•A bacterial endophyte was isolated with potential to degrade DB-14 dye.•Optimization of DB-14 degradation using OFAT and RSM approach.•Prediction of biotransformation pathway of dye ...degradation.•Evaluating the cytogenotoxicity of DB-14 metabolite.
Alkaliphilic bacteria possesses the ability to survive in the extreme conditions with high salt concentrations. The adaptability of alkaliphilic bacteria to extreme conditions has made them predominant degrader in the field of biodegradation. A moderately alkaliphilic endophyte was isolated from Centella asiatica with a potential to degrade a di-azo dye Direct Blue-14(DB-14). The isolate was identified as Bacillus fermus with 97% similarity strain Xmb064. On optimization, maximum of 92.76% biodegradation was attained with dye concentration at 68.78 ppm supplemented with 1 g of sucrose and 2.5% (v/v) of inoculum for 72 h incubation. Characterization of the biodegraded product carried out using UV–vis spectrophotometry, FT-IR and LC–MS confirmed the destabilization of di-azo bond followed with the degradation of DB-14. Cytogenotoxicity studies revealed the biodegraded products to be less toxic. The current study is the first report on the optimization, biotransformation and cytogenotoxicity of DB-14 by B. fermus strain Centella.
•Biofuel energy policies and sustainability.•Source of explored and unexplored feedstock.•Advancements in Biomass processing technology.•Current production and challenges in liquid biofuels.
Fossil ...depletion is facing critical crisis due to its depletion reserves and increased environmental problems. The utilization of petroleum products by the dense population, urbanization of various geographical areas and industrialization has extremely affected the global economy. Fuels of biological origin such as ethanol, vegetable oil and various biomasses are gaining attention It is therefore important to develop alternative fuels in order to protect the global environment and also to focus on long-term supplies of conventional fuels. These biofuels have greater opportunity to promote agro-industrial development and productivity in large scale. Thus, it is necessary to improvise technology and develop resource sustainability focussing into the appropriate policies, production costing, yield, purity and efficiency creating health, wealth and benefit sharing to achieve a sustainable energy in future. The present review article focuses on the recent trends and researches carried out in liquid biofuel production and economy holding its future demand and utilization world-wide.
The rapidly growing recognition of the role of oncogenic ROS1 fusion proteins in the malignant transformation of multiple cancers, including lung adenocarcinoma, cholangiocarcinoma, and glioblastoma, ...is driving efforts to develop effective ROS1 inhibitors for use as molecularly targeted therapy. Using a multidisciplinary approach involving small molecule screening in combination with in vitro and in vivo tumor models, we show that foretinib (GSK1363089) is a more potent ROS1 inhibitor than crizotinib (PF-02341066), an ALK/ROS inhibitor currently in clinical evaluation for lung cancer patients harboring ROS1 rearrangements. Whereas crizotinib has demonstrated promising early results in patients with ROS1-rearranged non–small-cell lung carcinoma, recently emerging clinical evidence suggests that patients may develop crizotinib resistance due to acquired point mutations in the kinase domain of ROS1, thus necessitating identification of additional potent ROS1 inhibitors for therapeutic intervention. We confirm that the ROS1 ᴳ²⁰³²ᴿ mutant, recently reported in clinical resistance to crizotinib, retains foretinib sensitivity at concentrations below safe, clinically achievable levels. Furthermore, we use an accelerated mutagenesis screen to preemptively identify mutations in the ROS1 kinase domain that confer resistance to crizotinib and demonstrate that these mutants also remain foretinib sensitive. Taken together, our data strongly suggest that foretinib is a highly effective ROS1 inhibitor, and further clinical investigation to evaluate its potential therapeutic benefit for patients with ROS1-driven malignancies is warranted.
The radionuclide transfer between compartments is commonly described by transfer parameters representing the ratio of concentrations of an element in two compartments for equilibrium conditions. This ...is a comprehensive study on the soil-to-grass transfer factor (F
) and grass-to-cow milk transfer coefficient (F
) for stable strontium (Sr) for soil-grass (pasture)-cow (Bos taurus) milk environmental pathway under field conditions for a high rainfall tropical monsoonal climatic region of the Indian subcontinent. The study was conducted in the vicinity of the Kaiga nuclear power plant (NPP), situated ~ 58 km inland of the West Coast of the Indian subcontinent. A grass field was developed exclusively for this study, and two cows of the native breed were raised to graze on it. The soil, grass, and milk were analyzed to evaluate the F
and the F
values for the stable Sr. For comparison, several pasture lands and the cows raised by the villagers and a dairy farm were also studied. The F
values were in the range 0.18-8.6, the geometric mean (GM) being 1.8. The correlations of F
values with a range of physicochemical parameters are presented. The GM values for F
were 2.2 × 10
d L
and 7.2 × 10
d L
for the two cows raised for this study, 2.6 × 10
d L
for those raised by the villagers, and 4.2 × 10
d L
for the dairy farm. The site-specific F
value for the region was determined as 3.2 × 10
d L
. The concentration ratio (CR), defined as the ratio of Sr concentration in milk to that in feed under equilibrium conditions, exhibited less variability (1.8 × 10
-5.4 × 10
) among the three categories of cows.
