Acid-adaption by a medic microsymbiont: new insights from the genome of Sinorhizobium medicae WSM419

The poor availability of nitrogen is one of the principal factors limiting global biomass. Legumes are vital components of agricultural systems because of their ability to associate symbiotically with root nodule bacteria (RNB) and subsequently fix atmospheric nitrogen to a form that can be utilised by the plant partner. Furthermore, this symbiotic relationship provides available soil nitrogen for subsequent non-leguminous crops. This RNB-legume interaction is affected by a number of environmental factors. Progressive acidification of agricultural soils is one of the big challenges in agriculture as soil acidity negatively impacts legume productivity. One genus of RNB, Sinorhizobium, is particularly acid-sensitive causing a major reduction in Medicago productivity in acidic soils. Due to the importance of Medic pasture production, alternative strains have been captured, and are still being captured, from the genetic pool that display superior acid tolerance characteristics. This presentation will focus on the acid-tolerant species S. medicae (previously known as S. meliloti) and in particular on the previously used commercial inoculant WSM419

Validation of integrated pest management module against insect pests of pigeonpea, Cajanus cajan in Tarai region of Uttarakhand

Experiments on validation of integrated pest management (IPM) module against insect pest of pigeonpea in comparison with the Non-IPM (farmer’s practices) were conducted at N.E.B. Crop Research Centre, G. B. Pant University of Agriculture & Technology, Pantnagar during Kharif 2014 and 2015. Adopted IPM module contained Seed treatment with Trichoderma spp. @10g/kg of seed, Sole crop, Bird perches @ 50/ha, need based insecticides spray (Chlorantraniliprole 18.5SC @ 30 g a. i./ha; Neem soap@10g/lit; Acetamiprid 20SP @ 20 g a. i./ha). The results indicated that minimum population of pod borers (Helicoverpa armigera,Maruca vitrata and podfly) and sucking insects (aphids, jassids, pod bug) was reported in IPM plots and maximum population of insects was observed in Non-IPM plots. Percent insect control over non-IPM was 50.98 % for H. armigera, 44.69 % for M. vitrata and 19.17 % for Maruca webbing were recorded. While, for sucking pest complex, insect control over non-IPM was 51.59 %, 40.36 % and 36.17 % against jassids, aphids and tur pod bug, respectively. Similarly, minimum pod borer damage (6.48 and 7.71 %) was recorded in IPM plots as compared to maximum pod borer damage (8.37 and 8.22 %) in non-IPM plots, respectively during 2014 and 2015. Whereas, pooled grain yield for IPM plots was 1286.5 kg/ha for both seasons as against 888 kg/ha in non-IPM plots with 1:2.89 benefit cost ratio. Hence, It is apparent that studied IPM module was able to increase the yield of pigeonepea with lower cost of production as against non-IPM thus it would be benefiting the farmers

New Black Hole Solutions in Brans-Dicke Theory of Gravity

Existence check of non-trivial, stationary axisymmetric black hole solutions in Brans-Dicke theory of gravity in different direction from those of Penrose, Thorne and Dykla, and Hawking is performed. Namely, working directly with the known explicit spacetime solutions in Brans-Dicke theory, it is found that non-trivial Kerr-Newman-type black hole solutions different from general relativistic solutions could occur for the generic Brans-Dicke parameter values -5/2\leq \omega <-3/2. Finally, issues like whether these new black holes carry scalar hair and can really arise in nature and if they can, what the associated physical implications would be are discussed carefully.Comment: 20 pages, no figure, Revtex, version to appear in Phys. Rev.

Relativistic anisotropic charged fluid spheres with varying cosmological constant

Static spherically symmetric anisotropic source has been studied for the Einstein-Maxwell field equations assuming the erstwhile cosmological constant $\Lambda$ to be a space-variable scalar, viz., $\Lambda = \Lambda(r)$. Two cases have been examined out of which one reduces to isotropic sphere. The solutions thus obtained are shown to be electromagnetic in origin as a particular case. It is also shown that the generally used pure charge condition, viz., $\rho + p_r = 0$ is not always required for constructing electromagnetic mass models.Comment: 15 pages, 3 eps figure

Relativistic Electromagnetic Mass Models: Charged Dust Distribution in Higher Dimensions

