16S rRNA gene taxonomic profiling of endophytic bacteria associated with phylaenopsis roots

Orchids are one of the main groups of ornamental plants commercially exploited. In the present study, we analyzed the diversity of bacterial community in Phalaenopsis root using metagenomic approach. The diversity of bacterial taxonomic category was assessed at different Operational Taxonomic Unit (OTU) levels using Ribosomal Database Project (RDP) pipeline and MG-RAST. At phylum level, Proteobacteria (61.34%) was the most dominant group followed by unclassified derived from bacteria (24.74%) and Actinobacteria (12.52%). Genus level analysis revealed the abundance of Rubrobacter, Pseudomonas and Acinetobacter. The study revealed that of the total species detected 50.83 per cent were unclassified, stressing the importance of metagenomics to assess the diversity of endophytes associated with orchid roots

Elevated serum Homocysteine levels a possible non-invasive diagnostic biomarker in patients with Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease

Lack of independent biomarkers is very much evident in NAFLD. Early detection of NAFLD is difficult due to the absence of specific diagnostic and prognostic markers and clinical symptoms. We retrospectively collected the information of patients hospitalised with NAFLD diagnosis and metabolic syndrome during 2019-2020 using the tertiary care hospital inpatient sample database and evaluated the changes in their serum homocysteine levels. We found that 59.063% of NAFLD in the male population and 41.667% of NAFLD in the female population had increased serum homocysteine. This shows that elevated serum homocysteine can act as a potential biomarker for NAFLD

Nature Chem

Numerous essential biomolecular processes require the recognition of DNA surface features by proteins. Molecules mimicking these features could potentially act as decoys and interfere with pharmacologically or therapeutically relevant protein-DNA interactions. Although naturally occurring DNA-mimicking proteins have been described, synthetic tunable molecules that mimic the charge surface of double-stranded DNA are not known. Here, we report the design, synthesis and structural characterization of aromatic oligoamides that fold into single helical conformations and display a double helical array of negatively charged residues in positions that match the phosphate moieties in B-DNA. These molecules were able to inhibit several enzymes possessing non-sequence-selective DNA-binding properties, including topoisomerase 1 and HIV-1 integrase, presumably through specific foldamer-protein interactions, whereas sequence-selective enzymes were not inhibited. Such modular and synthetically accessible DNA mimics provide a versatile platform to design novel inhibitors of protein-DNA interactions