Annual Research & Review in Biology

Introduction: Gymnosporia montana Benth. is a medicinal herb which has been valued in Ayurvedic medicine for its hepatoprotective effect. The plant has been studied for its pharmacological, antimicrobial, and antioxidant properties, but there are no reports on its genotoxicity.

Aim: Hence, in the present study, two extracts of G. montana (70% methanolic and aqueous) at different concentrations were evaluated for the in vitro cytotoxicity and genotoxicity in Human peripheral blood lymphocyte cultures (PBLC) since these are well-established techniques for the analysis of the potentially mutagenic and carcinogenic chemicals.

Methodology: The 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl) -2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT), Mitotic index (MI), Sister-chromatid exchanges (SCEs), Cell cycle proliferative index (CCPI), Average generation time (AGT) and Population doubling time (PDT) were scored in cultures set up from 10 different healthy donors. The treatment of the cell culture was done employing different extracts of G. montana at three concentrations (1.78µg/mL, 3.57µg/mL and 7.14µg/mL) with control and positive control (Ethyl methanesulfonate [EMS (1.93 mM)]).

Results: The MTT results showed the cytotoxic effect in a concentration-dependent manner in both the methanol and aqueous extract and the IC₅₀ value of methanol and aqueous extract was found to be 2.63 µg/mL and 3.63 µg/mL respectively.  The MI (p<.001) and CCPI (p<.05) in both the extracts showed significant values at higher concentration, but at lower and mid concentrations both the extracts were non-significant and the total SCEs, AGT and PDT in all the concentrations showed non-significant results when compared with the control.

Conclusion: These results indicate that the G. montana plant extracts at lower two concentrations showed no cytotoxicity and genotoxicity effects in cultured human peripheral blood lymphocytes. Therefore, we suggest that the plant extract is safe for use at the lower concentrations in traditional medicine.

Aims: Salinity is one of the major abiotic stress that negatively affects plant growth in germination and early seedling stages. Salinity has becoming a serious problem as most of the parts of worldwide lands were affected by high salt concentration. Therefore, the effects of salinity ranging from 0 mM, 25 mM, 50 mM and 75 mM Sodium chloride (NaCl) concentrations on germination and early seedling growth of water spinach and their salt tolerance mechanism.

Study Design: Completely Randomized Design (CRD).

Place and Duration of Study: This study was conducted at Tissue Culture Laboratory, Department of Biology, Faculty of Science in University Putra Malaysia (UPM) from June to August, 2018.

Methodology: In order to study the effects of salinity on water spinach, several parameters have been taken into account for measurement which include water uptake percentage, germination percentage, germination index, mean germination time, relative injury rate, seed vigor, seedling height reduction, hypocotyl and radicle length, seedling biomass, salt tolerance, total phenolic content and total flavonoids contents.

Results: The results obtained showed that salinity adversely reduced water uptake efficiency, seed vigor, hypocotyl and radicle length, total phenolic content and total flavonoids content of water spinach. The seedling height reduction of water spinach increased significantly in relative to increasing salinity. However, seeds treated in mild salt concentration at 25 mM of NaCl showed an increment of germination percentage and germination index.

Conclusion: Salt tolerance of water spinach increased as the response towards increasing salinity.

Aims: This study was conducted to investigate the effect of zinc oxide nanoparticles towards the Persicaria minor that can be used as a guidance for further toxicity investigation of ZnO-NPs.

Study Design: A Completely Randomized Block Design (RCBD) was used with three replication. Each unit was consisted with eight plants and the total of 96 plants were used in this study.

Place and Duration of Study: This study was conducted in plot 1, Vegetables Field plot for Teaching and Research, Taman Pertanian Universiti, Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) Selangor, Malaysia, from May 2018 until August 2018.

Methodology: Persicaria minor were exposed to four different concentration of zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO-NPs) which were (50,100 and 150 mg/L) and 0 mg/L as a control. The ZnO-NPs was dissolved in distilled water before being applied to plants. 40 mL of ZnO-NPs solution was applied to each plant. The growth, carbon assimilation and also secondary metabolites were measured in this experiment.

