Morphometric Study of Senna didymobotrya (Fresen.) H. S. Irwin and Barneby in Kenya

Herbal medicine has been used for many years and it remains widespread in developing countries while the use of complementary alternative medicine is increasing rapidly in developed countries. Senna didymobotrya is important for its medicinal use among many communities to treat a wide range of ailments. The study examines the patterns of morphological variation and phenetic relationships among 39 populations of S. didymobotrya in Kenya using17 quantitative and 17 qualitative characters. A survey was carried out in Siaya, Kisumu, Nandi and Nakuru Counties to collect S. didymobotrya plants. Results on morphometric analysis indicated that the standard deviations were highly significant when all quantitative characters were considered. Stem diameter, plant height and stem height had the highest standard deviation of 13.14, 11.74 and 11.15 respectively. Leaf length and Internodal length had the lowest standard deviations of 0.18 each. Principal component analysis indicated that the plant height, stem height, stem diameter, habitat, pod length, pod width and number of seeds accounted for a cumulative percentage of 70% and above of the cumulative variance in a lineal combination of parameters hence can be used to separate the populations. Correlation matrix of the morphological characters indicated a high positive correlations between inflorescence length of basal stalk and inflorescence length (0.83), stem height and plant height (0.62), leaflet width and leaflet length (0.56), leaflet number and leaf number (0.54), pod width and pod length (0.52). The cluster analysis dendrogram placed the plants in four major clusters; Cluster 1 had one plant accession PJ/NK/33 collected from Nakuru County. Cluster II had one plant PJ/KS/13 collected from Kisumu County. In Cluster IV also had one plant accession PJ/SI/2 collected from Siaya County. Cluster III consisted of 36 plants with close relationship (Plants accessions PJ/SI/4 - 10, PJ/KS/11- 18, PJ/NA/19 - 29, PJ/NK/30 - 32 and PJ/NK/34 – 39). The highest similarities and high variations in cluster I, II, and III results that call the relationship between them in question. An identification key has been constructed which, for the first time, can be used to assign herbarium specimens to their respective taxa. Further research should be carried out to collect more samples from other regions within the country and other parts of the world to understand the morphological variations sufficiently to circumscribe the taxonomical doubts on how many species and/or lineages that do exist due to the influence of habitat type on the morphological variation between populations and if other methods like molecular markers (isozymes or microsatellites) are employed ,to reveal patterns of genetic variability. The beneficiaries of this study are the herbalists, pharmacologists, researchers, patients and the general publi

Dicamba growth regulator promotes genotype independent somatic embryogenesis from immature zygotic embryos of tropical maize inbred lines

Maize is one of the most important cereal crops in Sub-Saharan Africa and an important source of energy for humans. However, the difference in the dedifferentiation frequency of immature embryos among various genotypes indicates that callus induction and genetic transformation is dependent on the genotype. This phenomenon is an impediment in the fundamental process of improving tropical maize germplasm especially through genetic engineering. Here, five tropical maize (Zea mays L.) genotypes, CML 216, CML 144, A 04, E 04 and TL 21, were evaluated for callus induction on MS medium supplemented with the growth regulator dicamba. Embryogenic and non embryogenic callus induction was independent of genotype when young immature embryos, 12 days after pollination (DAP) were used for tissue culture in combination with dicamba. The optimal concentration of dicamba for induction of embryogenic callus in all the genotypes was 3 mg/L, which was also the concentration at which non embryogenic callus formation was lowest. The frequency of embryogenic callus induction ranged from 35% to 79% among the five genotypes and somatic embryos regenerated R0 shoots that produced normal R1 progenies. This regeneration method is expected to facilitate the development of a more efficient genotype independent Agrobacterium- mediated transformation system for tropical inbred lines

Enabling the Development and Deployment of Next Generation Point-of-Care Diagnostics

<p>Enabling the Development and Deployment of Next Generation Point-of-Care Diagnostics</p

Somatic embryogenesis and plant regeneration of tropical maize genotypes

In Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa, tropical maize (Zea mays L.) is a major crop for human consumption. To cope with the increasing population and changing environment, there is a need for improving tropical maize germplasm. As part of a biotechnological approach, efficient in vitro regeneration of two tropical maize inbred lines (CML216 and CML244) was established. A number of parameters were optimized, such as age of the immature embryos, plant media and growth regulator concentration. After 6 weeks of culture, somatic embryos that had already reached the coleoptilar stage produced shoots after light induction and developed into fertile plants after acclimation in the soil. The callus induction frequencies and somatic embryo-derived plantlet formation were higher when cultured with the Linsmaier and Skoog medium than those with the Chu's N6 basal medium. Regeneration of tropical maize shoots depended on the 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) concentration at the callus initiation stage from immature embryos. The recalcitrance of the tropical maize inbred line TL26 to in vitro regeneration was overcome in a single-cross hybrid with the CML216 and CML244 genotypes. Remarkably, tropical maize somatic embryos were formed at the abaxial side of the scutellum facing the medium, probably from the axis of the immature embryos, as shown by histological sections. Upon co-cultivation, agrobacteria transiently expressed their intronless beta-glucuronidase-encoding gene at the embryogenic tissue, but not with an intron-containing gene, suggesting that virulence genes are induced in Agrobacterium, but that subsequent steps in the T-DNA transfer are inhibited

Enabling the Development and Deployment of Next Generation Point-of-Care Diagnostics.

<p>Enabling the Development and Deployment of Next Generation Point-of-Care Diagnostics</p

Barriers and potential solutions to advancing POC diagnostics research.

<p>Barriers and potential solutions to advancing POC diagnostics research.</p

Devices demonstrated at the workshop.

<p>(*Devices were produced on site)</p><p>Devices demonstrated at the workshop.</p

Value chain of point-of-care diagnostics.

<p>The top part displays the stakeholders that are involved in the development, commercialization, roll out, and integration of point-of-care diagnostic tests into control and surveillance programs</p