Identification and analysis of low light tolerant rice genotypes in field conditions and their SSR-based diversity in various abiotic stress tolerant lines.

The yield potentiality of kharif rice is not completely used even under well-irrigated agro-ecosystem, mainly due to low irradiance by overcast cloud throughout the growing season in eastern India. We observed more than 50% yield reduction compared to the performance of 100 high-yield genotypes for consecutive three years both under open and 30-35% reduced light intensity, mainly by 34%, 25% and 12% reduction of panicle number, grains per panicle and test weight. As per the analysis of variance, genotypic variance explained 39% of the total yield-variation under shade with 58% heritability. Overall, the maintenance of equal panicle per plant in both open and shade has the highest association with shade tolerance. Purnendu, Sashi and Pantdhan19 showed less than 28% yield-reduction by maintenance or even by increasing grain numbers under shade and test weight. On the other hand, maintenance of an equal number of panicle under both situations was the key to the tolerance of Bhasamanik, Sasarang, Rudra and Swarnaprabha. As compared to open, we noticed the improvement of chlorophyll a and b under shade but saw a poor correlation with the shade tolerance index. Comparing the net photosynthesis rate (Pn) in eight genotypes, we found the best tolerant line ranked last with least Pn at low light intensity (400 µmol m-2 s-1). We also identified diverse parental combinations between newly identified shade tolerant and abiotic stress tolerant high-yielding rice lines following diversity analysis using 54 simple-sequence repeats. Thus, the selected tolerant lines from a large set of genotypes with different adjustment ability to keep up high yield under low light intensity can be used for physiological, molecular analysis as well as pyramiding of traits.

Algae as green energy reserve: Technological outlook on biofuel production.

Depletion of fossil fuel sources and their emissions have triggered a vigorous research in finding alternative and renewable energy sources. In this regard, algae are being exploited as a third generation feedstock for the production of biofuels such as bioethanol, biodiesel, biogas, and biohydrogen. However, algal based biofuel does not reach successful peak due to the higher cost issues in cultivation, harvesting and extraction steps. Therefore, this review presents an extensive detail of deriving biofuels from algal biomass starting from various algae cultivation systems like raceway pond and photobioreactors and its bottlenecks. Evolution of biofuel feedstocks from edible oils to algae have been addressed in the initial section of the manuscript to provide insights on the different generation of biofuel. Different configuration of photobioreactor systems used to reduce contamination risk and improve biomass productivity were extensively discussed. Photobioreactor performance greatly relies on the conditions under which it is operated. Hence, the importance of such conditions alike temperature, light intensity, inoculum size, CO2, nutrient concentration, and mixing in bioreactor performance have been described. As the lipid is the main component in biodiesel production, several pretreatment methods such as physical, chemical and biological for disrupting cell membrane to extract lipid were comprehensively reviewed and presented. This review article had put forth the recent advancement in the pretreatment methods like hydrothermal processing of algal biomasses using acid or alkali. Eventually, challenges and future dimensions in algal cultivation and pretreatment process were discussed in detail for making an economically viable algal biofuel.

A chemodosimeter for the ratiometric detection of hydrazine based on return of ESIPT and its application in live-cell imaging.

A probe based on 2-(2'-hydroxyphenyl) benzothiazole (HBT) has been synthesized and used for the ratiometric detection of hydrazine. The probe is designed in such a way that the excited state intramolecular proton transfer (ESIPT) of the HBT moiety gets blocked. The chemodosimetric approach of hydrazine to the probe results in the recovery of the ESIPT by removal of a free HBT moiety through subsequent substitution, cyclization, and elimination processes. The probe is successfully demonstrated to enable the detection of hydrazine in live cells.

Liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry method for the simultaneous stereoselective determination of venlafaxine and its major metabolite, O-desmethylvenlafaxine, in human plasma.

A sensitive, accurate and highly stereoselective assay for the simultaneous determination of venlafaxine (VEN) and its equipotent metabolite, O-desmethyl venlafaxine (ODV), in human plasma was developed and validated. Analytes were simultaneously extracted from plasma using solid-phase extraction and detected by tandem mass spectrometry in positive ion mode with a turbo ion spray interface. Deuterium-labeled VEN and ODV were used as internal standards. Chromatographic separation was performed on a Chiral AGP column, using a time programmed gradient flow with a total run time of 16 min. The method has a lower limit of quantitation of 0.60 ng/mL. The assay was linear over a range 0.60-300.00 ng/mL for both the enantiomers of VEN and ODV, respectively, with coefficient of correlation > 0.99. The extraction recoveries were >77.0% on an average for all the four analytes. The analytes were found stable in plasma through three freeze (-15 °C) and thaw cycles and under storage at room temperature for 8 h, and also in mobile phase at 10 °C for 54 h. The method has shown good reproducibility, with intra- and inter-day variation coefficients < 9%, for all the analytes, and has proved to be very reliable for analysis of VEN and its metabolite in clinical study samples.

Thiophene anchored coumarin derivative as a turn-on fluorescent probe for Cr3+: cell imaging and speciation studies.

A thiophene-coumarin hybrid molecule, (6E)-6-((thiophen-2-yl)methyleneamino)-2H-chromen-2-one (TMC) has been prepared and its single crystal X-ray structure is reported. TMC can selectively detect Cr(3+) in presence of other common cations. Both TMC and its Cr(3+) complex are well characterized by different spectroscopic techniques like (1)H NMR, QTOF-MS ES(+), FTIR and elemental analysis as well. TMC exhibits fluorescence enhancement upon binding Cr(3+) in CH(3)CN-HEPES buffer (0.02 M, pH 7.4) (4:6, v/v) medium. Detection limit of the method is 1 × 10(-6)M. Binding constant is estimated with the Benesi-Hildebrand method and the value 8 × 10(4) indicates a fairly strong interaction between TMC and Cr(3+). Speciation studies have been performed in a fast and environment friendly way using least sample volume, less hazardous chemicals and solvents. Cr(3+) assisted restricted rotation around the imine bond and inhibited photo-induced electron transfer from the N,S-donor sites to the coumarin unit are responsible for fluorescence enhancement. TMC is capable to detect intracellular Cr(3+) in living cells.