In vitro and in vivo acaricidal activity of a herbal extract

The anti-tick efficacy of combined aqueous herbal extracts of Azadirachta indica leaves, Nicotiana tabacum leaves, Calotropis procera flowers and Trachyspermum ammi seeds was evaluated using adult immersion test, larval packet test and ear bag method. The extract exhibited lethal effects on egg laying (index of egg laying=0.371404±0.00435), hatching (22.35%) and total larval mortality at 50 mg ml(-1) and reduced tick intensity on the infested calves (18 detached out of 35 at 45% (w/w) suspension, topically applied). The herbal extract exerted dose- and time-dependent response against all the developmental stages of Rhipicephalus (Boophilus) microplus considered in this study, thus justified their use in the traditional system of Pakistan.     

A fine-scale chimpanzee genetic map from population sequencing

To study the evolution of recombination rates in apes, we developed methodology to construct a fine-scale genetic map from high-throughput sequence data from 10 Western chimpanzees, Pan troglodytes verus. Compared to the human genetic map, broad-scale recombination rates tend to be conserved, but with exceptions, particularly in regions of chromosomal rearrangements and around the site of ancestral fusion in human chromosome 2. At fine scales, chimpanzee recombination is dominated by hotspots, which show no overlap with those of humans even though rates are similarly elevated around CpG islands and decreased within genes. The hotspot-specifying protein PRDM9 shows extensive variation among Western chimpanzees, and there is little evidence that any sequence motifs are enriched in hotspots. The contrasting locations of hotspots provide a natural experiment, which demonstrates the impact of recombination on base composition.     

Maize (Zea mays L.) yield and soil properties as affected by no tillage in the black soils of China

A four-year tillage experiment on maize was conducted in the high latitude region of Northeast of China. The main objective of this study was to investigate the effects of different field tillage practices on maize grain yield, soil physical properties, and soil water and temperature dynamics in Northeast of China. The tillage practices included moldboard plow tillage (MOT), rotary tillage (ROT), reduced tillage (RET), combined tillage (COT), and no tillage (NOT). The surface soil water content at depths of 0–20 cm was higher under NOT compared with other tillage practices, but not different at the deeper soil depths in 2011. The soil temperatures under NOT and RET were lower than those under moldboard plow tillage and ROT at depths of 5 and 15 cm, respectively, measured at 9:00 am in 2005. From the hourly dynamics of soil temperature, the differences among the tillage practices mainly appeared during the daytime (from 8:00 am to 7:00 pm). Among all the practices, the average daily soil temperature under ROT was the highest, while that under NOT was the lowest. MOT, ROT, and RET had higher soil accumulative infiltration compared with NOT and COT. The surface soil bulk density under NOT was higher than or equal to that under the other four tillage practices. The maize yields under NOT were the lowest among all the tillage practices for three years straight. Meanwhile, the yields under MOT were the highest, which were about 47%, 61%, and 38% higher than those under NOT. NOT practice is not recommended for use in spring-planted maize under the high latitude humid cool climate Mollisol region in Northeast of China.     

Polymorphism association and expression analysis of alpha-lactalbumin (LALBA) gene during lactation in Nili Ravi buffalo

Tropical Animal Health and Production - Alpha-lactalbumin has been reported as a highly polymorphic gene that potentially alters the gene expression and is associated with milk composition in dairy...     

Development of a pooled probe method for locating small gene families in a physical map of soybean using stress related paralogues and a BAC minimum tile path

Background  

Genome analysis of soybean (Glycine max L.) has been complicated by its paleo-autopolyploid nature and conserved homeologous regions. Landmarks of expressed sequence tags (ESTs) located within a minimum tile path (MTP) of contiguous (contig) bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) clones or radiation hybrid set can identify stress and defense related gene rich regions in the genome. A physical map of about 2,800 contigs and MTPs of 8,064 BAC clones encompass the soybean genome. That genome is being sequenced by whole genome shotgun methods so that reliable estimates of gene family size and gene locations will provide a useful tool for finishing. The aims here were to develop methods to anchor plant defense- and stress-related gene paralogues on the MTP derived from the soybean physical map, to identify gene rich regions and to correlate those with QTL for disease resistance.     

