Cyanobacteria are the oxygenic photosynthesis performing prokaryotes and show a connecting link between plastids of eukaryotic autotrophs and prokaryotes. A variety of pigments, like chlorophyll, ...carotenoids and phycobiliproteins which exhibit different colors are present in cyanobacteria. Increasing consciousness about the harmful effects of synthetic or chemical dyes encouraged people to give more preference towards the usage of natural products, such as plant or microbial-derived colors in food and cosmetics. That is why cyanobacteria are exploited as a source of natural colors and have high commercial value in many industries. This review mainly focuses on different cyanobacterial pigments, their applications and modern biotechnological approaches such as genetic engineering, systems biology to enhance the production of biopigments for their potential use in pharmaceuticals, food, research, and cosmetics industries.
Display omitted
•Coloration provides product attractiveness; so many coloring agents are used in textile, food and cosmetic industries.•Pigments are light absorbing compounds and cyanobacteria are rich source of variety of pigments.•Carotenoids have commercial value because of their brilliant colors, antioxidant property and health promoting factors.•Phycobiliprotein production is directly affected by the environmental factors and the quality of the light.•Cyanobacterial structural similarity with plastids elucidates their potential for genetic and metabolic engineering.
Metaheuristic techniques have been utilized extensively to predict industrial systems' optimum availability. This prediction phenomenon is known as the NP-hard problem. Though, most of the existing ...methods fail to attain the optimal solution due to several limitations like slow rate of convergence, weak computational speed, stuck in local optima, etc. Consequently, in the present study, an effort has been made to develop a novel mathematical model for power generating units assembled in sewage treatment plants. Markov birth-death process is adopted for model development and generation of Chapman-Kolmogorov differential-difference equations. The global solution is discovered using metaheuristic techniques, namely genetic algorithm and particle swarm optimization. All time-dependent random variables associated with failure rates are considered exponentially distributed, while repair rates follow the arbitrary distribution. The repair and switch devices are perfect and random variables are independent. The numerical results of system availability have been derived for different values of crossover, mutation, several generations, damping ratio, and population size to attain optimum value. The results were also shared with plant personnel. Statistical investigation of availability results justifies that particle swarm optimization outdoes genetic algorithm in predicting the availability of power-generating systems. In present study a Markov model is proposed and optimized for performance evaluation of sewage treatment plant. The developed model is one that can be useful for sewage treatment plant designers in establishing new plants and purposing maintenance policies. The same procedure of performance optimization can be adopted in other process industries too.
The work reported in present study deals with the development of a novel stochastic model and estimation of parameters to assess reliability characteristics for a turbogenerator unit of thermal power ...plant under classical and Bayesian frameworks. Turbogenerator unit consists of five components namely turbine lubrication, turbine governing, generator oil system, generator gas system and generator excitation system. The concepts of cold standby redundancy and Weibull distributed random variables are used in development of stochastic model. The shape parameter for all the random variables is same while scale parameter is different. Regenerative point technique and semi-Markov approach are used for evaluation of reliability characteristics. Sufficient repair facility always remains available in plant as well as repair done by the repairman is considered perfect. As the life testing experiments are time consuming, so to highlight the importance of proposed model Monte Carlo simulation study is carried out. A comparative analysis is done between true, classical and Bayesian results of MTSF, availability and profit function.
The intake of microbial-contaminated food poses severe health issues due to the outbreaks of stern food-borne diseases. Therefore, there is a need for precise detection and identification of ...pathogenic microbes and toxins in food to prevent these concerns. Thus, understanding the concept of biosensing has enabled researchers to develop nanobiosensors with different nanomaterials and composites to improve the sensitivity as well as the specificity of pathogen detection. The application of nanomaterials has enabled researchers to use advanced technologies in biosensors for the transfer of signals to enhance their efficiency and sensitivity. Nanomaterials like carbon nanotubes, magnetic and gold, dendrimers, graphene nanomaterials and quantum dots are predominantly used for developing biosensors with improved specificity and sensitivity of detection due to their exclusive chemical, magnetic, mechanical, optical and physical properties. All nanoparticles and new composites used in biosensors need to be classified and categorized for their enhanced performance, quick detection, and unobtrusive and effective use in foodborne analysis. Hence, this review intends to summarize the different sensing methods used in foodborne pathogen detection, their design, working principle and advances in sensing systems.
Vegetables require an optimum supply of mineral elements like silicon (Si). Si is second to oxygen in its abundance in the earth crust, and its role is quite significant in tackling biotic and ...abiotic stresses of vegetables. Si application also improves several agronomic and quality traits of vegetables. Hence, Si application is recommended as a strategy for the improvement of vegetable crops production. Although the research about the role of Si in vegetable dicots still lags far behind than cereals. Recently, omics-based approaches were used to provide a deeper understanding of the role of Si in vegetable protection. Here, we have compiled the studies focusing on the role of Si for vegetables, thus, enabling all of the important information regarding the effect Si application to vegetables at one place.
