Testing newly introduced ornamental plants to the arid climate of Kuwait

Thirty five ornamental plants were introduced into the Ahmadi Bioremediated Soil Park to screen and closely monitor the growth performance of these new introductions under the local environmental conditions. Out of these 35 plant species, 15 were planted in both bioremediated and agricultural soils to assess their suitability for growing in bioremediated soils. Data on vegetative growth was recorded to assess the performance of newly-introduced plants, whereas, the heat stress was documented of Bauhinia blakeana, where no visible effects of petroleum pollutants on plant growth were observed. Performance of each plant group is discussed separately in the text. Overall, plant survival was 72.73% for all plant groups. Generally, plants that failed to grow in bioremediated soil also did not survive in the agricultural soil, indicating that they were sensitive to heat stress more than the presence of petroleum contaminants in the soil. New plant species that were able to establish and perform satisfactorily will be used in greenery projects after they are fully naturalized to the prevailing climatic conditions.     

Buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) Embryonic Stem Cell‐Like Cells and Preimplantation Embryos Exhibit Comparable Expression of Pluripotency‐Related Antigens

In this study, inner cell mass (ICM) cells were isolated from in vitro produced buffalo blastocysts and were cultured on mitomycin‐C treated buffalo foetal fibroblast feeder layer for producing embryonic stem (ES) cells. Among different sources (hatched vs expanded blastocysts) or methods (enzymatic vs mechanical), mechanical isolation of ICM from hatched blastocysts resulted in the highest primary colony formation rate and the maximum passage number up to which ES cells survived. Putative ES cells expressed alkaline phosphatase and exhibited a normal karyotype up to passage 7. Putative ES cells and embryos at 2‐ to 4‐cell, 8‐ to 16‐cell, morula and blastocyst stages strongly expressed stage‐specific embryonic antigen (SSEA)‐4 but lacked expressions of SSEA‐1 and SSEA‐3. Putative ES cells also expressed tumour rejection antigen (TRA)‐1‐60, TRA‐1‐81 and Oct4. Whereas in all early embryonic stages, TRA‐1‐60 was observed only in the periplasmic space, and TRA‐1‐81 expression was observed as small spots at a few places inside the embryos, both these markers were expressed by ICM. Oct4 expression, which was observed at all the embryonic stages and also in the trophectoderm, was the strongest in the ICM. Buffalo putative ES cells possess a unique pluripotency‐related surface antigen phenotype, which resembles that of the ICM.     

Synthesis of a new class of pyridine herbicide

A new class of fluoroalkylated pyridine herbicides has been discovered. The 3,5-pyridinedicarboxylates are prepared either from ethyl 4,4,4-trifluoroacetoacetate via Hantzsch dihydropyridine synthesis or from trifluoroacetonitrile via cyclocondensation and carboxylation. Hydrolysis of the ester groups, followed by derivatization of the resulting acids yields a variety of herbicidally active analogs including ester, thioester, amide, halogen, amino, alkoxy and alkylthio derivatives.     

m‐carboxycinnamic acid bishydroxamide improves developmental competence,reduces apoptosis and alters epigenetic status and gene expression pattern in cloned buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) embryos

Incomplete or aberrant reprogramming of nuclear genome is one of the major problems in somatic cell nuclear transfer. In this study, we studied the effect of histone deacetylase inhibitor m‐carboxycinnamic acid bishydroxamide (CBHA) on in vitro development of buffalo embryos produced by Hand‐made cloning. Cloned embryos were treated with CBHA (0, 5, 10, 20 or 50 μM) for 10 hr from the start of reconstruction till activation. At 10 μM, but not at other concentrations examined, CBHA increased (p < .05) the blastocyst rate (63.77 ± 3.97% vs 48.63 ± 3.55%) and reduced (p < .05) the apoptotic index of the cloned blastocysts (8.91 ± 1.94 vs 4.36 ± 1.08) compared to untreated controls, to levels similar to those in IVF blastocysts (4.78 ± 0.74). CBHA treatment, at all the concentrations examined, increased (p < .05) the global level of H3K9ac in cloned blastocysts than in untreated controls to that observed in IVF blastocysts. Treatment with CBHA (10 μM) decreased (p < .05) the global level of H3K27me3 in cloned blastocysts than in untreated controls but it was still higher (p < .05) than in IVF blastocysts. CBHA (10 μM) treatment increased (p < .05) the relative expression level of pluripotency‐related genes OCT‐4 and NANOG, and anti‐apoptotic gene BCL‐XL, and decreased (p < .05) that of pro‐apoptotic gene BAX than in untreated controls but did not affect the relative expression level of apoptosis‐related genes p53 and CASPASE3 and epigenetics‐related genes DNMT1, DNMT3a and HDAC1. These results suggest that treatment of cloned embryos with 10 μM CBHA improves the blastocyst rate, reduces the level of apoptosis and alters the epigenetic status and gene expression pattern.