Centella asiatica, a medicinal herb consumed as a food supplement and used in traditional and folklore medicine is being overexploited for its therapeutic properties. Lack of adequate cultivation and ...replacement practices could engender the depletion of the wild variety. Application of plant tissue culture has helped in the regeneration and preservation of several plants in-vitro. The present study reports media standardization for micropropagation and callus induction for the conservation of Centella asiatica using field-grown plants. In media standardization for callus induction, appreciable results were obtained where full strength MS (Murashige and Skoog) media was supplemented with 2 mg.L-1 IAA (Indole acetic acid) and a combination of 0.5 mg.L-1 Kn (Kinetin) with 1 mg.L-1 IAA while MS media supplemented with a combination of 0.5 mg.L-1 Kn and 1.5 mg.L-1 IAA was used for callus proliferation. Combination of BAP (6- Benzyl amino purine) and IAA from preliminary experimentation on micropropagation showed high shooting frequency and were further optimized with parameters such as sucrose and incubation period using Response surface methodology (RSM) to study their individual and interactive effects. A maximum shoot height of 3.8 cm was obtained from the optimized values after 13 days with both BAP and IAA at 0.5 mg.L-1 and sucrose at 6% with the R2 value at 0.73.
Age‐related lens cataract is the major cause of blindness worldwide. The mechanisms whereby crystallins, the predominant lens proteins, assemble into large aggregates that scatter light within the ...lens, and cause cataract, are poorly understood. Due to the lack of protein turnover in the lens, crystallins are long‐lived. A major crystallin, γS, is heavily modified by deamidation, in particular at surface‐exposed N14, N76, and N143 to introduce negative charges. In this present study, deamidated γS was mimicked by mutation with aspartate at these sites and the effect on biophysical properties of γS was assessed via dynamic light scattering, chemical and thermal denaturation, hydrogen‐deuterium exchange, and susceptibility to disulfide cross‐linking. Compared with wild type γS, a small population of each deamidated mutant aggregated rapidly into large, light‐scattering species that contributed significantly to the total scattering. Under partially denaturing conditions in guanidine hydrochloride or elevated temperature, deamidation led to more rapid unfolding and aggregation and increased susceptibility to oxidation. The triple mutant was further destabilized, suggesting that the effects of deamidation were cumulative. Molecular dynamics simulations predicted that deamidation augments the conformational dynamics of γS. We suggest that these perturbations disrupt the native disulfide arrangement of γS and promote the formation of disulfide‐linked aggregates. The lens‐specific chaperone αA‐crystallin was poor at preventing the aggregation of the triple mutant. It is concluded that surface deamidations cause minimal structural disruption individually, but cumulatively they progressively destabilize γS‐crystallin leading to unfolding and aggregation, as occurs in aged and cataractous lenses.
India is the second largest producer of rice (Oryza sativa L.) in the world and rice is an essential component of the diet for a majority of the population in India. However, detailed studies aimed ...at the evaluation of radionuclide transfer factors (F(v)) for the rice grown in India are almost non-existent. This paper presents the soil to rice transfer factors for natural ((226)Ra, (228)Ra, (40)K, and (210)Pb) and artificial ((137)Cs) radionuclides for rice grown in natural field conditions on the West Coast of India. A rice field was developed very close to the Kaiga nuclear power plant and the water required for this field was drawn from the cooling water discharge canal of the power plant. For a comparative study of the radionuclide transfer factors, rice samples were also collected from the rice fields of nearby villages. The study showed that the (226)Ra and (228)Ra activity concentrations were below detection levels in different organs of the rice plant. The soil to un-hulled rice grain (40)K transfer factor varied in the range of 6.5 × 10(-1) to 2.9 with a mean of 0.15 × 10(1), and of (210)Pb varied in the range of <1.2 × 10(-2) to 8.1 × 10(-1) with a mean of 1.4 × 10(-1), and of (137)Cs varied in the range of 6.6 × 10(-2) to 3.4 × 10(-1) with a mean of 2.1 × 10(-1). The mean values of un-hulled grain to white rice processing retention factors (F(r)) were 0.12 for (40)K, 0.03 for (210)Pb, and 0.14 for (137)Cs. Using these processing retention factors, the soil to white rice transfer factors were estimated and these were found to have mean values of 1.8 × 10(-1), 4.2 × 10(-3), and 3.0 × 10(-2) for (40)K, (210)Pb, and (137)Cs, respectively. The study has shown that the transfer of (40)K was higher for above the ground organs than for the root, but (210)Pb and (137)Cs were retained in the root and their transfer to above the ground organs of the rice plant is significantly lower.
