International Journal of Applied Sciences and Biotechnology

1-11

Authors: Meysam Madadi, Yuanyuan Tu, Aqleem Abbas

Lignocellulosic materials among the alternative energy resources are the most desirable resources that can be employed to produce cellulosic ethanol, but this materials due to physical and chemical structure arranges strong native recalcitrance and results in low yield of ethanol. Then, a proper pre-treatment method is required to overcome this challenge. Until now, different pre-treatment technologies have been established to enhance lignocellulosic digestibility. This paper widely describes the structure of lignocellulosic biomass and effective parameters in pre-treatment of lignocelluloses, such as cellulose crystallinity, accessible surface area, and protection by lignin and hemicellulose. In addition, an overview about the most important pre-treatment processes include physical, chemical, and biological are provided. Finally, we described about the inhibitors enzymes which produced from sugar degradation during pre-treatment process and the ways to control this inhibitors.

22-29

Authors: Gamal M. Abdel-Fattah, Elsayed E. Hafez, Mysaa E. Zaki, Nada M. Darwesh

Recombinant technology has crucial impact in therapy development. In microbial environment, Pathogenic bacteria such as Staphylococcus aureus produces alpha hemolysin protein. This protein is used as anticancer protein. In our study, alpha hemolysin toxin (hia) gene was isolated from S. aureus isolate. The isolate of S. aureus was isolated from blood samples of patients at Microbiology laboratory of Chlidren Mansoura Unversity Hospital. The purified PCR of hia gene of S. aureus strain was subjected to sequencing and cloning. Recombinant alpha hemolysin toxin cloning was detected by PCR, and α- hemolysin protein was purified by Sphadex. The purified α-protein was used as anticancer against HepG-2 cells (human Hepatocellular carcinoma), HCT-116 cells (human colon carcinoma), MCF-7 cells (human breast cancer cell line) and A-549 cells (human Lung cancer cell line).

37-41

Authors: Lok Bahadur Rana, Ram Prasad Mainali, Homan Regmi, Binayak Prasad RajBhandari

Green lacewing, Chrysoperla carnea Stephens (Neuroptera: Chrysopidae) is the most effective polyphagous predator of different species of aphids and is commonly known as “aphid lion” . The experiment on feeding efficiency of green lacewing was studied in the laboratory of Entomology Division, NARC, Khumaltar, Lalitpur, Nepal from 21st , December 2015 to 26th, March 2016. The known number of predatory larva of green lacewings were fed with known number of seven different species of live aphid and frozen Corcyra eggs representing each treatment. The treatments were replicated four times. The predatory efficiency was calculated by counting the number of consumed host per day. The result revealed that the predatory efficiency of C. carnea larvae were increased from first to third instar and third instar were more voracious as compare to first two instars. It consumed significantly the highest rice moth, Corcyra cephalonica followed by Aphis craccivora and others aphid species, respectively. From this experiment, it is evident that the green lacewing is potent bio-agent against different aphid species and hence further research is required simultaneously in the farmer’s field conditions.

51-58

Authors: P. Roy, M.A.R. Sarkar, S.K. Paul

An experiment was conducted at the Agronomy Field Laboratory, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh during December 2014 to May 2015 to study the effect of integrated fertilizer and weed management on the yield and gain protein content of aromatic Boro rice (cv. BRRI dhan50). The experiment comprised six sets of fertilizer managements. 1. Negative control having no fertilizers and no manures, 2. Recommended dose of inorganic fertilizers (i.e. Urea, TSP, MoP, Gypsum, ZnSO4 @ 250, 120, 120, 100, 10 kg ha-1, respectively), 3. 50% of recommended dose of inorganic fertilizers + cowdung @ 5 t ha-1, 4. 75% of recommended dose of inorganic fertilizers + cowdung @ 5 t ha-1, 5. 50% of recommended dose of inorganic fertilizers + poultry manure @ 2.5 t ha-1, 6. 75% of recommended dose of inorganic fertilizers + poultry manure @ 2.5 t ha-1. Four weed managements 1. Control (no weeding), pre-emergence herbicide, 2. Panida 33 EC + one hand weeding at 35 DAT, 3. Post-emergence herbicide, Granite 240 SC + one hand weeding at 35 DAT and 4. Pre-emergence herbicide, Panida 33 EC + post-emergence herbicide, Granite 240 SC. The highest grain yield (6.40 t ha-1), grain protein content (7.79%) and benefit cost ratio (2.20) were obtained from 75% of recommended dose of inorganic fertilizers + poultry manure @ 2.5 t ha-1 with pre-emergence herbicide, Panida 33 EC @ 2.5 l ha-1 + post-emergence herbicide, Granite 240 SC @ 93.70 ml ha-1 while their corresponding lowest values were found inweedy check without fertilization. Weed infestation reduced 58.28% grain yield in control plots due to crop-weed competition compared to plot receiving pre-emergence herbicide + post-emergence herbicide. It can be concluded that 75% of recommended dose of inorganic fertilizers + poultry manure @ 2.5 t ha-1 combined with pre-emergence herbicide, Panida 33 EC @ 2.5 l ha-1 + post-emergence herbicide, Granite 240 SC @ 93.70 ml ha-1 may be used to obtain the highest grain yield and grain protein content of aromatic Boro rice (cv. BRRI dhan50).

