Antimicrobial activity of bioactive compounds and leaf extracts in Jatropha tanjorensis

Objectives

Jatropha tanjorensis was investigated scientifically to generate evidence for the efficacies reported in traditional systems and the results are given here.

Methods

Different concentrations of the solvent extracts of leaves and four isolated compounds were tested against human pathogenic microorganisms such as gram-positive bacteria of Bacillus cereus, Bacillus subtilis, Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus epidermis, gram-negative bacteria of Aeromonas hydrophila, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Proteus mirabilis, Proteus vulgaris, Salmonella paratyphi, Salmonella paratyphi A, Vibrio alcaligenes, Vibrio cholerae and fungi of Aspergillus fumigatus, Candida albicans, Microsporum gypseum and Trichophyton rubrum by agar-well diffusion and disk diffusion methods.

Results

In agar-well diffusion method, maximum activity was recorded in a concentration-dependent manner. The extracts recorded activity against bacteria such as 17–26, 15–25 and 13–24 mm to methanol extract and 15–24, 14–23 and 12–22 mm to chloroform extract at 50, 25 and 12.5 mg/ml respectively and fungi such as 9–15 mm to A. fumigatus and 5–16 mm to T. rubrum. Maximum activity was 30–46, 27–43 and 17–40 mm to friedelin and 23–46, 28–44 and 18–41 mm to R (+) 4-hydroxy-2-pyrrolidinone against bacteria and 12–37, 8–34 and 31–33 mm to friedelin and 12–40, 11–35 and 10–33 mm to R (+) 4-hydroxy-2-pyrrolidinone against fungi at 10, 5 and 2.5 mg respectively.

Conclusions

The present study concludes that friedelin, β-amyrin, stigmasterol and R (+) 4-hydroxy-2-pyrrolidinone present in the methanol extract could be responsible for the broad spectrum of antimicrobial activity and provide scientific evidence.     

Efficacy of organic solvents for storing pollen grains of some leguminous taxa

Summary The efficacy of some organic solvents for storing pollen grains of five leguminous taxa has been assessed and compared with pollen stored under controlled temperature and humidity conditions. The success obtained in the former was invariably less than that in the latter in all the taxa. The results suggest that the use of organic solvents holds some promise only for short-term and not for long-term sotrage.     

Development of a New Cytoplasmic Male-Sterility System in Brassica juncea through Wide Hybridization

A new cytoplasmic male-sterility system was developed in an oilseed Brassica, viz. B. juncea var. ‘Pusa Bold’ with the cytoplasmic background of a wild species, Diplotaxis siifolia, obtained through wide hybridization. The synthetic alloploid (D. siifolia×B. juncea: 2n = 56, D³D³AABB) was repeatedly backcrossed to B. juncea to achieve cytoplasmic substitution. The CMS plants resembled the cultivar in growth and morphology. The flowers had narrow sepals and petals and short, shrivelled anthers which failed to dehisce. The meiotic process appeared to be normal. The microspores degenerated at an early stage after tetrad formation. Female fertility in the CMS plants was as good as in the cultivar. Female transmission of sterility confirmed it to be cytoplasmically encoded.     

Mechanism of induced systemic resistance against anthracnose disease in cucumber by plant growth-promoting fungi

