Genome sequencing and assembly of Indian golden silkmoth, Antheraea assamensis Helfer (Saturniidae, Lepidoptera).

Muga silkworm (Antheraea assamensis), one of the economically important wild silkmoths, is unique among saturniid silkmoths. It is confined to the North-eastern part of India. Muga silk has the highest value among the other silks. Unlike other silkmoths, A. assamensis has a low chromosome number (n = 15), and ZZ/ZO sex chromosome system. Here, we report the first high-quality draft genome of A. assamensis, assembled by employing the Illumina and PacBio sequencing platforms. The assembled genome of A. assamensis is 501.18 Mb long, with 2697 scaffolds and an N50 of 683.23 Kb. The genome encompasses 18,385 protein-coding genes, 86.29% of which were functionally annotated. Phylogenetic analysis of A. assamensis revealed its divergence from other Antheraea species approximately 28.7 million years ago. Moreover, an investigation into detoxification-related gene families, CYP450, GST, and ABC-transporter, revealed a significant expansion in A. assamensis as compared to the Bombyx mori. This expansion is comparable to Spodoptera litura, suggesting adaptive responses linked to the polyphagous behavior observed in these insects. This study provides valuable insights into the molecular basis of evolutionary divergence and adaptations in muga silkmoth. The genome assembly reported in this study will significantly help in the functional genomics studies on A. assamensis and other Antheraea species along with comparative genomics analyses of Bombycoidea insects.

Computational approaches for identifying disease-causing mutations in proteins.

Advancements in genome sequencing have expanded the scope of investigating mutations in proteins across different diseases. Amino acid mutations in a protein alter its structure, stability and function and some of them lead to diseases. Identification of disease-causing mutations is a challenging task and it will be helpful for designing therapeutic strategies. Hence, mutation data available in the literature have been curated and stored in several databases, which have been effectively utilized for developing computational methods to identify deleterious mutations (drivers), using sequence and structure-based properties of proteins. In this chapter, we describe the contents of specific databases that have information on disease-causing and neutral mutations followed by sequence and structure-based properties. Further, characteristic features of disease-causing mutations will be discussed along with computational methods for identifying cancer hotspot residues and disease-causing mutations in proteins.

Fungal Endophytes: A Storehouse of Bioactive Compounds.

Fungal endophytes are the microbial adaptations that usually enter the plant tissues during their life cycle without harming the host plants. They are found everywhere on earth and generally depend on the hosts by developing various symbiotic relationships, like mutualism, hostility, and parasitism on rare occasions, leading to the growth and rise in the nutrient content of the hosts. Endophytes can develop tolerance in host organisms against the stresses induced by either living or non-living agents. They may protect them from insects or pests by building resistance. Interestingly, endophytes can synthesize many phytohormones, natural medicinal compounds and several essential enzymes beneficial for biotechnological perspectives that can be obtained by culturing plant tissue in a suitable medium. These endophytes are a reservoir of many new active phytoconstituents, like alkaloids, phenolics, steroids, quinones, tannins, saponins, etc., which exhibit anticancer, antiinsecticidal, antioxidant, antibacterial, antiviral, antifungal, and many more properties. Exploring the new bioactive chemical entities from the endophytes may supply potent lead compounds for drug discovery to combat numerous disease conditions. Hence, the present review was carried out to explore the significance of the fungal endophytes and their medicinal, food, and cosmetic use.

Pyridine: the scaffolds with significant clinical diversity.

The nitrogen-bearing heterocycle pyridine in its several analogous forms occupies an important position as a precious source of clinically useful agents in the field of medicinal chemistry research. This privileged scaffold has been consistently incorporated in a diverse range of drug candidates approved by the FDA (Food and Drug Administration). This moiety has attracted increasing attention from several disease states owing to its ease of parallelization and testing potential pertaining to the chemical space. In the next few years, a larger share of novel pyridine-based drug candidates is expected. This review unifies the current advances in novel pyridine-based molecular frameworks and their unique clinical relevance as reported over the last two decades. It highlights an inclination to the use of pyridine-based molecules in drug crafting and the subsequent emergence of several potent and eligible candidates against a range of diversified diseases.

Copper-Catalyzed Thiolation of Terminal Alkynes Employing Thiocyanate as the Sulfur Source Leading to Enaminone-Based Alkynyl Sulfides under Ambient Conditions.

A highly efficient protocol for copper-catalyzed thio-alkynylation of enaminone-based thiocyanates with terminal alkynes under mild conditions has been developed. This scalable amino group-directed thio-alkynylation proceeds in the open air with a broad substrate scope and an excellent yield. The demonstrated synthetic transformation creates the opportunity for a wide variety of sulfur-containing useful materials. Gram-scale synthesis and further synthetic transformations of alkynyl sulfides highlight the potential utility of the method.