Psychoactive Pharmaceuticals Induce Fish Gene Expression Profiles Associated with Human Idiopathic Autism

Idiopathic autism, caused by genetic susceptibility interacting with unknown environmental triggers, has increased dramatically in the past 25 years. Identifying environmental triggers has been difficult due to poorly understood pathophysiology and subjective definitions of autism. The use of antidepressants by pregnant women has been associated with autism. These and other unmetabolized psychoactive pharmaceuticals (UPPs) have also been found in drinking water from surface sources, providing another possible exposure route and raising questions about human health consequences. Here, we examined gene expression patterns of fathead minnows treated with a mixture of three psychoactive pharmaceuticals (fluoxetine, venlafaxine & carbamazepine) in dosages intended to be similar to the highest observed conservative estimates of environmental concentrations. We conducted microarray experiments examining brain tissue of fish exposed to individual pharmaceuticals and a mixture of all three. We used gene-class analysis to test for enrichment of gene sets involved with ten human neurological disorders. Only sets associated with idiopathic autism were unambiguously enriched. We found that UPPs induce autism-like gene expression patterns in fish. Our findings suggest a new potential trigger for idiopathic autism in genetically susceptible individuals involving an overlooked source of environmental contamination

Genomics-assisted breeding in four major pulse crops of developing countries: present status and prospects

The global population is continuously increasing and is expected to reach nine billion by 2050. This huge population pressure will lead to severe shortage of food, natural resources and arable land. Such an alarming situation is most likely to arise in developing countries due to increase in the proportion of people suffering from protein and micronutrient malnutrition. Pulses being a primary and affordable source of proteins and minerals play a key role in alleviating the protein calorie malnutrition, micronutrient deficiencies and other undernourishment-related issues. Additionally, pulses are a vital source of livelihood generation for millions of resource-poor farmers practising agriculture in the semi-arid and sub-tropical regions. Limited success achieved through conventional breeding so far in most of the pulse crops will not be enough to feed the ever increasing population. In this context, genomics-assisted breeding (GAB) holds promise in enhancing the genetic gains. Though pulses have long been considered as orphan crops, recent advances in the area of pulse genomics are noteworthy, e.g. discovery of genome-wide genetic markers, high-throughput genotyping and sequencing platforms, high-density genetic linkage/QTL maps and, more importantly, the availability of whole-genome sequence. With genome sequence in hand, there is a great scope to apply genome-wide methods for trait mapping using association studies and to choose desirable genotypes via genomic selection. It is anticipated that GAB will speed up the progress of genetic improvement of pulses, leading to the rapid development of cultivars with higher yield, enhanced stress tolerance and wider adaptability

Phase behavior and structure identification of the mixed chlorinated hydrocarbon clathrate hydrates

The primary objective of this research is to verify thermodynamic feasibility for recovering chlorinated hydrocarbons (CH2Cl2, CCl4, and CH3CCl3) from aqueous solutions using clathrate hydrate formation with guest gases of CO2 and CH4. First, the four-phase (H-LW-LCHC-V) clathrate hydrate equilibria of the ternary CO2 (CH4) + water + chlorinated hydrocarbon (CHC) systems were measured at various temperature and pressure conditions and particularly up to the upper quadruple point for the CO2-containing solutions. The inclusion of CHCs in the clathrate hydrate lattice greatly reduced the clathrate hydrate-forming pressure at a given temperature, which confirmed the mixed CHC clathrate hydrates to be more stabilized than the pure CO2 (CH4) clathrate hydrate. The structure of the mixed CHC clathrate hydrates was newly identified as sII through NMR and Raman spectroscopies, and the quantitative analysis results were directly used for determining both small and large cage occupancies. From spectroscopic results of the mixed CHC clathrate hydrates, it was found that the large guest molecules of chlorinated hydrocarbons exclusively occupied the large sII 51264 cages and thus restricted CH4 molecules predominantly to the small sII 512 cages. The highlight feature of this study is that the basic information drawn from both phase behavior and structure-related properties of cage occupancies might play a key role in understanding the phenomenological characteristics of the mixed CHC clathrate hydrates composed of multiguest molecules.close12