The Employment of Endophytic Bacteria for Phytodegradation of Pyridine

Pyridine is considered a heterocyclic aromatic chemical that is poisonous and carcinogenic to a variety of living species. The use of plant and endophytic- bacteria to improve the efficiency of pollutants extraction is considered a viable technique since the endophytic bacteria help in the adaptation of the plant itself in various ecosystems and have significant ecological importance because they improve the soil fertility and quality. This research aims to stimulate the pyridine phytodegradation by Phragmites australis plants using the endophytic bacterial strain, Acinetobacter by inoculation these bacterial cells to the plants to see if it might increase plant growth and pyridine phytodegradation. In the present study, the system of pyridine phytodegradation basins with the vertical subsurface flow (VSSF) was adopted, since this system has better ventilation. In addition, the retention time is several hours due to the penetration of water molecules to the layers of packing materials of the basin, which have a relatively high hydraulic conductivity. After conducting the experiments, samples were collected and tests were done to find out the optimum conditions. The results were recorded as 40 plants of P. australis/m2 of VSSF systems; bacterial cells concentration, 250 mg/L; pyridine concentration, 400 mg/L; temperature, 35 °C and pH, 8±2 for 10 hrs incubation duration. As a result, endophytic bacteria can break down toxic organic substances in combination with certain plants. When the endophytic bacterium, Acinetobacter was not used to enhance the role of Phragmites australis plants in the pyridine-phytodegradation process, the rate of phytodegradation was reduced to less than 30% at a pyridine concentration of 700 mg/L, indicating the importance of this endophytic bacterium in the pyridine phytodegradation process.

Urbanization, Electromagnetic Radiation and Sparrows: A Case Study from Guwahati, India

The persisting growth of wireless telecommunication technology causes increased electrosmog. Exposure to wide-ranging radiofrequency electromagnetic fields is thought to be a concern for all the living species across the globe. Studies have shown possible effects of electromagnetic radiation on various organisms including electromagnetic radiation risk on birds, but the outcomes were inconsistent. Here, we investigated if there is any impact of electromagnetic radiation on the abundance and habitat use of sympatric House Sparrow and Tree Sparrow in Guwahati City, India. In addition, we did a comparative analysis of previous work that had been conducted on possible effects of EMR on wild birds in field condition. We collected sparrow abundance in selected urbanization gradients temporally over a period of two years in 45 locations and spatially covering 168 locations in the eastern part of Guwahati City. Point counts were carried out, and successively we measured the electromagnetic radiation along with other ecological covariates. It was observed that ecological variables contributed significant variation to explain the habitat use of sparrows in Guwahati City compared to electromagnetic radiation. We observed that House Sparrow had quadratic relationship and Tree sparrow had negative association with increasing urbanization. Studies carried out in the past on the impacts of electromagnetic radiation on birds outside the lab condition had not considered other ecological covariates, which could also influence the life history needs of the bird species. Our study emphasized that the ecological covariates should be taken into consideration while studying the effect of electromagnetic radiation on wild organisms.

New distribution record of a true coral species, Psammocora contigua (Esper, 1794) from Gulf of Kachchh Marine National Park & Sanctuary, India

Reef-building corals are generally confined to tropical waters across the world oceans. But some coral species are able to tolerate even inhospitable environments and suboptimal extremes, and form lower diversity reefs habitats such as the Gulf of Kachchh, located along the northwestern coast of India. Among the reported hard coral species so far from the Gulf of Kachchh, genus Psammocora is represented by only one species, P. digitata. The present study confirmed a new distribution record of Psammocora contigua from Narara Island. Due to the changing hydro-geographic conditions in the Kachchh region, ramose and branching coral species have been believed to be extinct completely, leaving no sign of live colonies. P. contigua, recorded during the present study is the only living species with ramose growth form recorded so far from the Kachchh waters. The present study also holds out hope to record more new coral species records from the region.

