Micropropagation of Hedychium coronarium J. Koenig through rhizome bud.

An optimized protocol was developed for in vitro plant regeneration of a medicinally important herb Hedychium coronarium J. Koenig using sprouted buds of rhizomes. The rhizomes with sprouted bud were inoculated on Murashige and Skoog (Physiol Plant 15:473-497, 1962) medium (MS) supplemented with either N(6)-benzyladenine (BA) alone (1.0-4.0 mg L(-1)) or in combination with 0.5 mg L(-1) naphthalene acetic acid (NAA). Of these combinations, MS supplemented with a combination of 2.0 mg L(-1) BA and 0.5 mg L(-1) NAA was most effective. In this medium, best shoots (3.6) and roots (4.0) regeneration was observed simultaneously with an average shoot and root length of 4.7 cm and 4.2 cm respectively. Regeneration of shoots and roots in the same medium at the same time (One step shoot and root regeneration) reduced the time for production of in vitro plantlets and eliminates the media cost of rooting. Cent-percent (100 %) success in plant establishment was observed in both gradual acclimatization process as well as when plants were directly transferred to outdoor in clay pots containing a mixture of garden soil and sand (2:1) without any sequential acclimatization stage.

Molecular docking and simulation studies of natural compounds of Vitex negundo L. against papain-like protease (PLpro) of SARS CoV-2 (coronavirus) to conquer the pandemic situation in the world.

The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS CoV-2) is ß-coronavirus that is responsible for the pandemic coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) all over the world. The rapid spread of the novel SARS CoV-2 worldwide is raising a significant global public health issue with nearly 61.86 million people infected and 1.4 million deaths. To date, no specific drugs are available for the treatment of COVID-19. The inhibition of proteases essential for the proteolytic treatment of viral polyproteins is a conventional therapeutic strategy for conquering viral infections. In the study, molecular docking approach was used to screen potential drug compounds among the phytochemicals of Vitex negundo L. against COVID-19 infection. Molecular docking analysis showed that oleanolic acid forms a stable complex and other phyto-compounds ursolic acid, 3ß-acetoxyolean-12-en-27-oic acid and isovitexin of V. negundo natural compounds form a less-stable complex. When compared with the control the synergistic interaction of these compounds shows inhibitory activity against papain-like protease (PLpro) of SARS CoV-2 (COVID-19). The molecular dynamics (MD) simulation (50 ns) were performed on the complexes of PLpro and the phyto-compounds viz. oleanolic acid, ursolic acid, 3ß-acetoxyolean-12-en-27-oic acid and isovitexin followed by the binding free energy calculations using MM-GBSA and these molecules have stable interactions with PLpro protein binding site. The MD simulation study provides more insight into the functional properties of the protein-ligand complex and suggests that these molecules can be considered as a potential drug molecule against COVID-19. In this pandemic situation, these herbal compounds provide a rich resource to produce new antivirals against COVID-19.Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma.

Analysis of genetic diversity among selected grasspea (Lathyrus sativus L.) genotypes using RAPD markers.

Randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) technique was applied to assess the genetic variability among five selected genotypes of grasspea. Out of 30 random decamer primers tested for the present investigation 20 showed reproducible DNA amplification. A total of 257 loci were amplified of which 159 were polymorphic including 57 genotype-specific unique bands. Amplicons had molecular weights ranging from 3.0 kb to 0.1 kb. Majority amplicons were shared by most of the genotypes which indicated a very narrow genetic gap between them. The dendrogram constructed on the basis of RAPD data showed two clusters. The local genotype collected from Nayagarh was grouped along with IC-120451 and IC-120453, sharing a common node at an 82% similarity level. The other genotypes, IC-120478 and IC-120487, were located in the second clade having a common node at 84% similarity level. The investigation showed that though all the genotypes of grasspea were of apparently similar morphology there exists polymorphism at the molecular level, which can be exploited in breeding programmes aimed at crop improvement.