Identification of key genes involved in root development of tomato using expressed sequence tag analysis

Root system of plants are actually fascinating structures, not only critical for plant development, but also important for storage and conduction. Due to its agronomic importance, identification of genes involved in root development has been a subject of intense study. Tomato is the one of the most consumed vegetables in the world. Tomato has been used as model system for dicot plants because of its small genome, well-established transformation techniques and well-constructed physical map. The present study is targeted to identify of root specific genes expressed temporally and also gene(s) involved in lateral root and profuse root development. A total of 890 ESTs were identified from five EST libraries constructed using SSH approach which included temporal gene regulation (early and late) and genes involved in morphogenetic traits (lateral and profuse rooting). One hundred sixty-one unique ESTs identified from various libraries were categorized based on their putative functions and deposited in NCBI-dbEST database. In addition, 36 ESTs were selected for validation of their expression by RT-PCR. The present findings will help in shedding light to the unexplored developmental process of root growth in tomato and plant in general.     

A review on design of scaffold for osteoinduction: Toward the unification of independent design variables

Biomechanics and Modeling in Mechanobiology - Biophysical stimulus quantifies the osteoinductivity of the scaffold concerning the mechanoregulatory mathematical models of scaffold-assisted cellular...     

A B-spline based heterogeneous modeling and analysis of proximal femur with graded element

Bone is a complex biological tissue and natural heterogeneous object. The main objective of this study is to simulate quasi-static loading of bio-objects like human femur with B-spline based modeling and its 3D finite element analysis with graded element. B-spline surface representation method is extended to represent material composition to develop heterogeneous solid model of proximal femur. Lagrangian graded element is used to assign inhomogeneous isotropic elastic properties in finite element model to improve the performance. Convergence study is carried out with finite element model in single leg stance load condition. To test the feasibility of the model, sensitivity of simulation is investigated. To validate the model, numerical results are compared with those of an experimental work for the same specimen in simple stance load condition obtained from one of the reference paper. Good agreement is achieved for vertical displacement and strains in most of the locations.     

Carbon isotope discrimination function analysis and drought tolerance of stylo species grown under rain-fed environment

Limited germplasm and narrow genetic base in the past has hinders wider applicability of Stylosanthes in India. However, build up in Stylosanthes germplasm in recent years provided an opportunity to evaluate and use them under different agro-ecological situations preferably targeting drought tolerance. Rate reducing resistance (RRR) allo-tetraploid lines of S. scabra and diploid S. seabrana, a newly introduced species, observed well suited in hard and cracking soils under complete rainfed condition. Genotypes of S. scabra were more tolerant to drought over lines of other species as evidenced by high leaf thickness, more proline accumulation, contents of malondialdehyde (MDA), sugars, starch and chlorophyll and low carbon isotope discrimination (CID) values. Both in control and stress conditions, a positive relationship (r = 0.465 and 0.328) was observed between specific leaf area (SLA) and CID. Earlier reports have emphasized measurement of CID as an indirect way of measuring the transpiration efficiency (TE) in Stylosanthes (Thumma et al. Aust J Agr Res 49:1039–1045, 1998). The negative relationship observed between TE and CID suggested low CID bearing lines would have high TE, useful traits to select lines growing better in dry environments. Thus, selected lines having low CID provided better scope for the introduction of this important range legume for semi- arid regions of India.     

Paternal exposure to exercise and/or caffeine and alcohol modify offspring behavioral and pathophysiological recovery from repetitive mild traumatic brain injury in adolescence

