Peste des petits ruminants has been widely present in southern India since, if not before, the late 1980s

Because previous authorities had suggested that small ruminants were playing a part in the dissemination of rinderpest, and a rinderpest-eradication campaign was about to begin, it was necessary to make precise virus identifications from a number of small-ruminant “rinderpest” outbreaks. When this was done using a database created from passive disease reports, we found that epidemics—reportedly due to rinderpest—were in fact due to peste des petits ruminants (PPRs). Although such cases had been common in India for a number of years, earlier clinical and laboratory reports no longer should be regarded as definitive. PPR outbreaks have been frequent in recent years. Further, we suggest that PPR is not a recent invader of India.     

Dietary essentiality of ascorbic acid in rohu larvae: Quantification with ascorbic acid enriched zooplankton

Carp larvae, like any other fish larvae dependon natural food during first few days of theirlife. In nursery conditions, high mortality andslow larval growth are of common occurrence;sub-optimal nutrition might be a possiblereason for such consequences. To improve thesituation the effect of feeding ascorbicacid-enriched live food on survival, growth,tissue biochemical composition includingascorbate level was evaluated in first feeding(3 days old) larvae (av. wt. 2.2 mg) of therohu carp, Labeo rohita (Ham.) for aperiod of 15 days (temp. 28.6 ± 1 °C)under natural photoperiod. The larvae (stockingdensity 10 l^–1) were offered enriched andnon-enriched zooplankton ad libitumfollowing a rigid schedule with four feedingregimes, each having 3 replicates. In treatmentT₁, non-enriched zooplankton (Moina,Daphnia, Cyclops, Diaptomus) and in T₂,T₃, T₄ ascorbic acid enriched (12 henrichment) zooplankton [@10%, 20% and 30%ascorbyl palmitate (AP) inclusion in diet ofzooplankton] were offered. Highest survival(90%) and growth (9563% live weight gain)could be seen in T₃ group and the lowestin T₁ (62% survival and 805% live weightgain), thus confirming the dietary essentialityof ascorbic acid for rohu larvae. Therequirement has been shown to be 1409 µg/gdry diet. Whole body tissue analyses for crudeprotein, total lipid and RNA: DNA ratiofollowed the same trend as that of growthresponse and percent survival. Significantpositive correlation (r = 0.949 and 0.861) couldbe found with muscle RNA/DNA ratio and muscleRNA content with specific growth rate indifferent treatments. Significant differencewas found in tissue ascorbate levels betweenenriched plankton fed groups, being highest in T₃. Such live foodmediated vitamin transfer might be an effectivemeans to provide higher plane of nutrition forhigh survival and rapid growth for rohu larva.     

Influence of leaf litter types on microbial functions and nutrient status of soil: Ecological suitability of forest trees for afforestation in tropical laterite wastelands

The impact of forest tree leaf litters on microbial activity and nutrient status of red laterite soil was tested for the ecological suitability of Cassia siamea, Shorea robusta, Acacia auriculiformes and Dalbergia sissoo, which are typically used for afforestation of wastelands in eastern India. The objectives were to compare seasonal variation in soil enzyme activity in 30-years old afforested sites, and to study nutrient status and microbial biomass and function during short-term in-situ incubation of litter in decomposition pits. In afforested soils, enzyme activities significantly varied between litters and seasons. All enzyme activity except invertase dominated in the soils containing Dalbergia and Cassia litters compared to the others. The seasonal effect was enzyme-dependent, with amylase and cellulase reaching peaks during the rainy season but invertase activity showed a reverse trend with lowest values in rainy season, except in Acacia soil, and protease activity was lowest in the soil containing Cassia and Dalbergia during the rainy season. Dehydrogenase activity was negligible in the soils containing Shorea and Acacia, but remained high with respect to Dalbergia and Cassia during all seasons. The decomposition pit study showed significant increase of soil nutrients with respect to litter types and intervals, except with respect to electrical conductivity. Cassia and Dalbergia litters enabled notable increase of soil nutrients than Shorea and Acacia. The soil enzyme activity, in general, increased with duration of litter decay, but microbial biomass C (MBC) decreased over time except in Shorea. Therefore, the enzyme rates normalized to the MBC indicated inverse relations for all enzymes, except in the soil containing Shorea. A positive relationship existed between MBC and soil respiration in Cassia, Acacia and Dalbergia. Analysis of variance revealed main effects of litter types for increasing protease, MBC and CO₂ output, and a main effect of intervals for enhancing enzymes other than cellulase. Rates of soil respiration were greater in soils contain Cassia and Dalbergia, and showed significant differences between litters and between intervals. All enzymes were significantly correlated with electrical conductivity, organic carbon and available phosphorus contents, and all enzymes except invertase were correlated with nitrate concentrations. The acidic soil pH did not affect enzyme activities, and soil nutrients exerted only weak effect on MBC and respiration. Our study showed that leaf litters of Cassia and Dalbergia trees improved the nutrient status and microbial activity in soil more so than Shorea and Acacia litters, and therefore, afforestation using Cassia and Dalbergia trees may be particularly suitable for soil restoration in tropical laterite wastelands.     

