Metabolism of activated oxygen in detached wheat and rye leaves and its relevance to the initiation of senescence

Pollen grains of Plumbago zeylanica L. were serially sectioned and examined using transmission electron microscopy to determine the three-dimensional organization of sperm cells within the microgametophyte and the quantity of membrane-bound organelles occurring within each cell. Sperm cells occur in pairs within each pollen grain, but are dimorphic, differing in size, morphology and organelle content. The larger of the two sperm cells (S_vn) is distinguished by the presence of a long (approx. 30 m) projection, which wraps around and lies within embayments of the vegetative nucleus. This cell contains numerous mitochondria, up to two plastids and, infrequently, microbodies. It is characterized by a larger volume and surface area and contains a larger nucleus than the other sperm cell. The second sperm cell (S_ua) is linked by plasmodesmata with the S_vn, but is unassociated with the vegetative nucleus. It is smaller and lacks a cellular projection. The S_ua contains relatively few mitochondria, but numerous (up to 46) plastids and more microbodies than the other sperm. The degree of dimorphism in their content of heritable cytoplasmic organelles must at fertilization result in nearly unidirectional transmission of sperm plastids into just one of the two female reproductive cells, and preferential transmission of sperm mitochondria into the other.Abbreviations S_ua sperm cell unassociated with the vegetative nucleus - S_vn sperm cell physically associated with the vegetative nucleus 1=Russell and Cass (1981)     

Sex-related differences in food and water intake and body weight changes with prolonged administration of adrenaline in the rat

Male and female rats were treated with different high doses of adrenaline for five days. Their food and water intakes and body weights were recorded. A considerable sex-difference was found on the 5th day in body weights and plasma glucose concentrations. Males had higher plasma glucose and lost more weight than females. Females ate and drank more than males throughout the experiment. The adrenaline-sensitivity of females decreased by the third day but it did not change in males. These data suggest that females are able to activate mechanisms that compensate the effects of high adrenaline levels while males are not, or their compensatory mechanisms are less efficient.     

Effect of long-term prostacyclin treatment on the gastric mucosa of rat

According to Bálint and Varró, oral administration of prostacyclin (PGI2) resulted in a significant increase of the DNA-content of the gastric mucosa within a short period of time. In the present study, there was no change in the protein content of the gastric mucosa after oral administration of 100 micrograms/kg/day of PGI2 for 80 days, while the DNA-content increased significantly. The RNA/DNA ratio decreased. Histologically a significant increase in the thickness of the gastric mucosa, as well as in the number of parietal and epithelial cells were found. The cell hyperplasia in the corpus mucosa was accompanied by a decreased number of G-cells of the antral mucosa. The increase of parietal cell number and the decrease of G-cell number after long term PGI2 administration might be explained by the divergent effect of treatment on the kinetics of the different cell types in the gastric mucosa.     

Immune Response to Dengue Virus Infection in Pediatric Patients in New Delhi,India—Association of Viremia,Inflammatory Mediators and Monocytes with Disease Severity

Dengue virus, a mosquito-borne flavivirus, is a causative agent for dengue infection, which manifests with symptoms ranging from mild fever to fatal dengue shock syndrome. The presence of four serotypes, against which immune cross-protection is short-lived and serotype cross-reactive antibodies that might enhance infection, pose a challenge to further investigate the role of virus and immune response in pathogenesis. We evaluated the viral and immunological factors that correlate with severe dengue disease in a cohort of pediatric dengue patients in New Delhi. Severe dengue disease was observed in both primary and secondary infections. Viral load had no association with disease severity but high viral load correlated with prolonged thrombocytopenia and delayed recovery. Severe dengue cases had low Th1 cytokines and a concurrent increase in the inflammatory mediators such as IL-6, IL-8 and IL-10. A transient increase in CD14⁺CD16⁺ intermediate monocytes was observed early in infection. Sorting of monocytes from dengue patient peripheral blood mononuclear cells revealed that it is the CD14+ cells, but not the CD16+ or the T or B cells, that were infected with dengue virus and were major producers of IL-10. Using the Boruta algorithm, reduced interferon-α levels and enhanced aforementioned pro-inflammatory cytokines were identified as some of the distinctive markers of severe dengue. Furthermore, the reduction in the levels of IL-8 and IL-10 were identified as the most significant markers of recovery from severe disease. Our results provide further insights into the immune response of children to primary and secondary dengue infection and help us to understand the complex interplay between the intrinsic factors in dengue pathogenesis.     

