Description: Inspired green synthesis of metallic nanoparticles is evolving as an important branch of nanotechnology. Traditionally these are manufactured by wet chemical methods which require toxic and flammable chemicals. We report for the first time an economic and eco-friendly green synthesis of silver nanoparticles using Strychnos potatorum aqueous leaf extract from 3 mM silver nitrate solution. Nanoparticles thus formed are confirmed and characterized by using UV–Vis absorption spectroscopy, SEM and XRD measurements. The XRD and SEM analysis showed the average particle size of nanoparticles as 28 nm as well as revealed their (mixed, i.e., cubic and hexagonal) structure. Further, these green synthesized nanoparticles showed bactericidal activity against multidrug-resistant human pathogenic bacteria.

Description: Haemophilus influenzae , a Gram-negative bacterium and a member of the family Pasteurellaceae, causes chronic bronchitis, bacteremia, meningitis, etc. The H. influenzae is the first organism whose genome was completely sequenced and annotated. Here, we have extensively analyzed the genome of H. influenzae using available proteins structure and function analysis tools. The objective of this analysis is to assign a precise function to hypothetical proteins (HPs) whose functions are not determined so far. Function prediction of these proteins is helpful in precise understanding of mechanisms of pathogenesis and biochemical pathways important for selecting novel therapeutic target. After an extensive analysis of H. Influenzae genome we have found 13 HPs showing high level of sequence and structural similarity to the enzyme isomerase. Consequently, the structures of HPs have been modeled and analyzed to determine their precise functions. We found these HPs are alanine racemase, lysine 2, 3-aminomutase, topoisomerase DNA-binding C4 zinc finger, pseudouridine synthase B, C and E (Rlu B, C and E), hydroxypyruvate isomerase, nucleoside-diphosphate-sugar epimerase, amidophosphoribosyltransferase, aldose-1-epimerase, tautomerase/MIF, Xylose isomerase-like, have TIM barrel domain and sedoheptulose-7-phosphate isomerase like activity, signifying their corresponding functions in the H. influenzae . This work provides a better understanding of the role HPs with isomerase activities in the survival and pathogenesis of H. influenzae .

Description: Xanthan gum is a biopolymer produced by Xanthomonas sp. XC6. In this study, xanthan gum is produced from potato starch using a stepwise bioprocess design. Potato starch is hydrolyzed using Bacillus sp. having amylase activity and 30.2 g/L reducing sugar was released, while Xanthomonas sp. XC6 can release only 14.5 g/L. Bacillus sp. hydrolyzed potato starch extract was further used as a carbon source for xanthan gum biosynthesis using Xanthomonas sp. XC6. Yeast extract acts as the best nitrogen source, and 10.0 g/L xanthan gum was recovered. Downstreaming process after stepwise bioprocess resulted in 17.4 g/L xanthan gum production, which is 2.8 times higher as compared to single step process.

Description: There is a lack of information on the molecular characterization of Ocimum species and hence, efforts have been made under the present study to characterize 17 Ocimum genotypes belonging to 5 different species ( O. basilicum, O. americanum, O. sanctum, O. gratissimum and O. Polystachyon ) through random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) and inter simple sequence repeats (ISSR) markers. PCR amplification using 20 RAPD primers generated a total of 506 loci, of which 490 (96.47 %) loci were found polymorphic. The PIC value for RAPD ranged from 0.907 (OPF 14) to 0.954 (OPC 11) with an average of 0.937. The ISSR primers generated a total of 238 loci, of them 234 (98.17 %) loci were polymorphic. The PIC value ranged from 0.892 (UBC 808) to 0.943 (ISSR A12) with an average of 0.923. The average Jaccard’s similarity coefficient based on RAPD and ISSR analysis was 0.58 and 0.52, respectively. Clustering pattern of dendrogram generated using the pooled RAPD and ISSR data showed all Ocimum genotypes in their respective species groups at a cutoff value of 0.49 and 0.42, respectively. Many unique species-specific alleles were amplified by RAPD and ISSR markers. In both marker systems, a maximum number of unique alleles were observed in O. sanctum . The results of the present investigation provided valid guidelines for collection, conservation and characterization of Ocimum genetic resources.

