INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF LIFE SCIENCES

1-6

Authors: Gosavi Mahavir C

Traditional Chinese Medicine has used mushrooms for thousands of years. There are over 200 species of mushrooms in China that are used to practice healing. The last decade has witnessed the over- whelming interest of western research fraternity in pharmaceutical potential of mushrooms. Medicinal mushrooms and mushroom extracts are used worldwide to fight cancer and enhance and modulate immune response. The Chinese were among the first people to appreciate the value of the mushroom. About 100 species are being studied for their health-promoting benefits. More than 50 mushroom species have yielded potential immunoceuticals that exhibit anticancer activity in vitro or in animal models and of these, six have been investigated in human cancers which are rich in polysaccharides and beta glucans, the primary active immune-enhancing constituents. Research, including 4 Nobel Prizes, shows that glycoproteins can help cellular communications. Key Words: Mushroom, Anticancer, Immunoceuticals, Chinese, Glycoproteins.

11-18

Authors: Londhe Madhavi Navnit and Padalia Unnati

The sugar xylitol is a five carbon sugar alcohol that has beneficial health effects. Xylitol represents an alternative to current dominant sweeteners for diabetic people. The microbial production of xylitol is an alternative for the catalytic hydrogenation of xylose in wood hydrolysates. The bioconversion of xylose to xylitol is efficiently brought about by yeasts. A total of 20 yeasts strains form natural environments were screened to check their capacities for3% xylose utilization within 72hours by DNSA method. The best xylose utilizing isolate of all was thus selected for xylitol production from 5% xylose as substrate. A garden soil isolate (Sx) appeared to be a promising strain producing xylitol with good yield in a optimized medium containing Yeast Nitrogen Base (0.58g of xylitol per gram of xylose consumed). This isolate was identified to be Candida tropicals strain. Xylitol yield by the immobilized cells was also studied for this isolate. The percentage efficiency of xylose to xylitol conversion was significant. All the samples were analyzed by HPLC for determination of xylitol production. Xylitol yield in immobilized condition was also studied. The present work deals with experimental investigation for the production of xylitol from natural isolates.

27-31

Authors: Ayare Komal S and Golatkar VV

The mutually beneficial relation between feeder roots of plants and fungi is called ‘Mycorrhiza’. The term ‘Mycorrhiza’ was coined by Frank in 1885 to describe symbiotic association of plant roots and fungi. The word ‘Mycorrhiza’ originate from two greek words ‘Mycos’ meaning fungus and rhiza meaning root. Arbuscular mycorrhizae (AM) are symbiotic association formed between plants and soil fungi that play an essential role in plant growth, plant protection and soil quality. There are reports providing evidence that association with AM fungi facilitates better nutrient uptake enhancing plant growth. Hence to exploit these biological tools, pot experiments were carried out and response on growth and yield of Pisum sativum L. was studied. AM inoculums brought from Tamil Nadu Agricultural university containing the mixture of Glomus species was directly used as an inoculum to study the effect of AM on Pisum sativum L. Pot experiments were conducted in mixture of sterilized garden soil and sterilized sand in the ratio 3:1. The experiment was conducted with AM (treated) and non AM (control) plants of Pisum sativum L. Soluble protein content, alpha amino nitrogen content, nitrate content and nitrate reductase activity in the leaves of treated and control plants of Pisum sativum L. were estimated at an interval of 15 days after sowing the seeds (DAS), 30DAS, 45DAS and at 60DAS. The association of AM fungi enhances the growth in all the treated plants. The significantly high growth rate and yield was observed in treated plants than control plants. Significantly higher amount of soluble protein content, alpha amino nitrogen content, nitrate content and nitrate reductase activity was observed in the leaves of treated plants of Pisum sativum L. than that in control ones.

