Effects of Overexpression of SAP12 and SAP13 in Providing Tolerance to Multiple Abiotic Stresses in Plants

Environmental stresses are the one of the main reasons for the decline of crop production worldwide. In the past years, a major focus has been on improving plant species and their tolerance towards these stresses but not much has been achieved because of the limited knowledge of the gene/network of genes that might be involved in providing tolerance to such multiple abiotic stresses. Recently, members of Stress Associated Protein (SAP) family in plants have been shown to impart tolerance to multiple abiotic stresses. There are 14 SAP genes in Arabidopsis thaliana and these proteins contain A20, AN1 and C2H2 zinc finger domains. AtSAP13, a member of the SAP family, carries two AN1 zinc finger domains and an extra Cys2-His2 domain. AtSAP13 showed differentially regulation in response to multiple abiotic stresses such as toxic metals arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), and zinc (Zn), drought, and salt. When overexpressed in Arabidopsis and Brassica juncea, it showed strong tolerance to these stresses. However, the mode of action of this SAP member in providing tolerance to multiple abiotic stresses is largely unknown. In-silico analysis of the promoter sequences upstream of ATG start codon of AtSAP13 using PLACE database predicted the presence of various abiotic stress related cis regulatory elements. We hypothesized that the expression of AtSAP13 gene might be regulated via the interaction of cis-elements present in the AtSAP13 promoter with abiotic stress related trans factors via protein-DNA interactions under different abiotic stresses. Through yeast one hybrid assay (Y1H), we have proved this hypothesis and identified several transcription factors such as DREB, ERE, ZIP, HSE etc that are interacting with the AtSAP13 promoter. These interactions were analyzed through Electrophoretic mobility shift assay (EMSA) to understand the molecular and biochemical functioning of AtSAP13. Further, Camelina sativa, a member of Brassicaseae family and closely related with Arabidopsis, has been proposed as an ideal biofuel crop. In order to improve it’s adaptability to wider geographical ranges and marginal land, we have characterized and overexpressed endogenous SAP13 in C. sativa in providing tolerance to various stresses. We have identified and cloned CsSAP13 in C. sativa. Resulting transgenic plants showed enhanced biomass and seed yield under multiple abiotic stresses. The knowledge and information gained here will not only be applied on agricultural crops that will be better able to withstand such abiotic stresses and still produce sustainable yield but will also help to grow crops for food and biomass production on barren lands, thus making them more cultivable over time. Therefore, the proposed research could have a significant impact on global food security, biofuel production, and human and environment health enhancement

Echinobase: an expanding resource for echinoderm genomic information

Echinobase, a web accessible information system of diverse genomics and biological data for the echinoderm clade, grew out of SpBase, the first echinoderm genome project for sea urchin, Strongylocentrotus purpuratus. Sea urchins and their relatives are utilitarian research models in fields ranging from marine biology to developmental biology and gene regulatory systems. Echinobase is a user-friendly web interface that links an array of biological data that would otherwise have been tedious and frustrating for researchers to extract and organize. The system hosts a powerful gene search engine, genomics browser and other bioinformatics tools to investigate genomics and high throughput data. The Echinobase information system now serves genomic information for eight echinoderm species: S. purpuratus, Strongylocentrotus fransciscanus, Allocentrotus fragilis, Lytechinus variegatus, Patiria miniata, Parastichopus parvimensis and Ophiothrix spiculata, Eucidaris tribuloides. Herein lies a description of the web information system, genomics data types and content hosted by Echinobase.org. The goal of Echinobase is to connect genomic information to various experimental data and accelerate the research in field of molecular biology, developmental process, gene regulatory networks and more recently engineering biological systems0. Database URL:http://www.echinobase.or

Role of diagnostic hysteroscopy in evaluation of abnormal uterine bleeding and its histopathological correlation

Background: The aims of this study are 1) To study the accuracy of hysteroscopy in evaluation of abnormal uterine bleeding. 2) To correlate hysteroscopic findings with histopathology findings.Methods: This is a prospective interventional study conducted in the dept. of obstetrics & gynecology at K.J. Somaiya hospital in the period between January 2010 to December 2012. Women between 20-60 years of age of any parity who presented with complaints of Abnormal Uterine Bleeding (AUB) and who did not require any emergency management were enrolled in the study after excluding pregnancy, uterine/cervical infection/PID, cervical malignancy, H/o uterine perforation, patients on Oral Contraceptive Pills (OCPs), and presence of medical contraindication to any invasive procedure. A total of 98 women were included in the study. They were counselled and informed consent was taken. Patients were evaluated with detailed history, thorough examination and investigations. Hysteroscopy was done under total intravenous anaesthesia followed by endometrial biopsy. Hysteroscopic findings were then correlated with histopathology reports.Results: The sensitivity, specificity, Positive Predictive Value (PPV), Negative Predictive Value (NPV) and accuracy of diagnostic hysteroscopy in the study was 98.3%, 80.5%, 89.7%, 96.7% and 91.8% respectively. For the diagnosis of endometrial hyperplasia these were 92%, 92%, 89%, 94%, and 92 % respectively. For polyp these figures were 94%, 96%, 87%, 98%, 95% respectively; for endometrial atrophy there were 66%, 95%,  60 %, 98% and 94%; for submucous fibroid 91%, 95%, 78%, 98%, and 94%; for malignancy 75%, 98%, 75%,  98%,  97% respectively.Conclusions: With the above results it can be concluded that hysteroscopy is safe, sensitive and reliable diagnostic procedure. However endometrial biopsy improves the diagnostic accuracy of hysteroscopy.