Identification of the Putative Cytoplasmic Donor of a CMS System in Brassica juncea

Chloroplast (cp) and mitochondrial (mt) DNA restriction profiles of a cytoplasmic male sterile (CMS) line of Brassica juncea and its maintainer line were compared and found to be markedly different. Comparison of cpDNA restriction profiles of fifty different species of genus Brassica and some allied genera showed that the cpDNA profiles of CMS lines were similar to that of B. tournefortii for twenty different restriction endonucleases. This CMS system is thus not of spontaneous origin as reported earlier, but is alloplasmic in nature. Comparison of restriction profiles of mtDNA of B. tournefortii and CMS lines revealed some differences which might either be due to changes in DNA pattern during the transfer, or, due to the cytoplasm coming from a B. tournefortii line different from the one used in this study.     

Identification of a Stable Maintainer Line for 'Polima' Cytoplasmic Male Sterility in Rapeseed (B. napus L.)

‘Polima’ cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS) was transferred to three different genotypes of B. napus i.e. GSL-1, ISN706 and HNS-8 by repeated backcrossing and was found to be completely stable in the nuclear background of synthetic B. napus genotype, ISN706, derived from a cross B. campestris ssp. oleifera var. brown sarson ×B. oleracea var. botrytis cv. Tusa Katki'. The BC₅ and BC₆ generation lines of ISN706, GSL-1 and HNS-8 with ‘Polima’ CMS were grown under a range of temperature and photo-period conditions to test their stability. No breakdown in sterility was observed in ‘Polima’ ISN706 and, therefore, this genotype can be used as a maintainer for hybrid seed production.     

Identification and Inheritance of Fertility Restorer Genes for 'tour' CMS in Rapeseed (Brassica napus L.)

Eighteen genotypes of Brassica napus were crossed to a cytoplasmic male sterile (CMS) line of B. napus BO 15 carrying B. tournefortii cytoplasm (‘tour’ cytoplasm). Fourteen genotypes were found to be stable maintainers of the ‘tour’ CMS. Of the remaining four genotypes, GSL-1 and ‘Asahi-natane’ were found to be heterozygous and ‘Mangun’ and ‘Yudal’ were homozygous for the restorer gene. Analysis of the F₁ and F₂ progenies of (CMS) BO 15 בMangun’ and (CMS) BO 15 בYudal’ showed that fertility restoration is controlled by a single dominant gene. The availability of a number of stable maintainer lines and the simple inheritance pattern of fertility restorer gene makes ‘tour’ CMS a useful system for hybrid seed production in rapeseed.     

