Regulation of fasted blood glucose by resistin

The association between obesity and diabetes supports an endocrine role for the adipocyte in maintaining glucose homeostasis. Here we report that mice lacking the adipocyte hormone resistin exhibit low blood glucose levels after fasting, due to reduced hepatic glucose production. This is partly mediated by activation of adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase and decreased expression of gluconeogenic enzymes in the liver. The data thus support a physiological function for resistin in the maintenance of blood glucose during fasting. Remarkably, lack of resistin diminishes the increase in post-fast blood glucose normally associated with increased weight, suggesting a role for resistin in mediating hyperglycemia associated with obesity.     

Humic substrates facilitated nitrogen uptake in tea bushes by influencing biochemical and microbiological properties in soil of Northeast India

Abstract

Several groups of microorganisms are involved in converting applied urea into plant-available nitrate nitrogen (N) in soil. The objective of this study was to evaluate efficacy of humic substrates (HS) for maximizing crop yield by enhancing N availability in soil. In this experiment, HS was applied in soil of tea garden in such a way that active substrate was applied at 0, 400, 800, 1,200, 1,600, and 2,000?g ha^?1 in six treatments. Chemical fertilizers were applied in all the treatments (including control) following the recommended doses. This study indicated that applied HS enhanced tea shoot yield and N uptake by tea bushes. Improved biochemical and microbiological properties increased N availability in HS-treated soil and that in turn facilitated N uptake by tea bushes. It was determined that HS substrate application at 1.2?kg ha^?1 could enhance the yield of tea shoots up to 18% higher than control treatment.     

Humic substrates application in diluted form enhanced availability of phosphorus (P) and its uptake by tea bushes in the tea-growing soil of Northeast India

Tea (Camellia sinensis L.) is an evergreen perennial crop, which is cultivated for its shoots in acidic soil under sub-tropical humid climatic condition. The availability of phosphorus (P) to plants is naturally limited in acidic tea-growing soils. Humic substrates (HS) are often applied to enhance availability of nutrients, especially P in horticultural and vegetable crop fields. However, its effect on soil of a perennial crop like tea was not studied before. In this study, application of HS enhanced P availability mainly by facilitating growth of phosphate-solubilizing bacteria (PSB) and enhancing phosphatase activity in soil. Application of same amount of HS in diluted form was more effective to enhance PSB population and phosphatase activity, which in turn increased P availability in soil and P uptake by tea bushes. This experiment indicated that application of 1.5 kg HS ha^?1 as 0.3% solution might be applied to enhance P availability to improve P availability and P uptake by plants in tea-growing soil.     

Elucidation of meiotic nuclear restitution mechanisms in potato through analysis of microtubular cytoskeleton

DNAs of 693 isolates of bacterial blight pathogen of rice, Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae (Xoo), were characterized using PCR-based primers p^JEL1 and p^JEL2. The pathogen populations were grouped into 97 haplotypes based on DNA-banding patterns. An un-weighted pair-group method using arithmetic averages (UPGMA) indicated a high level of diversity in the pathogen isolates (51 lineages of Xoo at a 70% similarity level). Among these, lineages 5, 7, 27, and 29 are widely distributed and others are localized in the northern region of India. The isolates represent lineage-27, were prevalent in the entire disease-prone area in the region except at Ferozepur. Pathotyping data of the representative isolates of each lineage also indicate 17 different reaction patterns on a set of isogenic lines. Resistance genes xa8 and Xa21 were the most effective followed by xa5, and Xa7 against Xoo isolates prevalent in northern India. Different genes in combinations (xa5+xa13, xa5+Xa21, xa13+Xa21, and xa5+xa13+Xa21) in IR24 genetic background provided better protection against all the pathogen isolates tested in this study than did the component genes. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Soil microbiome biomass,activity, composition and CO2 emissions in a long-term organic and conventional farming systems

The implementation of environmentally friendly agricultural policies has increased the need to compare agricultural aspects of conventional (CON) and organic farming (ORG) systems. The objective of the present work was to compare the effects of an organic and conventional long-term experiment on bacterial and fungal biomass and activity, as well as soil CO₂ emission and readily available nitrogen forms in a soil cultivated with Helianthus annuus L. The microbial biomass was more active and abundant in ORG as well as soil CO₂ emission. Despite being less abundant, fungi were more active than bacteria in both ORG and CON experiments. 16S rRNA gene sequencing showed that the ORG treatment had a significantly greater bacterial richness than CON. Cyanobacteria, Actinobacteria and Proteobacteria were the most abundant phyla contributing more than others to the differences between the two systems. Moreover, the soil ${\mathit{NH}}_4^{+}$ and ${\mathit{NO}}_2^{-}$ content was not significantly different between ORG and CON, while ${\mathit{NO}}_3^{-}$ was less in ORG. ORG sunflower yield was significantly less compared with CON. While much remains to be discovered about the effects of these agricultural practices on soil chemical properties and microbial diversity, our findings may contribute to this type of investigation.