37-41

Authors: Rathod Mulchand M and Bendre KB

Wood rotting fungi are an important component of forest ecosystems. Especially white rote fungi belong to the order basidomycetes that participates in the biodegradation of lignin in nature, which is essential for global carbon recycling. In present paper an attempt was made to isolate the wood rotting fungi from different host plants from the forest of Western Maharashtra, India. Out of sixty five samples examined the white rot fungi, Lenzite sacuta Berk. of genus Lenzites Fr. were isolated for further studies. The morphological, macro chemical and cultural features of the species are described in this paper.

47-50

Authors: Moses Kolet

Although a variety of fungi are capable of growth on cellulosic substrates, only a dedicated handful of them can effectively hydrolyse native cellulose through production of cellulases. In the present study, the cellulolytic capabilities of seven cellulolytic fungal organisms viz. Aspergillus niger van Tieghem, Chaetomium crispatum Fuckel, C. globosum Kunze (2 isolates), C. olivaceum Cooke and Ellis (2 isolates) and C. mollicellum Ames were determined in terms of activities of enzymes, Endo- and Exo-1, 4 β glucanase. Chaetomium olivaceum demonstrated maximum activity of Endo- as well as Exo-1,4 β glucanase, followed by C. crispatum, C. globosum (isolate # g1), C. olivaceum (isolate # o2), C. mollicellum, C. globosum (isolate # g2) and Aspergillus niger for Endo-1,4 β glucanase; and C. globosum (isolate # g1), C. crispatum, C. olivaceum (isolate # o2), C. mollicellum, C. globosum (isolate # g2) and Aspergillus niger for Exo-1,4 β glucanase respectively. Enzyme activities were compared with those demonstra- ted by Aspergillus niger, a commercially exploited and well known cellulolytic biodeteriogen.

55-59

Authors: Kumar Sree S, Thanawalla Ayesha, and Pote Archana

Dictyostelium is an eukaryote, a protist, and a slime mold. Dictyostelium shows developmental vacuolated cell death (autophagy) in the stalk. Macroautophagy is an intracellular degradative process for cytosolic components at the lysosome. Derailing of this mechanism is implicated in several neurodegenerative diseases, as it leads to accumulation of mutant aggregate proteins. Dictyostelium lacks the required machinery for apoptosis, and undergoes cell death only by autophagy or necrosis. Starvation in Dictyostelium sets in the mode of multicellular development in which stalk cells enlarge and altruistically die by autophagy which can be mimicked in vitro. In the present work, Lithium and Valproic acid were used to observe autophagy in the AX2 strain. Monolayer cultures of AX2 strain of Dictyostelium was standardized to observe the percentage of vacuolated autophagic cells using microscopic and staining techniques. Our studies established that AX2 strain can be a new model system to study autophagic cell death in neurodegeneration and can be used as a pharmacological model for putative drugs as well.

65-69

Authors: Jagtap JD and Suryawanshi NS

Onion (Allium cepa L.) is an important vegetable crop in India and as well in Maharashtra. There are various pathogens attacking on onion and basal rot caused by Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cepae. Schlecht. Emend. Snyder & Hansen is dominant in Nasik district. The disease management is equally important using biocontrol agents to increase productivity of this crop. Therefore, evaluated the ability of biocontrol agents viz. Aspergillus niger, A. flavus, Trichoderma viride, T. harzianum, T. koningii, Curvularia lunata, Penicillium expansum, Alternaria alternata, Xanthomonos axonopodis, Bacillus subtilis, and Pseudomonas fluorescens against Fusarium oxysporum. All these biocontrol agents observed significantly reduction in the growth of the pathogens. Trichoderma viride was more fruitful PCE value (78.88) against Fusarium oxysporum followed by A. niger, T. harzianum, A. flavus, T. koningii, Curvularia lunata, Alternaria alternata, Penicillium expansum, Xanthomonas axonopodis, Bacillus subtilis and Pseudomonas fluorescens (12.85) by dual culture technique in vitro. In the nature microbial interactions involve competition, hyper parasitism and these phenomena play vital role in striking ecological balance and keeping several plant pathogens in check. In recent times biological control of plant pathogenic fungi has received a considerable attention, as it has several advantages such as possibility of multiple pathogen suppression, low cost and promotion of soil fertility.

