Life Sciences

<p>Shiv Nadar University is a comprehensive, multidisciplinary, research-focused, and student-centric University offering a full range of academic programs at the undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral level. With state-of-the-art infrastructure, the University comprises of academic wings, sophisticated labs, international standard sports facilities, amphitheaters, auditorium, conference rooms and smart classrooms. The University&rsquo;s goal is to become internationally recognized for the quality of its research and creative endeavors and their applicability to improving quality of life, generating new insights and expanding the boundaries of human knowledge creativity. Committed to excellence in teaching, research and service, the University aims to serve the higher education needs of India and the world beyond.</p>

Shiv Nadar University

Validation of marker-QTL association for genes grain size 3 (GS3), grain weight 2 (GW2), seed width 5 (qSW5) and a QTL qgrl7.1 for grain length was undertaken in a set of 242 diverse rice germplasm. Further, the study was extended to an F2 mapping population derived from cross of Sonasal, a short grain aromatic rice landrace with Pusa Basmati 1121, a variety with extra long slender grains. Seven gene specific markers, namely, SF28, SR17, RGS1and RGS2 based on GS3, W004 for GW2, MS40671 for qSW5 and RM505 for qgrl7.1, were used for validation. Single marker analysis revealed significant association of these markers to grain size and shape. The marker SF28 explained highest phenotypic variance (37 %) while the marker W004 explained lowest variance (2.6 %) for grain length in the germplasm set at the significance level P &lt; 0.05. Three markers namely, SF28, MS40671 and RM505 were polymorphic between the parents Sonasal and Pusa Basmati 1121. In the F2 population, the marker SF28 linked to gene GS3 explained highest phenotypic variance (32.5 %), while RM505 linked to qgrl7.1 explained 5.4 % of phenotypic variance for grain length. The marker SF28 was found to be most robust in the validation studies both in germplasm and F2 population. The validated gene specific markers can be utilised in marker assisted selection for improving grain size and shape as these traits have significant contribution towards grain quality and grain yield. This is the first study on validation of gene based markers for grain dimension traits in Indian rice germplasm. © 2012 Society for Plant Biochemistry and Biotechnology.

World University root node

(SoNS) School of Natural Sciences

Journal of Plant Biochemistry and Biotechnology

Validation of gene based marker-QTL association for grain dimension traits in rice

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) causes significant mortality in most developing countries worldwide. At present, it is imperative to identify a treatment to address the devastating post-TBI consequences. Therefore, the present study has been performed to assess the specific effect of immediate exposure to normabaric hyperoxia (NBO) after fluid percussion injury (FPI) in the striatum of mice. To execute FPI, mice were anesthetised and sorted into (i) a TBI group, (ii) a sham group without injury and (iii) a TBI group treated with immediate exposure to NBO for 3 h. Afterwards, brains were harvested for morphological assessment. The results revealed no changes in morphological and neuronal damage in the sham group as compared to the TBI group. Conversely, the TBI group showed severe morphological changes as well as neuronal damage as compared to the TBI group exposed to NBO for 3 h. Interestingly, our findings also suggested that NBO treatment could diminish the neuronal damage in the striatum of mice after FPI. Neuronal damage was evaluated at different points of injury and the neighbouring areas using morphology, neuronal apoptotic cell death and pan-neuronal markers to determine the complete neuronal structure. In conclusion, immediate exposure to NBO following FPI could be a potential therapeutic approach to reduce neuronal damage in the TBI model. © 2013 Indian Academy of Sciences.

