Status and conservation of avian fauna of Sultanpur National Park Gurgaon, Haryana (India)

The present study was conducted in Sultanpur National Park Gurgaon, Haryana (India) from February, 2011 to January, 2012 to analyze the avian diversity along with its status and abundance. During the study period, a total of 113 species of birds belonging to 14 orders, 35 families and 80 genera were identified. Maximum 41 species belonging to 12 families of order Passeriformes represented 36.28% of the total identified avian fauna while Podicipediformes and Strigiformes were the least represented avian orders (0.88%) with one species each,namely, Little Grebe, Tachybaptus ruficollis and Spotted Owlet, Athene brama respectively. Out of total reported 113 species, 64 were ‘resident’ species and 49 were ‘migrant’ species. Most of the migratory species were winter visitors except Red throated flycatcher, Ficedula parva; Orange Headed Thrush, Zoothera citrine and Eurasian Golden Oriole, Oriolus oriolus which were summer visitors. In all, 42 species were ‘common’, 33 species were ‘uncommon’ and 38 species were ‘occasional’ bird species. Based on sighting, White Breasted Kingfisher, Halcyonsmyrnensis; White Breasted Water Hen, Amaurornis phoenicurus; Common Moorhen, Gallinule chloropus; Black Wing Stilt, Himantopus himantopus; Red Wattled lapwing, Vanellus indicus; Cattle Egret, Bubulcus ibis and Indian Pond Heron, Ardeola grayii were common wetland bird species of Sultanpur National Park while Pied king fisher, Ceryle rudis and Coppersmith Barbet, Megalaima haemacephala were ‘rarely sighted’ bird species. During the study period, 7 ‘globally threatened’ species, namely, Painted Stork, Mycteria leucocephala; Black neck Stork, Ephippiorhynchus asiaticus; Black headed Ibis, Threskiornis melanocephalus; Darter, Anhinga melanogaster; Pacific Reef Egret, Egretta sacra; Sarus Crane, Grus antigone alongwith Hogson bushchat, Saxicola insignis were also recorded from the study area

Clinical comparison between femoral transfixation and bioscrew fixation using hamstring tendon graft for ACL reconstruction

Background: One of the popular graft choices for ACL reconstruction have been Hamstrings tendon autograft. There is no consensus on the ideal technique of fixation of hamstrings graft to femoral condyle. Theoretically we hypothesized that transfixation method of hamstrings graft fixation to femoral condyle should be superior to bio-interference screw fixation technique. Hence aim of our study is to compare this two fixation methods of hamstrings autografts clinically.Methods: 50 clinically and radiologically proven ACL deficient fighting soldiers are selected for the study. In group A; 25 patients underwent ACL reconstruction with Bioscrew using aperture technique on femoral side. Other 25 patients in group B underwent ACL reconstruction with transfixation screw using cortico-cancellous fixation technique on femoral side. In both groups quadrupled semitendinosus autograft is utilized. All the patients evaluated for functional outcome at the end of 6 weeks and at 6 months and at the end of 1 year following the procedure. The subjects are evaluated using the modified Lysholm knee score and knee laxity is measured by Rolimeter.Results: At 01 year post op. there was no statistically significant difference in both groups in terms of Manual laity tests,Rollimeter laity measurement and Lysholm knee score.The overall satisfactory result (Excellent + Good) in both the groups at 01 year follow up were 98% by Lysholm score.Conclusions: Transfixation and Bioscrew fixation showed comparable results in manual knee laxity tests, instrumental knee laxity tests using Rolimeter, Lyslohm scores and high patient satisfaction, with almost 96% of patients in both groups returned to their pre-injury levels.

Metabolomics-Driven Mining of Metabolite Resources:Applications and Prospects for Improving Vegetable Crops

Vegetable crops possess a prominent nutri-metabolite pool that not only contributes to the crop performance in the fields, but also offers nutritional security for humans. In the pursuit of identifying, quantifying and functionally characterizing the cellular metabolome pool, biomolecule separation technologies, data acquisition platforms, chemical libraries, bioinformatics tools, databases and visualization techniques have come to play significant role. High-throughput metabolomics unravels structurally diverse nutrition-rich metabolites and their entangled interactions in vegetable plants. It has helped to link identified phytometabolites with unique phenotypic traits, nutri-functional characters, defense mechanisms and crop productivity. In this study, we explore mining diverse metabolites, localizing cellular metabolic pathways, classifying functional biomolecules and establishing linkages between metabolic fluxes and genomic regulations, using comprehensive metabolomics deciphers of the plant’s performance in the environment. We discuss exemplary reports covering the implications of metabolomics, addressing metabolic changes in vegetable plants during crop domestication, stage-dependent growth, fruit development, nutri-metabolic capabilities, climatic impacts, plant-microbe-pest interactions and anthropogenic activities. Efforts leading to identify biomarker metabolites, candidate proteins and the genes responsible for plant health, defense mechanisms and nutri-rich crop produce are documented. With the insights on metabolite-QTL (mQTL) driven genetic architecture, molecular breeding in vegetable crops can be revolutionized for developing better nutritional capabilities, improved tolerance against diseases/pests and enhanced climate resilience in plants

Identification of heterotic groups in South-Asian-bred hybrid parents of pearl millet

