Protocol Optimization for In Vitro Regeneration System in Frost Sensitive Potato Genotypes

Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) is a food crop with great economic value. It is grown in temperate, tropical and sub-tropical regions. This crop with multiple uses is attaining the status of staple crop. Potato is a staple food crop of forty countries around the world. Potato is a tuberous crop plant which belongs to Solanacea family. Potato is a source of complexcarbohydrates and antioxidants that provide energy and immunity to our body. The kind and amount of antioxidants may differ in different potato cultivars, though carotenoids and anthocyanin are predominant in this crop. It also provides a significant amount of vitamin C and potassium. The skin of medium size potato (5.3 ounce) contains 110 calories per serving.

This crop, because of high nutritional value, meets the increasing demand of food in the world. Potato crop is being cultivated in more thanhundred countries and ranks fifth globally due to high production. Potato is most important dicotyledonous tuber crop in the world. Pakistan ranks at 7th. number worldwide, due to production of potato

The Significance of Salivary Cytokines in Oral Leukoplakia

Early detection of oral premalignant lesions which might evolve into oral cancer by screening methods using suitable markers is critical. Saliva as a diagnostic fluid seems to be promising and has a number of advantages when compared to the blood-based testing. Histopathologicaldiagnosis is still gold standard when diagnosing oral premalignant lesions, however, studies upon the role of salivary cytokines show promising results although more studies are needed on a larger sample. Cytokines have an important role in oral diseases and increased levels of interleukin 6 (IL-6) and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha) have been reported in patients with cancer and premalignant lesions such as oral lichen planus and oral submucous fibrosis. Brailo et al.reported significantly increased levels of salivary IL-6 and TNF-alpha in patients with oral leukoplakia when compared to healthy controls. 

Furthermore, the levels of salivary IL-6 and TNF-alpha did not correlate with the size of leukoplakic lesions nor with its localization. Recently, Brailo et al.reported that salivary IL-1β and IL-6 were significantly higher in oral cancer patients than in patients with leukoplakia and control group. No significant differences in salivary TNF-α between either of thegroups were seen. Sharma et al.reported increased salivary IL-6 levels in patients with leukoplakia and coexisting periodontitis and in periodontitis patients in comparison to the healthy controls. The same authors found that in the leukoplakia group, increased salivary IL-6 level was noticed together with increase in the severity of dysplasia. Sharma et al.concluded that the use of tobacco had a significant role in the elevation of salivary IL-6 which is contrary to the results of Brailo et al.

Studies on the Radiation Stability of Several Polymeric Flat Sheets used for Actinide Ion Separation from Radioactive Feeds

Membrane based separation methods have been used for the remediation of industrial waste water emanating from a large number of industries. The major challenge in such studies has been the membrane fouling which arises due to a large number of suspended particles. In view of the highefficiency of the membrane based separation systems, attempts are made, oflate, to employ them in the nuclear industry for radioactive waste streams aswell. The radioactive wastes are categorized as low, medium and high level wastes depending on their radioactivity content. Though low level wastes have been treated by membrane based separation methods at large scales, it is really a challenge to employ membrane separations to high level wastes.

This is due to the large amount of radiation dose prevailing in the high level waste mainly due to the high beta gamma containing isotopes such as 137Cs and 90Sr. Secondly, most of the membrane based separation methods employ polymericmembranes which are highly susceptible to radiolytic degradation. Radioactive waste management is one of the major challenges of the nuclear power program and there are reports on the application of membrane based separation methods for the separation of actinide and fission product nuclides from radioactive wastes. Though low level wastes have been treated using polymeric membranes, the latter can be reused and recycled for a significantly long period of time due to the low dose rates (<microcuries per litre of the waste solution) of these wastes. On the other hand, high level waste processing can be done using radiation resistant polymers.

Effect of Sodium Fluoride on Seed Germination, Seedling Growth and Biochemistry of Abelmoschus esculentus

If fluoride contaminated ground water is used for irrigation it’s adversely affects crop growth especially in beginning of seedling growth. Fluoride affects the enzymatic activity and growth by slow therate of cellular division and expansion. This paper reports results of laboratory investigation to study the effect of F on the germination of the lady finger seeds. The seedling growth parameters (root length, shoot length, root weight, shoot weight, germination percentage and vigor index) and biochemical parameters i.e., chlorophyll, nitrogen and protein content as well as the Fluoride uptake. Response of fluoride depends upon some factors such as dose, duration of exposure, age and genotypes of plants.

Abelmoschus esculentus (Lady Finger) var. SOH-198 seeds soaked in distilled water for 24 hr. The seedlings were then transferred toPetri dishes containing filter paper, moistened from below with sterilizedcotton pads and treated with 0, 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50 mg/l NaF prepared from a stock solution.

Phenotype Variations of Polymorphic Sites: Genotyping against Haplotyping

Since nucleotide modifications including Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) may influence gene phenotypes thus, their studies highlight the distinctive features in pathogenesis of diseases. The reports onprediction of sequence profiles and patterns as indicated in Prosite database(http://prosite.expasy.org), suggest that the function of elements and motifs is related to cumulative effect of the conserved signatures so that the polymorphic changes could affect inter- and intra molecular interactions (Kd value) leading to phenotype variations. Additionally, self-assembling proteins on several separate nucleotide elements shows that the phenotype variations may be depend on the function of other involved elements. Our knowledge of the involvement of numerous elements on the gene phenotype is Limited. 

Furthermore, in most genotype reports obtained from multi SNPs studies, the heterozygotedistribution of polymorphic sites on homologue chromosomes is not Identified,so that they they could not exactly show the phenotype variations. Theoretically, the number of their two-allele haplotypes can be estimated As n! (n indicates the number of polymorphic sites), when the linkage failure exists between the sites. Thus, the phenotype reports based on the genotypes without consideration of haplotypes are not exactly estimated.