Demethyloleuropein and beta-glucosidase activity in olive fruits

Demethyloleuropein plays a major role in the defense mechanism of olive fruits. To understand how this molecule is metabolized during different stages of maturation of olive fruits, a biomolecular approach to identify the demethyloleuropein chemistry was employed. The beta-glucosidase activity in crude extracts was assayed spectrophotometrically using the chromogenic substrate p-nitrophenyl-beta-D-glucopyranoside. Demethyloleuropein was extracted and identified by HPLC-MS from both infected and uninfected olive fruits at different physiological stages. The release of more functionally relevant dialdehydes in uninfected fruits was investigated using ESIMS/ MS. In fruits harvested in October, the activity of beta-glucosidase was significantly enhanced in uninfected fruits when compared to the infected fruits. Quantitative differences in the demethyloleuropein content from uninfected fruits showed the highest values (5.09 mg/g) in October, whereas lower levels (4.44 mg/g) were found in infected fruits. The results demonstrated that demethyloleuropein derivatives could be influenced by beta-glucosidase activity to improve the quality of the olive products with the best dialdehyde nutraceutical content.     

Freshwater fish biodiversity in the River Ganga (India): changing pattern, threats and conservation perspectives

The river Ganges is the largest river in India and the fifth longest in the world. Although, many studies on fish ecology and systematic have been conducted largely to improve fisheries but fish diversity and their distribution pattern from conservation point of view have never been adequately addressed in the Ganges. In this connection, current distribution and abundance of freshwater fishes of river Ganges was studied and assessed from April 2007 to March 2009. We documented and described 143 freshwater fish species in the all stretches of the river which is higher than what was reported earlier. Some species were observed with shift in their distribution ranges. First time, a total of 10 exotic fishes, including Pterygoplichthys anisitsi, which has never been reported from India found in the Ganges. Alterations of the hydrological pattern due to various types of hydro projects was seems to be the largest threat to fishes of Ganges. Indiscriminate and illegal fishing, pollution, water abstraction, siltation and invasion of exotic species are also threatening the fish diversity in the Ganges and as many as 29 species are listed under threatened category. The study advocates a need to identify critical fish habitats in the Ganga basin to declare them as conservation reserves to mitigate the loss of fish diversity from this mighty large river.     

Impact of d-pinitol on the attenuation of proinflammatory cytokines,hyperglycemia-mediated oxidative stress and protection of kidney tissue ultrastructure in streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats

Oxidative stress plays a crucial role in the progression and development of diabetes and its complications due to chronic hyperglycemia. The present study was aimed to investigate the kidney tissue protective nature of d-pinitol, a cyclitol present in soybean, by assessing the key markers of hyperglycemia-mediated oxidative stress, proinflammatory cytokines and ultrastructural alterations in streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats. Oral administration of d-pinitol (50 mg/kg body weight/day) for 30 days to diabetic group of rats showed a significant elevation in the level of total protein and significant decline in the levels of blood urea, serum uric acid, creatinine and advanced glycation endproducts (AGEs) and kidney proinflammatory cytokines such as TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-6, NF-κB p65 subunit and nitrite. Further, d-pinitol administration elicited a significant attenuation in the activities of kidney enzymatic antioxidants such as superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase, glutathione peroxidase (GPx), glutathione-S-transferase (GST) and glutathione reductase (GR) and the levels of kidney non-enzymatic antioxidants such as vitamin E, vitamin C and reduced glutathione (GSH) in the diabetic group of rats, with a concomitant decline in the levels of kidney lipid peroxides, hydroperoxides and protein carbonyls. The histological and ultrastructural observations on the kidney tissues also confirmed the renoprotective nature of d-pinitol. Thus the present study demonstrated the renoprotective nature of d-pinitol by attenuating the hyperglycemia-mediated proinflammatory cytokines and antioxidant competence in kidney tissues of streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats.     

Biomass production of hairy roots of Artemisia annua and Arachis hypogaea in a scaled‐up mist bioreactor

Hairy roots have the potential to produce a variety of valuable small and large molecules. The mist reactor is a gas phase bioreactor that has shown promise for low‐cost culture of hairy roots. Using a newer, disposable culture bag, mist reactor performance was studied with two species, Artemisia annua L. and Arachis hypogaea (peanut), at scales from 1 to 20 L. Both species of hairy roots when grown at 1 L in the mist reactor showed growth rates that surpassed that in shake flasks. From the information gleaned at 1 L, Arachis was scaled further to 4 and then 20 L. Misting duty cycle, culture medium flow rate, and timing of when flow rate was increased were varied. In a mist reactor increasing the misting cycle or increasing the medium flow rate are the two alternatives for increased delivery of liquid nutrients to the root bed. Longer misting cycles beyond 2–3 min were generally deemed detrimental to growth. On the other hand, increasing the medium flow rate to the sonic nozzle especially during the exponential phase of root growth (weeks 2–3) was the most important factor for increasing growth rates and biomass yields in the 20 L reactors. A. hypogaea growth in 1 L reactors was µ = 0.173 day^?1 with biomass yield of 12.75 g DW L^?1. This exceeded that in shake flasks at µ = 0.166 day^?1 and 11.10 g DW L^?1. Best growth rate and biomass yield at 20 L was µ = 0.147 and 7.77 g DW L^?1, which was mainly achieved when medium flow rate delivery was increased. The mist deposition model was further evaluated using this newer reactor design and when the apparent thickness of roots (+hairs) was taken into account, the empirical data correlated with model predictions. Together these results establish the most important conditions to explore for future optimization of the mist bioreactor for culture of hairy roots. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2010;107: 802–813. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

