Effect of post-harvest treatments of various chemical and plant growth regulators on chemical characteristics of sapota fruits cv. Kalipatti.

Research PaperThe mature fruits of sapota cv. Kalipatti were subjected to various post harvest chemical and growth regulator treatments viz. calcium chloride (5000 and 10000 ppm), calcium nitrate (2 and 4 %), gibberellic acid (200 and 400 ppm), benzyl adenine (75 and 150 ppm) and control (distilled water) and stored at ambient temperature. The level of acidity and ascorbic acid decreased with advancement of storage period and titratable acidity was found maximum (0.18 %) in control i.e. fruits treated with distilled water. The TSS, reducing sugars and total sugars were found to be increased up to 9th day of storage and then decreased at 12th day of storage. CaCl2 (10000 ppm) was found to be best since they have the highest amount of TSS (23.81 0Brix), reducing sugars (10.69 %), total sugars (19.18 %) and ascorbic acid (10.08 %).Not Availabl

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Research PaperInvestigation was conducted to study the effect of post harvest treatments of chemical and plant growth regulators on physical characteristics of sapota fruits cv. Kalipatti. Fruits were treated with calcium chloride (5000 and 10000 ppm), calcium nitrate (2 and 4 %), gibberellic acid (200 and 400 ppm) benzyl adenine (75 and 150 ppm) and control (distilled water) and stored at ambient temperature. CaCl2 (10000 ppm) was proved very effective in weight, PLW and registered high fruit firmness, increase shelf life and ripening period. There was significant increase in physiological loss in weight, spoilage with enhanced storage period irrespective of chemical and growth regulator treatments. Similarly decrease in weight, fruit firmness during storage of sapota fruit was noticed. The minimum physiological loss in weight, total spoilage were noticed under CaCl2 10000 ppm treated fruits. The study suggest that CaCl2 10000 ppm as post harvest dip improves the fruits firmness, shelf life and ripening period of sapota up to 12th day of storage.Not Availabl

Using nanotechniques to explore microbial surfaces.

Our current understanding of microbial surfaces owes much to the development of electron microscopy techniques. Yet, a crucial limitation of electron microscopy is that it cannot be used to examine biological structures directly in aqueous solutions. In recent years, however, atomic force microscopy (AFM) has provided a range of new opportunities for viewing and manipulating microbial surfaces in their native environments. Examples of AFM-based analyses include visualizing conformational changes in single membrane proteins, the real-time observation of cell-surface dynamics, analysing the unfolding of cell-surface proteins and detecting individual cell-surface receptors. These analyses have contributed to our understanding of the structure–function relationships of cell surfaces and will hopefully allow new applications to be developed for AFM in medicine and biotechnology