Remunerativeness led acreage response of arecanut in Karnataka state

The decision of farmers regarding allocation of farm resources, in general, and land resource which have supply inelasticity is crucial. This decision of farmers in case of commercial plantation crops will be highly influenced by the policies and programmes formulated by the government. The formulated developmental programmes mainly aim at increasing the overall production of the economy and its success depends on the reactions of farmers to such programmes. The increased production can be achieved either through extensive or intensive cultivation or the mix of two. In this context it becomes imperative to have a better insight about the farmers’ response to various price and non-price factors. To understand the behavioural mechanism of arecanut growers in major areca growing districts of Karnataka, Nerlovian lagged adjustment model was employed. The result revealed that it is the expected price (remunerativeness) which has resulted in extensive cultivation in most of the areca growing belts. The result was contrasting in case of Dakshina Kannada where the response of farmers to expected price was negative, which might be due to the fact that growers in this region have shifted to alternative crop i.e., rubber, which is equally remunerative due to wide prevalence of yellow leaf disease. The other likely reason would be the limitation of area for further expansion, since area expansion has met its saturation in the locality. To prove the remunerativeness of arecanut enterprise, representative district Shimoga was chosen. The economics of arecanut cultivation revealed that it is remunerative compared to other major crops of the study area

Global transcriptional response of Saccharomyces cerevisiae to the deletion of SDH3

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Mitochondrial respiration is an important and widely conserved cellular function in eukaryotic cells. The succinate dehydrogenase complex (Sdhp) plays an important role in respiration as it connects the mitochondrial respiratory chain to the tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle where it catalyzes the oxidation of succinate to fumarate. Cellular response to the Sdhp dysfunction (i.e. impaired respiration) thus has important implications not only for biotechnological applications but also for understanding cellular physiology underlying metabolic diseases such as diabetes. We therefore explored the physiological and transcriptional response of <it>Saccharomyces cerevisiae </it>to the deletion of <it>SDH3</it>, that codes for an essential subunit of the Sdhp.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Although the Sdhp has no direct role in transcriptional regulation and the flux through the corresponding reaction under the studied conditions is very low, deletion of <it>SDH3 </it>resulted in significant changes in the expression of several genes involved in various cellular processes ranging from metabolism to the cell-cycle. By using various bioinformatics tools we explored the organization of these transcriptional changes in the metabolic and other cellular functional interaction networks.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our results show that the transcriptional regulatory response resulting from the impaired respiratory function is linked to several different parts of the metabolism, including fatty acid and sterol metabolism.</p

CRISPRi screens reveal genes modulating yeast growth in lignocellulose hydrolysate.

BACKGROUND: Baker's yeast is a widely used eukaryotic cell factory, producing a diverse range of compounds including biofuels and fine chemicals. The use of lignocellulose as feedstock offers the opportunity to run these processes in an environmentally sustainable way. However, the required hydrolysis pretreatment of lignocellulosic material releases toxic compounds that hamper yeast growth and consequently productivity. RESULTS: Here, we employ CRISPR interference in S. cerevisiae to identify genes modulating fermentative growth in plant hydrolysate and in presence of lignocellulosic toxins. We find that at least one-third of hydrolysate-associated gene functions are explained by effects of known toxic compounds, such as the decreased growth of YAP1 or HAA1, or increased growth of DOT6 knock-down strains in hydrolysate. CONCLUSION: Our study confirms previously known genetic elements and uncovers new targets towards designing more robust yeast strains for the utilization of lignocellulose hydrolysate as sustainable feedstock, and, more broadly, paves the way for applying CRISPRi screens to improve industrial fermentation processes

In silico design of Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains for production of industrial compounds derived from TCA cycle

Saccharomyces cerevisiae is one of the most widely used cell factories in industrial biotechnology. However, the development of optimized yeast strains for the production of novel compounds is a costly and time-consuming process, mainly due to the unavailability of suitable chassis cells. This work was developed under the scope of the ERA-IB DeYeastLibrary project and aimed to design in silico pre-optimized strains capable of overproducing organic acids originating from the TCA cycle, based on the fact that these compounds are derived from the same metabolic precursors. The iMM904 genome-scale metabolic model was used during the optimization procedures, which were performed simulating aerobic conditions and using glucose as a carbon source, setting as targets four organic acids for maximization: fumarate, succinate, malate and itaconate. The mutant phenotypes were predicted using the pFBA method. Following this procedure, other yeast metabolic models and simulation methods were used to test the robustness of the obtained solutions, using Optflux. Despite some discrepancies observed between the results using different models and simulation methods, we identified several possible solutions that may constitute suitable chassis strain candidates for metabolic engineering towards the overproduction of the compounds of interest

A System for Household Enumeration and Re-identification in Densely Populated Slums to Facilitate Community Research, Education, and Advocacy

