Culture of Moina micrura on various organic waste products

Moina micrura, a cladoceran species, is considered to be one of the best live food organisms for rearing the young larval stages of fish and prawn. Considering the importance of this species in hatchery operations the present study was undertaken to record its fecundity and life span and to culture it using different locally available organic waste products. In indoor culture, a maximum production of 2600 ind/1 and a minimum of 1050 ind/1 were obtained when treated with gram + maize oilcake and "till" oilcake respectively. In outdoor culture, a highest production of 6000 ind/1 was achieved with "Alsi" and "till" oilcakes and a lowest density of 1050 ind/1 with coconut oilcake and raw cattle dung was obtained with an inoculation rate of 5 ind/1

Performance of sequential herbicides to control weeds in direct seeded rice

Direct seeded rice is an emerging production technology in India due to less requirement of water, labour and capital input initially. But direct seeded rice face severe infestation of weeds. A field experiment was conducted during the kharif 2012 at Students’ Farm of College of Agriculture, CCS Haryana Agricultural University; Kaul campus (Kaithal) to study the performance of sequential application of herbicides on weed flora in direct seeded rice. The herbicidal treatments included two pre emergence herbicides i.e. pendimethalin 1000 g/ha and oxadiargyl 100 g/ ha and four post emergence herbicides (bispyribac sodium 25 g/ha, fenoxaprop 67 g/ha, ethoxysulfuron 18.75 g/ha and metsulfuron methyl 10% + chlorimuron ethyl 10% WP ready mix (Almix) 4 g/ha). Weed free and weedy check were also included. The results showed that grasses were the dominant weed flora (49 %) followed by sedges (34%) and broad leaf weeds (17%).Sequential application of pendimethalin 1000 g/ha fb bispyribac sodium 25 g/ha and metsulfuron methyl + chlorimuron ethyl RM (Almix) 4 g/ha gave significantly lower weed density (p=0.05) and higher weed control efficiency which resulted in more number of effective tillers (209.3), filled grains/panicle (83.7) and grain yield (3.97 t/ha)

Integrated weed management in direct seeded rice in Trans Indo-Gangetic plains of India- A review

In the Indo-Gangetic Plains (IGP) of India, rice (Oryza sativa L.) is taken by conventional tilled puddled transplanted (CT-PTR) method. CT-PTR requires a lot of water (2000-2500 mm) which comes mainly from groundwater. Due to declining water table and changing climate, the sustainability of CT-PTR rice is under immense pressure. The alternative to CT-PTR could be direct seeded rice (DSR) which requires less water, labor, initial cost and energy than CT-PTR. But direct seeded rice is heavily infested with weeds which cause severe loss to the grain yield. Thus, the success of aerobic rice depends on effective and timely weed control. As a single weed control method may not be successful on a long term basis, weed problem in direct seeded rice needs to be solved by integrated approach. Integrating cultural, mechanical and chemical methods along with highly competitive cultivars with effective allelopathic properties, effective weed management on long term sustainable basis can be achieved

CORRELATION BETWEEN BODY MASS INDEX AND MICROALBUMINURIA IN ESSENTIAL HYPERTENSIVE ADULTS

Objective: This study aimed to find the correlation between body mass index (BMI) and microalbuminuria (MA) in essential hypertensive adults. Methods: This study included 35 essential hypertensive patients in the 18–65 years of age group, who satisfied the inclusion criteria. Arterial blood pressure was measured by a sphygmomanometer and the first voided early morning urine sample was collected for the estimation of microalbumin. Results: The mean age of the population studied was 49±11.08 in essential hypertensive patients and 46.89±11.10 in the control group. The mean value of BMI in the hypertensive group was found to be 27.59±5.45. In the present study, the mean value of microalbumin in essential hypertensive patients was 20.95±16.96. A significant positive correlation between BMI and MA was observed in the study with p<0.001. Conclusion: Our study shows a positive correlation between BMI and MA. Therefore, this study will help in the early detection of renal injury and prevents its progression to renal failure by lifestyle and diet modifications

A molecular approach to reveal the genetic identity of parrot mussel and other sympatric mussel species distributed along the Kerala coast

Two commercially important mussel species are recorded from the Indian coast: green mussel Perna viridis (Linnaeus, 1758) and brown mussel P. indica (Kuriakose and Nair, 1976). Apart from this, a third type referred to as parrot mussel, which has shell shape of brown mussel, but with green shell colouration and suspected to be the hybrid of the above two species has also been reported from Kollam coast of Kerala, where both the species co-occur. In the present work, genetic identity of parrot and sympatric mussel species was determined using protein and genomic DNA markers. Protein markers viz. Sodium Dodecyl Sulphate Polyacrylamide Gel Electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) and allozymes and the genomic DNA marker Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) were used for determining genetic identity of the three mussel groups. The green and brown mussels could be clearly differentiated using SDS PAGE. The parrot mussel protein pattern was similar to that of brown mussel, except for an additional band of molecular weight 48.7 Kda which is unique to brown mussel. Genus specific protein bands for Perna viz. 66 Kda, 43 Kda and 14.3 Kda, were detected in this study. Allozyme electrophoresis also followed a similar pattern. Of the 10 allozyme loci studied, seven revealed speciesspecific diagnostic differences between P.viridis and P.indica. They were AAT-1* (Aspartate Amino Transferase-1*), AAT-2*, ME (Malic Enzyme)*, PGM-2*(Phospo Gluco Mutase-2*), EST-1* (Esterase- 1*), EST-2*, IcDH* (Isocitrate Dehydrogenase)*. Parrot mussel shared all the alleles of brown mussel, and no hybrid pattern was observed. Species-specific alleles clearly differentiated green mussel from both brown and parrot mussel. The genetic distance of green mussel from brown mussel, estimated from allozyme data was 1.1145 and with parrot mussel it was 1.105. The genetic distance between parrot mussel and brown mussel was negligibly low (0.0005). Using allozyme and RAPD data, the Nei’s Unbiased Measures of genetic distance were calculated and the dendograms prepared based on these values clearly depicted the separation of parrot mussel from green mussel as well as the close resemblance of parrot mussel with brown mussel. The higher gene flow (1.1539) determined using RAPD marker also hints that brown and parrot mussel may be acting as single interbreeding population. Hence this study using molecular tools to test the genetic identity of parrot mussel has helped to conclude that parrot mussel is only a morphotype of brown mussel and not a true hybrid of the two