66-71

Authors: Pushpa Karna

Karyotype, meiosis and pollen stainability of the taxa Bidens pilosa L. var. minor (Blume) Sherff and Xanthium strumarium L. collected from central part of Nepal was cytologically carried out. Results obtained from this investigation showed that chromosome number in somatic cells were recorded to be 2n=36 in Bidens pilosa and 2n=32 in Xanthium strumarium using aceto-orceine squash technique. Likewise haploid chromosome number in reproductive cells were recorded to be n=18 in Bidens pilosa and n=16 in Xanthium strumarium using aceto-carmine squash technique. The range of chromosome length found to be 0.4 to 2.1 µm in Bidens pilosa and 0.4 to 1.6 µm in Xanthium strumarium. Karyotype formula was M16+m2+sm14+st4 for Bidens pilosa and M18+ sm12+st2 for Xanthium strumarium. Based on the position of the centromeres, the chromosomes were categorized into four types with centromere at median point, median region, sub median region and terminal region in Bidens pilosa whereas three types, namely chromosomes with centromere at median point, sub median region and sub terminal region in Xanthium strumarium . In Bidens pilosa karyotype is asymmetrical and slightly asymmetrical karyotype is found in Xanthium strumarium. Absolute length recorded in Bidens pilosa were 19.2µm and 15.8. µm in Xanthium strumarium . Pollen stainability is found to be 94.0 percent in Bidens pilosa and 92.7 percent in Xanthium strumarium.

81-85

Authors: Hemanta Kumari Chaudhary, Mitesh Shrestha, Prakash Chaudhary, Bal Hari Poudel

Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) has become a serious worldwide threat including in Nepal. MDR-TB refers to the pathological condition whereby Mycobacterium tuberculosis becomes resistant to the first line of drug treatment i.e. rifampin and isoniazid. Resistance to rifampin (RIF) is mainly caused by the mutations in the rpoB gene which codes for the β-subunit of RNA polymerase. In this study, Amplification Refractory Mutation System – Polymerase Chain Reaction (ARMS – PCR) technique has been used to detect mutations in the rpoB gene of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Total DNA samples of 34 phenotypic MDR-TB were subjected to ARMS – PCR using three different codon specific primers (516, 526 and 531). These three codons occupy large portion of total mutation responsible for rifampin resistance. Out of the total DNA samples, all were bearing mutation in at least one of the three codons mentioned. Of those bearing mutation, the highest number had mutation in codon 531 (97.05 %) followed by codon 516 (17.64 %) and finally in codon 526 (11.76%) respectively. Hence, ARMS – PCR may be used as an alternative diagnostic technique for detection of rifampin resistance in Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains, especially for a developing country like Nepal.

91-97

Authors: Pramod Kumar Yadav

From the selected area of Dharan, Sunsari, Nepal, conventional and organic tomatoes were grown and tested with different parameters. Conventional tomatoes contained less value of Mg, Ca, K, Cu and Mn, but more value of Fe than organic tomatoes, where as Pb and Ni were not detected.The Zn was found to be same in both tomatoes sample. The sizes of conventional tomatoes were reportedly bigger than organic tomatoes. The viscosity and surface tension of organic tomatoes juice were reported to be higher than in conventional tomatoes juice. The refractive index value was found to be lower in conventional tomatoes juice than in organic tomatoes juice. The vitamin C value was found to be higher in conventional tomatoes juice than in organic tomatoes juice. The comparative study of color, juice containing capacity, storage capacity and firmness of organic and conventional tomatoes of Dharan,Sunsari,Nepal has also been included.

102-107

Authors: N.K. Yadav, S.K. Ghimire, S.M. Shrestha, B.P. Sah, A. Sarker, S.K. Sah

The crop yield of lentil is below attainable levels which are mainly attributed to pathological factors especially lentil wilt caused by Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. lentis and Stemphylium blight caused by Stemphylium botryosum .Fusarium wilt is a potential threat to letil production not only in Nepal but worldwide that can cause complete crop failure. While stemphylium blight is recently being serious problem to Bangladesh, Nepal and India. In Nepal, multiple disease resistance work was not reported in lentil before the present study. Two trials separately using 185 genotypes were conducted to study the wilt and stem phylium blight were conducted. For wilt screening one hundred eighty five lentil lines including resistant check ILL7164 and susceptible check sindur, were sown in a previously developed wilt sick bed, while for stem phylium blight serarate trial was conducted in the research area of Regional Agricultural Research Station Nepalgunj using augmented design. Natural inoculums were also relied upon. Disease severity data were recorded. Results revealed that incase of Fusarium wilt sixteen genotypes were found resistant and twenty-three moderately resistant while in case of Stemphylium blight 87 resistant and 36 moderately resistant in field condition. It also indicated that 9 genotypes i.e RL-13,RL-21,ILL6468,ILL9996,\ILL6024,ILL6811,ILL7164,Arun,Maheswar bharti showed combined resistant to both the diseases.