Heterologous expression of <Emphasis Type="Italic">PDH47</Emphasis> confers drought tolerance in <Emphasis Type="Italic">indica</Emphasis> rice

Jerusalem artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus L.) cultivars are conserved in genebanks for use in breeding and horticultural research programs. Jerusalem artichoke collections are particularly vulnerable to environmental and biological threats because they are often maintained in the field. These field collections could be securely conserved in genebanks if improved cryopreservation methods were available. This work used four Jersualem artichoke cultivars (‘Shudi’, ‘M6’, ‘Stampede’, and ‘Relikt’) to improve upon an existing procedure. Four steps were optimized and the resulting procedure is as follows: preculture excised shoot tips (2–3 mm) in liquid MS medium supplemented with 0.4 M sucrose for 3 days, osmoprotect shoot tips in loading solution for 30 min, dehydrate with plant vitrification solution 2 for 15 min before rapid cooling in liquid nitrogen, store in liquid nitrogen, rapidly rewarm in MS liquid medium containing 1.2 M sucrose, and recover on MS medium supplemented with 0.1 mg L^?1 GA₃ for 3–5 days in the dark and then on the same medium for 4–6 weeks in the light (14 h light/10 h dark). After cryopreservation, Jerusalem artichoke cultivar ‘Shudi’ had the highest survival (93%) and regrowth (83%) percentages. Cultivars ‘M6’, ‘Stampede’, and ‘Relikt’ achieved survival and regrowth percentages ranging from 44 to 72%, and 37–53%, respectively. No genetic changes, as assessed by using simple sequence repeat markers, were detected in plants regenerated after LN exposure in Jerusalem artichoke cultivar ‘Shudi’. Differential scanning calorimetry analyses were used to investigate the thermal activities of the tissues during the cryopreservation process and it was determined that loading with 2.0 M sucrose and 0.4 M sucrose dehydrated the shoot tips prior to treatment with PVS2. Histological observations revealed that the optimized droplet vitrification protocol caused minimal cellular damage within the meristem cells of the shoot tips.     

Iron plaque formation in the roots of Pistia stratiotes L.: importance in phytoremediation of cadmium

Aquatic macrophytes play an important role in the removal of toxic metals from wastewater. Therefore, the induction of Fe plaque on the roots, and its consequences on Cd tolerance investigated in an aquatic macrophyte Pistia stratiotes L. The presence of Fe²⁺ ion but not Fe³⁺ resulted in Fe plaque formation. Induction of Fe plaque decreased Ca and increased K and Fe accumulations in the root. Plaque formed plants had accumulated less Cd until 50.0?µM CdCl₂ treatments because plaque acted as a barrier to Cd exposure. However, at higher concentrations (500.0?µM CdCl₂), plaque formed plants contained more Cd in the roots. Cadmium inducible ion leakage in the root and lowering of the photosynthetic pigment content were less in plants with a plaque. Stretching of aromatic carbonyl groups and alkyl groups among plaque formed plants upon Cd treatments indicated the putative role of phenolics in Cd detoxification.     

Molecular Epidemiology of Amoebiasis: A Cross-Sectional Study among North East Indian Population

Background

Epidemiological studies carried out using culture or microscopy in most of the amoebiasis endemic developing countries, yielded confusing results since none of these could differentiate the pathogenic Entamoeba histolytica from the non-pathogenic Entamoeba dispar and Entamoeba moshkovskii. The Northeastern part of India is a hot spot of infection since the climatic conditions are most conducive for the infection and so far no systemic study has been carried out in this region.

Methodology/Principal Findings

Following a cross-sectional study designed during the period 2011–2014, a total of 1260 fecal samples collected from the Northeast Indian population were subjected to microscopy, fecal culture and a sensitive and specific DNA dot blot screening assay developed in our laboratory targeting the Entamoeba spp. Further species discrimination using PCR assay performed in microscopy, culture and DNA dot blot screening positive samples showed E. histolytica an overall prevalence rate of 11.1%, 8.0% and 13.7% respectively. In addition, infection rates of nonpathogenic E. dispar and E. moshkovskii were 11.8% (95% CI = 10.2, 13.8) and 7.8% (95% CI = 6.4, 9.4) respectively. The spatial distributions of infection were 18.2% (107/588) of Assam, 11.7% (23/197) of Manipur, 10.2% (21/207) of Meghalaya, and 8.2% (22/268) of Tripura states. Association study of the disease with demographic features suggested poor living condition (OR = 3.21; 95% CI = 1.83, 5.63), previous history of infection in family member (OR = 3.18; 95% CI = 2.09, 4.82) and unhygienic toilet facility (OR = 1.79; 95% CI = 1.28, 2.49) as significant risk factors for amoebiasis. Children in age group <15 yr, participants having lower levels of education, and daily laborers exhibited a higher infection rate.

Conclusions/Significance

Despite the importance of molecular diagnosis of amoebiasis, molecular epidemiological data based on a large sample size from endemic countries are rarely reported in the literature. Improved and faster method of diagnosis employed here to dissect out the pathogenic from the nonpathogenic species would help the clinicians to prescribe the appropriate anti-amoebic drug.     

