Impact of solid waste dumping on soil quality and its potential risk on human health and environment.

The soil, comprising minerals, organic matter, and living organisms, serves as a critical component of our environment. However, anthropogenic activities, such as uncontrolled sewage disposal and industrial waste, have led to pervasive soil pollution, impacting ecosystems and human health. This comprehensive study scrutinizes the intricate dynamics of soil pollution resulting from open waste dumping, specifically examining its impact on the health of local communities and the environment in Haridwar municipality. In this study, four solid waste dumping sites were meticulously surveyed, with soil samples analyzed for 19 parameters through statistical tools like one-way ANOVA, Kruskal-Wallis tests, soil pollution indices, and potential health risk assessment. The Geo-accumulation Index (Igeo) and contamination factor (CF) followed the heavy metals in the order of Zn > Mn > Fe > Cu in all selected sites. Additionally, a potential health risk assessment considered ingestion, inhalation, and dermal exposure pathways, revealing a high non-carcinogenic risk of metals (Mn > Fe > Zn > Cu) for both children and adults. In the ingestion pathway, the hazard quotient indicated a high risk of metals for both children and adults in the range of 1192.73 to 2066.94 for child and 191.98 to 312.16 for adults. Crucially, the HQ revealed potential health risks, emphasizing the urgency of addressing metal contamination. However, the findings indicate that dumping sites directly or indirectly affects the local people of Haridwar municipality. Therefore, this study provides a baseline framework for minimizing the impact of dumping sites on local population and the environment.

Assessment of Iron Biosorption Potential by Live and Dead Biomass of Bacillus subtilis (MN093305) from Aqueous Solution.

Heavy metals polluted aquatic ecosystems and become a global environmental issue due to their toxic effect on all forms of ecosystems and further on all forms of life. Heavy metals are non- degradable and accumulated in different life forms by accumulating in the food chain; this increases the need for the development of a sustainable method for the removal of these metals. Biosorption is an eco-friendly and cost-effective convenient technique of heavy metal bioremediation from the contaminated aquatic ecosystem. The current investigation involves biosorption of iron using Bacillus subtilis strain (MN093305) isolated from Ganga river at different physical parameters with the highest rate of biosorption was 96.64%, 98.91%, 97.88%, and 99.44% at pH 5, 60 min incubation period, 35 °C temperature and 2.5 mg/ml of biomass respectively for dead biomass. Living biomass biosorption rate was 87.32%, 96.74%, 96.94% and 95.02% at pH 7, 72 h, 35 °C and 2.5 mg/ml respectively. Functional groups involved in the biosorption of iron by Bacillus subtilis were fitted to a second-order kinetic model. Langmuir and Freundlich's isotherm are used to evaluate data; both isotherms indicate iron absorption as a favorable process.

Gene expression analysis for selection and validation of suitable housekeeping gene(s) in cadmium exposed pigeonpea plants inoculated with arbuscular mycorrhizae.

The expression stability of six commonly used housekeeping genes (18S rRNA-18S ribosomal RNA, EF1α-elongation factor 1α, ACT1-Actin 1, GAPDH-Glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase, TUB6-Tubulin/FtsZ family and UBC-Ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme) were scrutinized in leaves and roots of Cd stressed pigeonpea plants inoculated with arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) species- Rhizoglomus intraradices (Ri), Funneliformis mosseae (Fm), Claroideoglomus etunicatum (Ce), C. claroideum (Cc). The stability profile of each gene was assessed using ΔCt, BestKeeper, NormFinder, RefFinder and geNorm algorithmic programs, which ranked different genes as most and least stable according to the tissues analysed. All the statistical algorithms ranked TUB6 as most stable and EF1α least stable housekeeping (HK) genes in both the plant tissues. The selected HK genes were verified using metallothionein (CcMT1) i.e. a stress responsive gene, whose expression altered under conditions of metal stress and AM inoculation. The expression pattern of CcMT1 varied highly when least stable reference gene was used for normalization as compared to most stable gene, under different treatments. Thus, there is a need of selecting suitable reference gene to achieve reliable results in gene expression studies using quantitative real time PCR (qRT-PCR). The study conducted will help future gene expression analysis in pigeonpea under specific stress.