Results: The results showed that the treatment of zinc oxide nanoparticles enhanced growth of the Persicaria minor as the plant treated with zinc oxide nanoparticles had higher plant height and total biomass when compared to control treatment. However, the analysis revealed that the treatment of zinc oxide nanoparticles highly and significantly influenced the carbon assimilation and quality of this plant as the treated plants showed reduction in chlorophyll content, photosynthesis rate, stomatal conductance and transpiration rate but increased in production of secondary metabolites. The increased in production of plant secondary metabolites may be attributed by the plant protection mechanism due to metabolic stress caused by high concentration of zinc oxide nanoparticles.

Conclusion: This research will progressively help in contributing some reliable and valid data on the effect of zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO-NPs), towards the Persicaria minor that can be used as guidance for further experimental investigation regarding this field.

Objectives: Thyroid hormones regulate all metabolic activities; therefore, it is not amazing that hepatic; renal dysfunctions and lipid alterations are commonly detected in patients with thyroid disorders. This study estimated some biochemical changes in post pubertal hyperthyroid and hypothyroid mice and their impacts on liver and kidney functions and also on changes in the lipid pattern. In addition, the ameliorating role of Costus root extract supplementation was examined.

Material and Methods:  A total of 60 male Swiss albino mice were randomly divided into 5 groups; control, control with costus extract, hypo- and hyper-thyroids post-treated with costus root extract.

Results: Present results revealed that, a significant increase in serum thyrotropin (TSH), alanine transaminase (ALT) and aspartate transaminase (AST), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), creatinine, urea, potassium, chloride, cholesterol and triglycerides levels in hypothyroid mice compared to control. On the other hand; a significant decrease in serumthyroxine (T₄), tri‐iodothyronine (T₃), albumin, total protein and calcium ions levels in hypothyroid mice compared to control. In contrast to hypothyroidism, a significant increase in serum T₃, ALT, AST, ALP, creatinine, urea, sodium, potassium, chloride and total proteins levels in hyperthyroid mice compared to control. On the other hand; a significant decrease in serum TSH, T₄, albumin, calcium ions cholesterol and triglycerides levels in hyperthyroid mice compared to control. Treatments of mice with Costus root extract in both hypo- and hyperthyroidism modulates the measured serum parameters.

Conclusions: Our results could propose that the extract of Costus roots can be used as an adjuvant co-therapy in hypo- and hyperthyroidism syndromes with propylthiouracil and Eltroxin replacement therapy, respectively

Sesame is an important oilseed crop due to its different types of commercial application. The produced oil from sesame uses for food and beauty care product preparation due to its high nutritive value. However, the yield of sesame is comparatively low than other oilseed crops. Nitrogen and Boron are essential nutrients for plant development and growth. So, the combined application of nitrogen and boron can increase the yield of sesame. From these perspectives, an experiment was carried out to study the effect of nitrogen and boron application on yield contributing characters and yield of sesame. The experiment consisted of four Nitrogen doses (N₀: 0 kg N/ha (control), N₁: 50 kg N/ha, N₂: 60 kg N/ha, N₃: 70 kg N/ha) and three Boron doses (B₀: 0 kg B/ha (control), B₁: 2 kg B/ha, B₂: 3 kg B/ha). It was laid out in two factors Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications. Result demonstrated that combination of 60 kg N/ha and 3.0 kg B/ha were acceptable for getting better yield and maximum economic return from the studied parameters.

In era of sequencing revolution, scientists seek for knowledge about the ever-expanding field of technology, Next Generation Sequence (NGS) to be applied in their research due to its high reliability and rate of discovery. What is NGS? To obtain a detailed understanding about NGS, it is required to look back the history of sequencing and how the NGS stepped into life science. This review paper gives an overview of NGS projects in wild terrestrial vertebrate including applications such as whole genome sequencing and metagenomics.