How to Identify Rare and Endangered Ferns and Fern Allies

Identification of rare and endangered plant species is the first requirement for any conservation programme. The IUCN guideline is the only available method to identify the rare and endangered species and it requires vast data on the wild population of the target species. None of the biological characters, which are playing main role in the survival and distribution of several species, is used in IUCN guideline. In the meantime there are several difficulties in following IUCN guideline, particularly the non availability of complete field data. Moreover, the same guideline can not be used for all the groups of species in equal importance. The vascular cryptogams, pteridophytes, are also an important component of any mountainous flora and they have also to be conserved in nature. As they are the primitive vascular plants on the earth, they are getting depleted in the flora due to various reasons and it is the right time to identify the rare and endangered pteridophytes to conserve them. By considering various difficulties of IUCN method for the identification rare and endangered pteridophytes, a very simple method has been adopted by using just four criteria and this method can be applied to Pteridophytes from any region of the world

Reading The Bible, Ecologically: Re-Imagining Our Theological Hermeneutics

Commencing with a personal prelude to ecological biblical hermeneutics and inspired by a prophetic call of Pope Francis, the present paper outlines how in times of profound crisis, the need to choose what counts is urgent. With recourse to the same model of crisis and choice, a brief overview of some of the salient eco-biblical proposals is presented which then sets the stage for the author’s eco-hermeneutical reading of Isaiah 34-35, which brings to the fore the prophetic portrayal wherein otherwise marginal/ized earth-companions meaningfully show similarity with the cherished Israelite traditions and theological visions

Daughter Zions Contemporary Sibling Dalit Assertions vis--vis a Postcolonial Reading of the Book of Lamentations

Taking a cue from a perceptive and a widely-received work of Carleen Mandalfo (Daughter Zion Talks Back to the Prophets: A Dialogic Theology of the Book of Lamentations), the present paper aims to glean some of the salient multi-disciplinary insights of the author. The same insights are grouped around some of the salient postcolonial features that R. S. Sugirtharajah outlines, which together constitute postcolonial construal with attendant illustrations. Then, the paper shifts the spotlight on commensurate features in contemporary Dalit assertions from the Indian subcontinent in order to propose that the latter can be viewed as a meaningful, contemporary sibling of Daughter Zion. Despite the chronological and cultural distances between the Dalits and Daughter Zion of Lamentations, it is proposed here that the assertions of these two likewise siblings may profitably be appropriated by todays readers of courage and commitment in order to come to terms with the angsts and outbursts of people, particularly of those who reel under immense pain and fissure

Mountains in Micah and coherence : a “a SynDiaTopic” suggestion

With recourse to some relevant postmodern sensibilities—especially the pertinence of peripheries and the value of plurality—this article examines the occurrences of mountain(s) in Micah with a view to highlighting the tension between the abstractness of space conceived of with a single center and the complex pluriformity of places that it overwrites. The work proceeds in two movements: (1) a syntopic (contra synchronic) reading that builds on the ancient western Asian worldviews of space, and (2) guided by theories of critical spatiality, a diatopic (contra diachronic) reading that highlights some peripheral details that contribute to the Mican vision, paving the way for a “syndiatopic” suggestion.http://www.sbl-site.org/publications/journals_jbl_noLogin.aspxam2022Old Testament Studie

Apogamous Isoetes coromandelina L.f. (Isoetaceae) with asynaptic meiosis

This cytological study on Isoetes coromandelina L.f (Isoetaceae) from Tirunelveli District, Tamil Nadu, South India shows the presence of twenty two individual chromosomes along with a fragment (n=2n=22+1) during meiosis in megaspore mother cells without the presence of any bivalent. Cytomixis between two megaspores is very common, resulting in the formation of a high percentage of abortive spores. The present material is of an apogamous taxon with asynaptic Meiosis as reported by Abraham and Ninan from Kerala and Karnataka

Electron spin contrast of Purcell-enhanced nitrogen-vacancy ensembles in nanodiamonds

Nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond allow for coherent spin state manipulation at room temperature, which could bring dramatic advances to nanoscale sensing and quantum information technology. We introduce a novel method for the optical measurement of the spin contrast in dense nitrogen-vacancy (NV) ensembles. This method brings a new insight into the interplay between the spin contrast and fluorescence lifetime. We show that for improving the spin readout sensitivity in NV ensembles, one should aim at modifying the far field radiation pattern rather than enhancing the emission rate

