Xanthomonas sontii sp. nov., a non-pathogenic bacterium isolated from healthy basmati rice (Oryza sativa) seeds from India

Antonie van Leeuwenhoek - We report three yellow-pigmented, Gram-negative, aerobic, rod-shaped, motile bacterial isolates designated as PPL1T, PPL2, and PPL3 from healthy basmati rice seeds....     

Meta-analysis of Genetic Structure and Association of Prolactin Gene with Performance Traits in Dairy Cattle in India

The present meta-analysis was carried to provide the more reliable estimates of gene frequency and association of Rsa 1 generated candidate genotype of prolactin gene within exon-3 with performance traits in 1198 Indian dairy cows using data from 15 published studies. Six genetic models viz., codominant (AA vs. AB, AA vs. BB and AB vs. BB), dominant (AA+AB vs. BB), completely over dominant (AA+BB vs. AB) and recessive (AA vs. AB+BB) were used to obtain standardized mean difference (SMD) between genotypes. Meta-analysis showed that the gene frequency of A allele (156 bp) was 0.60 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.54, 0.65). In association analysis, cows with AB genotype [SMD?=?0.65, 95% CI 0.00, 1.30] had significantly (P?<?0.05) higher lactation milk yield (LMY) as compared to BB genotype, whereas AA and AB genotypes had similar trend. Likewise, AA?+?AB also had larger effect [SMD?=?2.31, 95% CI 0.21, 4.10] on LMY as compared to BB. Cows with AB genotype had significantly lower age at first calving (AFC) with small effect [SMD (AA vs. AB)?=?1.38, 95% CI 0.06, 2.70] and medium effect [SMD (AB vs. BB)?=????3.83, 95% CI???6.41,???1.24] as compared to cows with AA and BB genotypes, respectively. This finding was confirmed under dominant and completely over dominant models. In case of fat%, AA genotype showed negative effect (SMD?=????0.51, 95% CI???0.84,???0.17) under recessive model. It was concluded that the propagation of allele A is promising to help dairy farmers to improve the genetic quality of their dairy cows.

     

Oral Delivery of Peptide Formulations and Their Cellular Evaluation

International Journal of Peptide Research and Therapeutics - The development of peptide-based formulations presents numerous challenges to the formulator due to their complexity, delicate structure...     

Purification and characterization of an extracellular antifungal chitinase from Penicillium ochrochloron MTCC 517 and its application in protoplast formation

A highly chitinolytic strain Penicillium ochrochloron MTCC 517 was procured from MTCC, Chandigarh, India. Culture medium supplemented with 1% chitin was found to be suitable for maximum production of chitinase. Purification of extracellular chitinase was done from the culture medium by organic solvent precipitation and DEAE-cellulose column chromatography. The chitinase was purified 6.92-fold with 29.9% yield. Molecular mass of purified chitinase was found to be 64 kDa by SDS-PAGE. The chitinase showed optimum temperature 40 °C and pH 7.0. The enzyme activity was completely inhibited by Hg²⁺, Zn²⁺, K⁺ and NH₄⁺. The enzyme kinetic study of purified chitinase revealed the following characteristics, such as apparent K_m 1.3 mg ml^?1, V_max 5.523 × 10^?5 moles l^?1 min^?1 and K_cat 2.37 s^?1 and catalytic efficiency 1.82 s^?1 M^?1. The enzyme hydrolyzed colloidal chitin, glycol chitin, chitosan, glycol chitosan, N,N′-diacetylchitobiose, p-nitrophenyl N-acetyl-β-d-glucosaminide and 4-methylumbelliferyl N-acetyl-β-d-glucosaminide. The chitinase of P. ochrochloron MTCC 517 is an exoenzyme, which gives N-acetylglucosamine as the main hydrolyzate after hydrolysis of colloidal chitin. Protoplasts with high regeneration capacity were obtained from Aspergillus niger using chitinase from P. ochrochloron MTCC 517. Since it also showed antifungal activity, P. ochrochloron MTCC 517 seems to be a promising biocontrol agent.     