Assessing yield optimization and water reduction potential for summer-sown and spring-sown maize in Pakistan

Agricultural food production in arid and semi-arid regions faces the challenge to ensure high yields with limited supply of water. This raises the question to which extent irrigation supply can be reduced without detriment to yield. Our study focuses on the yield-water uptake relationship for maize in the moderate water stress range in order to determine the onset of stress-induced dry-matter and yield losses. Compensatory plant responses under moderate stress levels are discussed in relation to seasonal climatic conditions.Summer-sown and spring-sown maize were irrigated with a decreasing amount of water in a field experiment in Pakistan. Water supply ranged from 100% water required to maintain soil at field capacity (FC) to 40% of FC. The average dry-matter and yield levels were slightly higher for summer-sown (15.0 Mg ha⁻¹) compared to spring-sown maize (13.1 Mg ha⁻¹). The onset of significant dry-matter and yield reduction started at the least irrigation treatment in both seasons. The amount of water required to avoid production losses was 272 mm in the summer-sown maize during the autumn growing season, and 407 mm for the spring-sown maize in the summer season, when the evaporative demand of the atmosphere was +27% higher. Water use efficiency (WUE_ET), normalized by vapour pressure deficit, of the summer-sown maize which was 10.0 kg kPa m⁻³, was +15% higher compared to the spring-sown crop; while the irrigation water productivity (2.9 kg m⁻³) was +11% more. WUE_ET increased over the whole range of applied water deficits for summer-sown maize, while the spring-sown crop showed a decreasing WUE_ET in the less irrigated treatment. Due to the higher efficiency in summer-sown maize, the potential in irrigation reduction without production losses (129 mm) was higher compared to the spring-sown maize (57 mm). Our results showed that in Pakistan water saving irrigation practices can be applied without yield loss mainly during the cooler growing season when the crop can efficiently compensate a lower total water uptake by increased use efficiency. For spring-sown maize the increasing evaporative demand of the atmosphere towards summer implies a higher risk of yield losses and narrows the range to exploit higher irrigation water productivity under moderate water deficit conditions.     

Allelic Variation within Single Podded Gene Characterized by STMS Marker in Chickpea

Chickpea （Cicer arietinum L.）, is an important grain legume crop throughout the world especially in developing countries. However the average yield worldwide is considered to be lower than its potential yield （Singh et al., 1994）. The average yield of chickpea is much lower in Pakistan, which is about 5500-650 kg/hm^2 due to various abiotic and biotic stresses （Shah et al., 2005）.     

Adjuvant effect of an extract from Cochinchina momordica seeds on the immune responses to ovalbumin in mice

The seed of the Momordica cochinchinensis (Lour.) Spreng as a traditional Chinese medicine has been utilized in China for more than 1 200 years. It is traditionally used for the treatment of inflammatory swelling, scrofula, tinea, diarrhea as well as suppurative skin infections such as sore, carbuncles, furuncles and boils in both humans and animals. In this study, an extract from Cochinchina momordica seeds (ECMS) is evaluated for its adjuvant effect and safety. The results suggest that when co-administered with ECMS in Balb/c mice, ovalbumin (OVA, 10 μg) may induce significantly higher specific antibody production than OVA used alone (P < 0.05). Analysis of antibody isotypes indicates that the ECMS can promote the production of both IgG₁ and IgG_2a, but favor the IgG_2a. Splenocyte proliferative responses to concanavalin A, lipopolysaccharides or OVA are significantly higher in mice immunized with OVA mixed with ECMS than immunized with OVA alone or mixed with aluminum hydroxide (P < 0.05). No local reactions and negative effects on the body weight gain occurred after the injection of OVA mixed with various amounts of ECMS in mice. Therefore, the ECMS is safe for injection and can be used as a potential vaccine adjuvant biasing the production of IgG_2a in mice.     

The pyrethrins and related compounds. Part XXXVII. synthesis and insecticidal properties of new 1-aryl-1-(3-arylpropyl and -propenyl)cyclopropanes (non-ester pyrethroids)

New routes to the title compounds, involving improved conditions for the cyclopropanation, and a new method of constructing the central three-carbon unit (based on the coupling of a Grignard reagent with an allylic acetate) give access to products for which the previously reported route was not satisfactory. For the new route, a synthesis of 5-bromo-2-fluoro-diphenyl ether was developed. Previously deduced relationships between structure and insecticidal activity apply for the new compounds: alkenes are generally more active than corresponding alkanes; substitution at the 3- or 4-position (but not the 2-) of the 1-aryl group can enhance activity. In addition, some fluorine-containing substituents lead to high activity.