Plant growth-promoting fungi (PGPF) such as Phoma sp. (isolates GS8-1, GS8-2 and GS8-3) and non-sporulating fungus (isolate GU21-2) were tested for their ability to induce systemic resistance against Colletotrichum orbiculare in cucumber. These isolates, used as colonized barley kernels to natural soils, induced systemic resistance in the greenhouse as well as in the field. Different elicitors from PGPF such as cell walls retaining or lacking protein and lipids, cell walls lipid fraction, and three fractions of culture filtrate (CF) with different molecular weight ranges were tested for their ability to elicit the defense response of cucumber plants under controlled conditions. Cell wall fraction lacking protein and lipids and the cell wall lipid fraction from root colonizing isolates GS8-1, GS8-2, and GS8-3 protected plants against C. orbiculare. While, only cell wall lipid fraction and CF fractions of different molecular weight ranges of the isolate GU21-2 protected plants against C. orbiculare infection. Methanol-soluble substances from CF fractions with molecular weight greater than 12,000 and less than 8000 consistently protected plants against the pathogen. Germination of C. orbiculare spores decreased significantly at 72 h of incubation on leaves of PGPF-protected plants. Isolate GU21-2 was the most effective in inhibiting spore germination. On the other hand, isolates GS8-1 and GU21-2 induced lignifications in the hypocotyls of seven-day-old cucumber seedlings after challenge inoculation with C. orbiculare. Three-week-old cucumber plants treated with isolate GU21-2 and challenged with C. orbiculare showed increased activities of exo- and endo-forms of glucanase and chitinase, as well as peroxidase and polyphenol oxidase in the second true leaves. Induction treatment with isolate GS8-1 also increased the activities of these enzymes with the exception of exo-glucanase. This study shows that the inoculation of PGPF or its CF resulted in additive effect on the suppression of anthracnose disease in cucumber.     

Responses of cucumber cultivars to induction of systemic resistance against anthracnose by plant growth promoting fungi

Initial experiment on the reactions of five Japanese cultivars of cucumber toColletotrichum orbiculare infection in the greenhouse revealed that cv Suyo and Gibai were susceptible and moderately susceptible, respectively, while cv Shogoin fushinari and Sagami hanjiro were resistant to infection byC. orbiculare; cv Ochiai fushinari was moderately resistant. The ability of 16 plant growth promoting fungi (some isolates belonged to species ofPhoma and some non-sporulating isolates) isolated from zoysiagrass rhizospheres to induce systemic resistance in the above five cucumber cultivars was tested by growing plants in potting medium infested with barley grain inocula of PGPF in the greenhouse. The second true leaves of 21-day-old plants were challenge inoculated withC. orbiculare and disease assessed. Nine, out of 16 isolates, caused significant reduction of disease caused byC. orbiculare in at least two cultivars.Phoma isolates (GS8-1 and GS8-2) and non-sporulating isolates (GU21-2, GU23-3, and GU24-3) significantly reduced the disease in all the five cultivars. The disease suppression in cucumber was due to the induction of systemic resistance, since the inducer(s) and the pathogen were separated spatially and that the inducer did not colonize aerial portions. The resistance induced by certain isolates in a susceptible cultivar was less than that in a resistant cultivar. Disease suppression caused by isolate GU21-2 was similar to theC. orbiculare induced control in certain cultivars. The average rate of expansion of lesion diameter on leaves due toC. orbiculare was slower due to induction with the selected plant growth promoting fungi compared to the uninduced control plants. Roots of four cultivars were colonized by only three isolates, however, roots of one cultivar (Suyo) was colonized by five isolates suggesting the cultivar-specific root colonization ability.Abbreviations cv cultivar(s) - PGPF plant growth promoting fungal isolates - PGPR plant growth promoting rhizobacteria     

Ancient noncoding elements conserved in the human genome

Cartilaginous fishes represent the living group of jawed vertebrates that diverged from the common ancestor of human and teleost fish lineages about 530 million years ago. We generated approximately 1.4x genome sequence coverage for a cartilaginous fish, the elephant shark (Callorhinchus milii), and compared this genome with the human genome to identify conserved noncoding elements (CNEs). The elephant shark sequence revealed twice as many CNEs as were identified by whole-genome comparisons between teleost fishes and human. The ancient vertebrate-specific CNEs in the elephant shark and human genomes are likely to play key regulatory roles in vertebrate gene expression.     