Five hundred and eighty hybrid parents, 320 R- and 260 B-lines, derived from 6 pearl millet breeding programs in India, genotyped following RAD-GBS (about 0.9 million SNPs) clustered into 12 R- and 7 B-line groups. With few exceptions, hybrid parents of all the breeding programs were found distributed across all the marker-based groups suggesting good diversity in these programs. Three hundred and twenty hybrids generated using 37 (22 R and 15 B) representative parents, evaluated for grain yield at four locations in India, showed significant differences in yield, heterosis, and combining ability. Across all the hybrids, mean mid- and better-parent heterosis for grain yield was 84.0% and 60.5%, respectively. Groups G12 B × G12 R and G10 B × G12 R had highest heterosis of about 10% over best check hybrid Pioneer 86M86. The parents involved in heterotic hybrids were mainly from the groups G4R, G10B, G12B, G12R, and G13B. Based on the heterotic performance and combining ability of groups, 2 B-line (HGB-1 and HGB-2) and 2 R-line (HGR-1 and HGR-2) heterotic groups were identified. Hybrids from HGB-1 × HGR-1 and HGB-2 × HGR-1 showed grain yield heterosis of 10.6 and 9.3%, respectively, over best hybrid check. Results indicated that parental groups can be formed first by molecular markers, which may not predict the best hybrid combination, but it can reveal a practical value of assigning existing and new hybrid pearl millet parental lines into heterotic groups to develop high-yielding hybrids from the different heterotic groups

Characterization of acaricide resistance in tick isolates collected from Rajasthan, India

      Rhipicephalus (Boophilus) microplus and Hyalomma anatolicum are the most common tick species infesting milk and meat producing animals throughout the country. The present study was conducted to evaluate the acaricide resistance status of the tick species to deltamethrin, cypermethrin, diazinon collected from 10 districts of Rajasthan. Characterization of resistance was carried out by adult immersion test (AIT) and larval packet test (LPT). In case of (B.) microplus resistance to deltamethrin at level I (RF = 2.5 – 4.9) in 02 isolates, at level II in 03 isolates (RF = 5.4 – 11.5) and level IV in 02 isolates (RF = 48.1 – 95.7) was detected. The resistance to cypermethrin was detected in 08 isolates of which resistance at level I in 03 isolates (RF = 2.7 - 4.58) and at level II in 05 isolates (RF = 8.05 – 16.2). Diazinon resistance was detected at level II in 06 isolates (RF = 5.8 –22.8), at level III in 01 isolates (RF = 39.0) and level IV in 02 isolates (RF = 65.9 – 66.0). While in case of H. anatolicum, the resistance to deltamethrin at level I (RF = 1.79 –2.52) in 03 isolates, to cypermethrin in 03 isolates (RF= 2.0 - 3.95) and to diazinon at level I in 03 isolates (RF = 1.32 –2.18) out of eleven isolates was detected.         A significant correlation between esterase enzyme ratio and resistant factor of tick isolates was observed with correlation coefficient (r) in α- and ß-esterase activity. The coefficient of determination (R2) for α- and ß-esterase activity indicated that 55.9 and 50.5% data points of R.(B.) microplus isolates and 66.7 and 47.2% data points of H. anatolicum isolates were very close to the correlation lines.       Analysis of sequence data of 3 targeted positions of the sodium channel gene detected a cytosine (C) to adenine (A) nucleotide substitution (CTC to ATC) at position 190 in domain II S4–5 linker region of para-sodium channel gene in 3 isolates and in reference deltamethrin resistant IVRI-IV line.      The western dry region and central plateau hills region revealed higher density of resistant ticks where intensive crossbred cattle population are reared and synthetic pyrethroids and organophosphate compounds are commonly used. The data shows an urgent need of revisiting the tick control strategy implemented through concerned government/non-government agencies

Common Variants of Inflammatory Cytokine Genes Are Associated with Risk of Nephropathy in Type 2 Diabetes among Asian Indians

BACKGROUND: Inflammatory cytokine genes have been proposed as good candidate genes for conferring susceptibility to diabetic nephropathy. In the present study, we examined the combined effect of multiple alleles of pro inflammatory cytokine genes for determining the risk of nephropathy in type 2 diabetic patients. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Eight single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of pro-inflammatory cytokine genes (CCL2, TGFB1, IL8, CCR5, and MMP9) were genotyped in two independently ascertained type 2 diabetic cohorts with (DN) and without nephropathy (DM); consisting of patients from North India (n = 495) and South India (n = 188). Genotyping was carried out using PCR, allele specific oligonucleotide-PCR (ASO-PCR), PCR-RFLP and TaqMan allelic discrimination assays and the gene-gene interaction among genetic variants were determined by multi dimensional reduction (MDR) software. Serum high sensitive CRP (hs-CRP) levels were measured by ELISA. The hs-CRP levels were significantly higher in DN as compared to the DM group (p<0.05). The CCL2, IL8, CCR5 and MMP9 polymorphisms were found to be associated with the risk of diabetic nephropathy. Frequency of CCL2 II, IL8 -251AA, CCR5 59029AA and MMP9 279Gln/Gln genotypes were significantly higher in DN than in DM group (p<0.05) and associated with an increased risk of nephropathy in both North and South Indian cohorts. CCR5 DD and IL8 -251AA genotypes were more prevalent in North Indian DN group only. The co-occurrence of risk associated genotypes (II, -2518GG (CCL2), DD (CCR5) and 279Gln/Gln (MMP9) conferred a tenfold increased risk of nephropathy among type 2 diabetics (p<0.0002). CONCLUSION: The present study highlights that common variants of inflammatory cytokine genes exert a modest effect on risk of DN and a combination of risk alleles confer a substantial increased risk of nephropathy in type 2 diabetes among Asian Indians

Surgery, Octreotide, Temozolomide, Bevacizumab, Radiotherapy, and Pegvisomant Treatment of an AIP Mutation-Positive Child

UK India Education Research Initiative and the British Council (75-2014; to P.D.)Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, University Grants Commission, for financial support (2061330632; to A.R.).Medical Research Council (MR/M018539/1; to M.K