Let us go green…

The field of environmental science and technology is highly interdisciplinary. It brings together knowledge and expertise from variety of disciplines ranging from different aspects of ecology to chemistry, microbiology to statistics, soil science to biology and water management to toxicology. Environmental or atmospheric scientists are not the stereotype alarmists who press the siren button of ‘global warming’ but they strive and employ transdisciplinary knowledge to develop science and technology based strategy to address the sustainability of air, water and soil. Moreover, the responsibility of protecting the environment could not be solely allocated onto the shoulder of an environmental scientist, but in order to preserve and safeguard the air that we breathe, the water that we drink and the land we step in, each of us the chemists, the physicists, and the biologists should strategically design our research in a more environmentally friendly manner or employing green methods.     

Phosphorylation of translation factors in response to anoxia in turtles,Trachemys scripta elegans: role of the AMP-activated protein kinase and target of rapamycin signalling pathways

Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry - Arsenic trioxide (As2O3) has recently been successfully used to treat all trans retinoic acid (ATRA) resistant relapsing acute promyelocytic leukemia. However,...     

Loading and bioavailability of iron in cereal grains

Cereal plants take up iron from the soil via a phytosiderophore-mediated chelation system. Following root absorption, iron is transported through the xylem and phloem of the plant with the help of a variety of efflux and influx transporters belonging to the Zrt Irt-like protein (ZIP) and yellow stripe-like (YSL) protein families. Iron-regulated transporter1, a member of the ZIP family, mobilises ferrous [Fe(II)] ions, while several YSL family members such as YSL2, YSL15 and YSL18 can transport both ferric [Fe(II)] and ferrous [F`III)] ions into developing grains via chelation with mugineic acid or its derivatives. The iron is accumulated largely in the outer aleurone layer and embryo of the grains, which are removed during milling, leaving behind consumable endosperm that contains a very low amount of iron. This review highlights the uptake, transport and loading mechanisms for iron in cereal grains and provides an overview of strategies adopted for developing highly iron-enriched grains.     

Lupin alkaloids from Sophora mollis

The major alkaloids of Sophora mollis are (+)-sparteine and (?)-cytisine, and the minor ones are also of the sparteine-type (lupanine and 5,6-deh