Production of Eruca-Brassica Hybrids by Embryo Rescue

Allied species of crop Brassicas have potential value as donors of useful nuclear/organelle genomes. Eruca sativa, a member of subtribe Brassicineae, is resistant to white rust and well adapted to drought. Attempts to hybridize it with Brassica campestris by conventional methods were unsuccessful. However, hybrids were obtained by embryo rescue and the hybrid embryos were found to produce numerous secondary embryos in upto 7 to 8 subcultures. Plantlets developed from them exhibited morphological characteristics of both parents. The chromosome number of 2n = 42 showed that they were amphidiploids. The plants were allotctraploids (2n = 42) and showed 21 bivalents at M₁ of meiosis. Hybridization of total DNA of the hybrids with two probes, a B. campestris tandem repeat DNA and 18s ribosomal DNA of wheat showed that it was derived from the genome of both parents. The hybrids are self-fertile and show the same high fertility even in A³ generation. They were selfed or crossed with B. juncea, B. campestris and B. nigra to screen for useful agronomical traits. Six more embryos of E. saliva × B. campestris have been obtained and their growth is being studied. Preliminary small scale field trials indicate that the selfed hybrid is comparable in yield with a high yielding commercial variety of B. juncea.     

Whole-genome shotgun assembly and analysis of the genome of Fugu rubripes

The compact genome of Fugu rubripes has been sequenced to over 95% coverage, and more than 80% of the assembly is in multigene-sized scaffolds. In this 365-megabase vertebrate genome, repetitive DNA accounts for less than one-sixth of the sequence, and gene loci occupy about one-third of the genome. As with the human genome, gene loci are not evenly distributed, but are clustered into sparse and dense regions. Some "giant" genes were observed that had average coding sequence sizes but were spread over genomic lengths significantly larger than those of their human orthologs. Although three-quarters of predicted human proteins have a strong match to Fugu, approximately a quarter of the human proteins had highly diverged from or had no pufferfish homologs, highlighting the extent of protein evolution in the 450 million years since teleosts and mammals diverged. Conserved linkages between Fugu and human genes indicate the preservation of chromosomal segments from the common vertebrate ancestor, but with considerable scrambling of gene order.     

Development of two new cytoplasmic male-sterile lines in Brassica juncea through wide hybridization

Two new cytoplasmic male-sterile (CMS) lines have been developed in Brassica juncea using the bridgecross hybrids (Diplotaxis erucoides×Brassica campestris)×B. juncea and (Diplotaxis berthautii×B. campestris)×B. juncea. These were backcrossed ×ve times with pollen of B. juncea. The CMS line (D. erucoides) B. juncea segregated into tall and short true breeding types; both resembled the cultivar B. juncea in vegetative and floral morphology and in cytology, except for a greater number of secondary branches and smaller anthers with empty sterile pollen in the CMS line. Female fertility was as good in the CMS line as in the cultivar. The other CMS line (D. berthautii) B. juncea resembled the cultivar in vegetative morphology and cytology. Four true breeding floral types were isolated as follows: (1) smaller and indehiscent anthers containing empty, sterile pollen, (2) all six stamens petaloid, (3) one petaloid stamen and five stamens antherless, and (4) apetalous flowers with all six stamens antherless.     

Interspecific hybridization between rice bean (Vigna umbellata) and its wild relative (V. minima): Fertility-sterility relationships

Summary The pre-and post-fertilization barriers in the interspecific crosses between Vigna umbellata and V. minima were investigated. In the reciprocal crosses (V. minima as the parent) the entry of pollen tubes into the ovary was delayed by about 4 h, and no seed set was observed. However, no pre-fertilization barriers were encountered in crosses involving V. minima as the parent and V. umbellata as the parent (normal cross). The delay/absence of divisions in the endosperm and the failure of embryo to divide were the post-fertilization barriers responsible for somatoplastic sterility in normal crosses which yielded a few hybrid seeds. The hybrid seeds showed poor germinability. The F₁ hybrids were intermediate between the parents in most morphological characters, and are completely sterile for pollen. Backcrossing of F₁ hybrid with both the parents did not restore fertility in the progenies. V. minima is considered as the tertiary gene pool of the rice bean.