Studies on Antifungal Properties of Essential Oil of Trachyspermum ammi (L.) Sprague

The essential oil from the fruits of Trachyspermum ammi exhibited toxicity at 800 ppm against Aspergillus flavus and A. niger, the nature of toxicity being cidal. The toxicity of the oil was not affected by autoclaving, temperature treatment and storage upto 365 days. The oil killed the test fungi within 50 seconds; withstood heavy inoculum density and was inhibitory to as many as 21 fungi at its minimum inhibitory concentration. However the seeds of Arachis hypogea whentreated with oil at 5000 ppm and stored for 12 months did not show the appearance of any fungi indicating thereby the grain protectant activity of the oil. The oil was characterized by various physico chemical properties and on chemical investigation Thymol and p-cymene were isolated as antifungal principles of the oil exhibiting toxicity against the test fungi at 1000 ppm.     

Foliar Spraying of Potassium Nitrate,Salicylic Acid,and Thio-urea Effects on Growth,Physiological Processes,and Yield of Sodicity-Stressed Paddy (Oryza sativa L.) with Alkali Water Irrigation

Journal of Plant Growth Regulation - Exogenous applications of plant growth regulators (PGRs) were evaluated for their effects on growth, physiological attributes, and yield of sodicity stressed...     

Expression of protective antigen in transgenic plants: a step towards edible vaccine against anthrax

Protective antigen (PA) is the most potent molecule for vaccination against anthrax. In the present study, we have successfully integrated protective antigen gene in nuclear genome of tobacco plants by Agrobacterium mediated leaf-disc transformation method. Expression of protective antigen gene was detected by immunoblot analysis using antisera raised against purified PA. A distinct band of approximately 83kDa lighted up in the protein extracted from transformed plants while there was no such band in untransformed plants. The plant expressed PA showed biological activity just like native PA, which was demonstrated by cytolytic assay on macrophage like cell lines with lethal factor. This study establishes for the first time expression of PA gene in a plant system and thus marks the first milestone towards developing edible vaccine against anthrax.     

Role of Drosophila gene dunc-115 in nervous system

Axonal guidance signals are transduced through growth cone surface receptors to the interior leading to changes of actin dynamics and actin binding proteins, which are critical in determining the outcome of actin cytoskeleton reorganization. We report here the characterization of the Drosophila actin binding protein abLIM/Unc-115 homolog Dunc-115 and its role in the nervous system. Three Dunc-115 isoforms are identified as Dunc-115L, M and S, respectively. While Dunc-115L is a canonical homolog of Unc-115 with four LIM domains and one villin headpiece domain, Dunc-115M and S are novel isoforms without counterparts in other species. Our molecular modeling shows Dunc-115L is likely to bind to actin. Mutant analysis reveals that Dunc-115 is involved in axonal projection in both the visual and central nervous system.