Background: We devised and implemented an innovative Location-Based Household Coding System (LBHCS) appropriate to a densely populated informal settlement in Mumbai, India. Methods and Findings: LBHCS codes were designed to double as unique household identifiers and as walking directions; when an entire community is enumerated, LBHCS codes can be used to identify the number of households located per road (or lane) segment. LBHCS was used in community-wide biometric, mental health, diarrheal disease, and water poverty studies. It also facilitated targeted health interventions by a research team of youth from Mumbai, including intensive door-to-door education of residents, targeted follow-up meetings, and a full census. In addition, LBHCS permitted rapid and low-cost preparation of GIS mapping of all households in the slum, and spatial summation and spatial analysis of survey data. Conclusion: LBHCS was an effective, easy-to-use, affordable approach to household enumeration and re-identification in a densely populated informal settlement where alternative satellite imagery and GPS technologies could not be used

Clinical Consequences of Untreated Dental Caries among Primary School Children: A Cross-Sectional Study

Objective: To evaluate the dental caries experience and clinical consequences of untreated dental caries (UDC) among primary school children of Al Jouf region, Saudi Arabia and to determine the correlation between dental caries experience and clinical consequences of UDC. Material and Methods: A 250 primary school children 6-7 years were recruited using systematic random sampling. The prevalence of dental caries in deciduous dentition was assessed by following WHO criteria using the dmft index and the clinical consequence of UDC was assessed with the pufa index. The pufa score was calculated cumulatively following the pufa diagnostic criteria. The Student’s t-test was used to equate the mean&nbsp; dmft and&nbsp; pufa scores between boys and girls. The correlation between the dmft and the pufa scores was evaluated using Pearson's correlation coefficient (r), and the p-value was set at 0.05 for statistical significance. Results: Out of which 154 (61.60%) boys and 94 (37.60%) were girls. The mean (SD) values of dmft for boys reported to be 5.37 (± 3.31) and for girls 6.35 (± 3.27), which was statistically significant with gender (p&lt;0.001). Statistically, significant mean values of pufa were 1.20 (± 1.37) in boys and 1.71 (± 1.58) in&nbsp; girls, respectively was observed (p&lt;0.001). The Pearson correlation between dmft and pufa values showed&nbsp; a highly significant positive correlation among dmft and pufa values (r= 0.635, p&lt;0.001). Conclusion: The present study revealed that high caries prevalence and experience of the clinical consequences of UDC in the primary dentition, and there was a strong positive correlation between dmft and pufa score values

Synthesis of novel dipodal-benzimidazole, benzoxazole and benzothiazole from cyanuric chloride: Structural, photophysical and antimicrobial studies

AbstractIn the present study, new benzimidazole, benzoxazole and benzothiazole derivatives were prepared and screened for antimicrobial activity. The structure of 4,4′-((6-(4-(diethylamino)phenyl)-1,3,5-triazine-2,4-diyl)bis(oxy))dibenzaldehyde (DIPOD) 5 was established from p-hydroxy benzaldehyde 4 and 4-(4,6-dichloro-1,3,5-triazin-2-yl)-N,N-diethylaniline 3. The reaction of DIPOD 5 with different o-phenylenediamine or o-amino phenol or o-amino thiophenol in ethanol gave benzimidazole, benzoxazole and benzothiazole 7. Novel heterocycles showed excellent broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity against bacterial strain (Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus) and fungal strain (Candida albicans, Aspergillus niger) cultures. Activity data was compared with standard Streptomycin and Fluconazole drug. Photophysical and thermal properties of synthesized compounds were also studied

Aqueous areca nut extract induces oxidative stress in human lung epithelial A549 cells: Probable role of p21 in inducing cell death

Areca nut a well-known masticator used across globe. Habitual chewing of areca nut is associated with serious oral health effects. However, the role of areca nut in oxidative stress induction and cell death is less understood. Hence, in the present study we aimed to evaluate the toxic mechanism of areca nut extract on human lung epithelial A549 cells. Cells were treated with or without aqueous areca nut extract and cell viability was measured by MTT assay. Cells treated with areca nut extract show reduced viability in a dose dependent manner with the IC50 of 0.5 concentration. Areca nut extract induced the reactive oxygen species (ROS), lipid peroxidation followed by membrane damage with leakage of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) enzyme. Cells with continuous exposure of areca nut extract depletes the free radical neutralizing anti-oxidant enzymes like superoxide dismutase (SOD), Glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) and Glutathione-S-transferase (GST). Further, the analysis of mRNA expression of apoptotic genes and cell cycle regulators show decreased expression of anti-apoptotic gene (Bcl-2), Cyclin E1, Cyclin D1, CDK4, Rb and p53 whereas induced expression of p21 and marginal increase of pro-apoptotic gene (Bax) confirms the toxic nature of areca nut. Thus, cell death due to areca nut exposure may be through different mechanism rather than the conventional apoptotic pathway, where p21 induction might be independent of p53 action, which possibly suggests that there may be a role of p21 in oxidative stress induced cell death. Further FACS analysis confirms cell death in areca nut treated cells. © 2016 Elsevier Inc

Yeast chassis design for dicarboxylic acids production

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