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Microorganisms for you
Structure of Atmosphere
Medicinal Plants of the Month
Research Methodology— Methods of Assessment of Total antioxidant capacity.
Facts: Inventions and Discoveries related to Plant Science.
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Bacillus thuringiensis It is a gram positive soil dwelling bacterium commonly used as biological pesticide. Ishiwatori Shigetane, a Japanese Biologist first discovered this in 1901 in silkworm. It occurs naturally in the gut of caterpillars of various types of moths and butterflies, as well as on leaf surfaces, aquatic environment, animal faeces, insect rich environment. This bacterium is employed over years to control larvae of moths, beetles and flies that cause damage to the root of the crops. Bt. produces crystalline proteins (proteinaceous inclusions) called S-endotoxins, during sporulation that is very toxic to larvae which ingest them. These crystals cause the development of holes in the gut lining of larvae after dissolving. This lead to its use as insecticide and genetically modified crops using Bt genes are being developed. In most strains the Cry genes are located on a plasmid. Cry toxins have specific activities against insect species of the orders Lepidoptera (moths and butterflies), Dipthera (Flies and mosquitoes), Coleoptera (Beetles), Hymenoptera (wasps, bees, ants and sawflies) and against nematodes. Thus B.thuringiensis serves as an important reservoir of Cry toxins for production of biological insecticides and insect resistant genetically modified crops. When insects ingest toxin crystals, their alkaline digestive tracts denature the insoluble crystals, making them soluble and thus amenable to being cut with proteases found in the insect gut, which liberate the toxin from the crystal. The Cry toxin is then inserted into the insect gut cell membranes paralysing the digestive tract and forming a pore. The insect stops eating and starves to death, live Bt bacteria may also colonize the insects which can contribute to death.
Bifidobacterium adolescentis
MICRO ORGANISMS FOR YOU
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It is a normal inhabitant of healthy human and animal intestinal tracts. Colonization of this bacterium occurs immediately after birth. Its population in the gut tends to maintain a relative stability until late adulthood, where factors such as diet, stress and antibiotics causes it to decline. Tissies in 1899 first isolated the species from the feces of breast feeding newborns. It has interested dairy manufacturers by producing therapeutic fermented milk products due to their high survival rates in acidic products. It is added most notably in yogurt and milk. It is a gram positive bacterium containing one cell membrane and is non motile. The cell wall is primarily made of murein. Its polysaccharide components include glucose and galactose. The major fatty acids within the cell wall are myristic, palmitic and oleic acids.
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Beauveria bassiana It is a fungus growing in soil throughout the world and acts as a parasite on various arthropod species, causing white muscardine disease. It is being used as a biological insecticide to control a number of pests such as termites, thrips, whiteflies, aphids and different beetles. Agostina Bassi, a Lebanese entomologist discovered it for the first time in 1815 as the cause of the muscardne disease and the species was named after him. The disease is transmitted by air. The disease caused by this fungus has been named white muscardine disease. When the microscopic spores of the fungus come into contact with the body of the insect host, they germinate, penetrate the cuticle and grow inside, killing the insect within a matter of days. Afterwards a white mold emerges from the cadaves and produces new spores. On most common culture media, it produces many dry, powdery conidia in distinctive white spore balls. Each spore ball is composed of a cluster of conidiogenous cells. These cells are short, ovoid and terminate in a narrow apical extention celled the rachis. The rachis elongate after each conidium resulting in a long Zig zag extention. The conidia are single celled, haploid and hydrophobic.This fungus has been reported to efficiently control mosquito populations. This fungus targets and causes high mortality in mosquito larvae particularly in the third instar. This fungus colonizes the exterior of the mosquito and grows into the hemolymph which causes death in 1-2 weeks.
Beijerinckia derxii It is a unicellular, free living, aerobic. Chemoheterotrophic bacteria and has nitrogen fixing capacity. It is rod shaped when young and becomes dumbbell shaped on aging. These bacteria are extremely acid tolerant. The polar lipoid bodies are present on each end of the cell. The lipoid bodies are highly refractile and may be involved in protection from light. These lipoids consists of poly beta hydroxybutyrate (PHB). It has the ability to turn a liquid media viscous by producing polysaccharide slime. The exopolysaccharides may also protect the nitrogenise from oxygen damage, as it forms a protective oxygen barrier. Due to its metabolism, this bacteria plays an important role in plant growth. The favourable carbon sources are sugars, organic alcohols and organic acids. It has the ability to hydrolyse starch. It can survive cold weather, making it ideal for temperate regions that experiences a seasonal freeze. The production of slime makes it easier for retaining water in rainforest soils. It has the ability to fix atmospheric nitrogen. The pigments secreted by B.derxii may be of importance in the stimulation of other microbes in the surrounding environment.
