Dynamics of starch formation and gene expression during grain filling and its possible influence on grain quality.

In rice, grain filling is a crucial stage where asynchronous filling of the pollinated spikelet's of the panicle occurs. It can influence both grain quality and yield. In rice grain, starch is the dominant component and contains amylose and amylopectin. Amylose content is the chief cooking quality parameter, however, rice varieties having similar amylose content varied in other parameters. Hence, in this study, a set of varieties varying in yield (04) and another set (12) of varieties that are similar in amylose content with variation in gel consistency and alkali spreading value were used. Panicles were collected at various intervals and analysed for individual grain weight and quantities of amylose and amylopectin. Gas exchange parameters were measured in varieties varying in yield. Upper branches of the panicles were collected from rice varieties having similar amylose content and were subjected to gene expression analysis with fourteen gene specific primers of starch synthesis. Results indicate that grain filling was initiated simultaneously in multiple branches. Amylose and amylopectin quantities increased with the increase in individual grain weight. However, the pattern of regression lines of amylose and amylopectin percentages with increase in individual grain weight varied among the varieties. Gas exchange parameters like photosynthetic rate, stomatal conductance, intercellular CO2 and transpiration rate decreased with the increase in grain filling period in both good and poor yielding varieties. However, they decreased more in poor yielders. Expression of fourteen genes varied among the varieties and absence of SBE2b can be responsible for medium or soft gel consistency.

Down regulation of transcripts involved in selective metabolic pathways as an acclimation strategy in nitrogen use efficient genotypes of rice under low nitrogen.

To understand the molecular mechanism of nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) in rice, two nitrogen (N) use efficient genotypes and two non-efficient genotypes were characterized using transcriptome analyses. The four genotypes were evaluated for 3 years under low and recommended N field conditions for 12 traits/parameters of yield, straw, nitrogen content along with NUE indices and 2 promising donors for rice NUE were identified. Using the transcriptome data generated from GS FLX 454 Roche and Illumina HiSeq 2000 of two efficient and two non-efficient genotypes grown under field conditions of low N and recommended N and their de novo assembly, differentially expressed transcripts and pathways during the panicle development were identified. Down regulation was observed in 30% of metabolic pathways in efficient genotypes and is being proposed as an acclimation strategy to low N. Ten sub metabolic pathways significantly enriched with additional transcripts either in the direction of the common expression or contra-regulated to the common expression were found to be critical for NUE in rice. Among the up-regulated transcripts in efficient genotypes, a hypothetical protein OsI_17904 with 2 alternative forms suggested the role of alternative splicing in NUE of rice and a potassium channel SKOR transcript (LOC_Os06g14030) has shown a positive correlation (0.62) with single plant yield under low N in a set of 16 rice genotypes. From the present study, we propose that the efficient genotypes appear to down regulate several not so critical metabolic pathways and divert the thus conserved energy to produce seed/yield under long-term N starvation. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s13205-020-02631-5.

Purification and characterization of a platelet aggregation inhibitor acidic phospholipase A2 from Indian saw-scaled viper (Echis carinatus) venom.

An acidic phospholipase A2 (EC-I-PLA2) has been purified from the Indian saw-scaled viper (Echis carinatus) venom through a combination of column chromatography and electrophoresis. EC-I-PLA2 has a molecular weight of 16000 by SDS-PAGE. It was focussed between pH 4.2 and 4.8 by isoelectro focussing. EC-I-PLA2 was non-lethal to mice and devoid of neurotoxicity, myotoxicity, anticoagulant activity and cytotoxicity. It induced mild oedema in the foot pads of mice. The purified PLA2 inhibited ADP, collagen and epinephrine induced human platelet aggregation and the inhibition was both dose and time dependent.

Effect of retinol deficiency and curcumin or turmeric feeding on brain Na(+)-K+ adenosine triphosphatase activity.

The effect of retinol deficiency and curcumin and turmeric feeding on brain microsomal Na(+)-K(+)ATPase activity was investigated. The brain Na(+)-K(+)ATPase activity registered an increase of 148.5% as compared to the control group. Upon treating retinol deficient rats with curcumin or turmeric, the abnormally elevated activity showed a decrease of 36.9 and 47.1%, respectively, when compared to the retinol deficient group. An increase in Vmax by 67% and Km by 66% for ATP was observed in the retinol deficient group. Curcumin or turmeric fed retinol-deficient groups reduced the Vmax by 25 and 33%, while Km was reduced by 25 and 31%, respectively, compared to the retinol deficient group. Arrhenius plot of Na(+)-K(+) ATPase showed a typical bi-phasic pattern in all the groups. Cholesterol:Phospholipid ratio showed a decrease in the retinol-deficient group by 67.8%, which showed a marked increase in curcumin or turmeric treated groups. Detergents could increase the Na(+)-K(+) ATPase activity more in the control group than in the retinol deficient groups. Curcumin or turmeric improved the detergent action on the enzyme. Subsequent freezing and thawing over a period of 30 min decreased the enzyme activity by 22.8% in the retinol deficient group compared to 15.9% decrease in the control group. Curcumin or turmeric treated groups showed a decrease in the enzyme activity by 22.0 and 19.2%, respectively, when compared to the zero time in each group. In the presence of concanavalin-A (Con-A) there was only 52.4% stimulation in the enzyme activity in retinol deficient groups, compared to 108.0% in the control group.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)