Profiling of selected indigenous rice (Oryza sativa L.) landraces of Rarh Bengal in relation to osmotic stress tolerance

A total of ten rare indigenous rice landraces of West Bengal were screened for germination potential and seedling growth under varying concentrations of sodium chloride (NaCl) and polyethylene glycol (PEG) solutions as osmotic stress inducing agents. Among the studied rice landraces Kelas and Bhut Moori showed highest degree of tolerance to induced osmotic stresses. Proline content of the studied lines was also determined. Genetic relationship among the studied rice landraces was assessed with 22 previously reported osmotic stress tolerance linked Simple Sequence Repeat (SSR) markers. The identified allelic variants in form of amplified products size (molecular weight) for each SSR marker were documented to find out allele mining set for the linked markers of the studied genotypes in relation to osmotic stress tolerance. A Microsatellite Panel was constructed for the different allelic forms (size of amplified products) of each used marker. Among 22 SSR markers, ten showed unique alleles in form of single specific amplified product for the studied four genotypes which can be used for varietal identification. Genetic relationship among the studied rice lines was determined and a dendrogram was constructed to reveal their genetic inter-relationship. Polymorphism Information Content (PIC) for each used marker was also calculated for the studied rice lines.     

Deciphering the Dynamical Origin of Mixed Population during Neural Stem Cell Development

Neural stem cells (NSCs) often give rise to a mixed population of cells during differentiation. However, the dynamical origin of these mixed states is poorly understood. In this article, our mathematical modeling study demonstrates that the bone morphogenetic protein 2 (BMP2) mediated disparate differentiation dynamics of NSCs in central and peripheral nervous systems essentially function through two distinct bistable switches that are mutually interconnected via a mushroom-like bifurcation. Stochastic simulations of the model reveal that the mixed population originates due to the existence of these bistable switching regulations and that the maintenance of such mixed states depends on the level of stochastic fluctuations of the system. It further demonstrates that due to extrinsic variability, cells in an NSC population can dynamically transit from mushroom to a unique isola kind of bifurcation state, which essentially extends the range of the BMP2-driven mixed population state during differentiation. Importantly, the model predicts that by individually altering the expression level of key regulatory proteins, the NSCs can be converted entirely to a preferred phenotype for BMP2 doses that previously resulted in a mixed population. Our findings show that efficient neuronal regeneration can be achieved by systematically maneuvering the differentiation dynamics.     

1-D Metal-Dielectric-Metal Grating Structure as an Ultra-Narrowband Perfect Plasmonic Absorber in the Visible and Its Application in Glucose Detection

The need for an easy to fabricate perfect and narrowband light absorber in the visible range of electromagnetic (EM) spectrum has always been in demand for many scientific and device applications. Here, we propose a metal-dielectric-metal (MDM) 1-D grating plasmonic structure as a perfect narrow band light absorber in the visible and its application in glucose detection. The proposed structure consists of a 1- D grating of gold on the top of a dielectric layer on a gold film. Optimization for dielectric grating index (n), grating thickness (t), grating width (W), and grating period (P) has been done to improve the performance of plasmonic structure by calculating its quality factor and figure-of-merit (FOM). The optimized plasmonic structure behaves as a perfect narrowband light absorber. The flexibility to work at a specific wavelength is also offered by the proposed structure through an appropriate selection of the geometrical parameters and refractive index of the dielectric grating. The equivalent RC model is used to understand different components of the proposed structure on the optical response. The absorption response of the structure is invariant to the incident angle. Moreover, the calculated absorbance of the proposed plasmonic structure is ~ 100% with a narrow full-width half maxima (FWHM) of ~ 2.8 nm. We have numerically demonstrated a potential application of the proposed MDM absorber as a plasmonic glucose sensor in the visible range with detection sensitivity in the range of 140 to 195 nm/RIU.