Novel method to differentiate 3T3 L1 cells in vitro to produce highly sensitive adipocytes for a GLUT4 mediated glucose uptake using fluorescent glucose analog

Adipocytes play a vital role in glucose metabolism. 3T3 L1 pre adipocytes after differentiation to adipocytes serve as excellent in vitro models and are useful tools in understanding the glucose metabolism. The traditional approaches adopted in pre adipocyte differentiation are lengthy exercises involving the usage of IBMX and Dexamethasone. Any effort to shorten the time of differentiation and quality expression of functional differentiation in 3T3 L1 cells in terms of enhanced Insulin sensitivity has an advantage in the drug discovery process. Thus, there is a need to develop a new effective method of differentiating the pre adipocytes to adipocytes and to use such methods for developing efficacious therapeutic molecules. We observed that a combination of Dexamethasone and Troglitazone generated differentiated adipocytes over fewer days as compared to the combination of IBMX and Dexamethasone which constitutes the standard protocol followed in our laboratory. The experiments conducted to compare the quality of differentiation yielded by various differentiating agents indicated that the lipid droplet accumulation increased by 112 % and the GLUT4 mediated glucose uptake by 137 % in cells differentiated with Troglitazone and Dexamethasone than in cells differentiated traditionally. The comparative studies conducted for evaluating efficient measurable glucose uptake by GOPOD assay, radioactive ³H-2-deoxy-D-glucose assay and by non-radioactive 6-NBDG (fluorescent analog of glucose) indicated that the non-radioactive method using 6-NBDG showed a higher signal to noise ratio than the conventional indirect glucose uptake method (GOPOD assay) and the radioactive ³H-2-deoxy-D-glucose uptake method. Differentiated 3T3 L1 cells when triggered with 2.5 ng/mL of Insulin showed 3.3 fold more glucose uptake in non-radioactive method over the radioactive ³H-2-deoxy-D-glucose uptake method. The results of this study have suggested that a combination of Dexamethasone and Troglitazone for 3T3 L1 cell differentiation helps in better quality differentiation over a short period of time with increased sensitivity to Insulin. The application of these findings for developing new methods of screening novel Insulin mimetics and for evaluating the immunological responses has been discussed.     

Molecular analysis of the bacterial microbiome in the forestomach fluid from the dromedary camel (Camelus dromedarius)

Rumen microorganisms play an important role in ruminant digestion and absorption of nutrients and have great potential applications in the field of rumen adjusting, food fermentation and biomass utilization etc. In order to investigate the composition of microorganisms in the rumen of camel (Camelus dromedarius), this study delves in the microbial diversity by culture-independent approach. It includes comparison of rumen samples investigated in the present study to other currently available metagenomes to reveal potential differences in rumen microbial systems. Pyrosequencing based metagenomics was applied to analyze phylogenetic and metabolic profiles by MG-RAST, a web based tool. Pyrosequencing of camel rumen sample yielded 8,979,755 nucleotides assembled to 41,905 sequence reads with an average read length of 214 nucleotides. Taxonomic analysis of metagenomic reads indicated Bacteroidetes (55.5 %), Firmicutes (22.7 %) and Proteobacteria (9.2 %) phyla as predominant camel rumen taxa. At a finer phylogenetic resolution, Bacteroides species dominated the camel rumen metagenome. Functional analysis revealed that clustering-based subsystem and carbohydrate metabolism were the most abundant SEED subsystem representing 17 and 13 % of camel metagenome, respectively. A high taxonomic and functional similarity of camel rumen was found with the cow metagenome which is not surprising given the fact that both are mammalian herbivores with similar digestive tract structures and functions. Combined pyrosequencing approach and subsystems-based annotations available in the SEED database allowed us access to understand the metabolic potential of these microbiomes. Altogether, these data suggest that agricultural and animal husbandry practices can impose significant selective pressures on the rumen microbiota regardless of rumen type. The present study provides a baseline for understanding the complexity of camel rumen microbial ecology while also highlighting striking similarities and differences when compared to other animal gastrointestinal environments.     