Stimulation of Mg2+-independent form of Ca2+-ATPase by a low molecular mass protein purified from goat testes cytosol

A low molecular mass protein purified from goat (Capra hircus) testes cytosol following gel filtration and anion exchange chromatographic separation stimulates Mg(2+)-independent Ca(2+)-ATPase activity without any significant effect on Mg(2+)-dependent Ca(2+)-ATPase. Stimulation of the ATPase is due to an increase in the rate of dephosphorylation of the overall reaction step of the enzyme. Binding of the stimulator increases the affinity of Ca(2+)-ATPase for Ca(2+). An analysis of enzyme kinetics reveals a reversible type of binding of the stimulator to the ATPase and non-competitive type of stimulation with respect to the substrate. Stimulation seems due to binding of the protein at a single site following Michaelis-Menten model. The protein can also counter the effect of calcium antagonists exerted on the ATPase. The pI of the protein is 6.2 and its molecular mass has been determined to be 13, 961 by Q-TOF-MS.     

Gut microbial composition in developmental stages of gall inducing thrips Gynaikothrips uzeli and associated plant pathogenesis

Gut bacteria play a crucial role in the several metabolic activity of the insects. In the present work, effort has been made to decipher the gut microbiota associated with the developmental stages of Gynaikothrips uzeli a gall inducing thrips along with their predicted functional role. Further, an effort has been made to correlate the bacterial communities with plant pathogenesis and thelytoky behaviour of G. uzeli. Findings obtained revealed that genus Arsenophonus dominated the total bacterial diversity and was transmitted vertically through the developmental stages. Further, it was observed that the high abundance of genus Arsenophonus promotes the thelytoky behaviour in G. uzeli and results in the killing of males. Furthermore, strong connecting link between Arsenophonus abundance and gall induction in F. benjamina was observed in the current dataset. G. uzeli being in the category of phloem sucking insect was known for the induction of galls and the current findings for the first time unveiled the facts that high abundance of genus Arsenophonus a well-known plant pathogen may be one of the major reason for inducing galls in F. benjamina. Moreover, PICRUSt2 analysis revealed that predicted functional pathways like biosynthesis of amino acids, and metabolism of carbon, nitrogen, carbohydrates and amino acids (e.g. Arginine, Alanine, Aspartate, Glutamate, Proline, Cysteine, Methionine, Glycine, Threonine, and Serine) were frequently noticed in profiles associated with all the developmental stages of G. uzeli. More to this, the high abundance of Arsenophonus in G. uzeli suggest that representatives of this genus may be resistant and/or tolerant to different antibacterial agents, alkaloids, flavonoids, and glycosides (e.g. quercetin). The correlation of bacterial diversity in pathogenicity can be extrapolated in different pest and vector species of other arthropods.     

Analysis of the mitochondrial genome of the Indian darter,Anhinga melanogaster,suggests a species status taxonomic rank

Molecular Biology Reports - Anhinga melanogaster is a carnivorous water bird native to many Asian countries. A. melanogaster is part of the Old World clade of darters. There is currently...     

Study of the interaction between fisetin and human serum albumin: a biophysical approach

The binding of fisetin with human serum albumin (HSA) has been studied at different pH using UV-Vis, FTIR, CD and fluorescence spectroscopic techniques. The binding constants were found to increase with the rise in pH of the media. The negative ΔH° (kJ mol-1) and positive ΔS° (J mol-1 K-1) indicate that fisetin binds to HSA via electrostatic interactions with an initial hydrophobic association that result in a positive ΔS° . In presence of potassium chloride (KCl) the binding constants were found to be decrease. The α-helical content of HSA increased after binding with fisetin as analyzed from both CD and FTIR methods. The site marker displacement studies using fluorescence anisotropy suggest that fisetin binds to the hydrophobic pocket (Site 1, subdomain IIA) of HSA which is in good accordance with the molecular docking study. The change in accessible surface area (ASA) of residues of HSA was calculated to get a better insight into the binding.     

NAD(P)H: quinone oxidoreductase 1 deficiency conjoint with marginal vitamin C deficiency causes cigarette smoke induced myelodysplastic syndromes

Background

The etiology of myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) is largely unknown. Exposure to cigarette smoke (CS) is reported to be associated with MDS risk. There is inconsistent evidence that deficiency of NAD(P)H-quinone: oxidoreductase 1 (NQO1) increases the risk of MDS. Earlier we had shown that CS induces toxicity only in marginal vitamin C-deficient guinea pigs but not in vitamin C-sufficient ones. We therefore considered that NQO1 deficiency along with marginal vitamin C deficiency might produce MDS in CS-exposed guinea pigs.

Methodology and Principal Findings

Here we show that CS exposure for 21 days produces MDS in guinea pigs having deficiency of NQO1 (fed 3 mg dicoumarol/day) conjoint with marginal vitamin C deficiency (fed 0.5 mg vitamin C/day). As evidenced by morphology, histology and cytogenetics, MDS produced in the guinea pigs falls in the category of refractory cytopenia with unilineage dysplasia (RCUD): refractory anemia; refractory thrombocytopenia that is associated with ring sideroblasts, micromegakaryocytes, myeloid hyperplasia and aneuploidy. MDS is accompanied by increased CD34(+) cells and oxidative stress as shown by the formation of protein carbonyls and 8-oxodeoxyguanosine. Apoptosis precedes MDS but disappears later with marked decrease in the p53 protein. MDS produced in the guinea pigs are irreversible. MDS and all the aforesaid pathophysiological events do not occur in vitamin C-sufficient guinea pigs. However, after the onset of MDS vitamin C becomes ineffective.

Conclusions and Significance

CS exposure causes MDS in guinea pigs having deficiency of NQO1 conjoint with marginal vitamin C deficiency. The syndromes are not produced in singular deficiency of NQO1 or marginal vitamin C deficiency. Our results suggest that human smokers having NQO1 deficiency combined with marginal vitamin C deficiency are likely to be at high risk for developing MDS and that intake of a moderately large dose of vitamin C would prevent MDS.