New Inhibitors of Laccase and Tyrosinase by Examination of Cross-Inhibition between Copper-Containing Enzymes

Coppers play crucial roles in the maintenance homeostasis in living species. Approximately 20 enzyme families of eukaryotes and prokaryotes are known to utilize copper atoms for catalytic activities. However, small-molecule inhibitors directly targeting catalytic centers are rare, except for those that act against tyrosinase and dopamine-β-hydroxylase (DBH). This study tested whether known tyrosinase inhibitors can inhibit the copper-containing enzymes, ceruloplasmin, DBH, and laccase. While most small molecules minimally reduced the activities of ceruloplasmin and DBH, aside from known inhibitors, 5 of 28 tested molecules significantly inhibited the function of laccase, with the Ki values in the range of 15 to 48 µM. Enzyme inhibitory kinetics classified the molecules as competitive inhibitors, whereas differential scanning fluorimetry and fluorescence quenching supported direct bindings. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report on organic small-molecule inhibitors for laccase. Comparison of tyrosinase and DBH inhibitors using cheminformatics predicted that the presence of thione moiety would suffice to inhibit tyrosinase. Enzyme assays confirmed this prediction, leading to the discovery of two new dual tyrosinase and DBH inhibitors.

Micropaleontological Assemblages on December-2004 Tsunamigenic Sediments Record of Climate Variation Between Cuddalore and Nagapattinam, East Coast of India

Ninety-nine benthic foraminiferal species belonging to 41 genera, 26 families, 17 superfamilies and 5 suborders have been identified from 84 samples which were collected from beach (23 nos), offshore (24 nos), estuaries (8 nos), inland (23 nos) and one pit sample (6 nos), between Cuddalore and Nagapattinam in the tsunami affected coastal environment. Out of 99 species, only 20 species are living ones. The following species are appreciably distributed in different stations, namely Ammonia beccarii, Elphidiumcrispum, Rosalina globularis, Asterorotaliatrispinosa and Pararotalianipponica. The total distribution of foraminifera is higher at Cuddalore and Nagapattinam whereas at Pudupettai and Samadanpettai it is noticed in the lower order. Organic matter and living species show positive relation. No relationship is observed between dead species and the organic matter, which suggests that the dead species recorded in the sediment, must have been primarily drifted/transported as empty calcareous shells. From the sand/silt/clay ratios, it is inferred that the sediments are normally sandy in nature but silty sand dominates at deeper depths. Carbonate content establishes a positive correlation with all parameters. A fluctuation of salinity values in offshore regions indicates the influx of fresh water from Colleroon river. From the overall studies of foraminiferal distribution in this region, it may be inferred that the species distribution in the offshore region is mainly derived from the inner shelf region. To observe the earlier changes in climactic condition in marine environment mainly based on information from marine sediments. The collected samples from our study area marine sediments contain a variety of foraminifera, which archive climactic information from both planktonic and benthic assemblages and in their sedimentological compositions.

Life history adaptations to fluctuating environments: Combined effects of demographic buffering and lability of vital rates

Demographic buffering and lability have both been identified as important adaptive strategies to optimise long-term fitness in variable environments. These strategies are not mutually exclusive, however we lack efficient methods to measure their relative importance. Here, we define a new index to measure the total lability for a given life history, and use stochastic simulations to disentangle relative fitness effects of buffering and lability. The simulations use 81 animal matrix population models, and different scenarios to explore how the strategies vary across life histories. The highest potential for adaptive demographic lability was found for short- to intermediately long-lived species, while demographic buffering was the main response in slow-living species. This study suggests that faster-living species are more responsive to environmental variability, both for positive or negative effects. Our methods and results provide a more comprehensive view of adaptations to variability, of high relevance to predict species responses to climate change.

Protein length distribution is remarkably consistent across Life

In every living species, the function of a protein depends on its organisation of structural domains, and the length of a protein is a direct reflection of this. Because every species evolved under different evolutionary pressures, the protein length distribution, much like other genomic features, is expected to vary across species. Here we evaluated this diversity by comparing protein length distribution across 2,326 species (1,688 bacteria, 153 archaea and 485 eukaryotes). We found that proteins tend to be on average slightly longer in eukaryotes than in bacteria or archaea, but that the variation of length distribution across species is low, especially compared to the variation of other genomic features (genome size, number of proteins, gene length, GC content, isoelectric points of proteins). Moreover, most cases of atypical protein length distribution appear to be due to artifactual gene annotation, suggesting the actual variation of protein length distribution across species is even smaller. These results open the way for developing a genome annotation quality metric based on protein length distribution to complement conventional quality measures. Overall, our findings show that protein length distribution between living species is more consistent than previously thought, and provide evidence for a universal purifying selection on protein length, whose mechanism and fitness effect remain intriguing open questions.

