Antifungal activity of soybean and chickpea isoflavones and their reduced derivatives

The fungicidal activity of the isoflavones from soybean (Glycine max) and chickpea (Cicer arietinum) has been studied on three food and forage contaminating fungi, Aspergillus ochraceus, Penicillium digitatum and Fusarium culmorum. The reduced derivatives of the corresponding isoflavones—the isoflavanones and the isoflavans—were also included in the investigation. For the first time in a comparative study it is shown that isoflavones and isoflavanones are variable in their activity whereas the isoflavans are moderately active inhibitors of fungal growth.     

Association of <Emphasis Type="Italic">p</Emphasis>53 codon 72 polymorphism and survival of North Indian lung cancer patients treated with platinum-based chemotherapy

p53 helps in maintaining genomic stability by undergoing cellular arrest, DNA repair or cellular apoptosis during DNA damage. So, as to find the association of p53Arg ⁷² Pro towards lung carcinogenesis and overall survival of North Indian lung cancer patients, single nucleotide polymorphic variant (rs1042522) was analyzed. 840 subjects including 420 cases and 420 controls were recruited and genotyped using PCR-RFLP technique for p53Arg ⁷² Pro polymorphic site. Association was analyzed using adjusted odds ratio along with its confidence intervals (95?% CI) and p value predicted from logistic regression whereas overall survival for lung cancer patients was obtained using Kaplan–Meir and Cox regression model for different parameters to obtain hazard ratio and survival time with statistical significance (log-rank p value). None of the variant genotypes for p53Arg ⁷² Pro showed any association towards lung cancer risk or any specific histological subtype. Lung cancer subjects with Pro/Pro genotype had better median survival time as compared to Arg/Pro genotype (10 months; HR?=?0.65; 95?% CI?=?0.45–0.95; p?=?0.03). Furthermore, female lung cancer patients with Arg/Pro (HR?=?0.08; 95?% CI?=?0.02–0.34; p?=?0.0005) and Pro/Pro (HR?=?0.21; 95?% CI?=?0.06–0.67; p?=?0.008) genotypes showed a better overall survival and hence a better prognosis as compared to males. Our data also reveals that lung cancer patients with ECOG scores between 0 and 1 and carrying the Pro/Pro had better chances of survival. p53 codon 72 polymorphism could play a role as a prognostic marker in lung cancer patients.     

Agency,intimacy, and rape jokes: an ethnographic study of young women and sexual risk in Chennai

In this article, I examine the circulation of jokes about sexual violence among young middle‐class women in the South Indian city of Chennai. Drawing on ethnographic research with undergraduate students in this city, I locate the rape joke in an ambivalent discourse of risk that conflates the possibility of sexual assault with the perceived ‘risks’ of women's sexual autonomy. In this context, I argue that humour about sexual violence functions as a form of lateral agency, facilitating a break from the task of reproducing middle‐class respectability.     

Polypeptide motions are dominated by peptide group oscillations resulting from dihedral angle correlations between nearest neighbors

To identify basic local backbone motions in unfolded chains, simulations are performed for a variety of peptide systems using three popular force fields and for implicit and explicit solvent models. A dominant "crankshaft-like" motion is found that involves only a localized oscillation of the plane of the peptide group. This motion results in a strong anticorrelated motion of the phi angle of the ith residue (phi(i)) and the psi angle of the residue i - 1 (psi(i-1)) on the 0.1 ps time scale. Only a slight correlation is found between the motions of the two backbone dihedral angles of the same residue. Aside from the special cases of glycine and proline, no correlations are found between backbone dihedral angles that are separated by more than one torsion angle. These short time, correlated motions are found both in equilibrium fluctuations and during the transit process between Ramachandran basins, e.g., from the beta to the alpha region. A residue's complete transit from one Ramachandran basin to another, however, occurs in a manner independent of its neighbors' conformational transitions. These properties appear to be intrinsic because they are robust across different force fields, solvent models, nonbonded interaction routines, and most amino acids.     

