Role of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) in global sustainable development

Mycorrhizal symbiosis is a highly evolved mutually beneficial relationship that exists between Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi (AMF) and most of the vascular plants. The majority of the terrestrial plants form association with Vesicular Arbuscular Mycorrhiza (VAM) or Arbuscular Mycorrhizal fungi (AMF). This symbiosis confers benefits directly to the host plant’s growth and development through the acquisition of Phosphorus (P) and other mineral nutrients from the soil by the AMF. In addition, their function ranges from stress alleviation to bioremediation in soils polluted with heavy metals. They may also enhance the protection of plants against pathogens and increases the plant diversity. This is achieved by the growth of AMF mycelium within the host root (intra radical) and out into the soil (extra radical) beyond. Proper management of Arbuscular Mycorrhizal fungi has the potential to improve the profitability and sustainability of agricultural systems. In this review article, the discussion is restricted to the mycorrhizal benefits and their role in sustainable development

Application of AM Fungi with Bradyrhizobium japonicum in improving growth, nutrient uptake and yield of Vigna radiata L. under saline soil

A pot experiment was conducted under polyhouse conditions, to evaluate the effect of two different arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (G. mosseae and A. laevis) in combination with Bradyrhizobium japonicum on growth and nutrition of mungbean plant grown under different salt stress levels (4 dS m−1, 8dS m−1 and 12 dS m−1). It was found that under saline conditions, mycorrhizal fungi protect the host plant against the detrimental effect of salinity. The AM inoculated plants showed positive effects on plant growth, dry biomass production, chlorophyll content, mineral uptake, electrolyte leakage, proline, protein content and yield of mungbean plants in comparison to non-mycorrhizal ones but the extent of response varied with the increasing level of salinity. In general, the reduction in Na uptake along with associated increase in P, N, K, electrolyte leakage and high proline content were also found to be better in inoculated ones. The overall results demonstrate that the co-inoculation of microbes with AM fungi promotes salinity tolerance by enhancing nutrient acquisition especially phosphorus (P), producing plant growth hormones, improving rhizospheric and condition of soil by altering the physiological and biochemical properties of the mungbean plant

Arbuscular mycorrhizal symbiosis and alleviation of salinity stress

Several environmental factors adversely affect plant growth and development and final yield performance of a crop. Drought, salinity, nutrient imbalances (including mineral toxicities and deficiencies) and extremes of temperature are among the major environmental constraints to crop productivity worldwide. Development of crop plants with stress tolerance, however, requires, among others, knowledge of the physiological mechanisms and genetic controls of the contributing traits at different plant developmental stages. In the past two decades,biotechnology research has provided considerable insights into the mechanism of biotic stress tolerance in plants at the molecular level. Furthermore, different abiotic stress factors may provoke osmotic stress, oxidative stress and protein denaturation in plants, which lead to similar cellular adaptive responses such as accumulation of compatible solutes, induction of stress proteins, and acceleration of reactive oxygen species scavenging systems. Recently, various methods are adapted to improve plant tolerance to salinity injury through either chemical treatments (plant hormones, minerals, amino acids, quaternary ammonium compounds, polyamines and vitamins) or biofertilizers treatments (Asymbiotic nitrogen-fixing bacteria, symbiotic nitrogen-fixing bacteria) or enhanced a process used naturally by plants (mycorrhiza) to minimise the movement of Na+ to the shoot. Proper management of Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi (AMF) has the potential to improve the profitability and sustainability of salt tolerance. In this review article, the discussion is restricted to the mycorrhizal symbiosis and alleviation of salinity stress

Accurate prognosis of Covid-19 using CT scan images with deep learning model and machine learning classifiers

19-24The Covid-19 disease is caused by coronavirus or SARS-CoV-2 has wrecked havoc globally. This epidemic severely impacted the economy of most of the countries across the world and has taken away many lives. To control the pandemic situation many researchers, organizations, and institutes have come up with the pathogenesis and developing vaccines to decimate this disease. Out of the several techniques, one of the techniques use image patterns on Computed Tomography (CT) to detect whether a patient is Covid-19 positive or not. In this work, the SARS-COV-2 dataset has been used for the detection of Covid-19 images and normal images. These dataset images have been fed to various deep learning models for extracting the features and finally passed to various ML classifiers which classify the images as Covid-19 or normal images. The results have established that the VGG19 model along with Logistic Regression (LR) classifier gives the maximum AUC and accuracy of 98.5% and 94.6%

