Treatment of lentil (Lens culinaris. L) seeds with various concentrations of salts to check their efficiency against seed-borne mycoflora during storage

Seed sample of lentil collected from the Swabi district were treated with NaCl and KCl at 0.01, 0.1 and 1.0% (w/w). Seed-borne mycoflora was observed at 0, 20, 40, 60 and 80 day intervals. Seed treatment with both the salts was found to be effective against storage fungi; however, KCl was more efficient against storage mycoflora such as Aspergillus species when compared with NaCl. With the passage of time, the incidence of deep-seated fungi was observed in salt-treated seed samples while untreated seed sample showed heavy infestation by the species of Aspergillus. Seed viability also remained unaffected in storage, except in seeds heavily infested with seed-borne mycoflora. Aspergillus spp. were the main cause of seed rot. Surface sterilisation of seeds with 1% Na(OCl)₂ reduced the fungal infestation of seeds. Among various concentrations of salts, 0.1% (w/w) of both salts were better in controlling seed-borne mycoflora.     

Alkalinization of phosphorylase kinase-deficient muscle during tetanic contraction

The intracellular pH of resting and stimulated muscle was monitored by two independent methods: measurement of pH iniodacetate-treated homogenates of freezeclamped tissue and the absorbance at 550–443 nm of intracellular neutral red dye in vivo. During tetanic stimulation, muscle of phosphorylase kinase-deficient mice shows a transient alkalinization whereas muscle in normal mice becomes more acid under similar conditions. The alkalinization appears to be caused by abnormally rapid AMP deamination associated with adaptation to phosphorylase kinase deficiency.     

Identification of naphthalene metabolism by white rot fungus Pleurotus eryngii

The use of biomaterials or microorganisms in PAHs degradation had presented an eye-catching performance. Pleurotus eryngii is a white rot fungus, which is easily isolated from the decayed woods in the tropical rain forest, used to determine the capability to utilize naphthalene, a two-ring polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon as source of carbon and energy. In the meantime, biotransformation of naphthalene to intermediates and other by-products during degradation was investigated in this study. Pleurotus eryngii had been incubated in liquid medium formulated with naphthalene for 14 days. The presence of metabolites of naphthalene suggests that Pleurotus eryngii begin the ring cleavage by dioxygenation on C1 and C4 position to give 1,4-naphthaquinone. 1,4-Naphthaquinone was further degraded to benzoic acid, where the proposed terepthalic acid is absent in the cultured extract. Further degradation of benzoic acid by Pleurotus eryngii shows the existence of catechol as a result of the combination of decarboxylation and hydroxylation process. Unfortunately, phthalic acid was not detected in this study. Several enzymes, including manganese peroxidase, lignin peroxidase, laccase, 1,2-dioxygenase and 2,3-dioxygenase are enzymes responsible for naphthalene degradation. Reduction of naphthalene and the presence of metabolites in liquid medium showed the ability of Pleurotus eryngii to utilize naphthalene as carbon source instead of a limited glucose amount.     

Modeling and Analysis of Unsteady Axisymmetric Squeezing Fluid Flow through Porous Medium Channel with Slip Boundary

The aim of this article is to model and analyze an unsteady axisymmetric flow of non-conducting, Newtonian fluid squeezed between two circular plates passing through porous medium channel with slip boundary condition. A single fourth order nonlinear ordinary differential equation is obtained using similarity transformation. The resulting boundary value problem is solved using Homotopy Perturbation Method (HPM) and fourth order Explicit Runge Kutta Method (RK4). Convergence of HPM solution is verified by obtaining various order approximate solutions along with absolute residuals. Validity of HPM solution is confirmed by comparing analytical and numerical solutions. Furthermore, the effects of various dimensionless parameters on the longitudinal and normal velocity profiles are studied graphically.     