Wood Anatomy and the Development of Interxylary Phloem of Ipomoea hederifolia Linn. (Convolvulaceae)

In Ipomoea hederifolia Linn., stems increase in thickness by forming successive rings of cambia. With the increase in stem diameter, the first ring of cambium also gives rise to thin-walled parenchymatous islands along with thick-walled xylem derivatives to its inner side. The size of these islands increases (both radially and tangentially) gradually with the increase in stem diameter. In pencil-thick stems, that is, before the differentiation of a second ring of cambium, some of the parenchyma cells within these islands differentiate into interxylary phloem. Although all successive cambia forms secondary phloem continuously, simultaneous development of interxylary phloem was observed in the innermost successive ring of xylem. In the mature stems, thick-walled parenchyma cells formed at the beginning of secondary growth underwent dedifferentiation and led to the formation of phloem derivatives. Structurally, sieve tube elements showed both simple sieve plates on transverse to slightly oblique end walls and compound sieve plates on the oblique end walls with poorly developed lateral sieve areas. Isolated or groups of two to three sieve elements were noticed in the rays of secondary phloem. They possessed simple sieve plates with distinct companion cells at their corners. The length of these elements was more or less similar to that of ray parenchyma cells but their diameter was slightly less. Similarly, in the secondary xylem, perforated ray cells were noticed in the innermost xylem ring. They were larger than the adjacent ray cells and possessed oval to circular simple perforation plates. The structures of interxylary phloem, perforated ray cells, and ray sieve elements are described in detail.     

Solvation structure of sodium chloride (Na+–Cl-) ion pair in acetonitrile (AN)–dimethyl formamide (DMF) mixtures

Solvation structures of Na⁺–Cl^? ion pair are investigated in acetonitrile (AN)–dimethylformamide (DMF) isodielectric mixtures. The potentials of mean force of Na⁺–Cl^? in the five compositions of mixtures show minima corresponding to a contact ion pair (CIP) and a solvent-shared ion pair (SShIP). The solvent-separated ion pair minima are present in lower mole fractions of AN (x_AN ≤ 0.50). CIPs are found to be more stable than the SShIPs. From a thermodynamic decomposition of the potentials of mean force, we find that the formation of the ion pair is entropically driven in these compositions. The most stable CIP is in pure AN. The local solvation structures around the ion pair are analysed through the running coordination numbers, excess coordination numbers, solvent orientational distributions and density profiles. We find that both Na⁺ and Cl^? are preferentially solvated by DMF.     

Microalga Scenedesmus bajacalifornicus BBKLP-07, a new source of bioactive compounds with in vitro pharmacological applications

Microalgae are photosynthetic eukaryotes which are primary producers in the food chain and also excellent sources for bioactive compounds such as alkaloids, flavonoids, phenols, saponins and other fine chemicals. In the present study, the microalga Scenedesmus bajacalifornicus BBKLP-07 was subjected to soxhlet extraction using solvents like chloroform, acetone, ethanol, methanol and aqueous solvents. All the solvents were tested for the presence of phytochemical constituents such as alkaloids, flavonoids, glycosides, phenols, lignin’s, saponins, sterols, tannins, anthraquinone and reducing sugar using the standard procedures. Furthermore, all the crude extracts were subjected to antidiabetic, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial activities. Antidiabetic activity of the microalgal extracts was observed maximum in Aqueous extract. Methanolic extracts have shown maximum antioxidant activity and chloroform extracts have exhibited highest anti-inflammatory effects. Antimicrobial activities were tested against E.coli, S, typhi, C.perfringens and B.subtilis bacteria and fungi A.niger, and C. albicans. Therefore, the green microalga Scenedesmus bajacalifornicus BBKLP-07 is a rich source of biological active compounds and nutraceuticals and can be exploited for commercial applications.