Identification of stress-responsive genes in an indica rice (Oryza sativa L.) using ESTs generated from drought-stressed seedlings

The impacts of drought on plant growth and development limit cereal crop production worldwide. Rice (Oryza sativa) productivity and production is severely affected due to recurrent droughts in almost all agroecological zones. With the advent of molecular and genomic technologies, emphasis is now placed on understanding the mechanisms of genetic control of the drought-stress response. In order to identify genes associated with water-stress response in rice, ESTs generated from a normalized cDNA library, constructed from drought-stressed leaf tissue of an indica cultivar, Nagina 22 were used. Analysis of 7794 cDNA sequences led to the identification of 5815 rice ESTs. Of these, 334 exhibited no significant sequence homology with any rice ESTs or full-length cDNAs in public databases, indicating that these transcripts are enriched during drought stress. Analysis of these 5815 ESTs led to the identification of 1677 unique sequences. To characterize this drought transcriptome further and to identify candidate genes associated with the drought-stress response, the rice data were compared with those for abiotic stress-induced sequences obtained from expression profiling studies in Arabidopsis, barley, maize, and rice. This comparative analysis identified 589 putative stress-responsive genes (SRGs) that are shared by these diverse plant species. Further, the identified leaf SRGs were compared to expression profiles for a drought-stressed rice panicle library to identify common sequences. Significantly, 125 genes were found to be expressed under drought stress in both tissues. The functional classification of these 125 genes showed that a majority of them are associated with cellular metabolism, signal transduction, and transcriptional regulation

Identification of Peanut Green Mosaic Virus Strains in India

During field surveys, three peanut green mosaic virus isolates differing in symptomatology on groundnut and a few other hosts were collected. Ultrathin sections of infected groundnut leaflets showed cytoplasmic inclusions with pin wheels and scrolls. In enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay they reacted strongly with antisera to peanut green mosaic and soybean mosaic virus antisera, and moderately with adzuki bean mosaic and peanut stripe virus antisera. All isolates also reacted positively with antisera to peanut eye spot, blackeye cowpea mosaic, pea seed-borne mosaic, potato virus Y and tobacco etch viruses, and did not react with antisera to peanut mottle, bean yellow mosaic, bean common mosaic, clover yellow vein and sugarcane mosaic viruses. SDS-PAGE analysis of purified virus preparations of the three isolates showed a single polypeptide with mol. wt. of 34,500 daltons. Based on these results, the three isolates are identified as biologically distinct strains of peanut green mosaic virus

Characteristics of spectral aerosol optical depths over India during ICARB

Spectral aerosol optical depth (AOD) measurements, carried out regularly from a network of observatories spread over the Indian mainland and adjoining islands in the Bay of Bengal and Arabian Sea, are used to examine the spatio-temporal and spectral variations during the period of ICARB (March to May 2006). The AODs and the derived Angstrom parameters showed considerable variations across India during the above period. While at the southern peninsular stations the AODs decreased towards May after a peak in April, in the north Indian regions they increased continuously from March to May. The Angstrom coefficients suggested enhanced coarse mode loading in the north Indian regions, compared to southern India. Nevertheless, as months progressed from March to May, the dominance of coarse mode aerosols increased in the columnar aerosol size spectrum over the entire Indian mainland, maintaining the regional distinctiveness. Compared to the above, the island stations showed considerably low AODs, so too the northeastern station Dibrugarh, indicating the prevalence of cleaner environment. Long-range transport of aerosols from the adjoining regions leads to remarkable changes in the magnitude of the AODs and their wavelength dependencies during March to May. HYSPLIT back-trajectory analysis shows that enhanced long-range transport of aerosols, particularly from the west Asia and northwest coastal India, contributed significantly to the enhancement of AOD and in the flattening of the spectra over entire regions; if it is the peninsular regions and the island Minicoy are more impacted in April, the north Indian regions including the Indo Gangetic Plain get affected the most during May, with the AODs soaring as high as 1.0 at 500 nm. Over the islands, the Angstrom exponent (α) remained significantly lower (~1) over the Arabian Sea compared to Bay of Bengal (BoB) (~1.4) as revealed by the data respectively from Minicoy and Port Blair. Occurrences of higher values of α, showing dominance of accumulation mode aerosols, over BoB are associated well with the advection, above the boundary layer, of fine particles from the east Asian region during March and April. The change in the airmass to marine in May results in a rapid decrease in α over the BoB