Only recently has the scope of parental research expanded to include the paternal sphere with epidemiological studies implicating stress, nutrition and alcohol consumption in the neurobiological and behavioral characteristics of offspring. This study was designed to determine if paternal exposure to caffeine, alcohol and exercise prior to conception would improve or exacerbate offspring recovery from adolescent repetitive mild traumatic brain injury (RmTBI). Sires received 7 weeks of standard drinking water, or caffeine and ethanol and were housed in regular cages or cages with running wheels, prior to being mated to control females. At postnatal day 40, offspring were administered RmTBI or sham injuries and were assessed for post concussive symptomology. Post-mortem quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) was used to assess gene expression in the prefrontal cortex (PFC), nucleus accumbens (NAc) and changes in telomere length. Additionally, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA's) were run on serum to detect levels of cytokines, chemokines and sex hormones. Paternal experience did not improve or exacerbate RmTBI behavioral outcomes. However, female and male offspring displayed unique responses to RmTBI and paternal experience, resulting in changes in physical, behavioral and molecular outcomes. Injury and paternal exercise modified changes in female offspring, whereas male offspring were affected by paternal exercise, caffeine and alcohol treatment. Additionally, paternal experience and RmTBI modified expression of many genes in the PFC, NAc, telomere length and levels of sex hormones. Although further exploration is required to understand the heterogeneity that exists in disease risk and resiliency, this study provides corroborating evidence that paternal experiences prior to conception influences offspring development.     

Metabolic fluxes for nutritional flexibility of Mycobacterium tuberculosis

The co‐catabolism of multiple host‐derived carbon substrates is required by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) to successfully sustain a tuberculosis infection. However, the metabolic plasticity of this pathogen and the complexity of the metabolic networks present a major obstacle in identifying those nodes most amenable to therapeutic interventions. It is therefore critical that we define the metabolic phenotypes of Mtb in different conditions. We applied metabolic flux analysis using stable isotopes and lipid fingerprinting to investigate the metabolic network of Mtb growing slowly in our steady‐state chemostat system. We demonstrate that Mtb efficiently co‐metabolises either cholesterol or glycerol, in combination with two‐carbon generating substrates without any compartmentalisation of metabolism. We discovered that partitioning of flux between the TCA cycle and the glyoxylate shunt combined with a reversible methyl citrate cycle is the critical metabolic nodes which underlie the nutritional flexibility of Mtb. These findings provide novel insights into the metabolic architecture that affords adaptability of bacteria to divergent carbon substrates and expand our fundamental knowledge about the methyl citrate cycle and the glyoxylate shunt.     

Comparative Chemical Composition and Acetylcholinesterase (AChE) Inhibitory Potential of Cinnamomum camphora and Cinnamomum tamala

Cinnamomum species have applications in the pharmaceutical and fragrance industry for wide biological and pharmaceutical activities. The present study investigates the chemical composition of the essential oils extracted from two species of Cinnamomum namely C. tamala and C. camphora. Chemical analysis showed E-cinnamyl acetate (56.14 %), E-cinnamaldehyde (20.15 %), and linalool (11.77 %) contributed as the major compounds of the 95.22 % of C. tamala leaves essential oil found rich in phenylpropanoids (76.96 %). C. camphora essential oil accounting for 93.57 % of the total oil composition was rich in 1,8-cineole (55.84 %), sabinene (14.37 %), and α-terpineol (10.49 %) making the oil abundant in oxygenated monoterpenes (70.63 %). Furthermore, the acetylcholinesterase inhibitory activity for both the essential oils was carried out using Ellman's colorimetric method. The acetylcholinesterase inhibitory potential at highest studied concentration of 1 mg/mL was observed to be 46.12±1.52 % for C. tamala and 53.61±2.66 % for C. camphora compared to the standard drug physostigmine (97.53±0.63 %) at 100 ng/ml. These multiple natural aromatic and fragrant characteristics with distinct chemical compositions offered by Cinnamon species provide varied benefits in the development of formulations that could be advantageous for the flavor and fragrance industry.     

Effect of cadmium on physiological parameters of cereal and millet plants—A comparative study

Metal load is an abiotic stress that becomes stronger by continual industrial production, wastage, and long-range transport of contaminants. It deteriorates the conditions of agricultural soil that leads to lower growth of cereals as well as decreasing nutritional value of harvested grains. Cadmium (Cd) entry by food chain also affects the health of population. The present study is focused on finding out the superior cereal variety under increasing Cd regime. The plants were grown in increasing Cd levels (0–1000 µM) in the medium and were investigated on 15th day of the exposure. Various parameters like antioxidative enzymes and osmoprotectant levels were studied in both roots and shoots. Cd accumulation in plant organs was determined by atomic absorption spectrophotometry (AAS). Analysis of stress tolerance mechanisms through reactive oxygen species (ROS) scavenging and better partitioning of Cd in roots indicated kodo millet to be more stress tolerant than wheat.