Current technologies to produce biofuels from various renewable feedstocks have considerably captured vast scientific attention since they can be used as an alternative fuel. Bioethanol being one of ...the most interesting biofuels and due to its positive impact on the environment has been categorised significantly in terms of scientific and technological investments. The aim of this study was to investigate tubers of
Amorphophallus paeoniifolius
biomass as a feedstock for bioethanol production. The composition analysis of
A. paeoniifolius
tubers revealed high carbohydrate content (78.30 ± 0.33%). The feedstock was subjected to physicochemical pre-treatment by treating with dilute acid followed by pressure cooking. The pre-treatment factors were optimised by CCD using RSM approach. The optimum condition was found to be 1.32% (v/v) of HCl, 5.83% (w/v) of elephant foot yam biomass and 66.84 min of pressure-cooking time yielding 45.87 g/L of total sugar. The second-order polynomial equation was generated for the saccharification of biomass and validated with
R
2
0.89. The fermentation of pre-treated biomass in the presence of
Saccharomyces cerevisiae
MTCC170 yielded 22.12 ± 0.62 g/L of bioethanol at 120 h utilising 92% of initial total sugar. The resultant ethanol yield and productivity was estimated to be 0.51 g/g and 0.30 g/(L/h), respectively. The Gompertz model equation was applied to experimental data using nonlinear regression with least square method and the kinetic fermentation parameters such as maximum ethanol concentration (
P
m
), production rate (
r
pm
), and lag phase (h) were estimated to be
P
m
= 21.90 g/L,
r
pm
= 0.57 g/(L/h) and
t
L
= 8.22 h.
Cocoa pod shells are the agro waste generated causing problem during the disposal. In the present study, possibility of utilizing the cocoa pod shells to release the reducing sugars has been ...explored. Hydrochloric acid hydrolysis assisted with autoclave was adopted to obtain reducing sugars. The one parameter at a time approach was implimented to screen the significant parameters influencing the hydrolysis among weight of cocoa pod shells, concentration of HCl and duration of autoclave. Parameters such as concentration of HCl and duration of autoclave were found to be significant. These parameters were chosen for the central composite design comprising of five levels using response surface methodology to optimize the hydrolysis process. At optimized condition of 54.15 minutes of autoclave treatment and 4.41% of HCl, 21.11 g/L of maximum reducing sugar was released. A second order polynomial equation was generated having a good fit with R2 of 0.84.
Air-to-grass mass interception factors for radionuclide are important basic input parameter for the estimation of radiation dose to the public around a nuclear power plant. In this paper, we present ...the determination of air-to- grass mass interception factors for iodine using a 2 m × 2 m × 2 m (l × b × h) size environmental chamber. The temperature, humidity, and rainfall inside the environmental chamber was controlled to required values to simulate different environmental conditions. Grass (Pennisetum purpureum, Schum), grown in pots, was kept inside the environmental chamber and stable iodine in elemental form was sublimed quickly inside the chamber to simulate an accidental release of iodine to the environment. The concentration of iodine in the air was measured periodically by drawing air through a bubbling setup, containing 1% sodium carbonate solution. The mass interception factor for dry deposition varied in the range of 0.25–7.7 m2 kg−1 with mean value of 2.2 m2 kg−1 with respect to fresh weight of grass, and that due to wet deposition varied in the range of 0.6–4.8 m2 kg−1 with mean value of 2.3 m2 kg−1. The mass interception factor was inversely correlated with the total iodine deposited through dry deposition as well as with the rainfall.
•Mass interception factor of iodine for grass was estimated by chamber experiments.•Mean value of mass interception factor for dry depositions was 2.2 m2 kg−1.•Mean value of mass interception factor for wet deposition was 2.3 m2 kg−1.•Mass interception factor was inversely correlated with the total iodine deposited.•Mass interception factor was inversely correlated with total rainfall.
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