Impact Analysis of Finger Millet Varieties on Yield and Income of the Farmers in Mandya District, Karnataka

The Finger Millet (Eleusine coracana L.) is a staple food in southern Karnataka popularly known and called as ‘Ragi’ in Indian vernacular language. To enhance its productivity the University of Agricultural Sciences, Bengaluru (UASB) is engaged in evolving location specific, farmer need based farm technologies through its Zonal Agricultural Research Stations (ZARS) spread over in Southern Karnataka since its inception 1965. To its credit, it has developed and released many farm technologies for the farmers to adopt. Among these, the improved high yielding Finger Millet variety KMR-204 was one. It has genetic advantages over the other local varieties, such as high yielding, blast tolerance, short duration and preferred for late sowing when rains are delayed. Such improved variety was released and recommended during 2011 for wider adoption for the growers in southern dry zone of Karnataka. Since then, many growers had adopted the variety. After lapse of 5 years of its release, the UASB was interested in to find out the performance of the technology on the farmers field and their perception in gaining economic returns when compared to other local varieties. From this backdrop the study was conducted during 2016 in Mandya district, Karnataka, where there is large area under the Finger Millet crop. The district has 7 taluks, from each taluk 2 Finger Millet growing villages were selected. From 14 villages, 210 respondents who have adopted both KMR-204 and Indaf -9 varieties (Before) were selected randomly and interviewed and information was collected. A research design ‘Before and After’ was adopted to compare the results. The findings of the study reveal that, the KMR-204 had given more grain and straw yield compared to that of Indaf-9 variety used before under both rainfed and irrigated conditions. However, the difference in obtaining grain and straw yields was non-significant. Similarly, in case of obtaining net income, though the respondents obtained relatively more income from KMR-204 compared to Indaf-9, the difference was non-significant. Thus the alternate hypothesis is rejected by accepting the null hypothesis. The respondents had favourable perception, with high attibutional quotient (0.92) towards KMR-204, implying speedier diffusion of technology in the social system for adoption. To conclude that the respondents obtained almost equal yields and income from the from the selected Finger millet varieties. The respondents had favourable perception (attributional index-0.92) towards KMR-204 variety, implying speedier diffusion of technology in to the social system in due course of time

Pyrrolidine-based cationic γ-peptide: a DNA-binding molecule works as a potent anti-gene agent

Pyrrolidine-based cationic peptides showing high stability to enzyme degradation and strong binding affinity towards DNA are widely investigated as tools to interfere in gene expression. Several studies have been focused on γ-peptide analogs with modifications on the peptide backbone in the attempt to overcome solubility, uptake, and aggregation issues. Pyrrolidine-based γ-peptide derivatives having two different modes of backbone conformation show interesting properties in terms of secondary structure and affinity of binding towards nucleic acids. In this paper, we illustrate our results obtained on two cationic 8-mer γ-peptides Gp1 and Gp2, and how they differ in side-chain spacing along the backbone was tested for DNA binding and DNA transfection activity. Both γ-peptides are stable toward protease digestion. Gp1 binds to DNA more tightly than GP2. This binding ability of Gp1 is attributed to its characteristic of single-chain PPII-like conformation. The Gp1 shows a reduction in its electrophoretic mobility when treated with plasmid DNA. The DNA transfection ability of γ-peptide Gp1 was compared with commercially available transfection reagent Effectene. In each case, Gp1 significantly enhanced the transfection efficiency (40%) of plasmid in Schneider cells compared to the commercial reagent (18%). The other γ-peptide GP2 is not active

One-pot approach for the synthesis of 2-aryl benzothiazoles via a two-component coupling of gem-dibromomethylarenes and o-aminothiophenols

One-pot synthesis of 2-aryl benzothiazoles from gem-dibromomethylarenes using 2-aminoarylthiols is described. Benzothiazoles were obtained in high chemical yields under mild conditions. This transformation would facilitate synthesis by short reaction times, large-scale synthesis, easy and quick isolation of the products, which are the main advantages of this procedure. (C) 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd

One-pot approach for the synthesis of 2-aryl benzothiazoles via a two-component coupling of gem-dibromomethylarenes and o-aminothiophenols

One-pot synthesis of 2-aryl benzothiazoles from gem-dibromomethylarenes using 2-aminoarylthiols is described. Benzothiazoles were obtained in high chemical yields under mild conditions. This transformation would facilitate synthesis by short reaction times, large-scale synthesis, easy and quick isolation of the products, which are the main advantages of this procedure. (C) 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd

4(R/S)-Amino/Guanidino-substituted Proline Peptides: Design, Synthesis and DNA Transfection Properties

Collagen is a major structural protein found in the connective tissues of higher organisms and mammals and its biomechanical properties are related to the high thermal stability of its triple helical structure. The primary structure of collagen is composed of the repeating tripeptide motif of Pro-Hyp-Gly, where Hyp is 4 R -hydroxy proline. Cationic collagen mimetics consisting of [Pro(X)-Pro(Y)-Gly]6 where Pro(X) and Pro(Y) are 4(R/S)-amino/guanidine proline have been synthesized and shown to form triplexes more stable than the unmodified collagen peptide [Pro-Hyp-Gly]6. The origin of hyperstability is due to conformational pre-organization of proline pucker arising from the electronegativity of the cationic group. These cationic collagen peptides are shown to be effective cell penetrating and plasmid DNA transfecting agents. The results have potential for design of new collagen mimetics for biomaterial applications and efficient cell penetrating agents for drug delivery applications

Anticancer activity of metal nanoparticles and their peptide conjugates against human colon adenorectal carcinoma cells

In the present study, nanoparticles of gold, iron oxide and zinc oxide (ZnO) were studied for cytotoxicity in the colorectal cancer cell HT 29. The metallic nanoparticles in the range of <50 and <100 nm were screened for anticancer activity by MTT assay. The nanoparticles were tested at concentrations ranging from 0.5 to 50 µg/ml. Zinc oxide exhibited significant anti-cancer activity in comparison to other nanoparticles. It had an IC50 value of 17.12 µg/ml. The mechanism of action was studied by fluorescence microscopy with acridine orange, propidium iodide and DAPI staining techniques. The ROS production of ZnO nanoparticles was determined by DCFH-DA. The ZnO nanoparticles were conjugated with novel hydrophobic peptides and evaluated for anticancer activity. It was observed that the nanoparticles peptide complex showed better cytotoxicity than either peptide or nanoparticle alone. Thus, the ZnO nanoparticles tested in our study has anticancer activity against colon cancer cells. It can also be conjugated with peptides and used for targeting cancer cells with higher efficacy

Analysis of culturable and unculturable microbial community in bensulfuron-methyl contaminated paddy soils

To investigate the influence of bensulfuron-methyl (BSM) on culturable microbial quantities and unculturable microbial community structures, conventional and molecular biological methods were employed in five BSM treated soils with three replications, respectively. The results obtained with traditional culture-dependent methods showed that a low-level of BSM had slight and transient effects on culturable microorganisms; nevertheless, high concentration of BSM resulted in a dramatic decrease in bacterial colony forming units (cfus). The result obtained using denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) revealed that more than 17 bands were observed in low BSM contaminated soil samples and only 10 bands were detected in samples with high BSM contamination. In other words, the diversity of soil community structure is related to the concentration of BSM. Cluster analysis showed that the community structure under low level of contamination was more similar to that of the control, while heavy contaminated amendments were far away from the above group. In a sense, the cooperation of the traditional method and the molecular biological method is more powerful to study the soil microbial information in contaminated ecosystem

One-pot synthesis of aryl oxime analogues from methyl arenes using NBS and hydroxyl amine hydrochloride

The one-pot synthesis of aryl oximes is reported by the reaction of methyl arenes with NBS using hydroxyl amine hydrochloride. The direct conversion of methyl group into oxime group has been achieved under mild reaction conditions in the presence of sensitive functional groups including chloro, bromo, cyano, hydroxy, fluoro, dioxaborolane, esters, and trifluoro methyl substituents with excellent yields. The simple experimental procedure and easy purification make this protocol advantageous

Identification of beta-aminopyrrolidine containing peptides as beta-amyloid aggregation inhibitors for Alzheimer's disease

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is caused by a series of events initiated by the production and aggregation of the amyloid beta-protein (A beta). In the early stages of the disease, A beta is released in a soluble form then progressively forms oligomeric, multimeric, and fibrillar aggregates, triggering neurodegeneration. Thus, development of inhibitors that initiate reverse A beta aggregation is thought to be a logical approach in treating AD. In this context, we developed beta-aminopyrrolidine containing 12 mer peptide 3 which is very potent in inhibiting the A beta aggregation and also reducing A beta(42)-induced cytotoxicity