Occurrence of teleomorphic phase of Colletotrichum gloeosporioides sensu lato, the incitant of black pepper anthracnose

Anthracnose caused by Colletotrichum gloeosporioides sensu lato, the ascomycetous pathogen is a major constraint in black pepper cultivation. In the present study, surveys carried out in black pepper cultivating regions of Karnataka, India revealed the prevalence of anthracnose disease manifested as diverse array of foliar symptoms. An atypical foliar symptom was also noticed in the black pepper nurseries, characterized by grayish necrotic lesions with brown-blackish margins and randomly distributed blackish structures of pin-head size in the lesion area manifested particularly on the older leaves. The pin-head structures produced orangish exudation embedded with asci, ascospores and perithecia, when incubated under high humid conditions. Typical anthracnose symptoms were developed on susceptible host in pathogenicity studies and subsequent isolation yielded two distinct colonies designated as black and orange. The perithecia were induced artificially under in vitro conditions, which retained fertility and infectivity more than three months. Alternation of generation was observed when the perithecia were cultured on potato dextrose medium which resulted in the formation of acervuli with abundant conidiation. The results of present investigation shed light into the occurrence and potential role of perithecial (teleomorphic) phase in the survival of C. gloeosporioides s. l. infecting black pepper

Influential factors on the levels of cation exchange capacity in sediment at Langat river.

An exploratory study was carried out at 22 sampling stations along the Langat River, Selangor in order to investigate on the vitality of cation exchange capacity (CEC) in sediment (0–5 cm). Parameters such as pH, Eh, salinity, and electrical conductivity (EC) were determined. The CEC in sediment has been calculated by the determination of Ca2+, Na+, Mg2+, and K+ using the flame atomic absorption spectrophotometer, while the organic matter content in sediment was ascertained using the loss on ignition method. The characteristic of the sediment shows that pH (3.09–7.46), salinity (0.02–10.71 ppt), EC (3.39–517 μS/cm) and Eh (−16.20–253.10 mV) were substantially high in variation. This study also revealed that exchangeable Ca2+ and Mg2+ were controlled by organic matter contents, while exchangeable Na+ and K+ were influenced by salinity. Salinity was observed to play a major part in controlling all the exchangeable cations, as it gives strong significant correlations with Na+, K+, Mg2+, CEC, and organic matter at p < 0.01. The presence of seawater, clay mineralogy, and organic matter proves that it does play an important role in determining the CEC and soon relates to the pollution magnitude in the sediment

Epidemiological parameters to delineate weather-disease interactions and host plant resistance against leaf blight in small cardamom (Elettaria cardamomum Maton)

Small cardamom, the versatile spice of Zingiberaceae is cultivated in diverse agro-climatic regions of India especially in South India. Leaf blight incited by Colletotrichum gloeosporioides sensu lato is one among the major challenges encountered across different cardamom growing tracts. In the present investigation, epidemiology of cardamom leaf blight was studied and an attempt was made to decipher the resistant nature of Malabar, Mysore and Vazhukka genotypes based on epidemiological parameters. The average percent disease index recorded in Malabar, Mysore and Vazhukka varied from 23.41 to 27.72, 18.79 to 20.34 and 18.74 to 20.38, respectively. The disease exhibited a positive correlation with respect to Tmax and Tmin in all the genotypes, however, significant correlation was observed only in Malabar and Mysore with respect to Tmax. Whereas, rainfall and rainy days had negative correlation with leaf blight in all genotypes however found to be non-significant. The average infection rate was maximum (0.000429) in Malabar, whereas it was 0.000124 and 0.000186 in Mysore and Vazhukka, respectively. The area under disease progress curve registered the highest for Malabar (8814.15) and lowest in Vazhukka (6531.02) while, Mysore type recorded 6612.96 indicating that, Vazhukka and Mysore types might posses horizontal resistance and Malabar with vertical resistance. In the light of above results, plant protection measures could be scheduled based on the take-off level and genotypes with horizontal resistance could be promising candidates in resistance breeding programmes

E1 and E2 contributions to the L3 resonance line shape in antiferromagnetic holmium

A detailed study of the angular, energy and polarization dependences of the electric dipolar (E1: 2p->5d) and quadrupolar (E2: 2p->4f) contributions to the x-ray scattering cross-section is presented for holmium in its basal plane spiral antiferromagnetic phase at the L3 edge. The corresponding E1 and E2 scattering factors have been extracted from fits to the experimental energy line shapes taking into account for the first time a split dipole resonance. Using the imaginary part of the resonant scattering factors to retrieve the XMCD spectrum, we find qualitative agreement with the dichroic spectrum measured in transmission through a holmium foil.Comment: 16 pages, 8 figures, 5 table

Evaluation of insecticides and natural products for their efficacy against cardamom thrips (Sciothrips cardamomi Ramk.) (Thysanoptera: Thripidae) in the field

Eleven insecticides and natural products were evaluated in the field at Appangala (Karnataka) for their efficacy against cardamom thrips (Sciothrips cardamomi) for three years. Combined analysis of three years data indicated that all the treatments were significantly effective in reducing the damage caused by thrips on capsules compared to control when sprayed during February-March, March-April, April-May and September and October. Fipronil 0.005% treated plots recorded the lowest percentage of damage (6.5%) that was on par with imidacloprid 0.0089%, thiamethoxam 0.0075% and spinosad 0.0135%. The trials indicated that spinosad can substitute synthetic insecticides for thrips control in cardamom, due to their less adverse effects on the environment. &nbsp

Elemental hydrochemistry assessment on its variation and quality status in Langat River, Western Peninsular Malaysia.