In wheat, a meta-analysis was performed using previously identified QTLs associated with drought stress (DS), heat stress (HS), salinity stress (SS), water-logging stress (WS), pre-harvest sprouting ...(PHS), and aluminium stress (AS) which predicted a total of 134 meta-QTLs (MQTLs) that involved at least 28 consistent and stable MQTLs conferring tolerance to five or all six abiotic stresses under study. Seventy-six MQTLs out of the 132 physically anchored MQTLs were also verified with genome-wide association studies. Around 43% of MQTLs had genetic and physical confidence intervals of less than 1 cM and 5 Mb, respectively. Consequently, 539 genes were identified in some selected MQTLs providing tolerance to 5 or all 6 abiotic stresses. Comparative analysis of genes underlying MQTLs with four RNA-seq based transcriptomic datasets unravelled a total of 189 differentially expressed genes which also included at least 11 most promising candidate genes common among different datasets. The promoter analysis showed that the promoters of these genes include many stress responsiveness cis-regulatory elements, such as ARE, MBS, TC-rich repeats, As-1 element, STRE, LTR, WRE3, and WUN-motif among others. Further, some MQTLs also overlapped with as many as 34 known abiotic stress tolerance genes. In addition, numerous ortho-MQTLs among the wheat, maize, and rice genomes were discovered. These findings could help with fine mapping and gene cloning, as well as marker-assisted breeding for multiple abiotic stress tolerances in wheat.
Display omitted
•PBPs from Anabaena variabilis are eco-friendly and non toxic food colorants.•PBPs production optimization elucidated with combinatory approach of GA-Fuzzy logic.•GA- ...Fuzzy-logic-methodology enhances the PBPs production up to 2.13 fold.•FAC and K2HPO4 showed significant effect on the PBPs production.•Significant PBPs enhancement approach without extra light intensity increase.
The production of phycobiliproteins (PBPs) from cyanobacteria represents both the industrial application and their commercial value. In this study, the capability of Anabaena variabilis CCC421 for the production of PBPs was evaluated which was further improved by optimization of selected BG-11 medium components viz. FAC, K2HPO4 and trace metals. A design matrix approach using evolutionary algorithm comprised of genetic-algorithm (GA) and fuzzy-logic-methodology (FLM), i.e., GA-Fuzzy, was used for the optimization. The maximum production of PBPs obtained with combinatory approach of GA-Fuzzy was 408.5 mg/L at an optimum combination of factors (FAC 0.153 g/L, K2HPO4 0.2 g/L and Trace metals 0.5 ml/L) which was a 2.13 fold more than the control medium. This novel approach is very useful for modulating biological processes since various nutrients and metabolites have greater influence on these processes.
A meta-analysis of QTLs associated with the traits contributing to salinity tolerance was undertaken in wheat to detect consensus and robust meta-QTLs (MQTLs) using 844 known QTLs retrieved from 26 ...earlier studies. A consensus map with a total length of 4621.56 cM including 7710 markers was constructed using 21 individual linkage maps and three previously published integrated genetic maps. Out of 844 QTLs, 571 QTLs were projected on the consensus map which gave origin to 100 MQTLs. Interestingly, 49 MQTLs were co-located with marker-trait associations reported in wheat genome-wide association studies for the traits contributing to salinity stress tolerance. Five potential MQTLs associated with the major salinity-responsive traits were also identified to be utilized in the breeding programme. In the resulted MQTLs, the average confidence interval (CI, 3.58 cM) was reduced up to 4.16 folds compared to the mean CI of the initial QTLs. Furthermore, as many as 617 gene models including 81 most likely candidate genes (CGs) were identified in the high confidence MQTL regions. These most likely CGs encoded proteins mainly belonging to the following families: B-box-type zinc finger, cytochrome P450 protein, pentatricopeptide repeat, phospholipid/glycerol acyltransferase, F-box protein, small auxin-up RNA, UDP-glucosyltransferase, glutathione S-transferase protein, etc. In addition, ortho-MQTL analysis based on synteny among wheat, rice and barley was also performed which permitted the identification of six ortho-MQTLs among these three cereals. This meta-analysis defines a genome-wide landscape on the most stable and consistent loci associated with reliable molecular markers and candidate genes for salinity tolerance in wheat.
Mergers and acquisitions have been important means of company expansion, restructuring, and diversification. In mergers and acquisitions, Indian banks play a critical role. The study aimed to ...discover, determine, and create an empirical model that evaluates the interdependence and interaction of enablers. Through literature and unstructured interviews, 10 enablers influencing Indian banks’ financing decisions for merger and acquisition transactions were identified. Total interpretive structural modelling (TISM) and the Matrice d’Impacts Croisés Multiplication Appliqués à un Classement (MICMAC) technique establish the relationship between identified enablers. Governance and regulatory framework, political stability, and economic stability are major independent enablers for financing mergers and acquisitions. Transparency and disclosure, infrastructure, technical skills, and information communication technology act as linkage enablers for the participation of banks in merger and acquisition transactions. The study makes a novel contribution by identifying enablers through a literature search and ‘experts’ opinions. The TISM model determines the priority of the enablers by displaying hierarchical interconnection and dependency. This study reviews the literature to generalize the findings and focus on significant drivers for increased investment. To encourage merger and acquisition activity, practitioners must focus on elements with significant driving power. It will assist the practitioners, managers, and authorities in prioritizing their efforts.
PDF
