Correlation between vertical hard and soft tissue variables of the face.

Abstract: Background & Aim: Facial vertical variables are important components of soft tissue analysis which are used in clinical esthetic evaluation. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the correlation between vertical skeletal and dental variables of hard and soft tissues of human face. Materials & Methods: A total of 46 patients (23 boys and girls) were included in this cross-sectional study. Selected angles and facial dimensions were measured during the clinical appointments. For facial proportions, from frontal view, ..

Genetic diversity of Fusarium solani isolates from black pepper (Piper nigrum L.) in Malaysia by ISSR marker

For effective management and control of yellowing disease, inter-simple sequence repeat (ISSR) markers were employed to investigate genetic diversity among 34 isolates of Fusarium solani, which had been isolated from major growing areas of black pepper in Malaysia. Over 15 primers, with fragment sizes ranging from 200 bp to 3600 bp, and a total of 253 amplified loci were amplified in all 34 isolates, with an average of 17 bands per primer; among which 248 (98.02 %) were polymorphic. High genetic diversity at species level was revealed (Nei’s gene diversity h = 0.2671 and Shannon information index I = 0.4134, respectively). Sarikei population was found to have a higher degree of polymorphism compared to other populations. The dendrogram generated from UPGMA cluster analysis categorized the 34 F. solani isolates into two major clusters based on Jaccard’s similarity coefficients. Cluster I contained a unique isolate. Cluster II contained 33 isolates which were split into two different subclusters. Results showed that the clusters were not related to geographic origins. Meanwhile, ISSR fingerprinting generated highly polymorphic markers that could be used to study genetic characterization of F. solani and to clarify phylogenic relationships, as well as useful for efficient management of yellowing disease and finding breeding programmes to find cultivars of black pepper that are resistant to F. solani

A review on bioactive compounds isolated from plants active against phytopathogenic fungi.

Plant-derived compounds are regarded as a substantial source for novel lead structures to develop medicines and biocides natural products. Concurrent with greater awareness towards the use of synthetic chemicals in agricultural practice, the application of integrated pest management programs has also increased. In recent years, there has been considerable public pressure to reduce the use of synthetic fungicides in agriculture. Although, the use of synthetic fungicides in plant disease control has been successful in improving agricultural output, several of these have been found to exhibit side-effects in the form of carcinogenicity, detrimental effects and other residual toxicities. The alternative choice therefore would be the use of botanical fungicides, which are found to be largely non-phytotoxic, systematic and easily biodegradable in nature. The present study is a summary of review literature during past decades which focused on bioactive compounds isolated from plants against plant pathogenic fungi

Characterization of the volatile oil compositions from Hypericum perforatum L. shoot cultures in different basal media

St. John’s wort (Hypericum perforatum L.) is the most important species of the genus Hypericum and produces a wide range of chemical constituents including essential oil. Regarding advantages of in vitro culture techniques in production of desired metabolites, the present study was aimed to investigate volatile constituents of H. perforatum shoots cultured in different basal media. Shoot cultures were established by culturing six nodes of aseptic plants in three liquid media including MS (Murashige and Skoog), B5 (Gamborg B-5) and half-strength B5 containing 30 g L-1 sucrose and 0.5 mg L-1 BA (6-benzyladenine). According to the results, growth and profile of volatile constituents of cultured shoots were affected by the type of medium used and shoots cultured in the B5 medium exhibited the highest growth which was reached to 42.95 g flask-1. On the other hand, 44 components were totally identified by GC-FID and GC-MS analysis of essential oils of cultured shoots. Decane (27.7%), menthol (8.9%), methyl decanoate (4.6%) and β-elemene (4.6%) were the major volatile constituents of the shoots cultured in MS medium, while eudesma4(15),7-dien-1-β-ol (8.1-7.5%), thymol (7-7.2%) and 1,4-trans-1,7-trans-acorenone (5.2-5.5%) were found as the principal components of shoots cultured in B5 and half-strength B5 media

Evaluation of the detection techniques of toxigenic Aspergillus isolates

Aflatoxins are difuranocoumarin derivatives produced by some Aspergillus species through a polyketide pathway. Mycotoxins are considered hazard ous and there is a need for accurate detection of each toxin. Several screening methods for direct visual determination of aflatoxins and ochratoxin A(OTA) production have been reported. These methods rely on using different types of coconut culture media, methylated β-cyclodextrin and ammonium hydroxide vapour tests. However, our results showed that use of these techniques were not sufficiently sensitive for all Aspergillus species and suggested a simple thin layer chromatography (TLC) as a sensitive and reliable technique for detection of aflatoxins and OTA produced by Aspergillus and Eurotium species

Isolation and identification of Eurotium species from contaminated rice by morphology and DNA sequencing.

30 milled rice samples were collected from retailers in four states of Malaysia. These samples were evaluated for Eurotium spp. contaminations by direct plating on malt extract salt agar (MESA). All Eurotium were isolated and identified based on morphology and nucleotide sequences of internal transcribed spacer 1 (ITS1) and ITS2 of the rDNA. Four Eurotium species (E. rubrum, E. amstelodami, E. chevalieri and E. cristatum) dominated seed samples were identified. The main characteristics for morphological differentiation of Eurotium species were colony features on different culture media and ascospore surface ornamentations. The PCR-sequencing technique for sequences of ITS1 and ITS2 is a fast technique for identification of Eurotium species, but did not work perfectly for differentiating Eurotium species from each others. DNA sequence analysis showed a fixed sequence numbers in both ITS1 and ITS2 regions. These results suggest that sequencing of ITS regions could support morphological characteristics for identification of Eurotium species