This paper discusses the hydrochemistry variation and its quality status in Langat River, based on the chemistry of major ions, metal concentrations and suitability for drinking purposes. Water samples were collected from 30 different stations to assess their hydrochemical characteristics. The physico-chemical parameters selected were temperature, electrical conductivity, total dissolved solids (TDS), salinity, dissolved oxygen , pH, redox potential, HCO3, Cl, SO4, NO3, Ca, Na, K, Mg, 27Al, 138Ba, 9Be, 111Cd, 59Co, 63Cu, 52Cr, 57Fe, 55Mn, 60Ni, 208Pb, 80Se and 66Zn to investigate the variation of the constituents in the river water. Most of the parameters comply with the Drinking Water Quality Standard of the World Health Organization and the Malaysian National Standard for Drinking Water Quality by the Malaysia Ministry of Health except for EC, TDS, Cl, HCO3, SO4, Na, Mg, Al, Fe and Se. The results show that the Langat River is unsuitable for drinking purposes directly without treatment

Hybrid off-river augmentation system as an alternative raw water resource: the hydrogeochemistry of abandoned mining ponds

The use of water from abandoned mining ponds under a hybrid off-river augmentation system (HORAS) has been initiated as an alternative water resource for raw water. However, it raises the questions over the safety of the use of such waters. In this study, the hydrogeochemical analysis of the waters is presented to assess the degree to which the water has been contaminated. Comparisons were made between sampling sites, i.e. abandoned mining ponds, active sand mining ponds and the receiving streams within Bestari Jaya, Selangor River basin. The aqueous geochemistry analysis showed different hydrochemical signatures of major elements between sites, indicating different sources of minerals in the water. Discharges from the sand mining ponds were found to contain elevated availability of dissolved concentrations of iron, manganese, lead, copper and zinc, among others. However, the quality of the water (from the main river) that is supplied for potable water consumption is at a satisfactory level despite being partly sourced from the abandoned mining ponds. In fact, all the metal concentrations detected were well below the Malaysia Ministry of Health guideline limits for untreated raw water. In addition, the results of the geochemical index analysis (i.e. geoaccumulation index, enrichment factor and modified contamination factor) showed that the rivers and abandoned mining ponds were generally unpolluted with respect to the metals found in sediments

Functionalization of Carbon Nanomaterial Surface by Doxorubicin and Antibodies to Tumor Markers

The actual task of oncology is effective treatment of cancer while causing a minimum harm to the patient. The appearance of polymer nanomaterials and technologies launched new applications and approaches of delivery and release of anticancer drugs. The goal of work was to test ultra dispersed diamonds (UDDs) and onion-like carbon (OLCs) as new vehicles for delivery of antitumor drug (doxorubicin (DOX)) and specific antibodies to tumor receptors. Stable compounds of UDDs and OLCs with DOX were obtained. As results of work, an effectiveness of functionalization was 2.94 % w/w for OLC-DOX and 2.98 % w/w for UDD-DOX. Also, there was demonstrated that UDD-DOX and OLC-DOX constructs had dose-dependent cytotoxic effect on tumor cells in the presence of trypsin. The survival of adenocarcinoma cells reduced from 52 to 28 % in case of incubation with the UDD-DOX in concentrations from 8.4–2.5 to 670–20 μg/ml and from 72 to 30 % after incubation with OLC-DOX. Simultaneously, antibodies to epidermal growth factor maintained 75 % of the functional activity and specificity after matrix-assisted pulsed laser evaporation deposition. Thus, the conclusion has been made about the prospects of selected new methods and approaches for creating an antitumor agent with capabilities targeted delivery of drugs

A Chemocentric Approach to the Identification of Cancer Targets

A novel chemocentric approach to identifying cancer-relevant targets is introduced. Starting with a large chemical collection, the strategy uses the list of small molecule hits arising from a differential cytotoxicity screening on tumor HCT116 and normal MRC-5 cell lines to identify proteins associated with cancer emerging from a differential virtual target profiling of the most selective compounds detected in both cell lines. It is shown that this smart combination of differential in vitro and in silico screenings (DIVISS) is capable of detecting a list of proteins that are already well accepted cancer drug targets, while complementing it with additional proteins that, targeted selectively or in combination with others, could lead to synergistic benefits for cancer therapeutics. The complete list of 115 proteins identified as being hit uniquely by compounds showing selective antiproliferative effects for tumor cell lines is provided