High Frequency in vitro Multiplication of Centella asiatica: An Important Industrial Medicinal Herb

An efficient protocol was developed for rapid clonal propagation of the important medicinal plant, Centella asiatica (L.) Urban, using shoot tip culture. High frequency bud break (88 %) and multiple shoot formation (16.8 shoots/shoot tip) were induced from a shoot tip segment, which was cultured on MS medium supplemented with 6‐benzylaminopurine (BAP) (17.76 μM) and gibberillic acid (GA₃) (1.44 μM). Half‐strength Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium supplemented with naphthalen acetic acid (NAA) (10.74 μM) induced the maximum (27.66) number of roots. Plantlets with 3–4 fully expanded leaves and well‐developed roots were successfully transferred to potted soil which exhibited a 95 % survival. The protocol enables the harvest of more than 25,000 plantlets within 160 days starting from a single shoot tip explant.     

Babel's tower revisited: a universal resource for cross-referencing across annotation databases

MOTIVATION: Annotation databases are widely used as public repositories of biological knowledge. However, most of these resources have been developed by independent groups which used different designs and different identifiers for the same biological entities. As we show in this article, incoherent name spaces between various databases represent a serious impediment to using the existing annotations at their full potential. Navigating between various such name spaces by mapping IDs from one database to another is a very important issue which is not properly addressed at the moment. RESULTS: We have developed a web-based resource, Onto-Translate (OT), which effectively addresses this problem. OT is able to map onto each other different types of biological entities from the following annotation databases: Swiss-Prot, TrEMBL, NREF, PIR, Gene Ontology, KEGG, Entrez Gene, GenBank, GenPept, IMAGE, RefSeq, UniGene, OMIM, PDB, Eukaryotic Promoter Database, HUGO Gene Nomenclature Committee and NetAffx. Currently, OT is able to perform 462 types of mappings between 29 different types of IDs from 17 databases concerning 53 organisms. Among these, over 300 types of translations and 15 types of IDs are not currently supported by any other tool or resource. On average, OT is able to correctly map between 96 and 99% of the biological entities provided as input. In terms of speed, sets of approximately 20 000 IDs can be translated in <30 s, in most cases. AVAILABILITY: OT is a part of Onto-Tools, which is freely available at http://vortex.cs.wayne.edu/Projects.html     

Photo-oxidation of P740, the primary electron donor in photosystem I from Acaryochloris marina

Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) difference spectroscopy in combination with deuterium exchange experiments has been used to study the photo-oxidation of P740, the primary electron donor in photosystem I from Acaryochloris marina. Comparison of (P740(+)-P740) and (P700(+)-P700) FTIR difference spectra show that P700 and P740 share many structural similarities. However, there are several distinct differences also: 1), The (P740(+)-P740) FTIR difference spectrum is significantly altered upon proton exchange, considerably more so than the (P700(+)-P700) FTIR difference spectrum. The P740 binding pocket is therefore more accessible than the P700 binding pocket. 2), Broad, "dimer" absorption bands are observed for both P700(+) and P740(+). These bands differ significantly in substructure, however, suggesting differences in the electronic organization of P700(+) and P740(+). 3), Bands are observed at 2727(-) and 2715(-) cm(-1) in the (P740(+)-P740) FTIR difference spectrum, but are absent in the (P700(+)-P700) FTIR difference spectrum. These bands are due to formyl CH modes of chlorophyll d. Therefore, P740 consists of two chlorophyll d molecules. Deuterium-induced modification of the (P740(+)-P740) FTIR difference spectrum indicates that only the highest frequency 13(3) ester carbonyl mode of P740 downshifts, indicating that this ester mode is weakly H-bonded. In contrast, the highest frequency ester carbonyl mode of P700 is free from H-bonding. Deuterium-induced changes in (P740(+)-P740) FTIR difference spectrum could also indicate that one of the chlorophyll d 3(1) carbonyls of P740 is hydrogen bonded.     

Glycyl tRNA synthetase mutations in Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease type 2D and distal spinal muscular atrophy type V

Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease type 2D (CMT2D) and distal spinal muscular atrophy type V (dSMA-V) are axonal peripheral neuropathies inherited in an autosomal dominant fashion. Our previous genetic and physical mapping efforts localized the responsible gene(s) to a well-defined region on human chromosome 7p. Here, we report the identification of four disease-associated missense mutations in the glycyl tRNA synthetase gene in families with CMT2D and dSMA-V. This is the first example of an aminoacyl tRNA synthetase being implicated in a human genetic disease, which makes genes that encode these enzymes relevant candidates for other inherited neuropathies and motor neuron diseases.