Strategies and Programs for Improved Nutrient Use Efficiency, Doubling Farmer’s Income, and Sustainable Agriculture: Indian Context

Since the Green Revolution era, the farming sector exploited the soils for food, fiber, fodder, etc., with high input responsive varieties that excavated vast amounts of chemical fertilizers. The burgeoning population of the country calls for a commensurate increase in food production to satisfy the demands of its inhabitants. Further, due to innovative mechanization in agriculture, specialization, and government policy programs, the productivity of food has soared. Subsequently, it ensued greater productions and minimized food prizes. Regrettably, intensive agricultural operations degraded the soil quality and now reached such a stage where without external inputs, growers unable to achieve their targeted yields. India has lost 68% innate productive capacity of agricultural soils. This plunder of land’s quality continues unabated, further resulting in low nutrient use efficiency and insufficient yields of agroecosystems. Therefore, this is high time to realize the dreadful impacts of intensive crop production on the natural ecosystem. Irrefutably, both soil and its nutrients are the wondrous gifts of nature to humankind; utilizing them sustainably is imperative. The present chapter highlights the impacts of non-judicious nutrient management on soil productivity, nutrient use efficiency, and novel technologies required to promote sustainable agriculture and achieve the target of doubling farmer’s income in India

Regio- and Stereocontrolled Dieckmann Approach to Treprostinil-Inspired, Polycyclic Scaffold For Building Macrocyclic Diversity

We developed a regio- and stereocontrolled Dieckmann cyclization approach to the synthesis of a novel, natural-product-like scaffold that was inspired from treprostinil (UT-15). This was further utilized in a diversity-based, 15-membered macrocyclic synthesis of two different sets of hybrid compounds. The amino acid moiety embedded in the macrocyclic skeleton allow exploring various chiral side chain groups within the ring

LONG URETERIC STRICTURES MANAGED BY USING BUCCAL MUCOSAL GRAFTS

ABSTRACT Objective: This study aims to describe the reconstruction of long ureteric strictures using buccal mucosal patch grafts and to report the short term outcome. Material & Methods: We retrospectively looked at our hospital inpatient and outpatient records of all patients who underwent surgical treatment for benign ureteric strictures. Imaging records and films, histopathological reports were reanalysed. The short term outcomes were also noted. Results: During this 10 years’ study period 8 patients (six Males and two Females) underwent 10 buccal mucosal grafts procedures. The mean age of the patients was 36.25 years and the mean length of the stricture was 7.13.41 cm.  There were intraoperative complications noted and none of the patients needed either intra or post-operative blood transfusions. Serum creatinine remained stable at 6 and 12 weeks after surgery. Radioisotope renograms done 12-16 weeks after surgery showed improvement in function on the affected sides in all patients with adequate drainage. Conclusions: Buccal mucosal patch grafting and omental wrapping is feasible, effective, less complicated and associated with good outcomes at short term follow-up. Keywords: Reconstruction, ureteric stricture, buccal mucosa

Geldanamycin-inspired compounds induce direct trans-differentiation of human mesenchymal stem cells to neurons

Inspired from geldanamycin, the synthesis of a new series of 20-membered macrocyclic compounds is developed. The key features in our design are (i) retention of the fragment having the precise chiral functional groups of geldanamycin at C10, C11, C12 and C14, and (ii) replacement of an olefin moiety with the ester group, and the quinoid sub-structure with the triazole ring. The southern fragment needed for the macrocyclic ring formation was obtained from Evans' syn aldol as the key reaction and with the use of D-mannitol as the cheap source of a chiral starting material. For the synthesis of the northern fragment, we utilized L-ascorbic acid, which provided the desired chiral functional groups at C6 and C7. Further, the chain extension completed the synthesis of the northern fragment. In our approach, the crucial 20 membered macrocyclic ring was formed employing the click chemistry. When tested for their ability to directly trans-differentiate human mesenchymal stem cells to neurons, two novel compounds (20a and 7) from this series were identified and this was further validated by the presence of specific neuronal biomarkers (i.e. nestin, agrin and RTN4)

