Uses, preparation and phytochemical analysis of anti-diabetic medicinal plants in the rural Murree (Pakistan).

Medicinal plants in most of societies have been a source of quality health care. The indigenous populations are getting many ethnomedicinal products form local biodiversity. The current study aimed to investigate anti-diabetic plants in 8 villages (Patriata, Surasi, Charhan, Lower toppa, Ghikagali, Kashmir point, Pindi point and Shawala) of rural Murree. The methodology included preparation of questionnaire, identification of plants and phytochemical analysis. The informants were asked about vernacular name, part used and folk recipe. The quantitative study included fidelity level, use value and relative frequency of citation of plant species. Data indicated that 30% of patients use local herbs to treat diabetes. The most significant plant species were Berberis lycium with use value of 0.50 followed by Melia azedarach with use value of 0.43 and Himalaiella heteromalla with use value of 0.33. Himalaiella heteromalla was selected for phytochemical analysis. Total flavonoid content was 7.25±0.08mg (ethanol extract) and 6.03±0.13mg (chloroform extract) quercetin equivalent/gm of extract; total phenolic content was 53.92±0.47mg (ethanol extract) and 72.75±0.48mg (chloroform extract) quercetin equivalent/gm of extract; total ß-Carotene content was 29.7µg/g in ethanol extract, and 27.26µg/g in chloroform extract while total lycopene content was 46.33µg/g (ethanol extract) and 41.54µg/g (chloroform extract) in H. heteromalla. The results suggest that medicinal plants of Murree region may be potential natural resources for antidiabetic compounds.

Microplastic pollution in the surface water and sediments from Kallar Kahar wetland, Pakistan: occurrence, distribution, and characterization by ATR-FTIR.

This study reports the distribution of microplastics in surface water and sediments collected from Kallar Kahar wetland, Punjab, Pakistan, which is a game reserve and hosts migratory birds during winter season. Microplastics were extracted using density separation and wet oxidation method. The microplastics identification was done under a stereo-microscope, and their polymer compositions were characterized using an attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy. The average abundance of microplastics in water and sediment samples was 88 ± 14.5 items/L and 5720 ± 2580 items/kg, respectively. The dominant shape groups of microplastics in water were fiber (58.7%), irregular fragments (32.4%), and beads (8.7%) with dominant colors as transparent > black > yellow ≈ white > red > green > pink > blue. Similar distribution in sediments was found, i.e., fiber (61.2%), irregular fragments (28.4%), and beads (10.3%) with dominant colors as transparent > pink > white > red ≈ black > blue > brown > green ≈ yellow. The ATR-FTIR spectra of visible microplastics were identified to be polypropylene (PP), high density polyethylene (HDPE), ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA), low density polyethylene (LDPE), nitrile, polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA), latex, and polyethylene terephthalate (PETE). In the study area, recreational activities, improper waste disposal, and runoff from catchment areas are the main reasons for the contamination of microplastics in the Lake. The pollution load can be minimized by taking measures such as creating awareness, promotion of ecotourism, and reducing plastic use.

16S metagenomics dataset of Zea mays and Triticum aestivum rhizosphere from Kallar Syedan Punjab, Pakistan.

Plant microbiome referred to as plant second genome, plays pivotal role in determination of vigor and productivity of plant. Current high-throughput sequence technologies provide remarkable insight into microbial diversity and host microbe interaction. The obtained dataset aimed to reveal the core bacterial community residing the rhizosphere of two leading cereal crops Zea mays and Triticum aestivum grown in different seasons at the same geographical area. The rhizosphere bacterial communities were explored via amplicon sequencing of V3-V4 region of 16S rRNA region using IonS5™XL sequencing platform. The classified tags for 16S rRNA from both the samples were clustered into 1502 Microbial operational taxonomic units (OTUs) at 97% similarity with 1340 OTUs in Zea mays and 1337 OTUs in Triticum aestivum. Ten bacterial phyla predominant in the rhizosphere were Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, Firmicutes, Acidobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Chloroflexi, Gemmatimonadetes, Verrucomicrobia, Nitrospirae and Thermomicrobia. These bacterial phyla accounted for 98% and 98.9% of the OTUs in Zea mays and Triticum aestivum, respectively. Statistical analysis depicted the presence of slight variations in the relative abundance of bacterial groups residing the rhizosphere of Zea mays and Triticum aestivum. The community data produced in the present work can be used for meta-analysis studies to understand rhizosphere bacterial community of two major cereal crops. Furthermore, bacterial composition and diversity data is prerequisite for rhizosphere engineering to enhance cereal production to cope with upcoming global challenges of climate change and population growth.

Identification of novel vaccine candidates against carbapenem resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae: A systematic reverse proteomic approach.

Klebsiella pneumoniae is declared as antibiotic resistant by WHO, with the critical urgency of developing novel antimicrobial therapeutics as drug resistance is the second most dangerous threat after terrorism. Besides many attempts still, there is no effective vaccine available against K. pneumoniae. By utilizing all the available proteomic data we prioritized the novel proteins ideal for vaccine development using bioinformatics tools and techniques. Among the huge data, eight proteins passed all the barriers and were considered ideal candidates for vaccine development. These include: copper silver efflux system outer membrane protein (CusC), outer membrane porin protein (OmpN), Fe++ enterobactin transporter substrate binding protein (fepB), zinc transporter substrate binding protein (ZnuA), ribonuclease HI, tellurite resistant methyltransferase (the B), and two uncharacterized hypothetical proteins (WP_002918223 and WP_002892366). These proteins were also subjected to epitope analysis and were found best for developing subunit vaccine against K. pneumoniae. The study shows that the potential vaccine targets are sufficiently efficient being virulent, of outer membranous origin and can be proposed for the DNA third-generation vaccines development that would help to cope up infections caused by multidrug-resistant K. pneumoniae.

Characterization of bacterial community structure in the rhizosphere of Triticum aestivum L.

The plant microbiome influence plant health, yield and vigor and has attained a considerable attention in the present era. In the current study, native bacterial community composition and diversity colonizing Triticum aestivum L. rhizosphere at two distant geographical locations including Mirpur Azad Kashmir and Islamabad was elucidated. Based on IonS5™XL platform sequencing of respective samples targeting 16S rRNA gene that harbor V3-V4 conserved region revealed 1364 and 1254 microbial operational taxonomic units (OTUs) at ≥97% similarity and were classified into 23, 20 phyla; 70, 65 classes; 101, 87 orders; 189,180 families; 275, 271 genera and 94, 95 species. Respective predominant phyla accounting for 97.90% and 98.60% of bacterial community were Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, Acidobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Firmicutes, Chloroflexi and Gemmatimonadetes. Diversity indices revealed variations in relative abundance of bacterial taxa owing to distant geographical locations however predominant bacterial taxa at both locations were similar. These findings paved a way to dissect consequence of associated microbiota on future wheat production system.