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The present investigation was done to assess cytomorphologic parameters as indicators of genotoxicity as it is a simpler method and could be suggested for rapid screening of the vast range of agrochemicals used all over the world. The excessive and indiscriminate use of agrochemicals is responsible for increasing the level of pollutants in the soil environment resulting in cellular and molecular damage to the plants. The cellular damage caused manifestation of the resulting oxidative stress due to pollutants which can go up to the level of DNA. The roots of Allium cepa were treated with 0.5 mg N ml −1 concentration of ammonium nitrate fertilizer for 3, 6, 9 and 12 h, and in mitotic preparation of their respective root, mitotic index, phase indices and the genotoxic markers viz. chromosomal aberrations and binucleate cells were observed and the data statistically analysed. A significant decrease in mitotic index and increase in abnormality percentage as compared to control was observed which increased with the treatment duration. Chromosomal aberrations like stickiness, fragmentation, precocious movement, bridges and disorientations were observed in varying frequencies. A cytomorphologic study revealed that the interphase cell volume of cells of treated roots and their respective interphase nuclear volume were reduced as compared to control. The ratio between nuclear and cytoplasmic volume has been reported to relate to cell integrity. Both these markers viz. cytomorphologic and genotoxic can be used for assessment of the toxicity of agrochemicals including fertilizer; in our study, they have revealed the cytogenotoxic behaviour of ammonium nitrate fertilizer.

Catharanthus roseus (The Madagaskar Periwinkle) plant is commercially valued for harbouring more than 130 bioactive terpenoid indole alkaloids (TIAs). Amongst these, two of the leaf-derived bisindole alkaloids—vinblastine and vincristine—are widely used in several anticancer chemotherapies. The great pharmacological values, low in planta occurrence, unavailability of synthetic substitutes and exorbitant market cost of these alkaloids have prompted scientists to understand the basic architecture and regulation of biosynthesis of these TIAs in C. roseus plant and its cultured tissues. The knowledge gathered over a period of 30 years suggests that the TIA biosynthesis is highly regulated by developmental and environmental factors and operates through a complex multi-step enzymatic network. Extensive spatial and temporal cross talking also occurs at inter- and intracellular levels in different plant organs during TIA biogenesis. A close association of indole, methylerythritol phosphate and secoiridoid monoterpenoid pathways and involvement of at least four cell types (epidermis, internal phloem-associated parenchyma, laticifers and idioblasts) and five intracellular compartments (chloroplast, vacuole, nucleus, endoplasmic reticulum and cytosol) have been implicated with this biosynthetic mechanism. Accordingly, the research in this area is primarily advancing today to address and resolve six major issues namely: precise localization and expression of pathway enzymes using modern in situ RNA hybridization tools, mechanisms of intra- and intercellular trafficking of pathway intermediates, cloning and functional validation of genes coding for known or hitherto unknown pathway enzymes, mechanism of global regulation of the pathway by transcription factors, control of relative diversion of metabolite flux at crucial branch points and finally, strategising the metabolic engineering approaches to improve the productivity of the desired TIAs in plant or corresponding cultured tissues. The present literature update has been compiled to provide a brief overview of some of the emerging developments in our current understanding of TIA metabolism in C. roseus.

Fruit development is a complex yet tightly regulated process. The developing fruit undergoes phases of cell division and expansion followed by numerous metabolic changes leading to ripening. Plant hormones are known to affect many aspects of fruit growth and development. In addition to the five classic hormones (auxins, gibberellins, cytokinins, abscisic acid and ethylene) a few other growth regulators that play roles in fruit development are now gaining recognition. Exogenous application of various hormones to different stages of developing fruits and endogenous quantifications have highlighted their importance during fruit development. Information acquired through biochemical, genetic and molecular studies is now beginning to reveal the possible mode of hormonal regulation of fruit development at molecular levels. In the present article, we have reviewed studies revealing hormonal control of fruit development using tomato as a model system with emphasis on molecular genetics.