Role of magnetic resonance imaging in evaluation of vault prolapse

Background: Vault prolapse usually follows vaginal or abdominal hysterectomy and is usually associated with cystocele, rectocele and enterocele. Diagnosis is made clinically but magnetic resonance imaging can better detect enterocele than clinical finding. Methods: It was a prospective study over 3 years, so women presenting with vault prolapse, in which grading of vault prolapse was made clinically and by pelvic organ prolapse quantification (POPQ). Magnetic resonance imaging was performed for all cases to quantify prolapse and compare findings of MRI and POPQ with intraoperative findings of prolapse. Results: Mean age, parity, BMI were 58.4 years, 3.5, 22.71kg/m2 respectively. Most patients (75%) had vaginal hysterectomy while 25% had abdominal hysterectomy. Symptoms were pressure in lower abdomen and perineum (55%), bulge and feeling of mass descending in perineum (100%) and chronic constipation (60%). The type of prolapse was cystocele (100%), rectocele (100%), vault prolapse (100%) and enterocele (45%). MRI had agreement with intraoperative findings in 65% cases in cystocele, 45% cases in vault prolapse, 50% in rectocele but had much higher agreement of 88.8% for enterocele. While POPQ had higher agreement with intraoperative findings for cystocele (80%), vault prolapse (98%), rectocele (80%) but had poorer agreement for enterocele (66.6%). Conclusions: This study demonstrated that MRI was inferior in diagnosis of cystocele, rectocele and vault prolapse than POPQ but was superior in identification of enterocele than POPQ

Immunogenicity and safety of live attenuated hepatitis A Vaccine: a multicentric study

Objective: To evaluate immunogenicity and tolerability of single dose live attenuated injectable hepatitis A vaccine in four metropolitan cities of India. Methods: Live attenuated hepatitis A vaccine was administered to 505 children aged 18-60 months in four centers across India. Immunogenicity of the vaccine was assessed by estimation of anti-HAV antibody titer at 6 weeks and 6 months following administration of the vaccine. Safety evaluation of the vaccine was also done during the visits. Results: At 6 weeks, 480 subjects (95%) came for the follow-up and 411 (81.4%) subjects reported at the end of 6 months. The geometric mean titer (GMT) of anti-HAV antibody of the subjects who did not have the seroprotective titer at the baseline were assessed at 6 weeks and 6 months which was 81.04 mIU/ml and 150.66 mIU/ml respectively. At 6 weeks, 95.1% seroconverted and at the end of 6 months, 97.9% had seroconverted. Both solicited and unsolicited vaccine-induced local and systemic adverse events were insignificant at all the centers, except swelling and induration in a few. Conclusion: Live attenuated injectable hepatitis A vaccine was immunogenic and tolerable with minimal reactogenecity, in this study of single dose schedule. Safety profile was also satisfactory in the study population

Acute kidney injury in patients treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors

Background: Immune checkpoint inhibitor-associated acute kidney injury (ICPi-AKI) has emerged as an important toxicity among patients with cancer. Methods: We collected data on 429 patients with ICPi-AKI and 429 control patients who received ICPis contemporaneously but who did not develop ICPi-AKI from 30 sites in 10 countries. Multivariable logistic regression was used to identify predictors of ICPi-AKI and its recovery. A multivariable Cox model was used to estimate the effect of ICPi rechallenge versus no rechallenge on survival following ICPi-AKI. Results: ICPi-AKI occurred at a median of 16 weeks (IQR 8-32) following ICPi initiation. Lower baseline estimated glomerular filtration rate, proton pump inhibitor (PPI) use, and extrarenal immune-related adverse events (irAEs) were each associated with a higher risk of ICPi-AKI. Acute tubulointerstitial nephritis was the most common lesion on kidney biopsy (125/151 biopsied patients [82.7%]). Renal recovery occurred in 276 patients (64.3%) at a median of 7 weeks (IQR 3-10) following ICPi-AKI. Treatment with corticosteroids within 14 days following ICPi-AKI diagnosis was associated with higher odds of renal recovery (adjusted OR 2.64; 95% CI 1.58 to 4.41). Among patients treated with corticosteroids, early initiation of corticosteroids (within 3 days of ICPi-AKI) was associated with a higher odds of renal recovery compared with later initiation (more than 3 days following ICPi-AKI) (adjusted OR 2.09; 95% CI 1.16 to 3.79). Of 121 patients rechallenged, 20 (16.5%) developed recurrent ICPi-AKI. There was no difference in survival among patients rechallenged versus those not rechallenged following ICPi-AKI. Conclusions: Patients who developed ICPi-AKI were more likely to have impaired renal function at baseline, use a PPI, and have extrarenal irAEs. Two-thirds of patients had renal recovery following ICPi-AKI. Treatment with corticosteroids was associated with improved renal recovery

