic Relationship in Tea Germplasms with Drought Contrasting Traits

( Sagarika Das ),( Afruza Zaman ),( Sangeeta Borchetia ),( Madhurjya Gogoi ),( Pritom Chowdhury ),( Jayanta Saikia ),( Hemanta Saikia ),( Buddhadeb Das ),( Tarun Sen Barman ),( Tanoy Bandyopadhyay ) 한국육종학회 2016 Plant Breeding and Biotechnology Vol.4 No.4

The objective of this study is to correlate the genetic diversity among tea cultivars with drought tolerance/susceptibility on the basis of morphological, physiological and molecular markers. Twelve highly polymorphic inter simple sequence repeat primers targeting the tea dinucleotide repeats predominantly present in drought stressed transcripts were used to screen out the germplasms into two groups showing drought tolerance and susceptible characteristic with polymorphic information content of 0.3. A similarity index of 0.58 was observed among the cultivars. Morpho-physiological diversity among the cultivars was studied using eighteen morphological and two physiological markers. Correlation studies showed significant association between the ranks of the morpho-physiological distances and molecular genetic distances at P=0.05%. The dinucleotide repeats targeted along with morpho-physiological correlation can be used in tea breeding for drought tolerance as the markers are in sync with the long term field trials based on which the plants were classified for drought trait.

Extending Application of the 'Hardcore' Definition to Smokeless Tobacco Use: Estimates from a Nationally Representative Population in India and its Implications

Jena, Pratap Kumar,Bandyopadhyay, Chandan,Mathur, Manu Raj,Das, Sagarika Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2012 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.13 No.12

Background: The term 'hardcore' has been applied to use of smoking tobacco and generally referred to as the inability or unwillingness of regular smokers to quit. The component constructs of hardcore except nicotine dependence are product neutral. With the use of 'time to first chew' as a measure of nicotine dependence, hardcore definition can be extended to characterize smokeless tobacco users. Hardcore users respond less to tobacco cessation interventions, and are prone to tobacco induced diseases including cancer. Thus identifying hardcore users would help in estimate the burden of high risk population for tobacco induced diseases. Smokeless tobacco use is predominant and accounts for more than 50% of oral cancer in India. Hence, hardcore chewing information could be used for planning of tobacco and cancer control interventions. The objective of this study was to assess the prevalence and associated factors of hardcore smokeless tobacco use in India. Materials and Methods: Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS)-India 2010 data were analyzed to quantify hardcore smokeless tobacco use in India with following five criteria: (1) current daily smokeless tobacco use; (2) no quit attempt in the past 12 months of survey or last quit attempt of less than 24 hours duration; (3) no intention to quit in next 12 months or not interested in quitting; (4) time to first use of smokeless tobacco product within 30 minutes of waking up; and (5) knowledge of smokeless tobacco hazards. Results: The number of hardcore smokeless tobacco users among adult Indians is estimated to be 5% (39.5 million). This group comprises 23.2% of daily smokeless tobacco users. The population prevalence varied from 1.4-9.1% across different national regions of India. Logistic regression modeling indicated age, education and employment status to be the major predictors of hardcore smokeless tobacco use in India. Conclusions: The presence of a huge number (39.5 million) of hardcore smokeless tobacco users is a challenge to tobacco control and cancer prevention in India. There is an unmet need for a universal tobacco cessation programme and intensification of anti-tobacco education in communities.

Hardcore Smoking in Three South-East Asian Countries: Results from the Global Adult Tobacco Survey

Kishore, Jugal,Jena, Pratap Kumar,Bandyopadhyay, Chandan,Swain, Monali,Das, Sagarika,Banerjee, Indrani Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2013 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.14 No.2

Background: Hardcore smoking is represented by a subset of daily smokers with high nicotine dependence, inability to quit and unwillingness to quit. Estimating the related burden could help us in identifying a high risk population prone to tobacco induced diseases and improve cessation planning for them. This study assessed the prevalence and associated factors of hardcore smoking in three South-East Asian countries and discussed its implication for smoking cessation intervention in this region. Materials and Methods: Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS) data of India, Bangladesh and Thailand were analyzed to quantify the hardcore smoking prevalence in the region. On the basis of review, an operational definition of hardcore smoking was adopted that includes (1) current daily smoker, (2) no quit attempt in the past 12 months of survey or last quit attempt of less than 24 hours duration, (3) no intention to quit in next 12 months or not interested in quitting, (4) time to first smoke within 30 minutes of waking up, and (5) knowledge of smoking hazards. Logistic regression analysis was carried out using hardcore smoking status as response variable and gender, type of residence, occupation, education, wealth index and age-group as possible predictors. Results: There were 31.3 million hardcore smokers in the three Asian countries. The adult prevalence of hardcore smoking in these countries ranges between 3.1% in India to 6% in Thailand. These hardcore smokers constitute 18.3-29.7% of daily smokers. The logistic regression model indicated that age, gender, occupation and wealth index are the major predictors of hardcore smoking with varied influence across countries. Conclusions: Presence of a higher number of hardcore smoking populations in Asia is a major public health challenge for tobacco control and cancer prevention. There is need of intensive cessation interventions with due consideration of contextual predictors.

Tobacco Use and Quit Behaviour Assessment in the Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS): Invalid Responses and Implications

Jena, Pratap Kumar,Kishore, Jugal,Pati, Sanghamitra,Sarkar, Bidyut Kanti,Das, Sagarika Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2013 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.14 No.11

Background: Tobacco use and quit attempts are two key indicators of the Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS) that assess quit attempts among current as well as former tobacco users. The relevant data have inherent policy implications for tobacco cessation programme evaluation. This study aimed to review the concepts of quit attempt assessment and quantifying invalid responses considering GATS-India data. Materials and Methods: GATS assessment of tobacco use and quit attempts were examined in the current literature. Two categories of invalid responses were identified by stratified analysis of the duration of last quit attempt among current users and duration of abstinence among former users. Category A included absolute invalid responses when time-frame of assessment of current tobacco use and less than former tobacco use were violated. Category B included responses that violated the unit of measurement of time. Results: Current daily use, current less than daily use and former use in GATS were imprecisely defined with overlapping of time-frame of assessment. Overall responses of 3,102 current smokers, 4,036 current smokeless users, 1,904 former smokers and 1,343 former smokeless users were analyzed to quantify invalid responses. Analysis indicated overall 21.2% (category A: 7.32%; category B: 17.7%) and 22.7% (category A: 8.05%; category B: 18.1%) invalid responses among current smokers and smokeless users respectively regarding their duration of last quit attempt. Similarly overall 6.62% (category A: 4.7%; category B: 2.3%) and 10.6% (category A: 8.6%; category B: 3.5%) invalid responses were identified among former smokers and smokeless users respectively regarding their duration of abstinence. Conclusions: High invalid responses for a single assessment are due to the imprecise definition of current use, former use and quit attempt; and failure to utilize opportunity of direct data entry interface use during the survey to validate responses instantly. Redefining tobacco use and quit attempts considering an appropriate timeframe would reduce invalid responses.