Recent 3D and 4D intelligent printing technologies: A comparative review and future perspective

Additive manufacturing (AM) is generally recognized as three-dimensional (3D) printing or raPID prototyping, which has evolved raPIDly in numerous applications. In recent years, a new term has emerged as four-dimensional (4D) printing, which utilizes additive manufacturing methods to print stimulus-responsive products subjected to specific stimuli. 4D printing is generally regarded as the further evolution of 3D printing. In this review paper, recent major fundamentals and technology development between 3D and 4D printing are reviewed, including its features and latest findings. Comparative analysis and rating level are further compared and analyzed using SWOT analysis method. Moreover, some potential applications between 3D and 4D printing are involved, followed by its typical applications, advance trend, and future perspective

Observations on Livestock Productivity in Sheep Fed Exclusively on Haulms from Ten Different Genotypes of Groundnut

Haulms from 10 different genotypes of groundnut were tested with growing male sheep for digestibility, intake, nitrogen retention and live weight gains. Very high daily intake levels of > 4% of sheep bodyweight were observed in all haulms. Nitrogen retention (range: 6.7 to 11.4 g/d) and live weight gains (range: 65 to 137 g/d) varied about two fold among genotypes suggesting that the choice of groundnut genotype can have a very significant effect on livestock productivity in feeding systems based on groundnut haulms. Haulm fodder quality difference were well reflected by acid detergent lignin (ADL), which accounted for 58, 39 and 72% of the variation in haulm in vivo digestibility, nitrogen retention and live weight gains, respectively. Using stepwise multiple regression procedures, combinations of haulm ADL content and in vitro digestibility and of haulm ADL content and in vitro metabolisable energy content accounted for 84% and 92% of the variation in in vivo digestibility and live weight gain, respectively. The combination of haulm nitrogen and ADL content accounted for 80% of the variation in nitrogen retention. Among the genotypes, ICGV 89104), ICGV 91114), TMV 2 and ICGV 92093 promoted highest productivity in shee

High nitrous oxide fluxes from rice indicate the need to manage water for both long- and short-term climate impacts

Global rice cultivation is estimated to account for 2.5% of current anthropogenic warming because of emissions of methane (CH4), a short-lived greenhouse gas. This estimate assumes a widespread prevalence of continuous flooding of most rice fields and hence does not include emissions of nitrous oxide (N2O), a long-lived greenhouse gas. Based on the belief that minimizing CH4 from rice cultivation is always climate beneficial, current mitigation policies promote increased use of intermittent flooding. However, results from five intermittently flooded rice farms across three agroecological regions in India indicate that N2O emissions per hectare can be three times higher (33 kg-N2O⋅ha−1⋅season−1) than the maximum previously reported. Correlations between N2O emissions and management parameters suggest that N2O emissions from rice across the Indian subcontinent might be 30–45 times higher under intensified use of intermittent flooding than under continuous flooding. Our data further indicate that comanagement of water with inorganic nitrogen and/or organic matter inputs can decrease climate impacts caused by greenhouse gas emissions up to 90% and nitrogen management might not be central to N2O reduction. An understanding of climate benefits/drawbacks over time of different flooding regimes because of differences in N2O and CH4 emissions can help select the most climate-friendly water management regimes for a given area. Region-specific studies of rice farming practices that map flooding regimes and measure effects of multiple comanaged variables on N2O and CH4 emissions are necessary to determine and minimize the climate impacts of rice cultivation over both the short term and long term

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PHARMACY & LIFE SCIENCES Screening of potential efficacy of dietary ginger on ethanol induced oxidative stress in rat cardiac tissue: A study on changes in basic metabolic profiles

Abstract The present study was premeditated to examine the possible mechanisms where by ginger (Zingiber officinale) could protect cardiac tissue from alcohol toxicity in rats. The carbohydrate metabolic profiles like total carbohydrates, pyruvate, total proteins, free amino acids and lactate levels were measured in heart tissue. The total carbohydrates, pyruvate, and total proteins were significant declined while free amino acids, lactate levels were significant increased in alcohol intoxicated rats. Whereas with ginger (200 mg/kg body weight) treatment shown significant increase in the total carbohydrates, total proteins and pyruvate levels, whereas free amino acids, lactate levels were significant drop in the cardiac tissues. From the present study, we conclude that ginger protects the heart tissue from alcohol toxicity in rats, this may be due to the presence of many bioactive compounds in ginger