Cross-species amplification of eucalyptus SSR markers in Casuarinaceae

Cross-species amplification of Simple Sequence Repeats (SSRs) loci is considered as a cost-effective approach for developing microsatellite markers for new species.We examined the transferability of eucalyptus SSR loci to the economically important members of the Casuarinaceae family. Ten primer pairs targeting (GA)n, (CTT)n, (TGA)n and (GAA)n motifs were screened in Allocasuarina littoralis, A. luehmannii, Casuarina glauca and C. equisetifolia. Up to 30% of the eucalyptus primer pairs amplified SSRs within Casuarinaceae. Nevertheless, in Allocasuarina no amplification products were observed. In Casuarina species, all the locus specific products were monomorphic while few nonspecific bands also amplified

Purification of antifungal protein against blister bark pathogen of Casuarina equisetifolia J. R. Forster et G. Forster

Aprotein extract from the leaves of Andrographis paniculata (Acanthaceae) was found to inhibit the spore germination and hyphal extension of Trichosporium vesiculosum, the blister bark pathogen of Casuarina equisetifolia. The antifungal protein component was further purified from the crude extract and the molecular mass of the toxic protein was estimated to be 39.5 kDa

Purification of antifungal protein against blister bark pathogen of Casuarina equisetifolia J. R. Forster et G. Forster

Aprotein extract from the leaves of Andrographis paniculata (Acanthaceae) was found to inhibit the spore germination and hyphal extension of Trichosporium vesiculosum, the blister bark pathogen of Casuarina equisetifolia. The antifungal protein component was further purified from the crude extract and the molecular mass of the toxic protein was estimated to be 39.5 kDa

Genetic analyses of casuarinas using ISSR and FISSR markers

Inter simple sequence repeat polymerase chain reaction (ISSR-PCR) was used for the genetic analysis of the six species of Allocasuarina, five species of Casuarina and 12 superior performing selections of C. equisetifolia L. We also fingerprinted C. equisetifolia L. selections using Fluorescent-ISSR-PCR (FISSR-PCR), an improvised ISSR-PCR assay. The ISSR analysis provided information on the frequency of various simple sequence repeats in the casuarina genome. The di-nucleotide repeats were more common, among which (CA)n and its complementary nucleotide (GT)n repeat motifs amplified relatively higher number of bands with an average of 6.0 ± 3.5 and 6.3 ± 1.8 respectively. Eleven species of casuarinas were amplified with 10 primers anchored either at 5' or 3' end. A total of 253 PCR products were obtained and all were polymorphic, out of which 48 were specific to Allocasuarina and 36 were specific to Casuarina genus. Genetic similarity among the species was 0.251. A UPGMA dendrogram grouped all the Casuarina species together. The 12 superior performing selections of C. equisetifolia L. produced 57 polymorphic ISSR markers while the FISSR assay revealed 105 polymorphic markers. The primer CRR(ATT)4 distinguished all the selections. DNA profiles obtained with ISSR and FISSR assays would serve as a reference library for the establishment of clonal identity in casuarinas

Micropropagation for quality propagule production in plantation forestry

159-170 Plantation forestry is the major source of raw material for industrial and domestic wood products and perpetually provides renewable energy, fiber and timber. Successful plantation forestry is dependent on effective research and development leading to technological advances. In hard wood plantation establishment, micropropagation is preferred for the production of quality planting stock because of its very high multiplication rate with instant silvicultural gains. Integration of micropropagation in tree improvement is essential for the replication of improved genetic material and rapid release of quality propagules. Further, in vitro propagation is also required for rejuvenating productive clones, which are difficult to root; rescuing of important mature individuals and natural hybrids; and producing stock plants for clone bank establishment and conserving the important germplasm. Thus, the approaches for micropropagation should be species oriented to fit into the existing strategies of tree improvement. In this paper, the recent advances made towards the production of quality plantlets through micropropagation of hardwood tree species, such as eucalypts, acacia, teak and bamboos, are presented. Further, the strategies for the multiplication of elite genotypes and the use of microproagules as planting stock in plantation forestry are discussed. </smarttagtype

Effect of eugenol and tincture of crataegus (TCR) on <i>in vitro </i>oxidation of LDL + VLDL isolated from plasma of non-insulin dependent diabetic patients

509-511The present study was carried out to study the effect of antioxidants on oxidised LDL + VLDL and found that vitamin E. eugenol and tincture of crataegus (antioxidants) inhibited oxidation of (LDL+ VLDL) similar to standard antioxidant (butylated hydroxy toluene). Vitamin C acted as an antioxidant at lower concentration, and prooxidant at higher concentration

DRPM: Dynamic Speed Control for Power Management in Server Class Disks

A large portion of the power budget in server environments goes into the I/O subsystem- the disk array in particular. Traditional approaches to disk power management involve completely stopping the disk rotation, which can take a considerable amount of time, making them less useful in cases where idle times between disk requests may not be long enough to outweigh the overheads. This paper presents a new approach called DRPM to modulate disk speed (RPM) dynamically, and gives a practical implementation to exploit this mechanism. Extensive simulations with different workload and hardware parameters show that DRPM can provide significant energy savings without compromising much on performance. This paper also discusses practical issues when implementing DRPM on server disks. Keywords: Server Disks, Power Management.