In-Silico Tool for Predicting, Scanning, and Designing Defensins

Defensins are host defense peptides present in nearly all living species, which play a crucial role in innate immunity. These peptides provide protection to the host, either by killing microbes directly or indirectly by activating the immune system. In the era of antibiotic resistance, there is a need to develop a fast and accurate method for predicting defensins. In this study, a systematic attempt has been made to develop models for predicting defensins from available information on defensins. We created a dataset of defensins and non-defensins called the main dataset that contains 1,036 defensins and 1,035 AMPs (antimicrobial peptides, or non-defensins) to understand the difference between defensins and AMPs. Our analysis indicates that certain residues like Cys, Arg, and Tyr are more abundant in defensins in comparison to AMPs. We developed machine learning technique-based models on the main dataset using a wide range of peptide features. Our SVM (support vector machine)-based model discriminates defensins and AMPs with MCC of 0.88 and AUC of 0.98 on the validation set of the main dataset. In addition, we created an alternate dataset that consists of 1,036 defensins and 1,054 non-defensins obtained from Swiss-Prot. Models were also developed on the alternate dataset to predict defensins. Our SVM-based model achieved maximum MCC of 0.96 with AUC of 0.99 on the validation set of the alternate dataset. All models were trained, tested, and validated using standard protocols. Finally, we developed a web-based service “DefPred” to predict defensins, scan defensins in proteins, and design the best defensins from their analogs. The stand-alone software and web server of DefPred are available at https://webs.iiitd.edu.in/raghava/defpred.

TREND AND EFFECT OF POPULATION IN INDIA: A SCENARIO ANALYSIS

Introduction: Population growth is critical for sustainable development in the true sense. Overpopulation indicates a scenario in which the population of a living species exceeds the carrying capacity of its ecological niche. So far, India's family planning programmes have seen only limited success because the programmes have not tackled the issue in a holistic way. Methodology: The paper aims to examine the trend and effect of population in India. This study is descriptive in nature based basically on data of secondary sources collected from government offices, books, articles, various census reports, and websites published in different times. Result and Discussion: India occupies 2.4 per cent of the world's land area and supports over 17.5 per cent of the world's population. There are some vital impacts of overpopulation such as Food Shortage, Deforestation, Water shortage, Energy, Extinction, etc. Conclusion: Stabilising population is an essential requirement for promoting sustainable development. India's population policy needs to be based on concrete measures that not only help to solve our population problem but also helps the poor to improve their lives in tangible and meaningful ways.

Morphometric characteristics of mungkus fish (Sicyopterus sp.) from several rivers in Bengkulu Province, Indonesia

Mungkus fish (Sicyopterus sp) is one of the freshwater fish that is caught by many people in Bengkulu Province. The mungkus fish are amphidromous and live in rocky rivers and fast-flowing rivers. This fish has a ventral sucker for sticking to rocks. The aim of this research was to determine the types of mungkus fish that can be found in Bengkulu Province waters based on morphometric characters. The research was conducted on 8 major rivers in 5 districts in Bengkulu Province including Argamakmur, Muko-Muko, Seluma, Manna, and Kaur. Based on the results, showed that the mungkus fish were characterized based on morphometric, there were 3 types of fish including Sicyopterus squamosissimus, Sicyopterus cynocephalus, and Sicyopterus lagocephalus. Mungkus fish found in the northern Bengkulu region tend to be smaller in size, have almost the same color pattern and darker body color than the fish found in the South Bengkulu region. The most common species found in Bengkulu is Sicyopterus squamosissimus. The Sicyopterus lagocephalus species can also only be found in rivers in the South Bengkulu region. The fish morphometric characteristics shows that differences in fish habitat will affect the growth of fish and the existence of living species in nature.