Biochemical studies on malathion resistance,inheritance and association of carboxylesterase activity in brown planthopper,Nilaparvata lugens complex in Peninsular Malaysia

Abstract Two sympatric populations of brown planthopper (BPH), one from rice and the other from Leersia hexandra were collected from each of five locations in Malaysia. All the tested malathion-resistant individuals of the rice BPH population and F₁ generation (cross between malathion-resistant [usually caught on rice] and malathion-susceptible [usually caught on Leersia]) showed high esterase activity, while all malathion-susceptible individuals on L. hexandra showed low esterase activity. In the F₂ generation, all the individuals tested against malathion were approximately 75% resistant and 25% susceptible and the inheritance pattern of esterase activity (high and low esterase activity) segregated in the same manner to a 3: 1 ratio. This confirms that resistance to malathion is mono-factorial and inheritance pattern of esterase activity is also linked to malathion resistance. Carboxylesterase or total esterase activity in BPH is inherited in a simple Mendelian fashion that is encoded by a single dominant gene. For the total esterase assay, average esterase activity levels in the rice-infesting population ranged from 17.64 to 19.37 nmoles 1-napthol/mg protein while that in the Leersia-infesting population ranged from 5.29 to 6.11 nmoles 1-napthol/mg protein. In terms of esterase activity, the two sympatric Nilaparvata lugens populations separated into two distinct groups. Results based on the tube color intensity test showed 96% and 98% resistant and susceptible individuals were present in the rice- and Leersia-infesting populations, respectively. In a filter paper test, the rice-infesting population had 94% with high esterase activity while the Leersia-infesting population had 96% with low esterase activity.     

Effect of experimental treatment on GAPDH mRNA expression as a housekeeping gene in human diploid fibroblasts

Background  

Several genes have been used as housekeeping genes and choosing an appropriate reference gene is important for accurate quantitative RNA expression in real time RT-PCR technique. The expression levels of reference genes should remain constant between the cells of different tissues and under different experimental conditions. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of different experimental treatments on the expression of glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) mRNA so that the reliability of GAPDH as reference gene for quantitative real time RT-PCR in human diploid fibroblasts (HDFs) can be validated. HDFs in 4 different treatment groups viz; young (passage 4), senescent (passage 30), H₂O₂-induced oxidative stress and γ-tocotrienol (GTT)-treated groups were harvested for total RNA extraction. Total RNA concentration and purity were determined prior to GAPDH mRNA quantification. Standard curve of GAPDH expression in serial diluted total RNA, melting curve analysis and agarose gel electrophoresis were used to determine the reliability of GAPDH as reference gene.     

Vandachostylis ‘Sri-Siam’: an intergeneric hybrid with superior qualities as evidenced by its biochemical fragrance and transcriptome profiles

Journal of Plant Biochemistry and Biotechnology - Vandachostylis ‘Sri-Siam’ is a fragrant orchid, suitable as a potted plant for the floriculture and perfumery industries due to its...     

Similar hypotensive responses to resistance exercise with and without blood flow restriction

Low intensity resistance exercise (RE) with blood flow restriction (BFR) has gained attention in the literature due to the beneficial effects on functional and morphological variables, similar to those observed during traditional RE without BFR, while the effects of BFR on post-exercise hypotension remain unclear. The aim of the present study was to compare the blood pressure (BP) response of trained normotensive individuals to RE with and without BFR. In this cross-over randomized trial, eight male subjects (23.8 ± 4 years, 74 ± 3 kg, 174 ± 4 cm) completed two exercise protocols: traditional RE (3 x 10 repetitions at 70% one-repetition maximum [1-RM]) and low intensity RE (3 x 15 repetitions at 20% 1-RM) with BFR. Blood pressure measurements were performed after 15 min of seated rest (0), immediately after and 10 min, 20 min, 30 min, 40 min, 50 min and 60 min after the experimental sessions. Similar hypotensive effects for systolic BP (SBP) were observed for both protocols (P < 0.05) after exercise, with no differences between groups (P > 0.05) and no statistically significant difference for diastolic BP (P > 0.05). These results suggest that in normotensive trained individuals, both traditional RE and RE with BFR induce hypotension for SBP, which is important to prevent cardiovascular disturbances.