Metabolite profiling of tartary buckwheat-an underutilized neutraceutical crop of Kashmir Himalaya

The aim of the present study was to explore the possible metabolites in the methanolic extract of root, stem, groat and hull of the neutraceutical crop, Fagopyrum tataricum using GC-MS technique. From GC-MS metabolite profiling, over 90 different metabolites were identified among root, stem, groat and hull extract.  The most prevailing compounds were 3, 3’, 4’, 5, 7-pentahydroflavone-3-rhamnoglucoside (71.94%) in groat, 9, 12-octadecadienoic acid (49.38%) in root, 6-octadecanoic acid, a steric acid (70.46%) in hull and Cis-9-hexadecanal (13.38%) in stem. Present investigation reveals that F. tataricum is an excellent source of many metabolites such as, fatty acids, hydrocarbons, steroids, terpenoids, esters, organic acids and aldehydes with excellent pharmaceutical properties. These results suggest that tartary buckwheat could be a promising alternative in the functional food sector and neutraceutical to improve social well-being and diminish malnutrition

Covert nominals and argument ellipsis in Punjabi

AbstractThe focus of the study is to find out the potential identity of null arguments in Punjabi. However, the paper provides different patterns of interpretations of null arguments present in Punjabi by keeping in view the propositions of Takahashi (2012, July). The special focus is given on the phenomenon named as Argument Ellipsis (AE), which is used as syntactically mediated process for investigating the relationship of verbal agreement and scrambling with AE in null argument language Punjabi. It was observed that AE in Punjabi licenses the null arguments on direct and indirect objects, subjects and selected PPs. The study finds out by observing and manipulating different configurations of subject-object agreement in Punjabi that there is no role critically played by verbal agreement in order to restrict AE. The research also specifies that scrambling approach for licensing is also not reliable predictor for AE in Punjabi. However, bare nouns approach is more appropriate for the analysis of AE in Punjabi as the bare nouns license the sloppy interpretations, which are marked either indefinite or definite nouns for null arguments in Punjabi. This approach can be tested for further cross-linguistic examination of AE, and hopefully it would be regarded as the only underlying cause of argument ellipsis for future studies

An investigation into the acquisition of English grammatical morphemes by young Sindhi high school ESL learners

AbstractThe present study aims to explore the acquisition order of eight English grammatical inflectional morphemes, i.e. plural –s, possessive -s’, third person singular, present tense-s, past tense-ed, present participle-ing, past participle-en, comparative-er, and superlative-est by young Sindhi ESL (English as second language learners) learners at the high school. The study aimed to test the hypothesis that the high school English learners do not follow the universal order of grammatical morphemes and to investigate the effect of linguistic interference of L1 (Sindhi) in the acquisition order of English grammatical morphemes. The primary instrument used for data collection in this study was written essays. The time gap between first and second samplings was around three months. A mixed methods research design was utilized. The study used an exploratory-descriptive-qualitative methods coupled with a quantitative as per the objectives of the study corresponding to the research questions. A convenience sampling technique was employed to select participants from 10th Grade level. Specifically, the data was analyzed using the Dulay and Burt (1974) scoring method. The statistical tests were utilized to test the null hypothesis. The data confirmed that they indeed do not follow the universal order of grammatical morphemes. There exists the effect of linguistic inference of L1 in the acquisition order English grammatical morphemes. Finally, the finding is not in line with the sequence as determined by Dulay and Burt (1974), and Brown (1973)

Characterization of mercury-induced stress biomarkers in <i>Fagopyrum tataricum</i> plants

<p>The effect of mercury stress on antioxidant enzymes, lipid peroxidation, photosynthetic pigments, hydrogen peroxide content, osmolytes, and growth parameters in Tartary buckwheat were investigated. The effect of Hg-exposure was found to be time (15 and 30 days) and concentration (0, 25, 50, and 75 μM) dependent. Hg was readily absorbed by seedlings with higher content in roots and it resulted in reduction of root and shoot length. The root and shoot Hg uptakes were significantly and directly correlated with each other. However, the fresh mass and biomass increased up to 50 μM Hg-treatment at both time periods. A significant positive correlation was observed between biomass accumulation with relative water content. Hg levels were positively correlated with the production of hydrogen peroxide in leaves as evidenced by 3, 3-diaminobenzidine (DAB)-mediated tissue fingerprinting. The osmolyte levels in general were elevated except for proline and protein which showed a decline at 75 μM Hg-treatment at 30-days. Amongst the photosynthetic pigments, chlorophyll showed a decline while as carotenoid and anthocyanin levels were elevated. The activity of antioxidant enzymes such as ascorbate peroxidase (APX), guaiacol peroxidase (POD), glutathione reductase (GR), Glutathione-s-transferase (GST) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) were positively correlated with Hg-treatment except SOD, which declined at 75 μM Hg-treatment in 30-days old seedlings. Catalase (CAT) activity showed a positive correlation up to 50 μM Hg-treatment but at 75 μM Hg-stress it decreases at both 15 and 30 days.</p

