Root morphology and root characters of different cocoa (Theobroma cacao L) types at 100 and 50 percent field capacity under water deficit condition

The main aim of this study was to screen the root morphology and root characters of different cocoa types at 100 and 50 percent field capacity under water deficit condition at seedling stage. A survey was conducted at Idukki region of Kerala, India and twenty seven plus trees were identified. These twenty seven plus trees were screened for water stress tolerance under glasshouse condition by gravimetric method. With respect to the performance of plus trees, root length under 50% field capacity got increased to 21.15 cm as against 20.51 cm in 100 per cent field capacity. Fresh root weight and dry root weight substantially got increased under water stress. The average root girth of 27 plus trees got increased in stressed condition from 3.70 cm to 3.88 cm. The root volume also followed the same trend (47.28 as against 45.96). The percent of nitrogen is 1.37 in 50 per cent field capacity as against 1.63 in 100 per cent field capacity. The percentage of phosphorous decreased to 0.16 under 50 per cent field capacity as against 0.37 in 100 per cent field capacity. Similarly the percentage of potassium also showed a decreasing trend (1.27 % under 100 % field capacity to 1.06 % under 50 % field capacity). In the present investigation, under water stress condition the root length, number of roots, fresh weight of root and dry weight of root tends to increase compared to the 100 per cent field capacity, indicating the morphological adaptations of roots to survive under water stress condition. Furthermore, under water stress condition, root nutrients tend to get depleted

SiRNA Mediated Gene Silencing: a Mini Review

- RNA interference (RNAi) technology has become a novel tool for silencing gene expression in cells or organisms. RNA interference is the process that double-stranded RNA induces the homology-dependent degradation of cognate mRNA mediated by 21-23 nucleotide short interfering RNA (siRNA). RNA interference is a powerful mechanism of gene silencing that underlies many aspects of eukaryotic biology. On the molecular level, RNAi is mediated by a family of ribonucleoprotein (RNP) complexes called RNA-Induced Silencing Complexes (RISCs), which can be programmed to target virtually any nucleic acid sequence for silencing. The ability of RISC to locate target RNAs been co-opted by evolution many times to generate a broad spectrum of gene silencing pathways. The study about the Silencing of gene expression by siRNA is rapidly becoming a powerful tool for genetic analysis and represents a potential strategy for therapeutic product development. In this study, the applications of siRNA expressing recombinant adenovirus system in plants, animals and in cancer gene therapy are given importance with its modification

FORMULATION AND EVALUATION OF LEVOFLOXACIN-CHITOSAN / β- CYCLODEXTRIN NANOPARTICLES BY IONIC GELATION

Background: Levofloxacin is a broad spectrum anti-infective agent, which is rapidly and completely absorbed after oral administration. The half life of Levofloxacin is 6-8 h after conventional dosing. The objective of the present work was to develop Levofloxacin nanoparticles to retain the dosage form in the absorption site more than the half life of the drug, enhance the bioavailability of drugs, reduce dose frequency, toxicity and patient compliance. Methods: The compositions of different formulations of Levofloxacin nanoparticles by the ionic gelation method using biodegradable polymer chitosan and tripolyphosphate as cross linking agent. Result and Discussion: The particle size lies of the prepared nanoparticles between 199 and 369 nm and the drug content found between 51.13± 0.28 and 71.12 ± 0.14 %. The particle size of nanoparticles increased with increasing concentration of polymer matrix density and this may be due to the increased viscosity of the inner phase and decreased with increasing concentration of β-cyclodextrin. Scanning electron microscopy indicated that the prepared nanoparticles were discrete, uniform and spherical with a smooth surface. The in vitro release showed that the drug release from the prepared nanoparticles was characterized by an initial fast release and followed by a delayed release phase. During and at the end of the accelerated stability study, the tested formulation showed almost same drug content, in vitro drug release and no colour changes were observed from that observed at the opening of the study. Conclusion: Among all the formulations (GIA, GIB, GIC, GID, GIE and GIF), the formulations G1C, G1E and G1F followed the drug release in a controlled manner. The in vitro release profile showed that this is a potential drug delivery for Levofloxacin and has to confirm in the in vivo settings as a separate investigation in future. Key words: Controlled drug delivery, In vitro drug release, Nanoparticle, Particle size, Stability studies, Surface morpholog

Nonisospectral integrable nonlinear equations with external potentials and their GBDT solutions

Auxiliary systems for matrix nonisospectral equations, including coupled NLS with external potential and KdV with variable coefficients, were introduced. Explicit solutions of nonisospectral equations were constructed using the GBDT version of the B\"acklund-Darboux transformation

Prawn fauna (Crustacea: Decapoda) of India - An annotated checklist of the Penaeoid, Sergestoid, Stenopodid and Caridean prawns

Twenty four species of Pandalid shrimps reported from the Indian waters, of which six genera (Chlorotocella, Chlorotocus, Chlorocurtis, Dorodotes, Heterocarpoides and Stylopandalus) are represented by single species each. The genera, Plesionika and Heterocarpus are represented by eleven and seven species respectively. Plesionika adensameri (Balss, 1914) a deep-sea shrimp hitherto unreported from Indian waters is recorded from west coast of India. Information on some biological aspects of few Pandalid shrimps from Indian waters is also reported in the present paper

Nuclear reactions in the Sun after SNO and KamLAND

In this brief review we discuss the possibility of studying the solar interior by means of neutrinos, in the light of the enormous progress of neutrino physics in the last few years. The temperature near the solar center can be extracted from Boron neutrino experiments as: $T= (1.57 \pm 0.01) 10^7 K$. The energy production rate in the Sun from pp chain and CNO cycle, as deduced from neutrino measurements, agrees with the observed solar luminosity to about twenty per cent. Progress in extracting astrophysical information from solar neutrinos requires improvement in the measurements of $^3He+$ \\$^4He \to ^7Be+\gamma$ and $p+^{14}N \to ^{15}O+ \gamma$.Comment: To appear in the Proceedings of Beyond the Desert '03, Fourth International Conference on Physics Beyond the Standard Model, Schloss Ringberg, Germany, June 9-14, 200