This study explores the stabilities of single sheet parallel systems of three sequence variants of 1GNNQQNY7, N2D, N2S and N6D, with variations in aggregate size (5-8) and termini charge (charged or neutral). The aggregates were simulated at 300 and 330 K. These mutations decrease amyloid formation in the yeast prion protein Sup35. The present study finds that these mutations cause instability even in the peptide context. The protonation status of termini is found to be a key determinant of stabilities; other determinants are sequence, position of mutation and aggregate size. All systems with charged termini are unstable, whereas both stable and unstable systems are found when the termini are neutral. When termini are charged, the largest stable aggregate for the N2S and N6D systems has 3 to 4 peptides whereas N2D mutation supports oligomers of larger size (5-and 6-mers) as well. Mutation at 2nd position (N2S and N2D) results in fewer H-bonds at the mutated as well as neighboring (Gly1/Gln4) positions. However, no such effect is found if mutation is at 6th position (N6D). The effect of Asn→Asp mutation depends on the position and termini charge: it is more destabilizing at the 2nd position than at the 6th in case of neutral termini, however, the opposite is true in case of charged termini. Appearance of twist in stable systems and in smaller aggregates formed in unstable systems suggests that twist is integral to amyloid arrangement. Disorder, dissociation or rearrangement of peptides, disintegration or collapse of aggregates and formation of amorphous aggregates observed in these simulations are likely to occur during the early stages of aggregation also. The smaller aggregates formed due to such events have a variety of arrangements of peptides. This suggests polymorphic nature of oligomers and presence of a heterogeneous mixture of oligomers during early stages of aggregation.

The glutathione transferase (GST) superfamily in plants has been subdivided into eight classes, seven of which (phi, tau, zeta, theta, lambda, dehydroascorbate reductase, and tetrachlorohydroquinone dehalogenase) are soluble and one is microsomal. Since their identification in plants in 1970, these enzymes have been well established as phase II detoxification enzymes that perform several other essential functions in plant growth and development. These enzymes catalyze nucleophilic conjugation of the reduced form of the tripeptide glutathione to a wide variety of hydrophobic, electrophilic, and usually cytotoxic substrates. In plants, the conjugated product is either sequestered in the vacuole or transferred to the apoplast. The GSTs of phi and tau classes, which are plant-specific and the most abundant, are chiefly involved in xenobiotic metabolism. Zeta- and theta-class GSTs have very restricted activities towards xenobiotics. Theta-class GSTs are glutathione peroxidases and are involved in oxidative-stress metabolism, whereas zeta-class GSTs act as glutathione-dependent isomerases and catalyze the glutathione-dependent conversion of maleylacetoacetate to fumarylacetoacetate. Zeta-class GSTs participate in tyrosine catabolism. Dehydroascorbate reductase- and lambda-class GSTs function as thioltransferases. Microsomal-class GSTs are members of the MAPEG (membrane-associated proteins in eicosanoid and glutathione metabolism) superfamily. A plethora of studies utilizing both proteomics and genomics approaches have greatly helped in revealing the functional diversity exhibited by these enzymes. The three-dimensional structure of some of the members of the family has been described and this has helped in elucidating the mechanism of action and active-site amino-acid residues of these enzymes. Although a large amount of information is available on this complex enzyme superfamily, more research is necessary to answer additional questions such as, why are phi- and tau-class GSTs more abundant than GSTs from other classes? What functions do phi- and tau-class GSTs perform in plant taxa other than angiosperms? Do more GST classes exist? Future studies on GSTs should focus on these aspects.

Environmental pollution is one of the major problems of these days. One of the reasons of environmental pollution is the indiscriminate use of agrochemicals in agriculture. Fungicides are being extensively used in agriculture for enhancing crop yield and growth by controlling fungal growth. Fungicide carbendazim is widely applied to soil and seeds of vegetable/cereal crops in India and is effective against a very broad spectrum of fungi. The present study was designed to monitor the cyto-genotoxic effects of carbendazim directly in treated soils by cytogenetical analysis using Allium cepa root tip bioassay. In a pot experiment, fungicide carbendazim was added to soil at the rates of 2.5, 5, 7.5, and 10 mg kg −1 soil and uniform size onion bulb was planted in each pot, and three replicates were maintained for each dose at 1, 7, 15, 30, and 45 days after application and roots from onion bulbs were fixed for cytogenetical analysis. Findings indicate that carbendazim treatment leads to a significant dose and duration-dependent decrease in percent mitotic index with related increase in mitotic inhibition. Statistical analysis showed a significant effect of carbendazim doses and duration of treatment on the percentage relative abnormality rate of A. cepa . Phase indices of our study showed high numbers of cells in prophase as compared to other phases at some doses of treatment. The different types of chromosomal abnormalities observed in our study serve as indicators of genotoxicity of carbendazim and we report for the first time the effect of its application directly in soil using a plant test system.