Genetic characterization of chayote [<Emphasis Type="Italic">Sechium edule</Emphasis> (Jacq.) Swartz.] landraces of North Eastern Hills of India and conservation measure

Chayote or chow–chow is an underutilized cucurbit vegetable crop, widely cultivated by farmers in the backyards and Jhum lands for its tender leaves, fruits and tuberous root. In order to initiate crop improvement program in this crop, the present study was undertaken to assess the genetic variations in the 74 chow–chow landraces collected from the North Eastern Hill region of India. Wide variations for fruit colors, fruit length (6.5–21.5 cm), fruit width (4.2–10.7 cm), fruit weight (60–560 g), vitamin-C (2.6–13.8 mg/100 g), reducing sugar (0.18–2.77%), total sugar (1.09–2.94%) and phenol content (0.17–3.85 mg/100 g FW) were recorded among the landraces. All the landraces were also characterized using random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) and inter simple sequence repeat (ISSR) markers. In RAPD analyses, out of 28 primers a total of 198 reproducible amplicons were formed at an average of 7.01 per primer and an overall polymorphism of 88.38%. Eight fragments were specific to landraces with light green fruits. Four fragments were observed to be specific to RCSC-22 (dark green fruits) and another four specific to a RCSC-30 (pale yellow fruits). Out of 30 ISSR, only 5 primers generated a total of 32 reproducible amplicons with an average of 6.4 per primer and overall polymorphism of 62.5%. The pair wise similarity coefficient values ranged from 0.55 to 0.96. The grouping of landraces in cluster analysis was found to be independent of their respective geographic locations. The cuttings of suckers and shoot top (2 months old) treated with indole-3-butyric acid (200 mg l^?1) provide an alternative for the conservation of the diverse genetic materials to the researchers.     

Analysis of fatty acid composition of PGPR <Emphasis Type="Italic">Klebsiella</Emphasis> sp. SBP-8 and its role in ameliorating salt stress in wheat

A halotolerant plant-growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) can ameliorate salt stress in associated plants by various mechanisms. Therefore, the present study aimed to characterize a PGPR Klebsiella sp. SBP-8 for its ability to tolerate salt stress and to study the mechanism of PGPR-mediated mitigation of salt stress in the wheat plant. The abiotic stressors result in multiple changes in the fatty acid composition of Klebsiella sp. SBP-8, helping the membrane to keep its integrity, fluidity, and function for its growth under salt (NaCl) stress conditions. The changes in fatty acid composition of test organism were analyzed by fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) analysis under varying saline conditions. The spectroscopy (GC-MS) profile of cell extract at different salt concentrations was comprised of hydrocarbons, and fatty alcohols with varying carbon chain length. Inoculation of Klebsiella sp. SBP-8 to wheat seedling showed increase in proline, total soluble sugar, and total protein content of treated plants. Bacterial inoculation also decreased the concentration of salinity-induced malondialdehyde (MDA) content. In addition, bacterial inoculation also increased the various antioxidative enzymes like superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), and peroxidase (POX) in treated plants. It is likely that bacterial inoculation alleviated the salt stress to wheat plant by co-ordination of antioxidative machinery, and improvement in osmolyte contents. Therefore, the present study suggests that bacterial-inoculated wheat plants were able to cope better with salt stress than uninoculated control, therefore it can serve as a promising bio-inoculant for enhancing the growth of wheat like cereal crops under saline stress.     

Bio-inoculation of Plant Growth-promoting Rhizobacterium Enterobacter cloacae ZNP-3 Increased Resistance Against Salt and Temperature Stresses in Wheat Plant (Triticum aestivum L.)

Journal of Plant Growth Regulation - Bacteria residing in the rhizosphere and capable of host plant growth stimulation (PGPR) through ACC-deaminase activity can ameliorate various biotic- and...