Manganese blocks intracellular trafficking of Shiga toxin and protects against Shiga toxicosis

Infections with Shiga toxin (STx)-producing bacteria cause more than a million deaths each year and have no definitive treatment. To exert its cytotoxic effect, STx invades cells through retrograde membrane trafficking, escaping the lysosomal degradative pathway. We found that the widely available metal manganese (Mn(2+)) blocked endosome-to-Golgi trafficking of STx and caused its degradation in lysosomes. Mn(2+) targeted the cycling Golgi protein GPP130, which STx bound in control cells during sorting into Golgi-directed endosomal tubules that bypass lysosomes. In tissue culture cells, treatment with Mn(2+) yielded a protection factor of 3800 against STx-induced cell death. Furthermore, mice injected with nontoxic doses of Mn(2+) were completely resistant to a lethal STx challenge. Thus, Mn(2+) may represent a low-cost therapeutic agent for the treatment of STx infections.     

UV spectral fingerprinting and analysis of variance-principal component analysis: a useful tool for characterizing sources of variance in plant materials

UV spectral fingerprints, in combination with analysis of variance-principal components analysis (ANOVA-PCA), can differentiate between cultivars and growing conditions (or treatments) and can be used to identify sources of variance. Broccoli samples, composed of two cultivars, were grown under seven different conditions or treatments (four levels of Se-enriched irrigation waters, organic farming, and conventional farming with 100 and 80% irrigation based on crop evaporation and transpiration rate). Freeze-dried powdered samples were extracted with methanol-water (60:40, v/v) and analyzed with no prior separation. Spectral fingerprints were acquired for the UV region (220-380 nm) using a 50-fold dilution of the extract. ANOVA-PCA was used to construct subset matrices that permitted easy verification of the hypothesis that cultivar and treatment contributed to a difference in the chemical expression of the broccoli. The sums of the squares of the same matrices were used to show that cultivar, treatment, and analytical repeatability contributed 30.5, 68.3, and 1.2% of the variance, respectively.     

Effect of fermentation on the nutritive value of sesame seed meal in the diets for rohu, Labeo rohita (Hamilton), fingerlings

Six isonitrogenous (350 g kg⁻¹ crude protein) and isoenergetic (17573 kJ kg⁻¹) experimental diets incorporating raw and fermented sesame ( Seasamum indicum ) seed meal at 200, 300, and 400 g kg⁻¹ into a fishmeal based diet were fed to rohu Labeo rohita fingerlings for 60 days and the growth performance and feed utilization efficiency of the fish was studied. The antinutritional factor phytic acid, from raw sesame seed meal, could be reduced below detection limit by fermentation with lactic acid bacteria ( Lactobacillus acidophilus ). Fermentation of the oilseed meal resulted in reduction of the tannin content from 20 to 10 g kg⁻¹. In terms of growth response, feed conversion ratio and protein efficiency ratio, a diet containing 400 g kg⁻¹ fermented sesame seed meal resulted in a significantly ( P  < 0.01) best fish performance. In general, growth and feed utilization efficiencies of fish fed fermented sesame seed meal diets were superior to those fed raw oilseed meal diets. Apparent protein digestibility (APD) values decreased with increasing levels of raw oilseed meal. APD was, however, significantly ( P  < 0.01) higher at all levels of incorporation of fermented sesame seed meal, while diets containing raw oilseed meal resulted in poor protein and lipid digestibility. Carcass protein and lipid contents of fish fed fermented sesame seed meal diets increased with increasing level of incorporation, being highest with 400 g kg⁻¹ fermented oilseed meal-containing diet. The results showed that sesame seed meal may be incorporated in carp diets up to 200 g kg⁻¹ and 400 g kg⁻¹ in raw and treated (fermented) forms respectively.     

Partial Replacement of Fishmeal by Fermented Fish-Offal Meal in the Formulation of Diet for Indian Minor Carp Labeo bata

Fermented fish-offal (FO) meal was used as a protein supplement to replace fishmeal (FM) in the formulation of experimental diets for the Indian minor carp Labeo bata. The two supplementary diets, one containing 25% FM plus 25% FO and the other containing 20% FM and 30% FO, showed significantly higher digestibility, growth, and protein deposition than the reference diet containing 40% FM. Partial budgeting of diet formulation and net return revealed that 50% replacement of FM by fermented fish-offal meal rendered a total positive benefit of 134% as compared with the reference diet.