Life cycle studies of the hexose transporter of Plasmodium species and genetic validation of their essentiality

A Plasmodium falciparum hexose transporter (PfHT) has previously been shown to be a facilitative glucose and fructose transporter. Its expression in Xenopus laevis oocytes and the use of a glucose analogue inhibitor permitted chemical validation of PfHT as a novel drug target. Following recent re-annotations of the P. falciparum genome, other putative sugar transporters have been identified. To investigate further if PfHT is the key supplier of hexose to P. falciparum and to extend studies to different stages of Plasmodium spp., we functionally analysed the hexose transporters of both the human parasite P. falciparum and the rodent parasite Plasmodium berghei using gene targeting strategies. We show here the essential function of pfht for the erythrocytic parasite growth as it was not possible to knockout pfht unless the gene was complemented by an episomal construct. Also, we show that parasites are rescued from the toxic effect of a glucose analogue inhibitor when pfht is overexpressed in these transfectants. We found that the rodent malaria parasite orthologue, P. berghei hexose transporter (PbHT) gene, was similarly refractory to knockout attempts. However, using a single cross-over transfection strategy, we generated transgenic P. berghei parasites expressing a PbHT–GFP fusion protein suggesting that locus is amenable for gene targeting. Analysis of pbht-gfp transgenic parasites showed that PbHT is constitutively expressed through all the stages in the mosquito host in addition to asexual stages. These results provide genetic support for prioritizing PfHT as a target for novel antimalarials that can inhibit glucose uptake and kill parasites, as well as unveiling the expression of this hexose transporter in mosquito stages of the parasite, where it is also likely to be critical for survival

Underground Cordon by Microorganisms-Part-III Role of Soil Inhabiting Actinomycetes

Certain strains of soil inhabiting actinomycetes were found to substantially corrode aluminium alloy (54-S) which has bscn found tobe more resistant to bacterial or fungal corrosion in our earlier studies.These strains did not produce any corrosion on the mild steel and galvanised iron panels which were heavily corroded by bacteria and fungi. The corrosive isolates have been partialiy characterised after their isolation and purification. The extent of corrosion caused by eachstrain has been determined

Extractive-photometric determination of cobalt(II) in steels using 4-(2-pyridylazo)resorcinol and xylometazoline hydrochloride

Cobalt(II) forms anionic chelates with 4-(2-pyridylazo)resorcinol (PAR) at pH 7.0-8.0, which can be quantitatively extracted into chloroform as an ion-pair with xylometazolonium cation (XMH). The ion-association system has an absorption maximum at 535 nm and obeys Beers law in the range 0-1.6 mu g of Co/ml with a molar absorptivity 42000 dm(3) mol(-1) cm(-1). The Job's method of continuous variations indicated a composition of 1 : 2 : 2 for cobalt : PAR : XMH for the extracting species. Based on this extraction, a highly sensitive and selective spectrophotometric method for the determination of cobalt in various steels, after prior separation of iron, is described

Text-based Editing of Talking-head Video

Editing talking-head video to change the speech content or to remove filler words is challenging. We propose a novel method to edit talking-head video based on its transcript to produce a realistic output video in which the dialogue of the speaker has been modified, while maintaining a seamless audio-visual flow (i.e. no jump cuts). Our method automatically annotates an input talking-head video with phonemes, visemes, 3D face pose and geometry, reflectance, expression and scene illumination per frame. To edit a video, the user has to only edit the transcript, and an optimization strategy then chooses segments of the input corpus as base material. The annotated parameters corresponding to the selected segments are seamlessly stitched together and used to produce an intermediate video representation in which the lower half of the face is rendered with a parametric face model. Finally, a recurrent video generation network transforms this representation to a photorealistic video that matches the edited transcript. We demonstrate a large variety of edits, such as the addition, removal, and alteration of words, as well as convincing language translation and full sentence synthesis

Veterinary Ethnomedicinal Plants in Uttarakhand Himalayan Region, India

Drug research has enriched human life in many ways. The health care and resulting social and economic benefits of new drugs to society are most remarkable, are quite well recognized. Drug research has been the driving force for many basic scientific developments, such as that of many new synthetic methods, of the understanding of the physiology and pharmacology of biological systems and has contributed much too molecular recognition. The Uttarakhand Himalayas have a great wealth of medicinal plants and traditional medicinal knowledge. The medicinal plant that has been widely used as veterinary ethno-medicine in Uttarakhand region has been studied. These do not either occur elsewhere or have not so far been exploited commercially. Attempts have been made to explore the new possible species having medicinal importance especially for veterinary and to grow them in suitable areas so as to meet national industrial demands. The present paper deals with the traditional uses of 100 plant species employed in ethno-medicine and ethno-veterinary practice in Uttarakhand

Quantitative assessment and antibacterial activity of Origanum vulgare L.

