Importance of Taxonomy and Identification in Shellfish Trade

The gastropods constitute a large and highly diversified class within the phylum Mollusca with 1,00,000 living species, of which the estimated number of valid marine species are around 50,000 to 55,000 (Mollusca Base, 2021). Gastropods encompass 80 % of living molluscs species. Gastropods are considered as the oldest known fossils with their shells being evolved in rocks 540 million years ago. Many gastropods possess a shell that protects the soft body of the animal. In most species, the coiled shell opens on the right-hand side (dextral). Rarely, right-hand coiled species will produce left-hand coiled (sinistral) shells and vice versa

Picture book on Marine Gastropods

Gastropods includes snails, slugs and their relatives is a hyper diverse with respect to number of species, structure and habitat and many other attributes. Gastropods are characterised by having single shell and an operculum. Widely ranging in size, the shell has been modified enormously in many groups. A total of 80,000 to 100,000 mollusc species are known world over. About 3271 species of molluscs are found in India, of which 1900 marine species of gastropods are known to date. These resources are exploited by either mechanised trawlers, bottom set gillnets or by diving. Very few species forms a regular fishery and most of them are obtained in smaller magnitude making them unnoticed. While these resources are smaller in magnitude compared to other fisheries, they play an important role as raw materials for the multi-million dollar ‘SHELLCRAFT INDUSTRIES’ world over. In India, the resource is harvested in almost all the landing centres of both the coasts. In southeast coast of India, where the most part of landings of marine gastropods are occurring is considered a hub of shellcraft industry. A total of more than 250 species has been recorded and representing forty odd families in gastropods. The Federation of Sea Shell Handicrafts Merchants Association (FOSSHMA), estimates around 90 active seashell handicrafts traders in India, comprising of 20 very active, 30 minimal functioning and 40 dormant units. The major destinations of export is found to be the United States of America, Australia, Europe, Japan, Philippines, Vietnam, Africa, Malaysia, Belgium, Croatia, England, Haiti Island, Sri Lanka,France, Netherlands, Germany, South Africa etc. The major species exported are Conus sp, Umbonium sp, Chicoreus ramosus, Lambis lambis, Babylonia spirata, B. zeylanica, Telescopium sp, Terebralia sp, Tonna spp and Cerithium sp. Around 20-25 species are imported by shellcraft industries and the major species imported are Busycon sp, Haliotis sp, Cypraea tigris, Mitrella sp. The major importing countries includes USA, Mexico, New Zealand, South Africa, Australia, Philippines, Spain and other African countries. This picture book contains 165 photographs of seashells used in the Indian seashell industries clustered under the common name of the respective species along with vernacular (Tamil) names

Bitter Gourd (Momordica charantia) Peroxidase in Decolorization of Dyes from Tannery Effluent

Bitter Gourd (Momordica charantia) is a commonly available plant in India and its applications are limited to few medicinal properties in addition to being edible. The primary objective of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of Momordica charantia peroxidase in the degradation of dyes present in tannery effluents under various experimental conditions like pH, Temperature, Time intervals and Enzyme concentration on the basis of the one-factor-at-a-time (OFAT) method. The maximum decolorization was achieved at pH 5.0 – 6.0, 40oC temperature, in 4 hours with an enzyme concentration of 0.6 ml consisting of 4500 Units enzyme activity extracted from 0.5 g of Bitter Gourd. Present study results demonstrate that the Momordica charantia peroxidase is an effective biocatalyst for the treatment of effluents with dyes from tanning industries.ÂÂ

Ornamental gastropod shell trade in India : A macroeconomic assessment

The capture fisheries results in landing of sizeable amount of by-catch which includes molluscs, crustaceans (certain varieties of crabs, and Squilla spp.), finfishes (non-edible varieties), sea snakes and echinoderms

Economic evaluation of implementing a rapid point-of-care screening test for the identification of hepatitis C virus under National Viral Hepatitis Control Programme in Tamil Nadu, South India