Beijerinckia indica It is a nitrogen fixing, aerobic, acidophilic bacteria
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VIGNA RADIATA L. Family : Fabaceae Medicinal properties: Cooling, digestible, laxative, antipyretic, seeds used to cure biliousness, blood diseases, astringent to bowels, good to treat fevers, eye trouble, headache, nose complaints, throat inflammations, bronchitis, kidney disease. Phytochemicals reported from the plant:
Medicinal
Glutamylmethionine, alanine, L– pipecolic acid, amino acids, phosphatidylinositol, phosphatidylethanolamine, galacto lipids, linoleic acid.
plants of the Month
Facts Strasburger in 1882 described
mitosis
in plant cells and introduced the terms cytoplasm and nucleoplasm.
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MACROTYLOMA UNIFLORUM (Lam)Ver DC Family : Fabaceae Medicinal properties: Treat heart disease, asthma, bronchitis, urinary discharge and for treating kidney stones. Phytochemicals reported from the plant: Polyphenols, flavonoids, proteins, antioxidants, nicotinic acid, carotene, phosphorus, vitamin B, calcium, carbohydrate, arginine, lysine.
Facts
W. Pfitzner in 1882 discovered chromomeres the granules on the chromosomes.
W. Roux in 1883 proposed chromosomes contain hereditary units.
E.Van Benedan in 1883 showed in Ascaris that gametes contain half of chromosomes than the body cells.
Schimper in 1883 introduced the term chloroplasts.
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GLYCYRRHIZA GLABRA L. Family : Fabaceae Medicinal properties: Demulcent, expectorant, antiallergic, anti inflammatory, spasmolytic, mild laxative, anti stress, anti depressive, anti ulcer, liver protection, estrogenic, emmenogogue, anti diabetic. Used to treat bronchitis, dry cough, respiratory infections, catarrh, tuberculosis, genitourinary diseases, urinary tract infections, abdominal pain, ulcer. Phytochemicals reported from the plant: Glycyrrhiza, saponin, glycyrrhetinic acid, isoflavonoids, chalcones, coumarins, triterpenoids, sterols, ligans, aminoacid, gum, volatile oil.
Facts
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Meyer in 1883 described the details
of chloroplast structure.
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FLEMINGIA MACROPHYLLA (Willd)O.Ktze.EX.Merr. Family : Fabaceae Medicinal properties: Leaves– decoction is used to treat bath sores and swellings, used as an antipyretic for treating post partum fever, treat paralysis nad pain in joints. Phytochemicals reported from the plant: Flavonoids, genistein, flemichin D, lespedezaflavanone A, ouratea catechin, fleminone, flemiphyllin, flemiginin, flemingichromone, flemingichalcone.
Facts
Metschnikoff in 1883 observed and named phagocytosis in cells.
R. Altmann in 1886 stained mitochondria and other granular components of cell and suggested their role in respiratory metabolism of the cell
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Structure of atmosphere
Based on the atmospheric pressure and temperature, the atmosphere can be divided into layers: Troposphere– it covers 80% of the mass of the atmosphere including all water vapor molecules. This layer includes air, weather and cloud. Since weather is determined in troposphere, this region is referred as ‘Changing sphere’. The upper most layer of the troposphere is the tropopause and severe thunderstorms may penetrate the tropopause. Temperature decreases with increase in altitude. This is because, air will expand and cool on rising. Stratosphere– The temperature is minimum even drops to zero. The stratosphere contains the ozone layer. At lower region of stratosphere the temperature is minimum whereas due to the radiation absorption by ozone layer, the temperature increases with height. Clouds of ice crystals may form at times in the lower stratosphere over the polar regions. Researchers showed the formation of very thin and widespread clouds in the polar stratosphere under extremely cold conditions. These clouds, called polar stratospheric clouds or PSCs appear to be small crystals of ice or frozen mixtures of ice and nitric acid PCSs play a key role in the development of ozone hole. Mesosphere and thermosphere– the constituents of this region are nitrogen gas, atomic oxygen and nitrogen and nitric oxide. All these, when exposed to strong solar radiation results in ionization (knocking off an electron to form an atom or molecule with positive charge). The upper mesosphere and lower thermosphere contain these ions and thus called ionosphere. The ionosphere makes the radio communication possible. Even if the radio waves from transmitter are blocked by mountains or curvature of the earth, one can still receive the waves
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bounced off the ionosphere. The upper thermosphere is the region where bright night time display of colors and flashes called aurora occur. The aurora are caused by energetic particles emitted by the sun. These particles get trapped by Earth’s magnetic field and collide with relatively few gas atoms present above 100Km (mostly oxygen and nitrogen). These collisions cause the atoms and molecules to emit light resulting in spectacular displays.
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Facts
C.A.
Macmunn
discovered
cytochromes
(originally
“histohematins”)
E. Van Beneden in 1887 discovered centrioles.
Waldeyer in 1888 introduced the term Chromosome.
Kolliker in 1888 isolated Mitochondria
Boveri and Guignard proved the re establishment of a diploid chromosome number at fertilization by joining equal sets from the male and female gametes.
A. Weismann in 1892 proposed the germplasm theory and showed the chromosomes as the most important components of the nucleus.
T. Boveri in 1892 described spermatogenesis and oogenesis in Ascaris.
Granier in 1897 named and described the Ergastoplasm.
