Putative chemical signals of leopard

A study of marking fluid (MF) of Indian male leopard has been undertaken as a continuation of the earlier work on tiger and cheetah pheromones. The behavioural observations reveal that MF is presumably the primary means of communication in leopard. The chemical analyses reveal the presence of acetic, propionic, isobutyric, butyric, isovarleric, valeric, isohexanoic, hexanoic, isoheptanoic, heptanoic, isooctanoic, octanoic and nonanoic acid in the acidic fraction of steam distillate of MF. Amines like etylenediamine, putrescine, cadaverine and phenylethylamine, dimethylamine and trimethylamine were also detected in the basic fraction of MF. The amount of lipid extracted from MF is 1.15 mg/ml.

Degradation of pyridine by Nocardioides sp. strain OS4 isolated from the oxic zone of a spent shale column

A pyridine-degrading bacterial strain was isolated from the oxic zone of a spent shale column. The microorganism was an aerobic and pleomorphic coryneform bacterium with LL-diaminopimelic acid in the cell wall. On the basis of its phylogenetic and chemotaxonomic characteristics, the strain was identified as Nocardioides sp. strain OS4. The pyridine was completely degraded and the growth yield was 0.30 g cell/g pyridine. Strain OS4 metabolized pyridine in an inducible manner and released a pigment that has maximum absorbance at 400 nm during the pyridine degradation. This strain also degraded some compounds of the basic fraction of retort water and various other aromatic compounds.Key words: pyridine, biodegradation, Nocardioides sp., retort water.