Effect of Caesalpinia pulcherrima (L.) Sw. seeds on serum glucose and other metabolic parameters of normal and alloxan - induced diabetic rats

Oral administration of the ethanol extract of Caesalpinia pulcherrima seeds (CP - 250 and 500 mg/kg) caused significant fall in blood glucose levels even at 2½ h after a single dose of treatment in normal fasted and glucose loaded Wistar rats. At 250 mg/kg dose level, CP completely prevented the elevation of blood glucose caused by oral glucose feeding. In alloxan diabetic rats, CP was able to lower the blood glucose level to around 132 mg / 100 ml from 10th day and thereafter. The biochemical findings were supported by histopathological studies of liver, kidney and pancreas of control and treated rats. CP was able to increase catalase levels of diabetic rats. Reduced levels of serum protein and elevated levels of serum glutamate oxaloacetate transaminase (SGOT), serum glutamate pyruvate transaminase(SGPT), alkaline phosphatase(ALP), cholesterol, triglycerides, creatinine and uric acid were almost normalised in CP treated diabetic rats. CP was also able to reduce in vitro lipid peroxidation in rat liver microsomes and inhibit 1- diphenyl – 2-picryl hydrazyl (DPPH) induced free radicals significantly

CRISPR-based gene drives generate super-Mendelian inheritance in the disease vector Culex quinquefasciatus

Culex mosquitoes pose a significant public health threat as vectors for a variety of diseases including West Nile virus and lymphatic filariasis, and transmit pathogens threatening livestock, companion animals, and endangered birds. Rampant insecticide resistance makes controlling these mosquitoes challenging and necessitates the development of new control strategies. Gene drive technologies have made significant progress in other mosquito species, although similar advances have been lagging in Culex. Here we test a CRISPR-based homing gene drive for Culex quinquefasciatus, and show that the inheritance of two split-gene-drive transgenes, targeting different loci, are biased in the presence of a Cas9-expressing transgene although with modest efficiencies. Our findings extend the list of disease vectors where engineered homing gene drives have been demonstrated to include Culex alongside Anopheles and Aedes, and pave the way for future development of these technologies to control Culex mosquitoes

Silencing RNAs expressed from W-linked PxyMasc “retrocopies” target that gene during female sex determination in Plutella xylostella

The Lepidoptera are an insect order of cultural, economic, and environmental importance, representing ∼10% of all described living species. Yet, for all but one of these species (silkmoth, Bombyx mori), the molecular genetics of how sexual fate is determined remains unknown. We investigated this in the diamondback moth (Plutella xylostella), a globally important, highly invasive, and economically damaging pest of cruciferous crops. Our previous work uncovered a regulator of male sex determination in P. xylostella—PxyMasc, a homolog of B. mori Masculinizer—which, although initially expressed in embryos of both sexes, is then reduced in female embryos, leading to female-specific splicing of doublesex. Here, through sequencing small RNA libraries generated from early embryos and sexed larval pools, we identified a variety of small silencing RNAs (predominantly Piwi-interacting RNAs [piRNAs]) complementary to PxyMasc, whose temporal expression correlated with the reduction in PxyMasc transcript observed previously in females. Analysis of these small RNAs showed that they are expressed from tandemly arranged, multicopy arrays found exclusively on the W (female-specific) chromosome, which we term “Pxyfem”. Analysis of the Pxyfem sequences showed that they are partial complementary DNAs (cDNAs) of PxyMasc messenger RNA (mRNA) transcripts, likely integrated into transposable element graveyards by the noncanonical action of retrotransposons (retrocopies), and that their apparent similarity to B. mori feminizer more probably represents convergent evolution. Our study helps elucidate the sex determination cascade in this globally important pest and highlights the “shortcuts” that retrotransposition events can facilitate in the evolution of complex molecular cascades, including sex determination

First record of saddleback syndrome in wild species, <i>Etroplus suratensis </i> (Bloch, 1790) from the southeast coast of India

1536-1539Saddleback syndrome is represented by a crescent-shaped indentation on the dorsal surface, lack of few anterior dorsal spines and their associated pterygiophores and deformed neural spines in the affected fish. These abnormalities have been considered as an important indicator of environmentally induced stress of the wild fishes. Hence the present finding highlights the need for the closer monitoring of marine environment and to relate the specific factor which causes these abnormalities in fishes

Learning customer behaviour for effective load forecasting

Cloud computing is quickly expanding, and there are an increasing number of cloud providers. To stay competitive while earning a profit, cloud providers must focus on cost efficiency and resource cost maximization. The profit maximization challenge in federated cloud systems has been investigated in order to maximize the degree of multiplexing. Outline unique economics-inspired resource allocation strategies to address the profit maximization challenge from the standpoint of a purely active cloud provider. Admission control strategies have been presented that are adjusted within a profit management framework to maximize resource cost. Existing abstractions for in-memory storage on clusters, including as distributed shared memory, key value stores, databases, and Piccolo, use fine-grained modifications to mutable state as their interface. It has been fine-tuned to anticipate cluster load. Summing the loads of each cluster yields the total load for the entire grid. He suggested Smart Grid load forecasting approach has two primary benefits. Learning consumer habits enhances forecast accuracy while also being computationally efficient. SCCRF can simulate a single customer's load forecasting problem while concurrently selecting important features to determine its energy consumption trend. Experiments conducted from various angles show the benefits of the suggested load forecasting system

Ocimum tenuiflorum extract (HOLIXERTM): Possible effects on hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis in modulating stress.

Ocimum tenuiflorum is a sacred medicinal plant bestowed with multiple health benefits. This plant is traditionally considered an adaptogen. Many scientific studies have indicated the anti-stress potential of Ocimum tenuiflorum but with higher doses. The present study investigated the effects of HolixerTM (a clinically studied standardized Ocimum tenuiflorum extract) on modulating stress using two in vivo models, namely the swim endurance study in mice and forced swim test in rats. In addition, we explored the mechanism of action of HolixerTM on the HPA axis using two in vitro cell-based assays to check for its inhibitory effect on cortisol release and CRF1 receptor antagonistic activity. Ocimum tenuiflorum extract enhanced the swimming time in mice, reduced the stress-induced increase in immobility time, and prevented the increase in corticosterone in rats subjected to the forced swim test. Further, Ocimum tenuiflorum extract inhibited cortisol release and exhibited a significant CRF1 receptor antagonist activity. Thus, Ocimum tenuiflorum extract was found effective in managing stress, and the effect could be due to the inhibition of cortisol release and the antagonistic effect on the CRF1 receptors

CRISPR-based gene drives generate super-Mendelian inheritance in the disease vector Culex quinquefasciatus

Culex mosquitoes pose a significant public health threat as vectors for a variety of diseases including West Nile virus and lymphatic filariasis, and transmit pathogens threatening livestock, companion animals, and endangered birds. Rampant insecticide resistance makes controlling these mosquitoes challenging and necessitates the development of new control strategies. Gene drive technologies have made significant progress in other mosquito species, although similar advances have been lagging in Culex. Here we test the first CRISPR-based homing gene drive for Culex quinquefasciatus, demonstrating the possibility of using this technology to control Culex mosquitoes. Our results show that the inheritance of two split-gene-drive transgenes, targeting different loci, are biased in the presence of a Cas9-expressing transgene although with modest efficiencies. Our findings extend the list of disease vectors where engineered homing gene drives have been demonstrated to include Culex alongside Anopheles and Aedes, and pave the way for future development of these technologies to control Culex mosquitoes