Synthetic and Spectroscopic Characterization of Organotin(IV) Complexes of Biologically Active Schiff Bases Derived from Sulpha Drugs

A number of diorganotin(IV) complexes with Schiffbase have been synthesized and characterized by elemental analysis, conductance measurements, molecular weight determinations, infrared, electronic and multinuclear magnetic resonance ((1)H, (13)C and (119)Sn NMR) spectral data. The molar conductivity data shows non-electrolytic nature of complexes. The bidentate nature of the ligands is inferred from IR and NMR spectral studies. The antimicrobial activities of the ligands and their tin complexes have been screened in vitro against the organism Escherichia coli; Staphylococus aureus, Prouteus mirabilis, Bacillus thurengiensis, Penicillium co.,sogenum, Aspergillus niger and Fusarium oxysporum

Design of a compact SOI polarization rotator for mid-IR application

Design of a compact polarization rotator (PR) exploiting power coupling through phase matching between the TM mode of a strip waveguide (WG) and TE mode of a vertical slot WG is presented. Optimized cross sectional dimensions of the coupler have been achieved to use this device as a compact PR at 3 μm wavelength with device length of just 2 mm. We also investigate the device performance at the operating wavelength (λ) = 1.55 μm

Design and Performance Study of a Compact SOI Polarization Rotator at 1.55 mu m

We numerically design a compact silicon (Si) based polarization rotator (PR) by exploiting power coupling through phase matching between the TM mode of a Si strip waveguide (WG) and TE mode of a Si-air vertical slot WG. In such structures, the coupling occurs due to horizontal structural asymmetries and extremely high modal hybridness due to high refractive index contrast of Si-on-insulator (SOI) structure. Design parameters of the coupler have been optimized to achieve a compact PR of ~135 μm length at the telecommunication wavelength of 1.55 μm. Maximum power coupling efficiency Cm, which is studied by examining the transmittance of light, is achieved as high as 80% for both polarization conversions. Fabrication tolerances and the band width of operation of the designed PR have also been studied

An efficient polarization converter for Mid-IR wavelength

Design of a silicon-based polarization converter through phase matched power coupling between TE and TM modes is presented. Conversion efficiency up to 90% is feasible at 3 μm wavelength with device length of 536 μm

De Novo Assembly of Chickpea Transcriptome Using Short Reads for Gene Discovery and Marker Identification

Chickpea ranks third among the food legume crops production in the world. However, the genomic resources available for chickpea are still very limited. In the present study, the transcriptome of chickpea was sequenced with short reads on Illumina Genome Analyzer platform. We have assessed the effect of sequence quality, various assembly parameters and assembly programs on the final assembly output. We assembled ∼107million high-quality trimmed reads using Velvet followed by Oases with optimal parameters into a non-redundant set of 53 409 transcripts (≥100 bp), representing about 28 Mb of unique transcriptome sequence. The average length of transcripts was 523 bp and N50 length of 900 bp with coverage of 25.7 rpkm (reads per kilobase per million). At the protein level, a total of 45 636 (85.5%) chickpea transcripts showed significant similarity with unigenes/predicted proteins from other legumes or sequenced plant genomes. Functional categorization revealed the conservation of genes involved in various biological processes in chickpea. In addition, we identified simple sequence repeat motifs in transcripts. The chickpea transcripts set generated here provides a resource for gene discovery and development of functional molecular markers. In addition, the strategy for de novo assembly of transcriptome data presented here will be helpful in other similar transcriptome studies

Purification, crystallization and preliminary X-ray studies of Mycobacterium tuberculosis RRF

The ribosome recycling factor from Mycobacterium tuberculosis has been crystallized. The monoclinic crystals, with 52.5% solvent content, contain one protein molecule in the asymmetric unit

Crop genetics research in Asia: improving food security and nutrition

Breakthroughs in genomics research in recent decades have fundamentally changed the landscape of crop science at a number of fronts: (1) High-quality reference genome sequences have become available for most of the crops which have provided the foundation for understanding the genome and for functional genomic studies. (2) Large numbers of genes have been identified and functionally characterized for many important agronomic traits, which have greatly enhanced the understanding of the regulatory mechanisms and the underlying biological processes for the making of the traits. (3) Large-scale resequencing of the diverse germplasms and genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have provided assessment about the extent of genome diversity, the genetic architecture, and association between the phenotype and DNA sequence polymorphisms in many crop species. (4) Systems of breeding technologies based on the advance in genomic studies, or genomic breeding, have now been developed including novel goals in response to the evolving demands of the consumers, upgraded definitions of traits to be improved, techniques for whole genome selection, and varietal designs for the implementation

Requirement of Whole-Genome Sequencing and Background History of the National and International Genome Initiatives

Chickpea is the second most important grain legume for food and nutritional security in the arid and semi-arid regions of the world. The genome sequence provides the basis for a wide range of studies, from the important goal of accelerated breeding to identifying the molecular basis of key agronomic traits, in addition to understanding the basic legume biology. The discussions during 5th International Conference on Legume Genetics and Genomics, held during July 8–10, 2010 in Asilomar, USA, provided the platform for the genesis of International Chickpea Genome Sequencing Consortium (ICGSC http://ceg.icrisat.org/gt-bt/ICGGC/ICGSC.htm), and as result of global research partnership co-led by ICRISAT, UC-Davis, and BGI-Shenzhen, involving 49 scientists from 23 organizations in 10 countries the draft genome of kabuli genotype CDC Frontier was published. On the other hand, the Next Generation Challenge Programme on Chickpea Genomics (NGCPCG) initiative unraveled the genome sequence of desi genotype ICC 4958. This chapter summarizes the background history of two independent efforts to generate draft genome sequence of kabuli and desi chickpea genomes. In addition, the chapter also highlights key developments of application of genome sequence for crop improvement