Women are an integral part of National development. Over the past decades, women have shown integrity and ability in all fields. Their contributions are recognizable and commendable but Indian women still face many difficulties in life. These difficulties sometimes trigger many psychosocial problems, such as anxiety, tension, frustration, emotional upsets, mental disturbance, and depression. Postpartum depression occurs after childbirth or after birth. This type of depression is also clinically evident. This study attempted to define postpartum depression and its signs, causes and contributing risk elements. Depression after pregnancy or birth is called postpartum depression. This is a type of clinical depression. This study attempted to define postpartum depression, symptom causes, factors, and risk factors. This study aimed to identify postpartum depression in mothers after the birth of children across the family environment. The sample of the present study consists of 200 mothers (100 mothers after delivery of 1st child & 100 mothers after delivery of 2nd child within one month of delivery). The age range of the participants was 30-35 years. Samples were collected írom nearby areas of Varanasi. The Edinburgh Postpartum Depression Scale (EPDS, Edinburgh, 1984) and Family Environment Scale (Joshi & Vyas, 1997) were used as tools. The results reveal that there is a significant difference between mothers across the delivery of the first and second child and the level of postpartum depression in the overall Family Environment.

The present experiment was conducted to evaluate the metribuzin-induced stress response in Vigna radiata and to explore the ameliorative role of exogenous application of plant growth regulators (PGRs) against metribuzin toxicity by assessing important biochemical and yield parameters. Prior to the field experiment, dose standardization experiments were performed, and EC 50 was calculated for metribuzin. On day 21, field grown V. radiata plants were treated with graded concentrations of metribuzin (0–1000 mg L - 1 ). Plants treated with 600 mg L - 1 (EC 50 ) and 1000 mg L - 1 (highest dose) of metribuzin were co-treated individually and simultaneously with gibberellic acid-3 (GA), indole-3 acetic acid (IAA), and salicylic acid (SA). After 7 days of treatment, leaf tissues were analyzed for biochemical parameters, whereas those related to yield were recorded during harvest. The result of this study indicated that metribuzin treatment to V. radiata resulted in increase in lipid peroxidation and reduce chlorophyll and carotenoid contents as well as yield parameters. However, metribuzin-treated plants induced proline accumulation and activity of antioxidant enzymes. Exogenous application of GA, IAA, and SA significantly reduced lipid peroxidation and increased contents of photosynthetic pigments, proline, and antioxidant enzymes thereby increasing yield parameters. It was observed that during metribuzin stress, SA exhibited a better ameliorative response out of the three exogenously applied PGRs, while the combined use of all PGRs exhibited much improved ameliorative response on biochemical and yield parameters of plants.

In this study, we evaluated the pesticide stress response of Vigna radiata (L.) Wilczek (Greengram) and explored the mitigative role of exogenous salicylic acid against pesticide toxicity by assessing various biochemical (enzymatic and non-enzymatic) parameters. The pesticides used in the present experiment were H.A.M-45 (fungicide), Termite kill (insecticide), and Anchor (herbicide), which are commonly used in agricultural fields and storage of grains. Primarily, LC50 was calculated, for defining the maximum permissible concentrations of pesticides which could be used, and thus experimental concentrations used were 1/2 LC50, LC50, and 2 LC50. Exposure of V. radiata to pesticide toxicity at the germination stage for 24 h significantly decreased their growth by reducing the growth-contributing parameters as compared with unstressed. Henceforth, a significant decrease was observed in photosynthetic pigments (chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b, total chlorophyll, and carotenoid), whereas a significant increase was recorded in superoxide dismutase, peroxidase, and catalase (enzymatic biochemical parameters). Exogenous salicylic acid (1 mM) application mitigated the pesticide toxicity when applied together with the pesticide. The positive mitigative effect of salicylic acid was recorded in terms of significant increase in enzymatic biochemical parameters, thus revealing that exogenous application can minimize oxidative stress and consequently contribute to improvement of photosynthetic pigments. Therefore, salicylic acid-treated seeds of V. radiata grown under pesticide stress could be considered to be of improved quality compared to non-treated seeds.

In vitro response of seedlings of six genotypes of Vigna mungo L. Hepper to herbicide stress, induced by glyphosate was assessed by evaluating its effect on morphological parameters viz. germination percentage, survival percentage, shoot length, root length, fresh weight, as well as on biochemical parameters such as activity of antioxidative enzymes (catalase, peroxidase and superoxide dismutase), total protein and proline content along with MDA content. Findings indicate that herbicide treatment promotes significant and dose-dependent decrease in all morphological parameters and increase in activity of antioxidative enzymes in all the genotypes. Herbicide treatment promotes significant decrease in total protein content and increase in proline content. Significant variation for MDA content among genotypes was not observed. On the basis of results of present investigation, it was concluded that Vigna mungo genotypes tolerant to the herbicide stress can be of considerable practical value for studying the mechanism of herbicide tolerance and for providing genetic resources for the development of herbicide-tolerant cultivars.