Single Molecule In Vivo Analysis of Toll-Like Receptor 9 and CpG DNA Interaction

Toll-like receptor 9 (TLR9) activates the innate immune system in response to oligonucleotides rich in CpG whereas DNA lacking CpG could inhibit its activation. However, the mechanism of how TLR9 interacts with nucleic acid and becomes activated in live cells is not well understood. Here, we report on the successful implementation of single molecule tools, constituting fluorescence correlation/cross-correlation spectroscopy (FCS and FCCS) and photon count histogram (PCH) with fluorescence lifetime imaging (FLIM) to study the interaction of TLR9-GFP with Cy5 labeled oligonucleotide containing CpG or lacking CpG in live HEK 293 cells. Our findings show that i) TLR9 predominantly forms homodimers (80%) before binding to a ligand and further addition of CpG or non CpG DNA does not necessarily increase the proportion of TLR9 dimers, ii) CpG DNA has a lower dissociation constant (62 nM±9 nM) compared to non CpG DNA (153 nM±26 nM) upon binding to TLR9, suggesting that a motif specific binding affinity of TLR9 could be an important factor in instituting a conformational change-dependant activation, and iii) both CpG and non CpG DNA binds to TLR9 with a 1∶2 stoichiometry in vivo. Collectively, through our findings we establish an in vivo model of TLR9 binding and activation by CpG DNA using single molecule fluorescence techniques for single cell studies

A study of alterations in DNA epigenetic modifications (5mC and 5hmC) and gene expression influenced by simulated microgravity in human lymphoblastoid cells

Cells alter their gene expression in response to exposure to various environmental changes. Epigenetic mechanisms such as DNA methylation are believed to regulate the alterations in gene expression patterns. In vitro and in vivo studies have documented changes in cellular proliferation, cytoskeletal remodeling, signal transduction, bone mineralization and immune deficiency under the influence of microgravity conditions experienced in space. However microgravity induced changes in the epigenome have not been well characterized. In this study we have used Next-generation Sequencing (NGS) to profile ground-based “simulated” microgravity induced changes on DNA methylation (5-methylcytosine or 5mC), hydroxymethylation (5-hydroxymethylcytosine or 5hmC), and simultaneous gene expression in cultured human lymphoblastoid cells. Our results indicate that simulated microgravity induced alterations in the methylome (~60% of the differentially methylated regions or DMRs are hypomethylated and ~92% of the differentially hydroxymethylated regions or DHMRs are hyperhydroxymethylated). Simulated microgravity also induced differential expression in 370 transcripts that were associated with crucial biological processes such as oxidative stress response, carbohydrate metabolism and regulation of transcription. While we were not able to obtain any global trend correlating the changes of methylation/ hydroxylation with gene expression, we have been able to profile the simulated microgravity induced changes of 5mC over some of the differentially expressed genes that includes five genes undergoing differential methylation over their promoters and twenty five genes undergoing differential methylation over their gene-bodies. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first NGS-based study to profile epigenomic patterns induced by short time exposure of simulated microgravity and we believe that our findings can be a valuable resource for future explorations

Analysis of Resistant Starches in Rat Cecal Contents Using Fourier Transform Infrared Photoacoustic Spectroscopy

Fourier transform infrared photoacoustic spectroscopy (FTIR-PAS) qualitatively and quantitatively measured resistant starch (RS) in rat cecal contents. Fisher 344 rats were fed diets of 55% (w/w, dry basis) starch for 8 weeks. Cecal contents were collected from sacrificed rats. A corn starch control was compared against three RS diets. The RS diets were high-amylose corn starch (HA7), HA7 chemically modified with octenyl succinic anhydride, and stearic-acid-complexed HA7 starch. To calibrate the FTIR-PAS analysis, samples from each diet were analyzed using an enzymatic assay. A partial least-squares cross-validation plot generated from the enzymatic assay and FTIR-PAS spectral results for starch fit the ideal curve with a R2 of 0.997. A principal component analysis plot of components 1 and 2 showed that spectra from diets clustered significantly from each other. This study clearly showed that FTIR-PAS can accurately quantify starch content and identify the form of starch in complex matrices.Reprinted with permission from Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry 61 (2013): 1818–1822, doi:10.1021/jf3042616. Copyright 2013 American Chemical Society.</p