DNA barcoding Indian marine fishes

DNA barcoding has been adopted as a global bio-identification system for animals in recent years. A major national programme on DNA barcoding of fish and marine life was initiated in India by the authors during 2006 and 115 species of marine fish covering Carangids, Clupeids, Scombrids, Groupers, Sciaenids, Silverbellies, Mullids, Polynemids and Silurids representing 79 Genera and 37 Families from the Indian Ocean have been barcoded for the first time using cytochrome c oxidase I gene (COI) of the mtDNA. The species were represented by multiple specimens and a total of 397 sequences were generated. After amplification and sequencing of 707 base pair fragment of COI, primers were trimmed which invariably generated a 655 base pair barcode sequence. The average Kimura two parameter (K2P) distances within species, genera, families, orders were 0.30%, 6.60%, 9.91%, 16.00%, respectively. In addition to barcode-based species identification system, phylogenetic relationships among the species have also been attempted. The neighbour-joining tree revealed distinct clusters in concurrence with the taxonomic status of the species

Effect of extender composition on sperm cryopreservation of Asian catfish Heteropneustes fossilis (Bloch) and Clarias batrachus (Linnaeus)

Air breathing catfish species Heteropneustes fossilis (Bloch) and Clarias batrachus (Linn.) are important table fish and fetch high market price. Cryopreservation of spermatozoa can be a useful tool in captive seed production for domestication and aquaculture of these catfish species. The objective of the present study was to identify optimum extender composition for sperm cryopreservation of the two species, H. fossilis and C. batrachus. Four extender compositions Hank’s Balanced Salt Solution (HBSS), Modified Hank’s Balanced Salt Solution (M-HBSS), Modified Hank’s Balanced Salt Solution with hen’s egg yolk (M-HBSS with EY) and European catfish were evaluated for cryopreservation of catfish sperm and 10 % Dimethyle Sulphoxide (DMSO) was used as a cryoprotectant. The pooled milt exhibiting 70-80% motile sperm was used for cryopreservation experiment. After storage for 48 hrs at -196ºC, the milt was thawed and evaluated for fertility test. The percentage of hatching was used as a parameter for the comparative evaluation of different extender composition. In H. fossilis extender M-HBSS indicated highest hatching rate (49.06%), followed by HBSS (42.76%), M-HBSS with EY (37.46%) and European catfish (29.47%). The hatching success with extender M-HBSS did not differ significantly (P > 0.05) from the control group (51%). In C. batrachus extender HBSS exhibited highest hatching (62.1 %), followed by M-HBSS with EY (51.6%), European Catfish (46.3%) and M-HBSS (40.9%). The hatching rate in control was 90% in C. batrachus. The results indicated that the two species differ in the protocol for sperm cryopreservation. The paper presents successful cryopreservation of sperm with the production of viable hatchlings of H. fossilis and C. batrachus for the first time. The protocol reported in the study can be used for scaling up of seed production of these two catfish species

The role of down staging treatment in the management of locally advanced intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma : Review of literature and pooled analysis

Copyright © 2020 by The Korean Association of Hepato-Biliary-Pancreatic Surgery.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Role of Salicylic Acid in Combating Heat Stress in Plants : Insights into Modulation of Vital Processes

Peer reviewe

Low Genetic Differentiation in the Populations of the Malabar Carp Labeo dussumieri as revealed by Allozymes, Microsatellites and RAPD

The population structure of Labeo dussumieri, an endangered and endemic cyprinid from three riverine locations in the Western Ghats, India was investigated using allozyme, microsatellite and RAPD markers. L. dussumieri samples were obtained from Meenachil, Manimala and Pamba River basins, Kerala. Fourteen (46.7%) out of 30 allozyme loci, seven microsatellite loci and 12 RAPD Operon decamers gave polymorphic pattern. Six allozyme loci (AAT-2*, EST-4*, GLDH*, GPI-2*, G6PDH* and LDH-2*) and three microsatellite loci (LdussG1, MFW19 and Bgon22) exhibited consistent significant deviation from Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium expectations in different populations after probability level (P<0.05) was adjusted for sequential Bonferroni correction. All the three marker types demonstrated concordant results and various estimates revealed genetic variability within the subpopulations but surprisingly low level (= 0.0034 to 0.0081) of genetic differentiation among L. dussumieri from different river samples. AMOVA analysis also indicated low differentiation among subpopulations. No evidence for a recent genetic bottleneck was observed in L. dussumieri populations based on allozyme and microsatellite data set analysis. Meenachil, Manimala and Pamba Rivers open in to the southern end of Vembanad Lake in Kerala and are connected to each other in the lower reaches through an extensive network of natural canals. Common ancestry in the prehistoric period; and possible mixing of fish populations resulting in high gene flow across the rivers through the lake and interconnecting canals could have been responsible for the lack of significant allelic heterogeneity among the L. dussumieri populations. The stocks from the three rivers do not require different management strategies and for propagation assisted river ranching programme of this species, large effective breeding population can be developed by mixing individuals from three river