Introduction: Viral hepatitis is a crucial public health problem in India. Hepatitis C virus (HCV) elimination is a national priority and a key strategy has been adopted to strengthen the HCV diagnostics services to ensure early and accurate diagnosis. Methods: To conduct an economic evaluation of implementing a rapid point-of-care screening test for the identification of HCV among the selected key population under the National Viral Hepatitis Control Programme in Tamil Nadu, South India. Economic evaluation of a point-of-care screening test for HCV diagnosis among the key population attending the primary health care centers. A combination of decision tree and Markov model was developed to estimate cost-effectiveness of point-of-care screening test for HCV diagnosis at the primary health care centers. Total costs, quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) of the intervention and comparator, and incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) were calculated. The model parameter uncertainties which would influence the cost-effectiveness outcome has been evaluated by one-way sensitivity analysis and probabilistic sensitivity analysis. Results: When compared to the tertiary level diagnostic strategy for HCV, the point-of-care screening for selected key population at primary health care level results in a gain of 57 undiscounted QALYs and 38 discounted QALYs, four undiscounted life years and two discounted life years. The negative ICER of the new strategy indicates that it is less expensive and more effective compared with the current HCV diagnosis strategy. Conclusions: The proposed strategy for HCV diagnosis in the selected key population in Tamil Nadu is dominant and cost-saving compared to the current strategy

Human gain-of-function variants in HNF1A confer protection from diabetes but independently increase hepatic secretion of atherogenic lipoproteins

Loss-of-function mutations in hepatocyte nuclear factor 1A (HNF1A) are known to cause rare forms of diabetes and alter hepatic physiology through unclear mechanisms. In the general population, 1:100 individuals carry a rare, protein-coding HNF1A variant, most of unknown functional consequence. To characterize the full allelic series, we performed deep mutational scanning of 11,970 protein-coding HNF1A variants in human hepatocytes and clinical correlation with 553,246 exome-sequenced individuals. Surprisingly, we found that ∼1:5 rare protein-coding HNF1A variants in the general population cause molecular gain of function (GOF), increasing the transcriptional activity of HNF1A by up to 50% and conferring protection from type 2 diabetes (odds ratio [OR] = 0.77, p = 0.007). Increased hepatic expression of HNF1A promoted a pro-atherogenic serum profile mediated in part by enhanced transcription of risk genes including ANGPTL3 and PCSK9. In summary, ∼1:300 individuals carry a GOF variant in HNF1A that protects carriers from diabetes but enhances hepatic secretion of atherogenic lipoproteins.publishedVersio

Edgetic perturbation models of human inherited disorders

Cellular functions are mediated through complex systems of macromolecules and metabolites linked through biochemical and physical interactions, represented in interactome models as ‘nodes' and ‘edges', respectively. Better understanding of genotype-to-phenotype relationships in human disease will require modeling of how disease-causing mutations affect systems or interactome properties. Here we investigate how perturbations of interactome networks may differ between complete loss of gene products (‘node removal') and interaction-specific or edge-specific (‘edgetic') alterations. Global computational analyses of ∼50 000 known causative mutations in human Mendelian disorders revealed clear separations of mutations probably corresponding to those of node removal versus edgetic perturbations. Experimental characterization of mutant alleles in various disorders identified diverse edgetic interaction profiles of mutant proteins, which correlated with distinct structural properties of disease proteins and disease mechanisms. Edgetic perturbations seem to confer distinct functional consequences from node removal because a large fraction of cases in which a single gene is linked to multiple disorders can be modeled by distinguishing edgetic network perturbations. Edgetic network perturbation models might improve both the understanding of dissemination of disease alleles in human populations and the development of molecular therapeutic strategies

Fishery and exploitation status of black clam, Villorita cyprinoides from Vembanad Lake, Kerala.

