Effect of Binary Fuel Blends on Compression Ignition Engine Characteristics: A Review

Diversified research in alternate sources arises become necessity due to higher consumption of fossil fuels along with their adverse impacts on the environment, even to the point of complete elimination of diesel from compression-ignition (CI) engines. Binary fuel blend (a blend of low and high viscous fuel) is one of the best environmentally friendly alternative in CI engines. Blending of methyl ester with edible and nonedible oils in different volumetric ratios has the potency to give a stable mixture and that can be used as a fuel in diesel engines. The main motive for the blending of two fuels is that the inferior properties of one biofuel remunerate from improved properties of the other fuel considerably improves the physicochemical properties of the blend. The present study provides comprehensive information on the emission and performance characteristics of binary biodiesel-oil fuel blends. Most researchers had suggested optimum blends from their respective studies that support capability for complete elimination of diesel from CI engines. Some researchers have used this binary fuel blend with minor adjustments to the engine parameters. These investigations have provided positive results. The comprehensive review concluded that binary fuel approach has potential to completely eliminate diesel from CI engines

Post-Transcriptional Silencing of Flavonol Synthase mRNA in Tobacco Leads to Fruits with Arrested Seed Set

Flavonoids are synthesized by phenylpropanoid pathway. They are known to participate in large number of physiological and biochemical processes in plants. Parthenocarpy and male sterility has earlier been reported by silencing chalcone synthase (CHS) encoding gene. Silencing of CHS has blocked the synthesis of most of useful flavonoids including flavan-3-ols and flavonols. Also, these studies could not identify whether parthenocarpy/male sterility were due to lack of flavan-3-ols or flavonols or both. Flavonol synthase (FLS) is an important enzyme of flavonoid pathway that catalyzes the formation of flavonols. In this article, we propose a novel strategy towards the generation of seedless or less-seeded fruits by downregulation of flavonol biosynthesis in tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum cv Xanthi) through post-transcriptional gene silencing (PTGS) of FLS encoding mRNA. The FLS silenced lines were observed for 20-80% reduction in FLS encoding gene expression and 25–93% reduction in flavonol (quercetin) content. Interestingly, these FLS silenced tobacco lines also showed reduction in their anthocyanidins content. While the content of flavan-3-ols (catechin, epi-catechin and epi-gallocatechin) was found to be increased in FLS silenced lines. The delayed flowering in FLS silenced lines could be due to decrease in level of indole acetic acid (IAA) at apical region of their shoots. Furthermore, the pollen germination was hampered and pollens were unable to produce functional pollen tube in FLS silenced tobacco lines. Pods of FLS silenced lines contained significantly less number of seeds. The in vitro and in vivo studies where 1 µM quercetin was supplied to germination media, documented the restoration of normal pollen germination and pollen tube growth. This finding identified the role of flavonols particularly quercetin in pollen germination as well as in the regulation of plant fertility. Results also suggest a novel approach towards generation of seedless/less-seeded fruits via PTGS of FLS encoding gene in plants

Identification, characterization and utilization of unigene derived microsatellite markers in tea (Camellia sinensis L.)

Background: Despite great advances in genomic technology observed in several crop species, the availability of molecular tools such as microsatellite markers has been limited in tea (Camellia sinensis L.). The development of microsatellite markers will have a major impact on genetic analysis, gene mapping and marker assisted breeding. Unigene derived microsatellite (UGMS) markers identified from publicly available sequence database have the advantage of assaying variation in the expressed component of the genome with unique identity and position. Therefore, they can serve as efficient and cost effective alternative markers in such species. Results: Considering the multiple advantages of UGMS markers, 1,223 unigenes were predicted from 2,181 expressed sequence tags (ESTs) of tea (Camellia sinensis L.). A total of 109 (8.9%) unigenes containing 120 SSRs were identified. SSR abundance was one in every 3.55 kb of EST sequences. The microsatellites mainly comprised of di (50.8%), tri (30.8%), tetra (6.6%), penta (7.5%) and few hexa (4.1%) nucleotide repeats. Among the dinucleotide repeats, (GA)n.(TC)n were most abundant (83.6%). Ninety six primer pairs could be designed form 83.5% of SSR containing unigenes. Of these, 61 (63.5%) primer pairs were experimentally validated and used to investigate the genetic diversity among the 34 accessions of different Camellia spp. Fifty one primer pairs (83.6%) were successfully cross transferred to the related species at various levels. Functional annotation of the unigenes containing SSRs was done through gene ontology (GO) characterization. Thirty six (60%) of them revealed significant sequence similarity with the known/putative proteins of Arabidopsis thaliana. Polymorphism information content (PIC) ranged from 0.018 to 0.972 with a mean value of 0.497. The average heterozygosity expected (HE) and observed (Ho) obtained was 0.654 and 0.413 respectively, thereby suggesting highly heterogeneous nature of tea. Further, test for IAM and SMM models for the UGMS loci showed excess heterozygosity and did not show any bottleneck operating in the tea population. Conclusion: UGMS markers identified and characterized in this study provided insight about the abundance and distribution of SSR in the expressed genome of C. sinensis. The identification and validation of 61 new UGMS markers will not only help in intra and inter specific genetic diversity assessment but also be enriching limited microsatellite markers resource in tea. Further, the use of these markers would reduce the cost and facilitate the gene mapping and marker-aided selection in tea. Since, 36 of these UGMS markers correspond to the Arabidopsis protein sequence data with known functions will offer the opportunity to investigate the consequences of SSR polymorphism on gene function

