Development and use of genic molecular markers (GMMs) for construction of a transcript map of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.)

A transcript map has been constructed by the development and integration of genic molecular markers (GMMs) including single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP), genic microsatellite or simple sequence repeat (SSR) and intron spanning region (ISR)-based markers, on an inter-specific mapping population of chickpea, the third food legume crop of the world and the first food legume crop of India. For SNP discovery through allele re-sequencing, primer pairs were designed for 688 genes/expressed sequence tags (ESTs) of chickpea and 657 genes/ESTs of closely related species of chickpea. High-quality sequence data obtained for 220 candidate genic regions on 2–20 genotypes representing 9 Cicer species provided 1,893 SNPs with an average frequency of 1/35.83 bp and 0.34 PIC (polymorphism information content) value. On an average 2.9 haplotypes were present in 220 candidate genic regions with an average haplotype diversity of 0.6326. SNP2CAPS analysis of 220 sequence alignments, as mentioned above, provided a total of 192 CAPS candidates. Experimental analysis of these 192 CAPS candidates together with 87 CAPS candidates identified earlier through in silico mining of ESTs provided scorable amplification in 173 (62.01%) cases of which predicted assays were validated in 143 (82.66%) cases (CGMM). Alignments of chickpea unigenes with Medicago truncatula genome were used to develop 121 intron spanning region (CISR) markers of which 87 yielded scorable products. In addition, optimization of 77 EST-derived SSR (ICCeM) markers provided 51 scorable markers. Screening of easily assayable 281 markers including 143 CGMMs, 87 CISRs and 51 ICCeMs on 5 parental genotypes of three mapping populations identified 104 polymorphic markers including 90 markers on the inter-specific mapping population. Sixty-two of these GMMs together with 218 earlier published markers (including 64 GMM loci) and 20 other unpublished markers could be integrated into this genetic map. A genetic map developed here, therefore, has a total of 300 loci including 126 GMM loci and spans 766.56 cM, with an average inter-marker distance of 2.55 cM. In summary, this is the first report on the development of large-scale genic markers including development of easily assayable markers and a transcript map of chickpea. These resources should be useful not only for genome analysis and genetics and breeding applications of chickpea, but also for comparative legume genomics

Analysis of tempering temperature and vegetable oil quenchant viscosity effect on mechanical properties of 42CrMo4 steel

AbstractEnvironment is the main concern nowadays to protect the soil. Heat treatment processes used to enhance the properties of steel should not affect the environment badly. In this study, eco-friendly oil-quench specimens of 42CrMo4 steel are subjected to different tempering temperatures for about 4 hours and tested. Hardness, room temperature impact toughness, and microstructure of specimens were determined. Results showed that as the tempering temperature increased, there was an increase in impact toughness with slight decrease in the hardness. Blend oil-quench specimen, tempered at 450°C and 500°C, shows reasonably good hardness (40 and 39 Rc, respectively) and impact toughness (35 and 40 J, respectively). Response surface approach for combined optimization has given the optimized value for tempering temperature and oil viscosity as 453°C and 34.7 centistokes, respectively. Confirmation test results have shown that the regression equation developed is the best fit with percentage error less than 3%

Study of Epidemiological Characteristics of the SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic in Hassan District, Karnataka,India

Background and Objective: In late December 2019, a novel corona virus (SARS-CoV-2) emerged in China and rapidly spread globally including India. Data on epidemiology of COVID 19 was limited during initial periods of outbreak in India. This study describes the epidemiological characteristics of COVID-19 patients in a District of South India.Methods: This prospective ,observational study included patients fulfillingWHO case definition of COVID-19 and confirmed to have SARS-CoV-2 infection by reverse transcription- polymerase chain reaction(RT-PCR) admitted between May, 2020 and July 2020.The demographic and epidemiological data was collected and analyzed.Results: Out of 1376 patients were admitted, the age group most affected was 31-40 years and 62% were male,73.69% were asymptomatic. Fever( 46.4%) ,cough (38.95%) and dyspnea (22.92% ) the most common presentation. 88.51% of the patients didn’t have any comorbidities. Diabetes Mellitus was the most common comorbidity.21.72% had history of travel with a positive case.Conclusion: This study revealed ,COVID 19 affecting younger age, males ,majority being asymptomatic and Diabetes Mellitus to be the major comorbidity

Seroprevalence and Trends in Transfusion Transmitted Infections Among Blood Donors in a University Hospital Blood Bank: A 5 Year Study

Blood is life. Transfusion of blood and blood components, as a specialized modality of patient management saves millions of lives worldwide each year and reduce morbidity. It is well known that blood transfusion is associated with a large number of complications, some are only trivial and others are potentially life threatening, demanding for meticulous pretransfusion testing and screening particularly for transfusion transmissible infections (TTI). These TTI are a threat to blood safety. The priority objective of BTS is thus to ensure safety, adequacy, accessibility and efficiency of blood supply at all levels. The objective of the present study was to assess the prevalence and trend of transfusion transmitted infections (TTI) among voluntary and replacement donors in the Department of Blood bank and transfusion Medicine of JSS College Hospital, a teaching hospital of Mysore during the period from 2004 to 2008. A retrospective review of donors record covering the period between 2004 and 2008 at the blood bank, JSS Hospital, Mysore was carried out. All samples were screened for HIV, HBsAg, HCV, syphilis and malaria. Of the 39,060, 25,303 (64.78%) were voluntary donors and the remaining 13,757 (35.22%) were replacement donors. The overall prevalence of HIV, HbsAg, HCV and syphilis were 0.44, 1.27, 0.23 and 0.28%, respectively. No blood donor tested showed positivity for malarial parasite. Majority were voluntary donors with male preponderance. In all the markers tested there was increased prevalence of TTI among the replacement donors as compared to voluntary donors. With the implementation of strict donor criteria and use of sensitive screening tests, it may be possible to reduce the incidence of TTI in the Indian scenario