Technologies are changing radically; different organizations and institutions are using various core, allied technologies to make the things, systems, services, and product easier. The development of computing and information technology is changing massively; and as far as agriculture sector is concerned it is also increased in recent past. There are various technologies and systems in respect of agricultural promotion and development. Information technology is dedicated in information related activities in agriculture and allied activities. There are many reasons for the uses of IT and Computing in the Agriculture, namely, huge amount of crops, plants and agricultural product requirement, speed, disease detection, sustainable development promotion, and quality enhancement of agricultural products. Artificial intelligence (AI) powered solutions helps agricultural systems to do more in all sorts with less and further it helps in developing the quality of agro products and ensures faster go-to-market for crops. The complete agriculture landscape been changed by AI and there are many potentialities in regard to the applications of AI and allied technologies, namely, drone-based image processing and precision farming landscape. Different organizations, institutions associated with the agriculture are doing efforts on technological integration and especially AI due to its wider benefits. This paper is theoretical one and talks about the basics of AI and Robotics, Agricultural Informatics and specially applications of AI and Robotics in Agriculture and similar activities.

Bacillus licheniformis YdaP gene encodes for pyruvate oxidase (EC: 1.2.3.3), a key enzyme which catalyzes the oxidative decarboxylation of pyruvate into acetate and CO2. The objective of this study is to predict the YdaP protein structure, by comparison with known X-ray structures and using bioinformatics tools. The three-dimensional model structure of the B. licheniformis YdaP enzyme was constructed using the sequence of L. plantarum POX as the template. The model structure of B. licheniformis YdaP showed positional conservation

of amino acid residues Asp313 and Ala314, compared with other members of the pyruvate oxidase family. The model structure of B. licheniformis YdaP showed that residues Met466, Ile467 and Glu470 were located on an α-helix connecting to loops in the active cavity. These residues are presumably critical for the catalytic activity of pyruvate oxidases, and have been proposed to be involved in substrate binding. The overall topology of the B. licheniformis YdaP was similar to known pyruvate oxidase crystal structures. The structure of the ThDP motif was identical to that found in the other pyruvate oxidases. However, analysis of the substrate binding cavity showed one major difference. Bulky hydrophobic amino acid residues Tyr469, His476 and Tyr479 formed part of active site cavity. In L. plantarum POX, these correspond to amino acid residues Trp479, Ile480 and Glu483. This observation suggested that these residues would negatively influence the accessibility of large substrates (e.g., aromatic) into the catalytic center. This information may assist in studies aimed at engineering the catalytic active site of the enzyme to improve accessibility of larger substrates to the active site.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are non-coding RNA molecules, very short in size approximately 18–22 nucleotide long. The miRNAs play a very significant role in the growth and development of plants. They are also reported to be stress responsive and thereby help in maintaining homeostasis inside plants system. Mangrove is ecologically as well as economically very important an ecosystem, growing in the tropical and sub-tropical estuaries. But various natural phenomena such as global warming, sea-level rise, and salinity rise have proven to be catastrophic for this vegetation and some species are getting depleted at an alarming level. In that context, it would be of immense importance, to study the role of these miRNAs in regulating homeostasis in the mangroves. In this present study, we have identified four stress-induced miRNAs – ra-miR11103, ra-miR1134, ra-miR166h, and ra-miR5206 from a profusely growing mangrove species Rhizophora apiculata. The predicted target sequences, all of these found out majorly to be proteins and enzymes responsible for abiotic stress tolerance in plants, except for ra-miR1134 which included both biotic as well as abiotic. This result definitely points toward the regulatory role of the miRNAs toward maintaining cellular homeostasis. Experimental validation and molecular characterization of these miRNAs might provide important insights about their role in combating biotic and abiotic stress, which when compared with the plants which are on the verge of extinction might provide information useful for understanding the exact reason of their distressed nature, which, in turn, would be immensely helpful for planning the proper conservation of those plant species.

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-Cov-2) is the pathogen that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). As of October 31, 2020, the outbreak of COVID-19 has caused 1,201,902 deaths around the world including 122,000 in India. The current evidence showed that severely ill patients tend to have a high concentration of pro-inflammatory cytokines, such as interleukin (IL)-6, compared to those who are moderately ill. Besides, excessive infiltration of pro-inflammatory cells, mainly involving macrophages and T-helper 17 cells, has been found in lung tissues of patients with COVID-19 by postmortem examination. Recently, increasing studies indicate that the “cytokine storm” may contribute to the mortality of COVID-19. This review focuses on the cytokine storm (CS) in the context of infection, with particular emphasis on respiratory viruses and shows that SARS-Cov-2 selectively induces a high level of IL-6

and results in the exhaustion of lymphocytes. It is also highlighted how high-throughput genomic methods are revealing new insights into the CS. Finally, how current evidence indicates that Tocilizumab, an IL-6 inhibitor, is relatively effective and safe, besides corticosteroids,programmed cell death protein (PD)-1/PD-L1 checkpoint inhibition, cytokine-adsorption devices, intravenous immunoglobulin, and antimalarial agents could be potentially useful are also discussed.