Increasing frailty is associated with higher prevalence and reduced recognition of delirium in older hospitalised inpatients: results of a multi-centre study

Purpose: Delirium is a neuropsychiatric disorder delineated by an acute change in cognition, attention, and consciousness. It is common, particularly in older adults, but poorly recognised. Frailty is the accumulation of deficits conferring an increased risk of adverse outcomes. We set out to determine how severity of frailty, as measured using the CFS, affected delirium rates, and recognition in hospitalised older people in the United Kingdom. Methods: Adults over 65 years were included in an observational multi-centre audit across UK hospitals, two prospective rounds, and one retrospective note review. Clinical Frailty Scale (CFS), delirium status, and 30-day outcomes were recorded. Results: The overall prevalence of delirium was 16.3% (483). Patients with delirium were more frail than patients without delirium (median CFS 6 vs 4). The risk of delirium was greater with increasing frailty [OR 2.9 (1.8–4.6) in CFS 4 vs 1–3; OR 12.4 (6.2–24.5) in CFS 8 vs 1–3]. Higher CFS was associated with reduced recognition of delirium (OR of 0.7 (0.3–1.9) in CFS 4 compared to 0.2 (0.1–0.7) in CFS 8). These risks were both independent of age and dementia. Conclusion: We have demonstrated an incremental increase in risk of delirium with increasing frailty. This has important clinical implications, suggesting that frailty may provide a more nuanced measure of vulnerability to delirium and poor outcomes. However, the most frail patients are least likely to have their delirium diagnosed and there is a significant lack of research into the underlying pathophysiology of both of these common geriatric syndromes

Mass multiplication of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi associated with some leguminous plants: an ecofriendly approach

258-266Plant microbe interactions are interesting events that contribute to sustainable agriculture. The arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi enjoy a mutualistic association between the roots of most plant species and serve as the most common type of biofertilizer. However, production of inoculums is one of the hindrances in the large-scale production of AM fungi. In this context, a pot experiment was performed under polyhouse conditions, to evaluate the effect of chickpea husk as substrate with jowar (Sorghum bicolor), barley (Hordeum vulgare) and wheat (Triticum aestivum) as different host plant on mass multiplication of dominant AM fungi. The results revealed that AM fungal multiplication was significantly influenced by the presence of different concentrations of substrate and different type of the host plants used. Among the different hosts, sorghum showed prominent results pertaining to maximum inoculum production of G. mosseae. Spore numbers tend to increase with period of growth and increase in size of the host plants. Thus, the present study might be highly significant as it suggests an economical as well as eco-friendly species specific highly effective inoculum

Bioassociative effect of rhizospheric microorganisms on growth, nutrient uptake and yield of mung bean (Vigna radiata L. Wilczek)

Nitrogen applications have generated great interests in agriculture, with much of its success associated with increasing the uptake of nitrogen by crops while reducing pollution by this chemical fertilizer. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the interactive effect of rhizospheric microorganisms on nutrient uptake, yield and growth of mung bean grown in pots under glasshouse conditions. The results revealed that the growth, in terms of morphology and physiology, of all the inoculated plants was better than that of the control plants. In terms of growth, plant height, fresh and dry weights and length of the roots plants inoculated with both Funneliformis mosseae + T. viride did best. Total chlorophyll content, alkaline and acidic phosphatase activities were greatest when inoculated with only F. mosseae and fresh and dry weights of shoots when inoculated only with T. viride. Significant increase in N and P uptake was recorded when inoculated with both F. mosseae + T. viride. Overall the significant increase in growth and development was due to positive interactions among rhizospheric microorganisms leading to healthy and vigorously growing plants. However, there is now a need for field trails of this technique