Micropropagation of Salvadora oleoides—An Oil Yielding Tree of Arid Forests

Salvadora oleoides is an ecologically important multipurpose tree of the arid forest that occurs in saline areas of northwest India. The seed of this plant yields non-edible commercially usable oil. Poor seed germination, low seed viability, and increasing industrialization are some of the constant factors which significantly affect the status of the natural population of this plant. Therefore, there is a great need to develop an efficient propagation system using the tissue culture technique. In the present communication, we demonstrate the development of an in vitro propagation system for S. oleoides. Multiple shoots were induced from nodal segments harvested from about 25- to 30- yr-old lopped trees of S. oleoides on MS medium + 0.1 mg L^?1 NAA (Naphthalene acetic acid) + 2.5 mg L^?1 BA (6-Benzylaminopurine) + additives. The shoots were multiplied by (a) repeated transfer of the mother explants on MS medium + 1.0 mg L^?1 BA + 0.1 mg L^?1 NAA + additives and (b) subculturing of shoot on MS + 1.0 mg L^?1 BA + additives. About 84% shoots rooted ex vitro on soilrite within 3–4 weeks when base (4–5 mm) of shoots was treated with 100 mg L^?1 of IBA (Indole-3-butyric acid) for 5 min. The plantlets were hardened successfully in the greenhouse and transferred to the pots and field. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of a regeneration protocol for S. oleoides from explants obtained from mature trees. Use of the ex vitro rooting technique for plant production serves as a more economical option as it reduces labor, cost, and time. We suggest that the methods developed and described in this article can be used for large-scale plant production and conservation of germplasm of this tree species.     

Loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) test for specific and rapid detection of Brucella abortus in cattle

Background: Brucella abortus, the major causative agent of abortion in cattle and a zoonotic pathogen, needs to be diagnosed at an early stage. Loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) test is easy to perform and also promising to be adapted at field level.

Objective: To develop a LAMP assay for specific and rapid detection of B. abortus from clinical samples of cattle.

Methods: LAMP primers were designed targeting BruAb2_0168 region using specific software tool and LAMP was optimized. The developed LAMP was tested for its specificity with 3 Brucella spp. and 11 other non-Brucella spp. Sensitivity of the developed LAMP was also carried out with known quantity of DNA. Cattle whole blood samples and aborted fetal stomach contents were collected and used for testing with developed LAMP assay and results were compared with polymerase chain reaction (PCR).

Results: The developed LAMP assay works at 61 °C for 60 min and the detection limit was observed to be 100-fold more than the conventional PCR that is commonly used for diagnosis of B. abortus. Clinical sensitivity and specificity of the developed LAMP assay was 100% when compared with Rose Bengal plate test and standard tube agglutination test. SYB® green dye I was used to visualize the result with naked eye.

Conclusion: The novelty of the developed LAMP assay for specifically detecting B. abortus infection in cattle along with its inherent rapidness and high sensitivity can be employed for detecting this economically important pathogen of cattle at field level as well be exploited for screening of human infections.     

Ethnobotanical flora used by four major tribes of Koraput, Odisha, India

The aim of this study is to chronicle the utilization pattern of a number of plant species by four major tribes inhabiting in Koraput district of Odisha, India. Fifteen villages dominated by tribal communities, under five Community Development Blocks were selected. A semi structured questionnaire was developed to bring together data on traditional crops and forest species still used by the communities. The methodology engaged was personal discussions with mixed focused groups combined with field visits, photographs, voice recordings and collection of materials. Findings were that tribal communities cultivate a diverse crop species with varying durations to meet their food and economic requirement throughout the year. This was supplemented by wild food collections during scarcity periods. Various forest species provide wood, fibre, leaves and grasses for agriculture, house construction and specific uses besides enhancing household income. Tribal health care practitioners collect medicinal plants from the wild and semi wild to treat both humans and livestock. At the end of the study the team assumed that tribal communities would continue to depend on traditional crops and wild forest foods for their household consumption and a diverse species of plants for other specific use. Conservation of these valuable resources in its natural habitat would be an appropriate approach for ensuring food security of future generations. Conventional plant breeders and biotechnologists should undertake scientific validation of these crops and plants to make their value explicitly known. This knowledge could be utilized for crop improvement and bio-prospecting. There is also scope for equitable sharing of benefits if used by the seed and pharmaceutical industries in future.     

