Metabolic diversity and bioactivity screening of mangrove plants: a review

Mangrove forests are salt tolerant plants confined to the coastal areas and occupy only 5% of the total forest areas of the world. These are the most hostile environment with fluctuating tidal and saline regime and a limited plant species can survive under such condition. Nevertheless, these plants are most valuable resources and provide economic and ecological benefits to the coastal people. Several mangrove species have been used in traditional medicine or have few applications as insecticide and pesticide. Mangroves are biochemically unique, producing wide array of natural products with unique bioactivity. They possess active metabolites with some novel chemical structures which belong to diverse chemical classes such as alkaloids, phenol, steroids, terpenoids, tannins, etc. The present review examines recent investigations on the biological activities of extracts and phytochemicals identified from mangroves and their associates as antimicrobial, antiviral, antioxidant, anticancer and many other properties like antiproliferative, insecticidal, antimalarial, antifeedant, central nervous system depressant and anti-plasmodial etc. The present article also emphasizes and creates an awareness of potential mangroves and their associates as a source of novel medicines, agrochemicals and source of many biologically active compounds.     

Length-Weight Relationship analysis of four freshwater fish Species from Doyang reservoir at Nagaland,India

The LWRs (length–weight relationships) of four freshwater fish species from medium categorized Doyang reservoir at Wokha District, Nagaland were studied, namely as Garra naganensis Hora, 1921; Devario naganensis Chaudhuri, 1912; Chagunius nicholsi Myers, 1924 and Schistura manipurensis Chaudhuri, 1912. Fish sample were collected in every 15 days interval by cast-nets (1.0 × 1.0 cm mesh size covering the 4.5 m² areas), gill-nets (0.4–5.0 cm mesh size), scoop-nets (mesh size with 0.3 × 0.3 cm to 0.6 × 0.6 cm) and also from the local fishermen in between July 2017 to January 2019. The regression value of slope (b) is fallen into 2.860–3.115 range with significant correlation values (r² ≥ .960).     

Heterogeneity in the cellular protein profiles ofClostridium botulinum types A and B

Summary Profiles of cellular proteins from 11 type A and 9 type B strains ofClostridium botulinum were examined by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Cellular protein profiles exhibited considerable heterogeneity among strains of the same biotype, as well as among strains of different biotypes. This study also demonstrated the reliability and usefulness of this rapid and inexpensive procedure to determine the variation which may occur amongC. botulinum and related species.References to brand or firm names do not constitute endorsement by the U.S. Department of Agriculture over others of a similar nature not mentioned.     

Homepeptide Repeats:Implications for Protein Structure,Function and Evolution

Analysis of protein sequences from Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Rv(Mtb H37Rv) was performed to identify homopeptide repeatcontaining proteins(HRCPs).Functional annotation of the HRCPs showed that they are preferentially involved in cellular metabolism.Furthermore,these homopeptide repeats might play some specific roles in protein-protein interaction.Repeat length differences among Bacteria,Archaea and Eukaryotes were calculated in order to identify the conservation of the repeats in these divergent kingdoms.From the results,it was evident that these repeats have a higher degree of conservation in Bacteria and Archaea than in Eukaryotes.In addition,there seems to be a direct correlation between the repeat length difference and the degree of divergence between the species.Our study supports the hypothesis that the presence of homopeptide repeats influences the rate of evolution of the protein sequences in which they are embedded.Thus,homopeptide repeat may have structural,functional and evolutionary implications on proteins.