Effect of Arbuscular Mycorrhize on Growth and Productivity of \u3cem\u3eStylosanthes seabrana\u3c/em\u3e

Stylosanthes seabrana, an important range legume was introduced in India in the year 1998 through ACIAR-ICAR joint project. It has given good results under agroforestry/silvopastoral systems and can be grown as sole pasture crop or along with compatible grasses/legumes on a variety of soils. For its year round production, intensive cutting approach is generally employed. Under such conditions, plant demands large amount of soil nutrients for better productivity, which are generally applied as inorganic fertilizers (Chandra et al., 2006). In soils with low nutrient contents especially phosphorus (P), large amount of phosphatic fertilizers are required for establishment and growth of legumes. P is often a growth-limiting factor for plant growth and legumes are poor scavengers of P. In soils, P may present in sufficient amounts but much of it is poorly available to plants because of less solubility of phosphates of calcium, aluminum and iron. Arbuscular mycorrhizae (AM), an important soil microorganism mobilize phosphates and make available to the plants, which indirectly increases their growth (Jha et al., 2012). AM fungi have proved their usefulness in plant production, How even the efficiency of AM inoculants can be affected by properties and texture of the potting substrates (Herrera-Peraza et al., 2011). Since, reports on effect of AM inoculations on growth and productivity of S. seabrana are very scarce in literature; hence, present study was carried out to identify the suitable AM inoculants for S. seabrana

PRELIMINARY EVALUATION OF AN ANTHRAQUINONE CONJUGATED DOTA DERIVATIVE AS SPECT AGENT

Objective: An anthraquinone derivative, DO3A-Act-AQ having DO3A (1, 4, 7, 10-tetraazacyclododecane-1, 4, 7-trisacetic acid) scaffold is radio labeled with 99mTc radioisotope and evaluated as a SPECT imaging agent for tumor.Methods: Preliminary in-vivo evaluation of 99mTc-DO3A-Act-AQ radioconjugate including blood kinetics, biodistribution and gamma scintigraphic imaging is performed on BMG-1 tumor xenografted mice after successful optimization of the radiolabeling condition.Results: The radiotracer, 99mTc-DO3A-Act-AQ was produced in high radiochemical yield of>96% and specific activity of 3.62 MBq/nmol at pH 7.5 and 150 µg stannous chloride. Radioconjugate displayed excellent in-vitro and in-vivo stability with only ~2% transchelation of radiometal at 24 h p. i and rapid blood clearance from the system with t1/2(F) = 38.04±0.35 min and t1/2(S) = 5 h 30 min±0.67. Significant tumor-to-muscle ratio of>7 at 2 h p. i. in biodistribution and SPECT imaging studies in BMG-1 tumor xenografted mice suggested the tumor specificity of the radioconjugate.Conclusion: Stable radiocomplex formation of 99mTc-DO3A-Act-AQ and its significant tumor specificity demonstrated its future application as a promising SPECT radioligand for tumor imaging

Prevalence and significance of thrombophilia markers in adverse pregnancy outcome

Background: Thrombophilia complicates the pregnancy by interfering the physiology of utero-placental circulation which in turn leads to IUGR, IUD, PIH, RPL, abruption placentae. This study is to find out the prevalence and significance of different thrombophilia markers in cases of adverse pregnancy outcome in eastern part of Uttar Pradesh, India.Methods: 54 antenatal women are selected from the cases presented with or previous history of PIH, IUGR, IUD, Abruption or early/late abortion. A thorough family history, history of risk factors, clinical examination were noted. Platelet count, prothrombin time(PT), activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT), plasma fibrinogen, factor-VIII assay, LA, ACLA, protein- C, protein- S, TORCH, thyroid profile, blood sugar, USG is done in all patients at the time of first registration. 50 antenatal females without any bad obstetric history was taken as controls.Results: Among 54 cases, 64.8% cases were positive for thrombophilia markers, whereas 6% control had presence of thrombophilia markers. 6.5% thrombophilia positive cases had ≥3 markers present and had ≥2 manifestations of adverse pregnancy outcome in 100% cases. Prevalence of different thrombophilia markers are studied in individual case and association to various outcomes were noted.Conclusions: There was high prevalence of thrombophilia markers in the cases with adverse pregnancy outcome. As treatment was found significantly effective in literature, screening of these markers should be done in patients with bad obstetric history

A Parametric Test based Analysis of State Estimation Techniques under Data Uncertainties

This work examines the statistical analysis of conventional and evolutionary strategies used to solve state estimation problems. All energy management systems use state estimation to determine the operational condition of the system. Moreover, with the rise of the electrical market and the notion of a smart grid, the assessment of system parameters has received considerable attention. Hence an assessment of the efficiency and robustness of various state estimation techniques used to compute the system parameters is very much required. This paper primarily focuses on the parametric tests used to access and compare the robustness of various state estimators. Case studies are conducted on IEEE 6 bus and 14 bus systems. In addition, this paper also provides a statistical evaluation of the performance of evolutionary algorithms with varying upper and lower optimal solution constraints. Furthermore, the algorithms' robustness under conditions of missing and infringed data is also determined. The findings derived from these estimators are compared with the base values, and the percentage error in estimated values is computed and analysed