Are figure legends sufficient? Evaluating the contribution of associated text to biomedical figure comprehension

Background

Biomedical scientists need to access figures to validate research facts and to formulate or to test novel research hypotheses. However, figures are difficult to comprehend without associated text (e.g., figure legend and other reference text). We are developing automated systems to extract the relevant explanatory information along with figures extracted from full text articles. Such systems could be very useful in improving figure retrieval and in reducing the workload of biomedical scientists, who otherwise have to retrieve and read the entire full-text journal article to determine which figures are relevant to their research. As a crucial step, we studied the importance of associated text in biomedical figure comprehension.

Methods

Twenty subjects evaluated three figure-text combinations: figure+legend, figure+legend+title+abstract, and figure+full-text. Using a Likert scale, each subject scored each figure+text according to the extent to which the subject thought he/she understood the meaning of the figure and the confidence in providing the assigned score. Additionally, each subject entered a free text summary for each figure-text. We identified missing information using indicator words present within the text summaries. Both the Likert scores and the missing information were statistically analyzed for differences among the figure-text types. We also evaluated the quality of text summaries with the text-summarization evaluation method the ROUGE score.

Results

Our results showed statistically significant differences in figure comprehension when varying levels of text were provided. When the full-text article is not available, presenting just the figure+legend left biomedical researchers lacking 39–68% of the information about a figure as compared to having complete figure comprehension; adding the title and abstract improved the situation, but still left biomedical researchers missing 30% of the information. When the full-text article is available, figure comprehension increased to 86–97%; this indicates that researchers felt that only 3–14% of the necessary information for full figure comprehension was missing when full text was available to them. Clearly there is information in the abstract and in the full text that biomedical scientists deem important for understanding the figures that appear in full-text biomedical articles.

Conclusion

We conclude that the texts that appear in full-text biomedical articles are useful for understanding the meaning of a figure, and an effective figure-mining system needs to unlock the information beyond figure legend. Our work provides important guidance to the figure mining systems that extract information only from figure and figure legend.

     

Impact of norgestomet supplementation during early luteal phase on subsequent luteal profiles and conception rate in buffalo: a preliminary study

The current study was aimed to establish the impact of progesterone supplementation (norgestomet progestagen) between days 4 to 10 post-ovulation on subsequent luteal profile and conception rate in buffaloes. The 28 Murrah buffaloes of second to fourth parity, having normal reproductive organs, were estrus synchronized by double PGF_2α protocol at 11 days apart. The buffaloes were inseminated during mid- to late estrus and thereafter repeated at 24 h interval. The buffaloes were randomly assigned into two groups: (1) control (no treatment, n?=?14) and (2) treatment group (CRESTAR ear implant, n?=?14). The CRESTAR ear implant (3 mg, norgestomet progestagen) was inserted subcutaneous between days 4 to 10 post-ovulation. The ovaries were scanned at estrus and thereafter on days 4, 10, 16, 21, and 40 post-ovulation to examine the preovulatory follicle (POF) and corpus luteum (CL) diameter. Each ultasonography was followed by blood sample collection for analysis of plasma progesterone concentrations following ovulation. The conception rate was similar (p?>?0.05) between treated and control buffaloes. The pregnant buffalo of the control group had larger (p?<?0.05) POF diameter than nonpregnant counterparts. The CL diameter was similar (p?>?0.05) in both treated and untreated control as well as in their pregnant and nonpregnant buffaloes of the respective groups. The plasma progesterone concentrations were higher (p?<?0.05) in the treatment group on the day 10 post-ovulation as compared to the control buffaloes. It is concluded that norgestomet supplementation had no impact on conception rate and CL diameter but enhances the plasma progesterone concentrations following treatment in buffaloes.     