Journal of Biosciences

Effect of normabaric hyperoxia treatment on neuronal damage following fluid percussion injury in the striatum of mice: A morphological approach

Transforming growth factor β2 (TGFβ2) is a versatile cytokine with a prominent role in cell migration, invasion, cellular development, and immunomodulation. TGFβ2 promotes the malignancy of tumors by inducing epithelial-mesenchymal transition, angiogenesis, and immunosuppression. As it is well-documented that nucleic acid secondary structure can regulate gene expression, we assessed whether any secondary motif regulates its expression at the post-transcriptional level. Bioinformatics analysis predicts an existence of a 23-nucleotide putative G-quadruplex sequence (PG4) in the 5′ untranslated region (UTR) of TGFβ2 mRNA. The ability of this stretch of sequence to form a highly stable, intramolecular parallel quadruplex was demonstrated using ultraviolet and circular dichroism spectroscopy. Footprinting studies further validated its existence in the presence of a neighboring nucleotide sequence. Following structural characterization, we evaluated the biological relevance of this secondary motif using a dual luciferase assay. Although PG4 inhibits the expression of the reporter gene, its presence in the context of the entire 5′ UTR sequence interestingly enhances gene expression. Mutation or removal of the G-quadruplex sequence from the 5′ UTR of the gene diminished the level of expression of this gene at the translational level. Thus, here we highlight an activating role of the G-quadruplex in modulating gene expression of TGFβ2 at the translational level and its potential to be used as a target for the development of therapeutics against cancer. © 2013 American Chemical Society.

Biochemistry

The G-quadruplex augments translation in the 5′ untranslated region of transforming growth factor β2

The numerous functions of the important class of molecular chaperones, heat shock proteins 70 (Hsp70), rely on cycles of intricate conformational changes driven by ATP-hydrolysis and regulated by cochaperones and substrates. Here, we used Förster resonance energy transfer to study the conformational dynamics of individual molecules of Ssc1, a mitochondrial Hsp70, in real time. The intrinsic dynamics of the substrate-binding domain of Ssc1 was observed to be uncoupled from the dynamic interactions between substrate- and nucleotide-binding domains. Analysis of the fluctuations in the interdomain separation revealed frequent transitions to a nucleotide-free state. The nucleotide-exchange factor Mge1 did not induce ADP release, as expected, but rather facilitated binding of ATP. These results indicate that the conformational cycle of Ssc1 is more elaborate than previously thought and provide insight into how the Hsp70s can perform a wide variety of functions. © 2013 European Molecular Biology Organization.

Fulltext

EMBO Journal

Real-time observation of the conformational dynamics of mitochondrial Hsp70 by spFRET

Measurement of gene expression can provide important clues about gene function and molecular basis of developmental processes. Here, we have analysed the chickpea transcriptome in vegetative and flower tissues by exploiting the potential of high-throughput sequencing to measure gene expression. We mapped more than 295 million reads to quantify the transcript abundance during flower development. We detected the expression of more than 90% genes in at least one tissue analysed. We found quite a large number of genes were differentially expressed during flower development as compared to vegetative tissues. Further, we identified several genes expressed in a stage-specific manner. Various transcription factor families and metabolic pathways involved in flower development were elucidated. The members of MADS-box family were most represented among the transcription factor genes up-regulated during various stages of flower development. The abundant expression of several well-known genes implicated in flower development in chickpea flower development stages confirmed our results. In addition, we detected the expression specificities of lineage-specific genes during flower development. The expression data presented in this study is the most comprehensive dataset available for chickpea as of now and will serve as resource for unraveling the functions of many specific genes involved in flower development in chickpea and other legumes. © 2013 Society for Experimental Biology, Association of Applied Biologists and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Plant Biotechnology Journal

A global view of transcriptome dynamics during flower development in chickpea by deep sequencing

Fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) and fine needle non-aspiration cytology (FNNAC) technique were studied in 144 patients of thyroid lesions. The study was single blind and prevented observation bias. The smears were assessed for cellularity, cellular dilution with blood or clot and retention of appropriate architecture. They were then further categorised as unsuitable, adequate, and diagnostically superior for cytological evaluation. After evaluation of FNAC and FNNAC on the basis of these scores, FNAC yielded more cellular material than FNNAC (p < 0.001). In a similar manner FNAC has higher average score for background blood (p < 0.001) than FNNAC. However there was no statistical difference in average architecture score. Both the techniques yielded equal diagnostically unsuitable smears (H" 12%). Diagnostically superior samples were more by FNAC; FNNAC yielded more diagnostically adequate smears.