Inhibitory Potential of Phytochemicals on Interleukin-6-Mediated T-Cell Reduction in COVID-19 Patients: A Computational Approach

Background: A recent COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a large death toll rate globally and even no cure or vaccine has been successfully employed to combat this disease. Patients have been reported with multi-organ dysfunction along with acute respiratory distress syndrome which implies a critical situation for patients and made them difficult to breathe and survive. Moreover, pathology of COVID-19 is also related to cytokine storm which indicates the elevated levels of interleukin (IL)-1, IL-6, IL-12, and IL-18 along with tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α. Among them, the proinflammatory cytokine IL-6 has been reported to be induced via binding of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS)-CoV-2 to the host receptors. Methodology: Interleukin-6 blockade has been proposed to constitute novel therapeutics against COVID-19. Thus, in this study, 15 phytocompounds with known antiviral activity have been subjected to test for their inhibitory effect on IL-6. Based on the affinity prediction, top 3 compounds (isoorientin, lupeol, and andrographolide) with best scores were selected for 50 ns molecular dynamics simulation and MMGB/PBSA binding free energy analysis. Results: Three phytocompounds including isoorientin, lupeol, and andrographolide have shown strong interactions with the targeted protein IL-6 with least binding energies (−7.1 to −7.7 kcal/mol). Drug-likeness and ADMET profiles of prioritized phytocompounds are also very prominsing and can be further tested to be potential IL-6 blockers and thus benficial for COVID-19 treatment. The moelcular dynamics simulation couple with MMGB/PBSA binding free energy estimation validated conformational stability of the ligands and stronger intermolecular binding. The mean RMSD of the complexes is as: IL6-isoorientin complex (3.97 Å ± 0.77), IL6-lupeol (3.97 Å ± 0.76), and IL6-andrographolide complex (3.96 Å ± 0.77). In addition, the stability observation was affirmed by compounds mean RMSD: isoorientin (0.72 Å ± 0.32), lupeol (mean 0.38 Å ± 0.08), and andrographolide (1.09 Å ± 0.49). A similar strong agreement on systems stability was unraveled by MMGB/PBSA that found net binding net ~ −20 kcal/mol for the complexes dominated by van der Waal interaction energy. Conclusion: It has been predicted that proposing potential IL-6 inhibitors with less side effects can help critical COVID-19 patients because it may control the cytokine storm, a major responsible factor of its pathogenesis. In this study, 3 potential phytocompounds have been proposed to have inhibitory effect on IL-6 that can be tested as potential therapeutic options against SARS-CoV-2

Trackable CEMB-Klean Cotton Transgenic Technology: Afforadable Climate Neutral Agri-biotech Industrialization for Developing Countries

Background: Transgenic technology reflects the incorporation of novel useful traits in crop plants like cotton for economic benefits by overcoming the problems including insects' pests and weeds in special. The present study is the success story of the continuous effort of CEMB team started back in the 1990s. Methods: This study includes characterization of a large number of Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) strains taken from local soil and subjected to direct transformation of isolated BT genes into local cotton cultivars. Protocols for transformation into cotton plants were optimized and validated by the development of double gene codon optimized (Cry1Ac and Cry2A) transgenic cotton varieties. Results: The resulting GMOs in the form of CEMB-33, CA-12, CEMB-66 have been approved by Punjab Seed Council in 2013 and 2016 respectively. Double Bt and weedicide resistant cotton harboring CEMB-Modified and codon optimized cp4EPSPS (GTGene). These varieties can tolerate glyphosate spray @ 1900ml per acre without the appearance of necrotic spots/shedding and complete removal of all surrounding weeds in the cotton field is a significant advance to boost cotton production without spending much on insecticides and herbicides. Conclusion: In the current report, two unique sets of primers which amplify 1.1 Kb for CEMB-double Bt genes and 660 bp product for CEMB-Modified cp4EPSPS (GTGene) were tested. CEMB cotton variety CKC-01 is specially designed as low cost and easy to use by local farmer's technology has the potential to revolutionize the cotton growing culture of the country.Higher Education Commission (HEC) of PakistanOpen access journalThis item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at [email protected]