A success story: the burden of maternal, neonatal and childhood mortality in Rwanda - critical appraisal of interventions and recommendations for the future

Globally, the burden of maternal, neonatal and childhood mortality is disproportionately shared between the least developed nations and the developed nations. While the global maternal mortality has been almost halved since 1990, 99% of maternal deaths occur in developing regions. This invariably highlights the impact of poverty and, to combat poverty in its different elements, the United Nations (UN) established eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), including improving maternal health (MDG 5) and reducing child mortality (MDG 4). Rwanda is one of the few countries that have met both MDGs 4 and 5 ahead of time. In 2015, the UN established 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a renewed version of targets to be achieved by 2030, including Good Health and Well-being (SDG 3). SDG 3 aims to achieve a global maternal mortality rate (MMR) of 70 or less by 2030, requiring an annual reduction in MMR by 7.5%. Rwanda is on track to achieving its SDG targets with the support of local government, donors, and international and local agencies. The multipronged approach initiated by the Rwandan government, backed by international organizations, is to be credited for this success. Studying these proven strategies and interventions will allow us to identify gaps, further develop and eventually transfer them to the rest of the world, with suitable contextualization.Keywords: Sub-Saharan Africa, Rwanda, Maternal Mortality, Childhood Mortality, Neonatal Mortalit

Corrigendum: The Complete Chloroplast Genome Sequence of Ampelopsis: Gene Organization, Comparative Analysis, and Phylogenetic Relationships to Other Angiosperms

Ampelopsis brevipedunculata is an economically important plant that belongs to the Vitaceae family of angiosperms. The phylogenetic placement of Vitaceae is still unresolved. Recent phylogenetic studies suggested that it should be placed in various alternative families including Caryophyllaceae, asteraceae, Saxifragaceae, Dilleniaceae, or with the rest of the rosid families. However, these analyses provided weak supportive results because they were based on only one of several genes. Accordingly, complete chloroplast genome sequences are required to resolve the phylogenetic relationships among angiosperms. Recent phylogenetic analyses based on the complete chloroplast genome sequence suggested strong support for the position of Vitaceae as the earliest diverging lineage of rosids and placed it as a sister to the remaining rosids. These studies also revealed relationships among several major lineages of angiosperms; however, they highlighted the significance of taxon sampling for obtaining accurate phylogenies. In the present study, we sequenced the complete chloroplast genome of A. brevipedunculata and used these data to assess the relationships among 32 angiosperms, including 18 taxa of rosids. The Ampelopsis chloroplast genome is 161,090 bp in length, and includes a pair of inverted repeats of 26,394 bp that are separated by small and large single copy regions of 19,036 bp and 89,266 bp, respectively. The gene content and order of Ampelopsis is identical to many other unrearranged angiosperm chloroplast genomes, including Vitis and tobacco. A phylogenetic tree constructed based on 70 protein-coding genes of 33 angiosperms showed that both Saxifragales and Vitaceae diverged from the rosid clade and formed two clades with 100% bootstrap value. The position of the Vitaceae is sister to Saxifragales, and both are the basal and earliest diverging lineages. Moreover, Saxifragales forms a sister clade to Vitaceae of rosids. Overall, the results of this study will contribute to better support of the evolution, molecular biology and genetic improvement of the plant Ampelopsis.</p

Assessment of genetic and functional diversity of phosphate solubilizing fluorescent pseudomonads isolated from rhizospheric soil

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Phosphorus is an essential macronutrient for the growth of plants. However, in most soils a large portion of phosphorus becomes insoluble and therefore, unavailable to plants. Knowledge on biodiversity of phosphate-solubilizing fluorescent pseudomonads is essential to understand their ecological role and their utilization in sustainable agriculture.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Of 443 fluorescent pseudomonad strains tested, 80 strains (18%) showed positive for the solubilization of tri-calcium phosphate (Ca₃(PO₄)₂) by the formation of visible dissolution halos on Pikovskaya's agar. These phosphate solubilizing strains showed high variability in utilizing various carbon sources. Numerical taxonomy of the phosphate solubilizing strains based on their carbon source utilization profiles resulted into three major phenons at a 0.76 similarity coefficient level. Genotypic analyses of strains by BOX (bacterial repetitive BOX element)-polymerase chain reaction (PCR) resulted into three distinct genomic clusters and 26 distinct BOX profiles at a 80% similarity level. On the basis of phenotypic characterization and <it>16S rRNA </it>gene phylogenetic analyses strains were identified as <it>Pseudomonas aeruginosa, P. mosselii, P. monteilii, P. plecoglossicida, P. putida, P. fulva </it>and <it>P. fluorescens</it>. These phosphate solubilizing strains also showed the production of plant growth promoting enzymes, hormones and exhibited antagonism against phytopathogenic fungi that attack on various crops. Gene specific primers have identified the putative antibiotic producing strains. These putative strains were grown in fermentation media and production of antibiotics was confirmed by thin layer chromatography (TLC) and high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Present study revealed a high degree of functional and genetic diversity among the phosphate solubilizing fluorescent pseudomonad bacteria. Due to their innate potential of producing an array of plant growth promoting enzymes, hormones and antifungal metabolites these phosphate solubilizing strains are considered to play a vital role in plant growth promotion, disease suppression and subsequent enhancement of yield.</p

Vermiremediation: Analysis of contaminated diesel in soil using Eisenia fetida and ZnO nanoparticles with cow dung

Cow dung is a valuable source of manure to improve soil quality. This study aims to enhance the soil quality by decreasing diesel contamination in the soil through the vermicomposting of cow dung and nanoparticles of ZnO. Using a powder made from cow dung, zinc ions may be easily converted into ZnO nanoparticles. To increase the quality of soil, Eisenia fetida and nanoparticles of ZnO mixed with cow dung was used. These nanoparticles were characterized by FT-IR, SEM, and TEM. The diesel impure soils were examined for 70 days by gas chromatography. Observations showed that the soil samples without the earthworms had a higher concentration of diesel than the earthworm present in the soil. In this method, diesel (4.5 ml) was reduced by almost 50% after 70 days. Diesel concentrations were significantly higher during sampling time than they were later in soil contaminated with E. fetida

Euphorbia fauriei_jeju.gb

The complete chloroplast genome sequence of Euphorbia fauriei, isolated from Jeju Island, Republic of Korea.</p

Dianthus chloroplast genome

<p>The complete chloroplast genome sequence of Dianthus.</p

Dianthus chloroplast genome

<p>Complete chloroplast genome of Dianthus</p

Dianthus chloroplast genome article

<p>The complete chloroplast genome of Dianthus</p

Current Status on Biochemistry and Molecular Biology of Microbial Degradation of Nicotine

Bioremediation is one of the most promising methods to clean up polluted environments using highly efficient potent microbes. Microbes with specific enzymes and biochemical pathways are capable of degrading the tobacco alkaloids including highly toxic heterocyclic compound, nicotine. After the metabolic conversion, these nicotinophilic microbes use nicotine as the sole carbon, nitrogen, and energy source for their growth. Various nicotine degradation pathways such as demethylation pathway in fungi, pyridine pathway in Gram-positive bacteria, pyrrolidine pathway, and variant of pyridine and pyrrolidine pathways in Gram-negative bacteria have been reported. In this review, we discussed the nicotine-degrading pathways of microbes and their enzymes and biotechnological applications of nicotine intermediate metabolites