Trigonocephaly pre- and post-operative evaluation by multidetector computed tomography

Trigonocephaly is the third most common single suture synostosis which is seen as bulging of the forehead due to early fusion of themetopic suture. It is linked with an increased level of neurodevelopmental delays. On imaging, multidetector computed tomographyshows anterior fontanelle ossification, hypoteliorism, narrowing of the anterior cranial fossa, and compensatory increase of themiddle cranial fossa with atrophic features of brain. Its reported incidence is 1 in 700-15,000 live births. Operative multipleosteotomies were done and imaged in follow-up

RNAi-Mediated Downregulation of Inositol Pentakisphosphate Kinase (IPK1) in Wheat Grains Decreases Phytic Acid Levels and Increases Fe and Zn Accumulation

Enhancement of micronutrient bioavailability is crucial to address the malnutrition in the developing countries. Various approaches employed to address the micronutrient bioavailability are showing promising signs, especially in cereal crops. Phytic acid (PA) is considered as a major antinutrient due to its ability to chelate important micronutrients and thereby restricting their bioavailability. Therefore, manipulating PA biosynthesis pathway has largely been explored to overcome the pleiotropic effect in different crop species. Recently, we reported that functional wheat inositol pentakisphosphate kinase (TaIPK1) is involved in PA biosynthesis, however, the functional roles of the IPK1 gene in wheat remains elusive. In this study, RNAi-mediated gene silencing was performed for IPK1 transcripts in hexaploid wheat. Four non-segregating RNAi lines of wheat were selected for detailed study (S3-D-6-1; S6-K-3-3; S6-K-6-10 and S16-D-9-5). Homozygous transgenic RNAi lines at T4 seeds with a decreased transcript of TaIPK1 showed 28–56% reduction of the PA. Silencing of IPK1 also resulted in increased free phosphate in mature grains. Although, no phenotypic changes in the spike was observed but, lowering of grain PA resulted in the reduced number of seeds per spikelet. The lowering of grain PA was also accompanied by a significant increase in iron (Fe) and zinc (Zn) content, thereby enhancing their molar ratios (Zn:PA and Fe:PA). Overall, this work suggests that IPK1 is a promising candidate for employing genome editing tools to address the mineral accumulation in wheat grains

Proteome Analyses of Strains Cyanothece ATCC 51142 and PCC 7822 of the Diazotrophic Cyanobacterium Cyanothece sp. Under Culture Conditions Resulting in Enhanced H2 Production.

Cultures of the cyanobacterial genus Cyanothece have been shown to produce high levels of biohydrogen. These strains are diazotrophic and undergo pronounced diurnal cycles when grown under N2-fixing conditions in light-dark cycles. We seek to better understand the way in which proteins respond to these diurnal changes, and we performed quantitative proteome analysis of Cyanothecesp. strains ATCC 51142 and PCC 7822 grown under 8 different nutritional conditions. Nitrogenase expression was limited to N2-fixing conditions, and in the absence of glycerol, nitrogenase gene expression was linked to the dark period. However, glycerol induced expression of nitrogenase during part of the light period, together with cytochrome c oxidase (Cox), glycogen phosphorylase (Glp), and glycolytic and pentose phosphate pathway (PPP) enzymes. This indicated that nitrogenase expression in the light was facilitated via higher levels of respiration and glycogen breakdown. Key enzymes of the Calvin cycle were inhibited in Cyanothece ATCC 51142 in the presence of glycerol under H2-producing conditions, suggesting a competition between these sources of carbon. However, in Cyanothece PCC 7822, the Calvin cycle still played a role in cofactor recycling during H2 production. Our data comprise the first comprehensive profiling of proteome changes in Cyanothece PCC 7822 and allow an in-depth comparative analysis of major physiological and biochemical processes that influence H2 production in both strains. Our results revealed many previously uncharacterized proteins that may play a role in nitrogenase activity and in other metabolic pathways and may provide suitable targets for genetic manipulation that would lead to improvement of large-scale H2 production

Identification of Widespread Adenosine Nucleotide Binding in Mycobacterium tuberculosis

SummaryComputational prediction of protein function is frequently error-prone and incomplete. In Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), ∼25% of all genes have no predicted function and are annotated as hypothetical proteins, severely limiting our understanding of Mtb pathogenicity. Here, we utilize a high-throughput quantitative activity-based protein profiling (ABPP) platform to probe, annotate, and validate ATP-binding proteins in Mtb. We experimentally validate prior in silico predictions of >240 proteins and identify 72 hypothetical proteins as ATP binders. ATP interacts with proteins with diverse and unrelated sequences, providing an expanded view of adenosine nucleotide binding in Mtb. Several hypothetical ATP binders are essential or taxonomically limited, suggesting specialized functions in mycobacterial physiology and pathogenicity