The black clam, Villorita cyprinoides (Family Corbiculidae) is the most important clam species contributing about 90.9% of the total clam landings from three estuaries in Kerala i.e. Ashtamudi, Vembanad and Chettuva with Vembanad Lake contributing 90.2% to the total clam fishery. In 2018, about 99.27% of black clam production was contributed by Vembanad Lake, the largest estuary, 96 Km long on the west coast of India. More than 5,000 fishermen are involved in the fishery which includes 2,000-2,500 of active fishers. Fishery, population characteristics and stock estimates of Villorita cyprinoides were carried out from 2014-2018. Minimum legal size (MLS) of black clam, V. cyprinoides was fixed at 20mm using size at first maturity as a biological reference point. Based on the recent catches of V. cyprinoides from Vembanad Lake, about 5% of the catches consist of juveniles. The production of black clams declined from a peak of 75,592 t in 2006 to 52238.91 t in 2018. The asymptotic length (L∞) and growth coefficient (K) were estimated at 51.45 mm and 0.74 y-1 respectively from fishery samples. However, these estimates may vary if clam beds are also sampled. The mortality parameters, the instantaneous total mortality rate (Z), fishing mortality (F) and natural mortality rates (M) were estimated at 3.13, 1.89 and 1.24 respectively. The length structured Virtual population analysis (VPA) revealed a heavy fishing pressure on length group between 31 and 33 mm. Exploitation ratio (E), Exploitation rate (U) and Emax was estimated at 0.6, 0.4 and 0.69 respectively. The results of this study will serve as baseline information for formulating future management measures

Assessment of settlement of spat of black clam, Villorita cyprinoides in Vembanad Lake based on surveys

Among bivalves the black clam, Villorita cyprinoides is the most important species landed in India. The state of Kerala has been, by far, the leading producer of the species. Major proportion of the species is harvested from Vembanad Lake, followed by the Malabar Coast. Surveys were conducted in several areas of Vembanad Lake to study the spat fall, recruitment time etc. of the species. Surveys were conducted in Vaikom and Panavally area of the Vembanad Lake. In Panavally area on the northern side of the Thannermukkam barrage of the Vembanad lake, surveys were conducted twice in 2018 in April and November in a stretch of 2000m length and 1000 m width covering the lat-long 090 49’ 389’’ N to 090 49’ 832’’ N and 760 21’ 530’’ E to 760 22’ 565’’ E. Heavy settlement of black clam spat was observed in an area of 1500m length and 500m width in the month of April. The observed spats were approximately 3 months old. Measurements of Length and weight were taken for a minimum of 30 samples from each sampling Total spat biomass of V. cyprinoides in the survey area was estimated both in terms of numbers and weight. Total spat biomass was estimated as 109440000 numbers/ha and 1969.92 kg/ha in weight. It is estimated that it will produce 1642 MT/ha, if the spat is not indiscriminately exploited. The same area was surveyed again in November 2018 to study the growth rate of the spat of black clam. Growth rate of the spat was calculated as 0.017 mm/ day. In Vaikom area of Vembanad Lake, surveys were conducted in a stretch of 200 m length and 50 m width covering the lat-long 90 43’ 559’’ N, 760 22’ 980’’ E to 90 44’ 628’’ N, 760 23’ 402’’ E. Total spat biomass was estimated as 26920000 numbers/ha and 7066.5 kg/ha in weight. Physical and chemical characteristics of water and sediment were analysed for both areas. The values of oxygen concentration, chlorophyll concentration, Total suspended solids of water and sand percentage (>75%) in the sediment were in the ideal range in both areas

A Genome-Wide Gene Function Prediction Resource for Drosophila melanogaster

Predicting gene functions by integrating large-scale biological data remains a challenge for systems biology. Here we present a resource for Drosophila melanogaster gene function predictions. We trained function-specific classifiers to optimize the influence of different biological datasets for each functional category. Our model predicted GO terms and KEGG pathway memberships for Drosophila melanogaster genes with high accuracy, as affirmed by cross-validation, supporting literature evidence, and large-scale RNAi screens. The resulting resource of prioritized associations between Drosophila genes and their potential functions offers a guide for experimental investigations