Electromagnetic mass models are proved to exist in higher dimensional theory of general relativity corresponding to charged dust distribution. Along with the general proof a specific example is also sited as a supporting candidate.Comment: Latex, 7 pages. Accepted in Astrophysics and Space Scienc

Fixed Point Theorems in Random Fuzzy Metric Space Through Rational Expression

In the present paper we will find some fixed point theorems in random fuzzy metric space, random fuzzy 2-metric space and random fuzzy 3-metric space through rational expression.Also we will find the results forintegral type mapping

Rapid in situ evolution of nodulating strains for Biserrula pelecinus L. through lateral transfer of a symbiosis island from the original mesorhizobial inoculant

Diverse rhizobia able to nodulate Biserrula pelecinus evolved following in situ transfer of nodA and nifH from an inoculant to soil bacteria. Transfer of these chromosomal genes and the presence of an identical integrase gene adjacent to a Phe tRNA gene in both the inoculant and recipients indicate that there was lateral transfer of a symbiosis island

Some Fixed Point Theorems in Fuzzy Mappings

In this paper we stablished some fixed point and common fixed point theorems for sequence of fuzzymappings,taking rational inequalities which generalized the results of Heilpern [2], Lee, Cho, Lee and Kim [16]Keywords: Fixed point theory, Fuzzy Mappings,Contraction mappings,Upper semi-continuous,common fixedpoint

Uracil DNA glycosylase (UDG) activities in Bradyrhizobium diazoefficiens: characterization of a new class of UDG with broad substrate specificity

Repair of uracils in DNA is initiated by uracil DNA glycosylases (UDGs). Family 1 UDGs (Ung) are the most efficient and ubiquitous proteins having an exquisite specificity for uracils in DNA. Ung are characterized by motifs A (GQDPY) and B (HPSPLS) sequences. We report a novel dimeric UDG, Blr0248 (BdiUng) from Bradyrhizobium diazoefficiens. Although BdiUng contains the motif A (GQDPA), it has low sequence identity to known UDGs. BdiUng prefers single stranded DNA and excises uracil, 5-hydroxymethyl-uracil or xanthine from it. BdiUng is impervious to inhibition by AP DNA, and Ugi protein that specifically inhibits family 1 UDGs. Crystal structure of BdiUng shows similarity with the family 4 UDGs in its overall fold but with family 1 UDGs in key active site residues. However, instead of a classical motif B, BdiUng has a uniquely extended protrusion explaining the lack of Ugi inhibition. Structural and mutational analyses of BdiUng have revealed the basis for the accommodation of diverse substrates into its substrate binding pocket. Phylogenetically, BdiUng belongs to a new UDG family. Bradyrhizobium diazoefficiens presents a unique scenario where the presence of at least four families of UDGs may compensate for the absence of an efficient family 1 homologue

Epigenome-wide association study of kidney function identifies trans-ethnic and ethnic-specific loci

BACKGROUND: DNA methylation (DNAm) is associated with gene regulation and estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), a measure of kidney function. Decreased eGFR is more common among US Hispanics and African Americans. The causes for this are poorly understood. We aimed to identify trans-ethnic and ethnic-specific differentially methylated positions (DMPs) associated with eGFR using an agnostic, genome-wide approach. METHODS: The study included up to 5428 participants from multi-ethnic studies for discovery and 8109 participants for replication. We tested the associations between whole blood DNAm and eGFR using beta values from Illumina 450K or EPIC arrays. Ethnicity-stratified analyses were performed using linear mixed models adjusting for age, sex, smoking, and study-specific and technical variables. Summary results were meta-analyzed within and across ethnicities. Findings were assessed using integrative epigenomics methods and pathway analyses. RESULTS: We identified 93 DMPs associated with eGFR at an FDR of 0.05 and replicated 13 and 1 DMPs across independent samples in trans-ethnic and African American meta-analyses, respectively. The study also validated 6 previously published DMPs. Identified DMPs showed significant overlap enrichment with DNase I hypersensitive sites in kidney tissue, sites associated with the expression of proximal genes, and transcription factor motifs and pathways associated with kidney tissue and kidney development. CONCLUSIONS: We uncovered trans-ethnic and ethnic-specific DMPs associated with eGFR, including DMPs enriched in regulatory elements in kidney tissue and pathways related to kidney development. These findings shed light on epigenetic mechanisms associated with kidney function, bridging the gap between population-specific eGFR-associated DNAm and tissue-specific regulatory context