Description: The prime aim of the current work was to illustrate the components existing in repeatedly used cooking oil and to develop an economical process for the production of fatty acids from low cost feedstock waste. The waste cooking oil was characterized by the occurrence of high molecular weight hydrocarbons and polymerized derivative of esters. Triacontanoic acid methyl ester, 2,3,5,8-Tetramethyldecane, 3,3 dimethyl heptane, and 2,2,3,3-teramethyl pentane were detected as thermal and oxidative contaminants that adversely affect the quality of cooking oil. Fundamentally, waste cooking oil comprises ester bonds of long chain fatty acids. The extracellular lipase produced from P. chrysogenum was explored for the hydrolysis of waste cooking oil. The incorporation of lipase to waste cooking oil in 1:1 proportion released 17 % oleic acid and 5 % stearic acid.

Description: Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) is the sixth most common non-skin cancer in the world. Tobacco chewing is implicated with most of the cases of HNSCC but this type of cancer is increasing in non-tobacco chewers as well. This study was instigated to provide comprehensive variant and gene-level data in HNSCC subjects of the Indian population and fill the gap in the literature on comparative assessment of gene mutations in cancer subjects with a habit of tobacco and those without any habit using targeted amplicon sequencing. We performed targeted Amplicon sequencing of 409 tumor suppressor genes and oncogenes, frequently mutated across many cancer types, including head and neck. DNA from primary tumor tissues and matched blood was analyzed for HNSCC patients with a habit of tobacco and those without any habit. PDE4DIP, SYNE1, and NOTCH1 emerged as the highly mutated genes in HNSCC. A total of 39 candidate causal variants in 22 unique cancer driver genes were identified in non-habitual (WoH) and habitual (WH) subjects. Comparison of genes from both the subjects, showed seven unique cancer driver genes (KIT, ATM, RNF213, GATA2, DST, RET, CYP2C19) in WoH, while WH showed five (IL7R, PKHD1, MLL3, PTPRD, MAPK8) and 10 genes (SETD2, ATR, CDKN2A, NCOA4, TP53, SYNE1, KAT6B, THBS1, PTPRT, and FGFR3) were common to both subjects. In addition to this NOTCH1, NOTCH2, and NOTCH4 gene were found to be mutated only in habitual subjects. These findings strongly support a causal role for tobacco, acting via PI3K and MAPK pathway inhibition and stimulation of various genes leading to oncogenic transformations in case of tobacco chewers. In case of non-tobacco chewers it appears that mutations in the pathway affecting the squamous epithelial lineage and DNA repair genes lead to HNSCC. Somatic mutation in CYP2C19 gene in the non-habitual subjects suggests that this gene may have a tobacco independent role in development and progression of HNSCC. In addition to sharing high mutation rate, NOTCH gene family was found to be mutated only in habitual sample. Further, presence of mutated genes not earlier reported to be involved in HNSCC, suggest that the Indian sub-continent may have different sets of genes, as compared to other parts of the world, involved in the development and progression of HNSCC.

Description: Plantlets under in vitro conditions transferred to ex vivo conditions are exposed to biotic and abiotic stresses. Furthermore, in vitro regenerated plants are typically frail and sometimes difficult to handle subsequently increasing their risk to damage and disease; hence acclimatization of these plantlets is the most important step in tissue culture techniques. An experiment was conducted under in vitro conditions to study the effects of shaking duration (twice daily at 6:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m. for 2, 4, 8, and 16 min at 250 rpm for 14 days) on Sansevieria trifasciata L. as a model plant. Results showed that shaking improved handling, total plant height, and leaf characteristics of the model plant. Forty-eight hours after 14 days of shaking treatments with increasing shaking time, leaf length decreased but proline content of leaf increased. However, 6 months after starting the experiment different results were observed. In explants that received 16 min of shaking treatment, leaf length and area and photosynthesis rate were increased compared with control plantlets. Six months after starting the experiment, control plantlets had 12.5 % mortality; however, no mortality was observed in other treated explants. The results demonstrated that shaking improved the explants’ root length and number and as a simple, cost-effective, and non-chemical novel approach may be substituted for other prevalent acclimatization techniques used for tissue culture regenerated plantlets. Further studies with sensitive plants are needed to establish this hypothesis.