Estimating wheat yield: an approach for estimating number of grains using cross-polarised ENVISAT-1 ASAR data

In this paper an attempt to model wheat yield is made by exploiting characteristic interaction of cross-polarised SAR with wheat crop. SAR backscatter from a crop field is affected by the density, structure, volume and the moisture content of various components of plant (viz. head, stem, leaf) alongwith soil moisture. Hence, to effectively handle the influence of each of these components of the plant on SAR backscatter, a plant parameter, termed as Interaction Factor (IF) is conceptualised by combining volume, moisture, height for each of the component and density of plant. For this purpose, detailed experiment over farmers' fields was carried out in synchrony with SAR acquisition involving in-depth measurements on volume, moisture content and height of various components of wheat plant, number of grains, plant density and soil moisture. Stepwise regression analysis revealed that IFHead significantly affects the shallow incidence angle, cross-polarised C-band SAR backscatter. IFHead is also highly correlated to the number of grains. This is attributed to the fact that parameters of the wheat head from which IFHead is calculated, namely moisture, volume and height, determine eventual number of grains. The study offers an approach for estimating wheat yield by retrieving number of grains from shallow incidence angle cross-polarised SAR data

Application potentials of synthetic aperture radar interferometry for land-cover mapping and crop-height estimation

Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) interferometry is widely used for applications like digital elevation map generation and studies related to surface movement. However, SAR interferometry can also be exploited in many other areas. Here a few of the potential applications of SAR interferometry have been demonstrated by exploring its use in delineation and density mapping of forested areas, delineation of surface water extent under adverse weather conditions, which is useful during flood-mapping; detection of human settlement and crop-height estimation. This has been achieved by exploiting interferometric coherence, which is inversely related to the magnitude of random dislocation of scatterers between the two passes. The study indicated that interferometric coherence decreases with increase in forest density or increase in crop height. It was also observed that interferometric coherence over stable targets like settlement is quite high compared to other land-cover classes. In contrast, interferometric coherence is always low for unstable surfaces like the water surface. The study suggested that interferometric coherence is a parameter that provides valuable information, which is completely different from that of SAR backscatter. It was also observed that synergic use of SAR backscatter with InSAR coherence enhances the application potential of a SAR system as a whole towards many land-cover features

How far SAR has fulfilled its expectation for soil moisture retrieval

Microwave remote sensing is one of the most promising tools for soil moisture estimation owing to its high sensitivity to dielectric properties of the target. Many ground-based scatterometer experiments were carried out for exploring this potential. After the launch of ERS-1, expectation was generated to operationally retrieve large area soil moisture information. However, along with its strong sensitivity to soil moisture, SAR is also sensitive to other parameters like surface roughness, crop cover and soil texture. Single channel SAR was found to be inadequate to resolve the effects of these parameters. Low and high incidence angle RADARSAT-1 SAR was exploited for resolving these effects and incorporating the effects of surface roughness and crop cover in the soil moisture retrieval models. Since the moisture and roughness should remain unchanged between low and high angle SAR acquisition, the gap period between the two acquisitions should be minimum. However, for RADARSAT-1 the gap is typically of the order of 3 days. To overcome this difficulty, simultaneously acquired ENVISAT-1 ASAR HH/VV and VV/VH data was studied for operational soil moisture estimation. Cross-polarised SAR data has been exploited for its sensitivity to vegetation for crop-covered fields where as co-pol ratio has been used to incorporate surface roughness for the case of bare soil. Although there has not been any multi-frequency SAR system onboard a satellite platform, efforts have also been made to understand soil moisture sensitivity and penetration capability at different frequencies using SIR-C/X-SAR and multi-parametric Airborne SAR data. This paper describes multi-incidence angle, multi-polarised and multi-frequency SAR approaches for soil moisture retrieval over large agricultural area

Immediate complications and subsequent reproductive outcome after medical abortion: hospital based cross sectional study

Background: Medical abortion is considered to be a safe, effective and reliable method for termination of pregnancy. The procedure has stood the test of time very well over the last 10 years in terms of results and immediate complications but there are not many reports regarding the subsequent reproductive outcome of these women. Thus, it was decided to conduct a study with special focus on subsequent reproductive outcome in women undergoing medical abortion. The objectives of the study were to determine the source of health care provider for women seeking medical abortion, to study immediate complications of medical abortion, to study acceptance of family planning methods post medical abortion in the study subjects and to study subsequent reproductive outcomes in women who underwent medical abortion.Methods: A cross sectional institution based study was conducted after ethics committee approval in the Obstetrics and Gynecology outpatient department of a tertiary care institute from January 2014 to December 2014. 94 newly registered patients in the age group of 18-35 years who came to the Obstetrics and Gynecology OPD during the study period were interviewed. Amongst these those who have undergone medical abortion in the period between 2010 and 2011 and were willing to participate in the study were enrolled. Diagnosed cases of Diabetes Mellitus, Hypertension and any other major medical or surgical illness were excluded from the study.Study subjects were interviewed with a revalidated, pretested semi structured Questionnaire with due privacy to maintain confidentiality. The data was analyzed by SPSS version 16 software.Results: 13.8% study subjects took their medicines from chemists without consulting any medical professional and 9.5% of them were prescribed these medicines by general practitioners. Prevalence of immediate complications that is incomplete abortion, need for surgical evacuation and excessive bleeding in the study were 17%, 11.7% and 1.1% respectively. Proportion of women who accepted family planning post medical abortion was 62.8%. Prevalence of subsequent reproductive outcomes in females who did not use permanent method of sterilization or got copper T inserted were infertility (7.1%), abortion (8.9%), ectopic pregnancy (3.6%), PIH (10.7%), IUGR (3.6%) and preterm labour (10.7%).Conclusions: Medical abortion using Mifepristone and Misoprostol is a reliable and safe method of termination of early pregnancy (up to 7 weeks period of gestation). These findings are relevant while counseling patients for medical abortion