73-76

Authors: Menon Shailaja S and Padalia Unnati

Biofertilizers are the boon to the agricultural sector. The search for the proper living organisms to be supplemented to the crop plants gave fuel to the findings of mycobionts of the symbiotic association of Mycorrhiza. Field examination along the coastal line of Mumbai and suburbs reveal the abundance of the genus Glomus, one of the most important fungal partner in these localities. The current study deals with the findings of these microbes in specific geographical area, their presence in higher plants and identification.

81-85

Authors: Chahar Sunita * and Jain Shweta

Arbuscular Mycorrhizal fungi, previously known as Vesicular–Arbuscular-Mycorrhizal fungi (VAM) are soil microbes , forming obligate symbiotic association with the roots of 87% of the land plants. The Kaas plateau is situated in the western ghat of Sahyadri ranges 22km from Satara city in Maharashtra. This plateau is famous for its flowering plant diversity. The objective of the present study was to study the biodiversity of AM Fungi in five plants most commonly occurring and flowering in the month of September i.e. Eriocaulon manoharanii, Pogostemon deccanensis, Senecio grahamii, Impatiens oppositifolia and Dipcadi montanum. These plants were screened for arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) spore number and root colonization. The average mycorrhizal root colonization was found to be 79.2±6.1 percent. Dipcadi montanum showed maximum root colonization. The spore number ranged from 210±10 to 618±17.5 per 5 gm. The highest mycorrhizal spore count was found in Dipcadi montanum and lowest in Eriocaulon manoharanii. It was found that number of spores in the rhizosphere of plant was not related to the intensity of AM root colonization. The dominant AM species found were Acaulospora scrobiculata, Glomus albidum and Glomus macrocarpum. The average spore density of AM fungi in Satara Kaas plateu is found to be 330 spores per 5gm. Type of infection found in the roots was in the form of arbuscules, vesicles, spores (intra radical and extra radical spores), hyphae and sporocarps. Another type of potentially beneficial fungi associated with roots was observed, namely, dark septate endophytic fungi (DSEF). Dark septate endophytic fungi were identified in Pogostemon deccanensiss and Senecio grahamii .

89-91

Authors: Dekate HM and Baviskar RN

The present investigation is carried out in Mumbri Creek of Sindhudurg district (Lat. 16º 21' N. Long. 73º 25' E). The main aim of this work is to find out the productivity of the Mumbri creek. This abstract consists of major mycoflora such as Phycomycetes, Ascomycetes, Zygomycetes and Deuteromycetes. The mycoflora help in making the wetlands highly nutritious which enhances commercially important resource organisms. Pneumatophores of Avicennia marina provide excellent media to grow the fungi on large scale. The Deuteromycetes were dominating group.

95-99

Authors: Vaidya Charuta S

This work comprised a two years study on biodiversity and some qualitative aspects of Poroid Aphyllophoralesin a tropical forest of Karnala in the Western Ghats. More than 200 specimens were collected and the identification revealed 38 genera and 55 species belonging to order Aphyllophorales. Amongst these, 12 genera and 25 species belongs to family Polyporaceae, commonly called Poroid Aphyllophorales. Genera like Antrodia, Antrodiella, Dichomitus, Junghuhnia, Perenniporia, Rigidoporus, Trametes, Wrightoporia occurs on live standing trees. Oxyporus, Incrustoporia, occurs on dead standing tree. Genera like Cristelloporia, Oxyporus, Xylobolus are most abundantly found on fallen branches. Analysis of the WRF was carried out which clearly indicates that majority of them belongs to southern distribution. Some of species belongs to northern distribution while very few are found in both the hemisphere. It was also observed that the distribution of Aphyllophoraleshas close affinities with that of tropical memberswith majority of African species.

105-106

Authors: Singh Pooja and Padalia Unnati

One Coumarin derivative of biological interest was synthesized by green synthesis method chemically. This derivative was evaluated for its antifungal activity against yeast Candida albicans by Agar Well Diffusion method. The Coumarin derivative was found to show antifungal activity against Candida albicans.