Probing sulfatide-tissue lectin recognition with functionalized glycodendrimersomes

74 p.-5 fig.-3 schem.-6 fig. supl.-4 tab.supl.-3 schem. suplThe small 3-O-sulfated galactose head group of sulfatides, an abundant glycosphingolipid class, poses the (sphinx-like) riddle on involvement of glycan bridging by tissue lectins (sugar code). First, synthesis of head group derivatives for functionalization of amphiphilic dendrimers is performed. Aggregation of resulting (biomimetic) vesicles, alone or in combination with lactose, demonstrates bridging by a tissue lectin (galectin-4). Physiologically, this can stabilize glycolipid-rich microdomains (rafts) and associate sulfatide-rich regions with specific glycoproteins. Further testing documents importance of heterobivalency and linker length. Structurally, sulfatide recognition by galectin-8 is shown to involve sphingosine’s OH group as substitute for the 30-hydroxyl of glucose of lactose.These discoveries underscore functionality of this small determinant on biomembranes intracellularly and on the cell surface. Moreover, they provide a role model to examine counterreceptor capacity of more complex glycans of glycosphingolipids and to start their bottom-up glycotope surface programming.This work is supported by NSF Grants DMR1066116, DMR-1720530, and DMR-1807127 (to V.P.), the P. Roy Vagelos Chair at the University of Pennsylvania (V.P.), the Sheikh Saqr Research Foundation (to M.L.K.), the Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) and the European Regional Development Fund (Grant Number 13/RC/ 2073 to CÚRAM, 16/IA/4419 to P.V.M.), the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 713690 (Medtrain, to CÚRAM & S.J.), the Irish Research Council (PhD scholarship to A.G.), the Grant BFU2016-77835-R of the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (A.R.), as well as the COST Action CA18103 (InnoGly).Peer reviewe

Probing sulfatide-tissue lectin recognition with functionalized glycodendrimersomes

The small 3-O-sulfated galactose head group of sulfatides, an abundant glycosphingolipid class, poses the (sphinx-like) riddle on involvement of glycan bridging by tissue lectins (sugar code). First, synthesis of head group derivatives for functionalization of amphiphilic dendrimers is performed. Aggregation of resulting (biomimetic) vesicles, alone or in combination with lactose, demonstrates bridging by a tissue lectin (galectin-4). Physiologically, this can stabilize glycolipid-rich microdomains (rafts) and associate sulfatide-rich regions with specific glycoproteins. Further testing documents importance of heterobivalency and linker length. Structurally, sulfatide recognition by galectin-8 is shown to involve sphingosine\u27s OH group as substitute for the 3′-hydroxyl of glucose of lactose. These discoveries underscore functionality of this small determinant on biomembranes intracellularly and on the cell surface. Moreover, they provide a role model to examine counterreceptor capacity of more complex glycans of glycosphingolipids and to start their bottom-up glycotope surface programming.This work is supported by NSF Grants DMR1066116 , DMR-1720530 , and DMR-1807127 (to V.P.), the P. Roy Vagelos Chair at the University of Pennsylvania (V.P.), the Sheikh Saqr Research Foundation (to M.L.K.), the Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) and the European Regional Development Fund (Grant Number 13/RC/2073 to CÚRAM, 16/IA/4419 to P.V.M.), the European Union\u27s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 713690 (Medtrain, to CÚRAM & S.J.), the Irish Research Council (PhD scholarship to A.G.), the Grant BFU2016-77835-R of the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (A.R.), as well as the COST Action CA18103 (InnoGly). We gratefully acknowledge inspiring discussions with Drs. B. Friday, A. Leddoz, and A.W.L. Nose, as well as the valuable recommendations by the reviewers