Journal, Indian Academy of Clinical Medicine

Comparison of aspiration versus non-aspiration technique of cytodiagnosis in thyroid lesions

The study was designed to evaluate the genetic variability for fruit quality in mango progenies. The fruit quality traits of F1 progenies were evaluated on the basis of morphological and biochemical parameters. The results showed the existence of genetic variability among progenies with differences in the progeny performance for the traits. Value of phenotypic coefficients of variation was higher than genotypic coefficients of variation but minimum difference was noticed between them. Comparatively high degree of genotypic coefficients of variation (GCV) along with phenotypic coefficients of variation was observed in quality traits like, fruit weight, fruit volume, pulp: stone ratio and total carotenoids. High to moderate broad-sense heritability was estimated for different fruit quality traits. High magnitude of broad-sense heritability was recorded in traits like, fruit weight (0.82), fruit volume (0.80), total carotenoids (0.97), ascorbic acids (0.83), stone width (0.71) and fruit length (0.70). Moderate degree of heritability was noted in traits, viz., titratable acidity (0.58), fruit width (0.62), stone length (0.68), stone thickness (0.62), peel thickness (0.53) and total soluble solids (0.69). High heritability along with high genetic advance was estimated for fruit weight and fruit volume. Genetic parameters estimated for fruit quality traits of mango may be useful to formulate pre-selection criteria and efficient breeding strategies of mango for development of new hybrids.

Indian Journal of Horticulture

Estimation of genetic parameters of fruit quality traits in mango hybrid population

Holocene is the youngest Epoch/Series in the recent Geological Time Scale which spans to the present. This is the only formal chronostratigraphic division in the geological time-scale whose boundary (the Pleistocene-Holocene boundary) is defined climatostratigraphically in an ice core in contrast to other Phanerozoic Epoch boundaries which have been defined biostratigraphically in the sedimentary rock record. The base of the Holocene is fixed in the North Greenland Ice Core Project (NGRIP) ice-core record at the horizon showing the clearest signal of climatic warming, an event that marks the end of the last cold episode (Younger Dryas Stadial/Greenland Stadial 1) of the Pleistocene in calendar years, the base of the Holocene would be close to 11,700 yrs BP (Before Present refers to before 1950 CE). Till date, there have been no proposals to formally subdivide the Holocene Epoch/Series into smaller intervals and as a result , casual usage of "early", "middle" and "late Holocene" has been much prevalent. In this chapter, we propose that in the absence of any significant faunal events in marine as well as the terrestrial records, like its base, the subdivisions of the Holocene be made chronometrically with a climatostratigraphic bias and should roughly correspond to major climate change in the North Atlantic. The North Atlantic climate changes have also been found to affect the strength of the Asian Monsoon. We propose that the Holocene be subdivided into an Early, Middle and Late Holocene based on the major changes in North Atlantic climate, e.g., Bond events. The boundaries may correspond roughly to the Bond Events which mark significant change in the thermohaline circulation and thus would be possible to determine in the marine records worldwide. This will also to a great extent minimize the problem of casual usage of the early, middle and late terms as adjective to Holocene. © 2013 by Nova Science Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved.

Holocene: Perspectives, Environmental Dynamics and Impact Events

Holocene: Definition and current stratigraphic status in the geological time scale

Rice blast caused by Magnaporthe oryzae is one of the most destructive diseases causing extensive yield loss throughout the world. The present study deals with identification of stress responsive genes in susceptible rice cultivar HR 12 after challenge with M. oryzae. Transcript profiling using the Affymetrix 57 K GeneChip revealed a total of 72 differentially expressed genes whose expression level was significantly altered under diseased condition. Molecular function enrichment analysis suggested that the differentially regulated genes were mainly related to protein degradation and modification, cell signalling and stressrelated mechanisms. Our study reveals that majority of the genes of protein degradation and modification, transport, signalling and transcription factors are repressed at the initial stages of interaction. The host genes that were induced in response to pathogen infection included hormonal signalling, cell wall defense and transcription factors belonging to the WRKY super family. This study would be helpful in identification of early induced genes in pathogen associated molecular patterns (PAMP)-Triggered Immunity.