Science Vision

157-163

Authors: A.K. Dash

The energy budget of the larvae of Antheraea mylitta Drury living in host plant Ziziphus jujuba Gaertn was prepared in winter. In the fifth instar the rate of food energy consumption, absorption, body growth, silk gland growth and respiration increased when compared to other instars. The amount of consumption, absorption, body tissue growth and silk gland growth during fifth instar was 81%, 82%, 82%, 97% respectively of the total amount used in the entire larval period. The fifth instar female larvae showed significantly higher overall efficiencies than male larvae. There was a gradual increase in amount of energy stored per mg dry body weight from first to fifth instar. The absorption and growth efficiency was lowest in second instar. Hence, it is the most vulnerable instar needing more care during rearing. Highest all-round efficiency was observed in fifth instar larva. Therefore, optimum care should be given to fifth instar larva during feeding and rearing in order to maximize silk productivity.

178-188

Authors: K. Syed Ibrahim, A. Laishram, E. Lalnunmawii, N. Senthil Kumar

Cytochrome P450 monooxygenases (CYPs) represent a large group and diverse family of enzymes involved in the myriad of biological processes in humans. In the present study, a total of 57 protein sequences of human CYPs retrieved from UniprotKB have been characterized for various physiochemical properties, homology search, motif and super family search and phylogenetic relationship. Physicochemical analysis showed that the isoelectric point values and GRAVY index ranged from 5.84 to 9.47 and 0.018 to -0.367, respectively. Many proteins (50 members, 87.8%) were in basic form, while few (7 members, 12.2%) were of acidic nature. Moreover, GRAVY index revealed that only CYP26C1 as hydrophobic while all others as hydrophilic. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that P450 proteins basically fall into two main clades and are divided into five subgroups. Motif analysis with MEME indicated presence, absence and even shuffling of motifs within clades. Clustering using the maximum likelihood analysis was also in accordance with P450s central roles in drug and xenobiotic metabolism as well as steroid hormone synthesis, fat-soluble vitamin metabolism, and the conversion of polyunsaturated fatty acids to biologically active molecules. Motif conservation within clusters showed the evolutionary pressure for maintenance of the structural and functional organization between different groups of protein. These results will help in the context of understanding the characteristics of the cytochrome P450 monooxygenase isoforms.

196-200

Authors: R. Zomuanpuii, C. L. Hmar, Vanramliana, N. Senthil kumar

Japanese encephalitis (JE) is a leading cause of viral encephalitis in Asia. Mizoram does not have record of JE till now, however, mortality due to ‘viral encephalitis’ among 7 to 20 aged groups during pre-monsoon and post- monsoon season has been recorded. Pathologic studies of fatal human encephalitis caused many common findings. The clinical syndrome may include many neurological effects and many other similarities in the clinical presentations. Such neurologic disease may manifest as subtle changes resulting in an initial misdiagnosis. Several serological methods have been developed for investigation and diagnosis of the disease. However, reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) based methodologies have resulted in increased sensitivity for the detection of JEV viruses in clinical samples, and offers rapid and sensitive method.

206-211

Authors: Ch. Khawlhring, L. M. Singh

Green mature fruits of tomato were harvested in the morning and subjected to treatments on the same day by dipping in maleic hydrazide of different concentrations such as control (T0), 100 ppm (T1), 200 ppm (T2), 300 ppm (T3) and 400 ppm (T4) respectively. The fruits were stored in ambient condition for one month, and physical observations such as fruit weight, colour and fruit firmness were taken at 3-day interval, whereas chemical observations such as total soluble solids (TSS), titratable acidity, reducing sugar and non-reducing sugar contents were analysed at 5 days interval and lycopene contents estimated at the end of the experiment. Loss of fruit weight, colour change and reduced firmness was observed in all the fruits, but the fruits with 400ppm maleic hydrazide treatment showed best retention of colour as well as fruit firmness up to the end of the experiment.