Biodiversity, which twenty years ago was considered unimportant by most ecologists, has now been shown to impact significantly upon many aspects of ecosystem functioning. Diversity must now be added to the list of factors — including species composition, disturbance regime, soil type and climate — that influence ecosystem functioning. The recent knowledge of the importance of biodiversity highlights an under-appreciated truth — although society is dependent on natural and managed ecosystems for goods and services that are essential for human survival, we know all too little about how ecosystems work. Origanum vulgare L. is one of the important ethno medicinal plants, are found spread over to sub-temperate forest zone. They are of Ayurvedic importance and have trade value as well. Due to over exploitation and habitat degradation they are now turning into a rare species. Threat assessments of this species revealed that they are vulnerable in study area under reference. Their dominance too was found less as compare to other species. Their diversity profile in study areas also went down. Origanum vulgare L. has antimicrobial activities but Becillus subtillis, Pseudomonas aereuguinosa, Staphylococcus aureus and Escherchia coli bacteria were shown to be proactive. Due to fast growing urbanization of life, people are being attracted towards use of natural products and as such utility of such plants are gaining ground. Thus the need is to protect, promote and conserve such natural resources to have advantage of biodiversity conservation.Â

Low energy physical properties of high-Tc superconducting Cu oxides: A comparison between the resonating valence bond and experiments

In a recent review by Anderson and coworkers\cite{Vanilla}, it was pointed out that an early resonating valence bond (RVB) theory is able to explain a number of unusual properties of high temperature superconducting (SC) Cu-oxides. Here we extend previous calculations \cite{anderson87,FC Zhang,Randeria} to study more systematically low energy physical properties of the plain vanilla d-wave RVB state, and to compare results with the available experiments. We use a renormalized mean field theory combined with variational Monte Carlo and power Lanczos methods to study the RVB state of an extended $t-J$ model in a square lattice with parameters suitable for the hole doped Cu-oxides. The physical observable quantities we study include the specific heat, the linear residual thermal conductivity, the in-plane magnetic penetration depth, the quasiparticle energy at the antinode $(\pi, 0)$, the superconducting energy gap, the quasiparticle spectra and the Drude weight. The traits of nodes (including $k_{F}$, the Fermi velocity $v_{F}$ and the velocity along Fermi surface $v_{2}$), as well as the SC order parameter are also studied. Comparisons of the theory and the experiments in cuprates show an overall qualitative agreement, especially on their doping dependences.Comment: 12 pages, 14 figures, 1 tabl

Underground Corrosion by Microorganisms Part-I : Analytical Studies of Some Inclian Soils

Fourteen types of Indian soils were analysed far their mechanical, physical, chemical, electrical properties and potential corrosion causing microorganisms. An effort to correlate these individual soil properties was also made

Feed and Fodder–A Major Challenge in Cold Arid Region of Leh

Agriculture and animal husbandry in cold arid region are interwoven with the complex fabric of the society in sociocultural, religious and economical ways. Mixed crop-livestock farming systems have exerted a powerful influence on climate of Leh because of dissected topography with high peaks and deep valleys, having immense surface area and substantial area of which is clothed with a massive green mantle of plant cover during cropping season. Increased development in terms of increased agriculture, construction of roads, other miscellaneous constructions, and revenue oriented forestry has accentuated deforestation to meet the demand of fuel, fodders based industries. This has also exerted negative impact on pasture lands. However, the area under permanent pasture and grazing lands and net sown area have been surprisingly constant in the last decade. While the area under fallow other than current fallow has reduced by 50 per cent and the current fallow have increased almost two folds clearly indicated the need ever increasing demand for feed and fodder. The data/estimates of fodder production in the country vary widely. Fodder production and its utilization depend on the cropping pattern, climate, socio-economic conditions and type of livestock in a particular region. The cattle and other livestock are normally fed on the fodder available from cultivated areas, supplemented to a small extent by harvested grasses and top feeds. The three major sources of fodder supply are: crop residues, cultivated fodder and fodder from common property resources, forests, permanent pastures and grazing lands. The regional deficit is more important than the national deficit, especially for fodder, which is not economical to transport over long distances. The pattern of deficit varies block to block of the region. For instance, in general fodder availability in cold arid region is 40-50 per cent of the actual requirement, however, in few blocks, it is below 40%

Evaluation of the Immunoprotective Potential of Recombinant Paraflagellar Rod Proteins of Trypanosoma evansi in Mice

Trypanosomosis, caused by Trypanosoma evansi, is an economically significant disease of livestock. Systematic antigenic variation by the parasite has undermined prospects for the development of a protective vaccine that targets the immunodominant surface antigens, encouraging exploration of alternatives. The paraflagellar rod (PFR), constituent proteins of the flagellum, are prominent non-variable vaccine candidates for T. evansi owing to their strategic location. Two major PFR constituent proteins, PFR1 (1770bp) and PFR2 (1800bp), were expressed using Escherichia coli. Swiss albino mice were immunized with the purified recombinant TePFR1 (89KDa) and TePFR2 (88KDa) proteins, as well as with the mix of the combined proteins at equimolar concentrations, and subsequently challenged with virulent T. evansi. The PFR-specific humoral response was assessed by ELISA. Cytometric bead-based assay was used to measure the cytokine response and flow cytometry for quantification of the cytokines. The recombinant TePFR proteins induced specific humoral responses in mice, including IgG1 followed by IgG2a and IgG2b. A balanced cytokine response induced by rTePFR 1 and 2 protein vaccination associated with extended survival and improved control of parasitemia following lethal challenge. The observation confirms the immunoprophylactic potential of the covert antigens of T. evansi