Description: The composition and the organization of soil are changing rapidly by the diverged mankind activities, leading to the contamination of environment. Several methods are employed to clean up the environment from these kinds of contaminants, but most of them are costly and ineffective to yield optimum results. Phytoremediation is a natural green technology, which is eco-friendly for the removal of toxic metals from the polluted environment. Phytoremediation is a cost-effective technique through which the cleanup of contaminated soil laced with heavy metals is performed by wild weeds and small herbal plants. The phytoremediation technique provides a promising tool for hyperaccumulation of heavy metals; arsenic, lead, mercury, copper, chromium, and nickel, etc., by the wild weeds and that has been discussed here in detail in case of Cannabis sativa , Solanum nigrum and Rorippa globosa . In general, weeds that have the intrinsic capacity to accumulate metals into their shoots and roots, have the ability to form phytochelates and formation of stable compound with ions. This behavior of accumulation along with chelate and stable compound formation is utilized as a tool for phytoremediation activity.

Description: Marine Bacillus species are potent producers of novel enzymes. Marine Bacillus VITRKHB was observed to be efficient for cellulolytic activity. It was employed for the production of extracellular cellulase. Cellulase was partially purified to 1.6-fold in a stepwise manner by ammonium sulfate precipitation, dialysis, and DEAE ion exchange chromatography. The molecular weight of purified protein was found to be about 33 kDa by SDS-PAGE. Its specific activity was recorded as 1.92 IU/mg. The effect of various carbon and nitrogen sources on cellulase production was investigated. The maximum enzyme activity was recorded in the fermentation media containing xylose as carbon source and beef extract as nitrogen source. The combined interactive effect of different variables on cellulase production was studied by response surface methodology. The optimized combination of variables for maximum enzyme activity was determined as; xylose 5.0 %, beef extract 6.9 %, pH 7.83, NaCl 1.17, and temperature 25.84 °C, after 24 h of incubation.

Description: The decolorization and degradation of Direct Blue 71 were investigated using a mono culture of Pseudomonas aeruginosa . The bacterium was able to decolorize the dye medium to 70.43 % within 48 h under microaerophilic conditions. The medium was then aerated for 24 h to promote the biodegradation of the aromatic amines generated from azo bond cleavage. Reduction in total organic carbon in dye medium was 42.58 % in the microaerophilic stage and 78.39 % in the aerobic stage. The degradation metabolites formed were studied using UV–vis techniques, high performance liquid chromatography, Fourier transform infra red spectroscopy and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy analysis. Data obtained provide evidence for the formation of aromatic amines and their subsequent oxidative biodegradation by a single strain of P. aeruginosa during successive microaerophilic/aerobic stages in the same flask. The influence of incubation temperature (20–45 °C), medium pH (5–10) and initial dye concentration (25–150 mg/L) on decolorization was evaluated to greatly influence decolorization extent. The optimal decolorization conditions were determined by response surface methodology based on three-variable central composite design to obtain maximum decolorization and to determine the significance and interaction effect of the variables on decolorization. The optimal conditions of response were found to be 35.15 °C, pH 8.01 and 49.95 mg/L dye concentration giving an experimental decolorization value of 84.80 %. Very high regression coefficient between the variables and the response ( R 2  = 0.9624) indicated a good evaluation of experimental data by polynomial regression model.