Effect of a single oral dose of DDT on intestinal uptake of nutrients and brush border enzymes in protein-calorie-malnourished monkeys

The effect of a single oral dose of DDT (150 mg/kg body wt) has been investigated on the intestinal uptake of certain nutrients and on brush border enzymes in protein-calorie-malnourished monkeys. In contrast to the stimulatory action of DDT on intestinal functions in normal-fed monkeys (A. Mahmood, N. Agarwal, S. Sanyal, P.K. Dudeja, and D. Subrahmanyam, Pest. Biochem. Physiol.12, 141 (1979)) pesticide feeding to malnourished animals inhibited the uptake of alanine and phenylalanine and depressed sucrase, lactase, and leucine amino-peptidase activities. Glucose and leucine uptake was also reduced, albeit insignificantly and alkaline phosphatase activity was unaffected under these conditions. Protein-energy malnutrition per se considerably elevated the uptake of nutrients and disaccharidase activities. Analysis of the chemical composition of microvillus membrane in underfed and pesticide-exposed malnourished animals revealed alterations in protein, sialic acid, and phospholipid fractions of the brush borders. Membrane cholesterol and triglyceride contents remained unaltered in protein-energy-deficient and DDT-fed monkeys.     

Effect of feeding tannin degrading bacterial culture (Streptococcus gallolyticus strain TDGB 406) on nutrient utilization,urinary purine derivatives and growth performance of goats fed on Quercus semicarpifolia leaves

To study the effect of supplementation of tannin degrading bacterial culture (Streptococcus gallolyticus strain TDGB 406) on growth performance, nutrient utilization and urinary purine derivatives of goats fed on oak (Quercus semicarpifolia) leaves. For growth study, eighteen billy goats (4 month old, average body weight 9.50 ± 1.50 kg) were distributed into three groups of six animals each. The animals of group 1 served as control while animals of groups 2 (T1) and 3 (T2) were given (@ 5 ml/kg live weight) autoclaved and live culture of isolate TDGB 406 (10⁶ cells/ml) respectively. The animals were fed measured quantity of dry oak leaves as the main roughage source and ad libitum maize hay along with fixed quantity of concentrate mixture. The feeding of live culture of isolate TDGB 406 (probiotic) did not affect dry matter intake and digestibility of nutrients except that of dry matter and crude protein, which was higher in T2 group as compared to control. All the animals were in positive nitrogen balance. There was no significant effect of feeding isolate TDGB 406 on urinary purine derivatives (microbial protein production) in goats. The body weight gain and average live weight gain was significantly higher (p = 0.071) in T2 group as compared to control. Feed conversion efficiency was also better in the goats fed on live culture of TDGB 406 (T2). The feeding of tannin degrading bacterial isolate TDGB 406 as probiotic resulted in improved growth performance and feed conversion ratio in goats fed on oak leaves as one of the main roughage source.     

Molecular Characterization of Oxytocin Receptor Gene in Water Buffalo (Bubalus bubalis)

