Mitogen-activated protein kinase 4 is obligatory for late pollen and early fruit development in tomato.

Mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) cascades are universal signal transduction modules regulating vegetative and reproductive development of plants. However, the molecular mechanisms of the SlMPK4 gene in tomato pollen and fruit development remain elusive. SlMPK4 is preferentially and highly expressed in tomato stamens and its mRNA levels increase during early flower development, peaking at the mature pollen stage. Either up- or downregulation of SlMPK4 expression had no significant effect on tomato vegetative growth. However, RNAi-mediated suppression of SlMPK4 caused defects in pollen development, resulting in pollen abortion. The aborted pollen grains were either malformed or collapsed and completely lacked viability, resulting in a predominantly reduced fruit set rate in RNAi lines compared with control and overexpressing transgenic plants. Interestingly, seed development was inhibited in RNAi lines. Moreover, >12% of emasculated RNAi flowers developed seedless fruits without pollination. Anthers can produce typical microspore mother cells as well as uninucleate microspores, according to cytological investigations, while binucleate pollen ceased to produce typical mature pollen. Pollen abortion was further confirmed by transmission electron microscopy analysis at the binucleate stage in RNAi plants. The exine layer in aberrant pollen had a normal structure, while the intine layer appeared thicker. Suppression of SlMPK4 affects the transcript level of genes related to cell wall formation and modification, cell signal transduction, and metabolic and biosynthetic processes. A subset of genes that may be putative substrates of plant MAPKs were also differentially changed in RNAi transgenic flowers. Taken together, these results suggest that SlMPK4 plays a critical role in regulating pollen development and fruit development in tomato plants.

Retraction: Transversus Abdominis Plane Block Versus Local Anesthetic Wound Infiltration for Postoperative Analgesia in Adult Patients Undergoing Hernia Repair in Daycare Procedure: A Randomized Control Trial.

[This retracts the article DOI: 10.7759/cureus.21311.].

Transversus Abdominis Plane Block Versus Local Anesthetic Wound Infiltration for Postoperative Analgesia in Adult Patients Undergoing Hernia Repair in Daycare Procedure: A Randomized Control Trial.

INTRODUCTION: Various modalities are now being used to manage postoperative pain, such as regional nerve blocks techniques, continuous epidural analgesia, patient-controlled analgesia, opioids, and systemic non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. This study compared the mean postoperative pain score between ultrasound-guided transversus abdominis plane (TAP) block and a local anesthetic wound infiltration at the surgical incision site. METHODOLOGY: A prospective, comparative, randomized controlled trial (RCT) was carried out from February 2021 to September 2021. The study was conducted in the anesthesia department of Dow University of Health Sciences, Karachi, Pakistan. Patients aged 18-80 years presenting with elective surgery of (both direct and indirect) inguinal hernia repair were enrolled in the study. Participants were randomly assigned into one of the two groups that are local anesthetic wound infiltration (Group A) and TAP block (Group B). The mean pain score was assessed using a visual analog scale and compared between the two groups. RESULTS: The study included 168 patients grouped in two different groups. The mean age in Group A was 43.87 (+17.21), and Group B was 47.01 (±15.37). Mean pain scores in groups A and B were 6.36±1.94 vs 4.51 ± 1.99 (p-value=0.001). The pain rescue medications were given to 57.14% of patients in Group A and 34.52% of patients in Group B, and it was significantly different in the two groups (p-value=0.003). It was found that patients in Group A reported more severe pain (41.67%) than patients in Group B (10.71%). CONCLUSION: When compared to local anesthetic wound infiltration, ultrasound-guided TAP block had better analgesic activity compared to local anesthetic wound infiltration.

Field testing phytoremediation of organic and inorganic pollutants of sewage drain by bacteria assisted water hyacinth.

The study was carried out to identify the potential of phytoremediation within a flowing drain through Eichhornia crassipes in combination with two bacillus species to treat the inorganic and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) from industrial effluent at Kala Shah Kaku (KSK), Lahore, Pakistan. Results showed that the highest metals removal efficiency was found in Cr, Pb, Ni, and Cu as 72.4, 83.3, 82.35, and 63.63%, respectively. However, biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) and chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal efficiencies were also considerably higher (66.66 and 66.67%). The BOD, COD, sulfates, phosphate, and total dissolved solids (TDS) showed a higher reduction rate as 1442.7, 1967.3, 1148.2, 7225.4, and 911.5 g m-2 d-1, respectively. Chlorophyll a + b and carotenoid contents were decreased from 7.92 to 5.78 mg kg-1, 3.03 to 3.01 mg kg-1, respectively and total nitrogen was increased from 22 to 27 mg kg-1 in E. crassipes. Bio-concentration factor was higher for all metals and the maximum was found in Cr (<1). The reduction efficiency of Æ©PAHs was found up to 60% with different rings structure. The use of Bacillus safensis strain showed the higher percentage reduction for BOD, nitrates, sulfates, and phosphates. The Study provide practical reference for bacterial assisted phytoremediation of urban drain.

Photo-dependent somatic embryogenesis from non-embryogenic calli and its polyphenolics content in high-valued medicinal plant of Ajuga bracteosa.

Ajuga bracteosa (A. bracteosa) is one of the critically endangered and high-valued medicinal plants worldwide. Light is one of the major factor or stimulus involved in the morphogenic responses and bioactive compounds production in various medicinal plants. In this study, unique properties of colored lights have been observed on induction of somatic embryos from non-embryonic calli cultures of A. bracteosa. The maximum callogenic response (92.32%) from leaf explants was observed on Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium augmented with benzyl adenine (BA; 2.0 l-1) and 2, 4-Dichlorophenoxy acetic acid (2.4-D; 1.0 mg l-1). Calli cultures with same hormonal concentrations were placed under different spectral lights for somatic embryogenesis and photochemical variations. Red lights were found effective for maximum somatic embryos induction (92.75%) with optimum biomass accumulation (152.64 g l-1) on day 40. Similarly, among all the spectral lights, red light exhibited the highest DPPH-radical scavenging activity (DRSA; 92.86%). In contrast, blue lights induced maximum biosynthesis of chemically important total phenolics content and total flavonoids content (TPC; 0.264 and TFC; 0.06 mg/g-DW), respectively. Furthermore, blue, green and red lights also enhanced phenolics and production, polyphenolics content and total polyphenolics production in somatic embryos. It is concluded that exposure of calli cultures to colored lights provides an effective and promising in vitro technique for conservation of endangered A. bracteosa species and enhancement of its bioactive compounds. Steps should be taken to adopt these strategies/ techniques at a larger scale in order to yield maximum benefits from this highly valued medicinal plant species.