Anostraca of the Indian Subcontinent

There are 15 species of Anostraca belonging to 6 genera on the Indian Subcontinent. These are:Artemia sp. (reportedly a bisexual form of undetermined species);Artemia parthenogenetica Bowen & Sterling, 1978;Branchinecta orientalis Sars, 1901;Branchinella hardingi (Qadri & Baqai, 1956);Branchinella kugenumaensis (Ishikawa, 1895);Branchinella ornata Daday, 1910;Branchipodopsis acanthopenes (Malhotra & Duda, 1970);Branchipodopsis affinis Sars, 1901;Branchipus schaefferi Fischer, 1834;Chirocephalus priscus (Daday, 1910);Streptocephalus dichotomus Baird, 1860;Streptocephalus echinus Bond, 1934;Streptocephalus longimanus Bond, 1934;Streptocephalus simplex Gurney, 1906;Streptocephalus spinifer Gurney, 1906.Comparing numbers of species for southern India with other reasonably well studied areas, demonstrated that anostracan species richness is higher in the climatically more varied temperate regions than it is in the more uniform tropics. Tropical South India has six species compared to 13 in Arizona (USA), 19 in California (USA), 10 in Morocco, and 14 in Italy.     

Indian Siddis: African descendants with Indian admixture

The Siddis (Afro-Indians) are a tribal population whose members live in coastal Karnataka, Gujarat, and in some parts of Andhra Pradesh. Historical records indicate that the Portuguese brought the Siddis to India from Africa about 300-500 years ago; however, there is little information about their more precise ancestral origins. Here, we perform a genome-wide survey to understand the population history of the Siddis. Using hundreds of thousands of autosomal markers, we show that they have inherited ancestry from Africans, Indians, and possibly Europeans (Portuguese). Additionally, analyses of the uniparental (Y-chromosomal and mitochondrial DNA) markers indicate that the Siddis trace their ancestry to Bantu speakers from sub-Saharan Africa. We estimate that the admixture between the African ancestors of the Siddis and neighboring South Asian groups probably occurred in the past eight generations (～200 years ago), consistent with historical records.     

Indian Podophyllum

Since Indian Podophyllum is very rich in a resin of cathartic action, it has been the subject of several botanical, chemical and pharmacological investigations, and has been admitted to the British Pharmacopoeia but not yet to that of the United States.     

Indian aconites

Of the two dozen species of aconite native to India, thirteen are known to possess drug value. Some of the latter are in commercial trade and offer valuable substitutes for the more commonly used species of Europe. Their nomenclature is revised in this article, with proper consideration given to their habitats and chemical constituents in order to facilitate identification and standardization of this drug.     

Negotiating a Multicultural Canon: Finding the "Indian" in American Indian Law

The Encyclopedia of Native American Legal Tradition. Bruce Elliot Johansen. ed. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1998. 410 pp.
Linking Arms Together: American Indian Treaty Visions of Law and Peace, 1600-1800. Robert A. Williams Jr. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997. 192 pp.     

An Indian picture of the Dodo

Ohne ZusammenfassungDurch Lichtbilder erläuterter Vortrag, gehalten am 7. Juni 1958 auf dem XII. Internationalen Ornithologen-Kongreß in Helsinki.     

Polydactyly in the American Indian.

Polydactyly has an incidence in the American Indian twice that of Caucasians. A minimum estimate of this incidence is 2.40 per 1,000 live births. Preaxial type 1 has an incidence three to four times that reported for Caucasians or Negroes. The overall sex ratio in Indians is distorted with more males affected than females. The preaxial type 1 anomaly has a strong predilection for the hands and always is unilateral in contrast to postaxial type B where more than one-half are bilateral. The evidence to date, consisting of varying incidences of specific types of polydactyly among American whites, Negroes, and Indians in varying enviroments, suggests different gene-frequencies for polydactyly in each population. The incidence in Indians with 50% Caucasian admixture suggests that the factors controlling polydactyly are in large part genetically determined. Family studies and twin studies reported elsewhere offer no clear-cut genetic model which explains the highly variable gene frequencies.     

Compound kinetochores of the Indian muntjac

The chromosomes of the Indian muntjac (Muntiacus muntjak vaginalis) are unique among mammals due to their low diploid number (2N=6, 7) and large size. It has been proposed that the karyotype of this small Asiatic deer evolved from a related deer the Chinese muntjac (Muntiacus reevesi) with a diploid chromosome number of 2n= 46 consisting of small telocentric chromosomes. In this study we utilized a kinetochore-specific antiserum derived from human patients with the autoimmune disease scleroderma CREST as an immunofluorescent probe to examine kinetochores of the two muntjac species. Since CREST antiserum binds to kinetochores of mitotic chromosomes as well as prekinetochores in interphase nuclei, it was possible to identify and compare kinetochore morphology throughout the cell cycle. Our observations indicated that the kinetochores of the Indian muntjac are composed of a linear beadlike array of smaller subunits that become revealed during interphase. The kinetochores of the Chinese muntjac consisted of minute fluorescent dots located at the tips of the 46 telocentric chromosomes. During interphase, however, the kinetochores of the Chinese muntjac clustered into small aggregates reminiscent of the beadlike arrays seen in the Indian muntjac. Morphometric measurements of fluorescence indicated an equivalent amount of stained material in the two species. Our observations indicate that the kinetochores of the Indian muntjac are compound structures composed of linear arrays of smaller units the size of the individual kinetochores seen on metaphase chromosomes of the Chinese muntjac. Our study supports the notion that the kinetochores of the Indian muntjac evolved by linear fusion of unit kinetochores of the Chinese muntjac. Moreover, it is concluded that the evolution of compound kinetochores may have been facilitated by the nonrandom aggregation of interphase kinetochores in the nuclei of the ancestral species.     

Indian pharma enters the global arena

Although known as a major supplier of generic drugs, India has begun to forge new alliances with big US and European pharma companies. Such collaborations are helping to shepherd Indian drug companies into a new era of innovative drug discovery, but regulations governing patents, drug approvals, and clinical trials are still in the process of being updated.     

Nutritional status of the Indian population

High prevalence of low birth weight, high morbidity and mortality in children and poor maternal nutrition of the mother continue to be major nutritional concerns in India. Although nationwide intervention programmes are in operation over two decades, the situation has not changed greatly. In addition, the Indian population is passing through a nutritional transition and is expected to witness higher prevalences of adult non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, hypertension and coronary heart disease according to the theory of ‘fetal origin of adult disease’. Clearly, there is a need for examining several issues of nutritional significance for effective planning of interventions. In particular, maternal nutrition and fetal growth relationship, long term effects of early life undernutrition, interactions of prenatal nutritional experiences and postnatal undernutrition are some of the major issues that have been discussed in the present paper with the help of prospective data from various community nutrition studies carried out in the department.