Buffaloes are known for their productivity as compared to average yielding cows due to higher fat percentage, better feed conversion ability and disease resistance. On the other hand, the reproductive performances of buffaloes are often considered as poor owing to late sexual maturity, weak/silent oestrus, repeat breeder and prolonged intercalving interval. The study of cascade of events during oestrus and oestrous cycle can be useful for the improvement of reproductive efficiency of buffaloes. More precisely, the hormonal changes initiated at the molecular level within the animal determine the reproductive nature of the species. Nucleotide/protein sequence analysis serves as a vital tool in analysing the binding of the hormones for their effect or functions. In this study, we have reported cloning and characterization of the complete coding (cDNA) sequence of oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR) in buffaloes. Buffalo OXTR gene contains an uninterrupted ORF of 1176 nucleotides corresponding to an inferred polypeptide length of 391 amino acids (aa). The molecular weight of the deduced aa sequence was found to be 43 kDa with an isoelectric point of 9.253 and 16.328 charge at pH 7.0. The deduced protein sequence consists of 38 strongly basic (+) (K,R), 22 strongly acidic (?) (D,E), 186 hydrophobic (A, I, L, F, W, V) and 95 Polar (N, C, Q, S, T, Y) aa. Results indicated that aspartate (D) at aa position 85 and D, R and C at aa positions 136, 137 and 138, respectively, are conserved in buffaloes. The buffalo OXTR gene shared a per cent similarity ranging from 84.7 to 98.1 and 88.5 to 97.7 at nucleotide and deduced aa sequence levels, respectively, with that of other species. Phylogram constructed on the basis of either nucleotide or deduced aa sequences of buffalo OXTR gene showed that buffalo, cattle and sheep have diverged from human and swine and formed a separate clad. The buffalo sequence has shown maximum similarity and closeness with cattle followed by sheep both at nucleotide and at aa level.     

IFN‐τ Acts in a Dose‐Dependent Manner on Prostaglandin Production by Buffalo Endometrial Stromal Cells Cultured in vitro

Interferon‐τ (IFN‐τ) has been recognized as the primary embryonic signal responsible for maternal recognition of pregnancy. Uterine endometrium produces both prostaglandin F_2α (PGF_2α) and prostaglandin E₂ (PGE₂). PGF_2α is responsible for the luteolysis; however, PGE₂ favours establishment of pregnancy by its luteoprotective action. In this study, the dose‐response effect of recombinant bovine IFN‐τ (rbIFN‐τ) on prostaglandin (PG) production by buffalo endometrial stromal cells cultured in vitro was studied. Buffalo endometrial stromal cells were isolated by double enzymatic digestion, initially with trypsin III followed by a cocktail of trypsin III, collagenase type II and DNase I and subsequently cultured till confluence. Further, cells were treated with different doses of rbIFN‐τ (0.001, 0.01, 0.1, 1.0 and 10 μg/ml) and keeping a separate set of control. Culture supernatant was collected after 6, 12 and 24 h of treatment. PG levels in the culture supernatant were measured by enzyme immune assay (EIA) and total cellular protein estimated by Bradford method. Results indicated that buffalo endometrial stromal cells following rbIFN‐τ treatment enhanced the secretion of both PGE₂ and PGF_2α, and also its ratio in a strict dose‐dependent manner with a significant increase (p < 0.01) in PGE₂ production at 1 μg/ml dose of rbIFN‐τ and maximal stimulation for both PG was observed at 10 μg/ml. Further, both PG production and its ratio were increased significantly (p < 0.01) in a time‐dependent fashion in all the groups at 6, 12 and 24 h post‐treatment with highest level achieved at 24 h as compared with control. Absolute levels of PGE₂ remained higher than PGF_2α indicating PGE₂ as the major PG produced by endometrial stromal cells. The dose‐dependent response of rbIFN‐τ signifies the importance of optimum concentration of IFN‐τ for the embryonic development especially during the critical period to establish successful pregnancy.     

Hepatoprotective activity of Beta vulgaris against CCl4-induced hepatic injury in rats

Ethanolic extract of Beta vulgaris roots given orally at doses of 1000, 2000 and 4000 mg/kg exhibited significant dose-dependent hepatoprotective activity against carbontetrachloride (CCl(4))-induced hepatotoxicity in rats. Hepatotoxicity and its prevention were assessed by serum markers viz. cholesterol, triglyceride, alanine amino transferase and alkaline phosphatase.