C. Benda in 1898 named Mitochondria.
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Facts
C. Golgi in 1898 described golgi complex in nerve cells.
J. Loeb discovered artificial parthenogenesis of eggs in 1900 by chemical and mechanical methods.
T.H. Montogomery in 1901 showed that homologous chromosomes undergo synapsis during meiosis.
Strasburger in 1901 introduced the term plasmodesmata.
C.E. Mcching in 1902 identified the sex chromosomes in Hemiptera.
W.S. Sutton in 1902 recognized the significance of reduction division and proposed the “Chromosome theory” of heredity. He pointed out the paralles between genes and chromosomal behavior and suggested a chromosomal location for genes.
E. Buchner in 1903 discovered the enzyme and got Nobel Prize.
E. Meves in 1904 demonstrated the presence of mitochondria in plant cells.
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Facts
J . B. Farmer in 1905 coined the term meiosis along with J.E. Moore.
M. Tswett in 1906 discovered chromatography.
R.G. Harrison in 1907 developed the technique for growing tissues in culture.
F.A. Janssens in 1909 stated chiasmata formed by the exchanges between two chromatids of non homologous chromosomes.
A. Kossel in 1910 investigated the chemistry of nucleus and got Nobel Prize.
T.H. Morgan advanced his gene theory in 1911 by proposing that genes are linearly arranged along chromosomes in a definite order.
Warburg in 1912 demonstrated that iron is essential for respiration.
Wilstatter and Stoll in 1913 isolated chlorophyll and later determined its structure.
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Methods of Assessment of Total Antioxidant capacity Spectrometric techniques rely on the reaction of a radical, radical cation or complex with an antioxidant molecule capable to donate a hydrogen atom. DPPH Method (DPPH– 2,2 diphenyl– 1– Picryl hydrazyl): DPPH is a stable free radical because of delocalization of spare electron on whole molecule. Thus DPPH does not dimerize. The delocalization on the DPPH molecule determines the occurrence of purple color with an absorbance band around 520nm. When DPPH reacts with hydrogen donor, the reduced form Research methodology
DPPH is generated, accompanied by the disappearance of violet color. The spectrophotometric method with DPPH was applied to antioxidant capacity determination in fruit juices and fruit extracts. The standard curve was linear between 25 and 800mM trolox. ABTS Method: The ABTS cation radical (ABTS.+) which absorbs at 743nm (giving a bluish green color) is formed by the loss of an electron by the nitrogen atom of ABTS [2,2’- azino– bis (3-
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Ethyl benzthiazoline– 6– sulphonic acid)]. In the presence of hydrogen atom yielding a decolorized solution. ABTS can be oxidized by potassium persulphate or manganese dioxide. FRAP (Ferric reducing antioxidant power) Method: This method is based on the reduction by the antioxidants of the complex ferric ion –TPTZ [2,4,6,tri(2– pyridyl)- 1,3,5– triazine]. The binding of Fe2+ to the ligand creates a very intense navy blue color. The absorbance can be measured to test the amount of iron reduced and can be correlated with the amount of antioxidants. The references used are Trolox, ascorbic acid. ORAC(Oxygen Radical absorption capacity) Assay: The method measures the antioxidant scavenging activity against the peroxyl radical, induced by 2,2’-azobis- (2-amidino-propane)dihydro chloride(AAPH) at 37ºC. Fluorescein was used as the fluorescent probe. The loss of fluorescence was an indicator of the extent of decomposition from its reaction with the peroxyl radical.
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Facts
R.M. Willstatter in 1915 got Nobel Prize for the research on chlorophyll.
F. Pregl in 1923 got Nobel Prize for micro analysis of organic substances.
G. Hevery in 1923 discovered the technique of isotopic tracing in which the fate of labeled isotope molecules can be traced througha metabolic pathway.
O. Warburg in 1923 discovered a method of measuring the gaseous exchange in living tissue by manometry.
R. Feulgen and H. rossenbeck described a test for DNA in 1924.
In 1926, T. Svedberg got Nobel prize for the discovery of ultra centrifuge.
F. Griffith discovered genetic transduction in bacteria in 1928.
K. Lohmann in 1929 discovered ATP, the source of energy in biochemical reactions.
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Facts
C. Stern, H. Creighhtno, B. Mcclingtock in 1931 demonstrated cytologically the process of crossing over.
O.H. Warburg in 1931 got Nobel prize for the discovery of respiratory enzymes and their actions.
Engelhardt in 1931 demonstrated that the photophosphorylation is coupled to oxygen consumption.
W. H. Lewis in 1931 discovered Pinocytosis.
M. Knoll and E. Ruska developed the first electron microscope in 1932.
T. H. Morgan in 1933 received Nobel Prize for the discovery of function of chromosomes in transmission of heredity.
Keilin in 1933 partially reconstituted an electron transport chain.
W.M. Stanley in 1935 isolated tobacco mosaic virus in crystalline form.
Hans A. Krebs in 1937 formulated the citric acid cycle.
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Darani Vasudevan daraniauthor.ga
Hi readers, I am a Botanist and writer. This magazine is an outcome of the topics that interested me a lot while doing my research works. I chose this magazine as a platform for sharing many interesting facts related to plant Science and microorganisms.