Cloning and differential expression of QM like protein homologue from tea [Camellia sinensis (L.) O. Kuntze]

The QM like protein gene encodes for ribosomal protein L10, which is implicated in tumor suppression, transcription factor regulation, and ribosome stability in yeast and mammals. Present study describes cloning of a full-length QM cDNA (CsQM) from tea leaves using differential display of mRNA followed by rapid amplification of cDNA ends. Expression of CsQM was studied in leaves of different stages of development and under various external cues. CsQM contained an open reading frame of 651 bases, encoding 216 amino acids. CsQM shared 71–87% and 85–91% identity at nucleotide and amino acid sequences, respectively with QM genes isolated from other plant species. During active-growth period of tea, higher expression was observed in apical buds that decreased gradually with increasing age of the leaf. During dormancy season, the expression of CsQM gene was severely down-regulated in all the leaves studied. CsQM transcript was found to be down regulated in response to drought stress and abscisic acid treatment but up-regulated by gibberellic acid treatment. A positive association of CsQM transcript abundance with active cellular growth suggested its role in plant growth and developmen

Morphological and molecular analyses of Rosa damascena x R. bourboniana interspecific hybrids

Rosa damascena Mill is the most important scented rose species cultivated for rose oil production. Rosa bourboniana L. (Edward rose), a related species, is popular on account of its longer blooming period and ease of propagation. With an aim to combine the oil quality of R. damascena and recurrent flowering habit of R. bourboniana, two cultivars (Jwala and Himroz) of R. damascena were crossed with R. bourboniana. The F1 hybrids obtained were evaluated using morphological, random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) and microsatellite (SSR) markers. Twenty-two selected RAPD and three SSR primer pairs were utilized for hybrid identification. According to presence or absence of bands RAPD and SSR markers were classified into seven types of markers. The bands specific for the pollen parent and occurring in the hybrids were good markers to confirm the hybridity. The non-parental bands expressing uniquely in hybrids were effective in distinguishing the hybrids from each other. Cluster analysis, based on Jaccard's similarity coefficient using unweighted pair group method based on arithmetic mean (UPGMA), reliably discriminated the hybrids into two main clusters. These results indicate the practical usefulness of RAPID and SSR markers in hybrid identification in scented roses. The approach is advantageous for its rapidity and simplicity, for identification of hybrids at the juvenile stage. One of the studied morphological traits - prickle density, can also complement in the identification of interspecific hybrids between R. damscena (female) and R. bourboniana (male)

Characterization of dihydroflavonol 4-reductase cDNA in tea [Camellia sinensis (L.) O. Kuntze]

Tea leaves are major source of catechins-antioxidant flavonoids. Dihydroflavonol 4-reductase (DFR, EC 1.1.1.219) is one of the important enzymes that catalyzes the reduction of dihydroflavonols to leucoanthocyanins, a key "late" step in the biosynthesis of catechins. This manuscript reports characterization of DFR from tea (CsDFR) that comprised 1,413 bp full-length cDNA with ORF of 1,044 bp (115-1,158) and encoding a protein of 347 amino acids. Sequence comparison of CsDFR with earlier reported DFR sequences in a database indicated conservation of 69-87% among amino acid residues. In silico analysis revealed CsDFR to be a membrane-localized protein with a domain (between 16 and 218 amino acids) resembling the NAD-dependent epimerase/dehydratase family. The theoretical molecular weight and isoelectric point of the deduced amino sequence of CsDFR were 38.67 kDa and 6.22, respectively. Upon expression of CsDFR in E. coli, recombinant protein was found to be functional and showed specific activity of 42.85 nmol min(-1) mg protein(-1). Expression of CsDFR was maximum in younger rather than older leaves. Expression was down-regulated in response to drought stress and abscisic acid, unaffected by gibberellic acid treatment, but up-regulated in response to wounding, with concomitant modulation of catechins content. This is the first report of functionality of recombinant CsDFR and its expression in tea

AN IMPROVED DEVICE FOR ACCLIMATIZATION

An improved device for acclimatization characterized by chamber (1) having an airtight lid (2) for permitting incident light, an adjustable perforated platform (3), a light source (4) being optionally provided above the said lid (2) of the said chamber (1), an inlet (5) alongwith monitor (6) being provided at the side wall of the said chamber (1) for supply of CO2, the said chamber is optionally provided with an inlet (7) connected to reservoir (8) through a pump (9) and a valve (V1) for inter-connecting units, conventional sensors are also provided inside the said chamber for monitoring pH, relative humidity, temperature and light intensity, an outlet (10) being provided at the bottom of the said chamber (1) for draining the liquid