To report a case of unilateral proliferative retinopathy following noncerebral malaria with Plasmodium falciparum in Southern India.

The retinopathy in association with malaria fever described so far includes retinal hemorrhages, vessel changes, retinal discoloration/whitening and papilledema. Malaria retinopathy has been mostly described in severe cases, associated with Plasmodium falciparum, correlating the patho-physiology of retinal and cerebral manifestations. We report an unusual case of proliferative retinopathy as a manifestation of malaria fever, caused by P. falciparum with no cerebral involvement. The patient had features of unilateral retinal vascular occlusion with proliferative changes and vitreous hemorrhage. To the best of our knowledge, such a case has never been reported so far in the literature. This report highlights the possible occurrence of severe proliferative changes associated with malaria fever, which if diagnosed early can prevent possible blindness.

Studies on Calli Mediated Multiple Shoot Regeneration from Rumex vesicarius L.

Rumex vesicarius L is a valuable potent medicinal herb, which belongs to family Polygonaceae. It possesses antimicrobial, anti- inflammatory, antidiarrhoeal and antioxidant properties. An attempt to study the In vitro callus induction and regeneration of plantlets from calli of leaf and nodal segments as explants has been achieved. Initially mature seeds were excised from plants grown in the departmental garden of KL University. The sterilized seed explants were inoculated aseptically to the solid basal SH media without any growth regulators for seed germination. Effective plantlets observed after 1 week of culture inoculation under maintained controlled conditions. From these In vitro plantlets, leaf and nodal segments were taken as explants for this study. These explants were inoculated on SH medium supplemented with different concentrations of BA (0.5-5.0mg/l) and 2, 4-D (0.5-3.0mg/l) for callus induction and multiple shoot regeneration. 90% of callus induction was observed on media containing BA 4.0mg/l and efficient multiple shoot induction (96.6%) was observed on media containing BA 1.0mg/l from leaf explants. 90% of callus induction and 85% of multiple shoot induction observed on media containing BA 2.0mg/l from nodal explants. Roots were induced from In vitro shoots on SH medium supplemented with 1mg/l IBA after 1 week. Leaf explants were more regenerative with 96.6% response compared to nodal explants 85%. Finally these In vitro regenerated plantlets were hardened, acclimatized and successfully transferred to the field. This protocol will be useful for mass multiplication of plantlets and maintenance of germplasm throughout the year.

Mating success of males with and without wing patch in Drosophila biarmipes.

Some males of D. biarmipes--synonym of D. rajasekari and D. raychaudhuri have a black patch on the wing. The patch extends from the apical margin of wing to the third longitudinal vein. Field and laboratory studies have been carried out in D. biarmipes to study role of male's wing patch in mating success. The field study shows that nature favors D. biarmipes males with patch. Although males without patch mated, males with patch have higher mating success suggesting the role of wing patch during courtship. Further, among mating males, males with patch had longer wings than males without patch. During courtship, males with patch oriented and mated faster; performed courtship acts such as tapping, scissoring, vibration, licking and twist dance more times than males without patch in both competitive and non-competitive situations. The results indicate that there is a casual relationship between the presence of wing patch, mating speed and success. Also there is a correlation between presence of wing patch, size of the flies and mating success.

Variability of morphological traits in Drosophila bipectinata complex.

Phenotypic or morphological differences among different populations and sexual dimorphism in certain metric traits were analysed in D. bipectinata complex. It was noticed that different populations of D. bipectinata species group harbour large amount of variation for these characters. In all the populations, morphometric characters such as lengths of femur, tibia and wing length, wing width, number of sternopleural bristles and bristles on epandrium varied significantly among populations. The study indicates that the morphological variations are due to the interplay of genetic and environmental endowments. Further, females had significantly larger values, for lengths of femur, tibia and wing length, wing width and sternopleural bristles.

Bottleneck effect on intra- and interspecific competition in Drosophila malerkotliana.

Intra and interspecific competition experiments involving control and bottleneck lines of monomorphic and polymorphic populations of D.malerkotliana with D.nasuta nasuta have been carried out. Productivity and population size were evaluated in these lines. The results show that control line had higher relative fitness and adaptedness (productivity and population size) under both intra and interspecific competition than their respective bottleneck lines and D.nasuta nasuta. This indicates that bottlenecks have an effect on competition in D.malerkotliana. The consequence of such competition studies using control and bottleneck lines of D.malerkotliana and D.nasuta nasuta is discussed.

Body size, mating success and advantage of large flies in Drosophila bipectinata species complex.

Mating success of large and small flies of Drosophila malerkotliana and D. bipectinata was studied using multiple, male and female choice methods. In multiple choice method the large male mated with large female and small male paired with small female. In female choice method, large male was successful in mating with female irrespective of its size while in male choice method, preferential mating occurred between large male and large female as well as small male and small female. The consequence of such non-random mating in the presence of male rivarly and preferential mating has been discussed.

Effect of bottlenecks on incipient sexual isolation, mating activity and fertility in Drosophila malerkotliana.

Effect of bottleneck sizes, on sexual isolation, mating speed and fertility were studied in D. malerkotliana established from natural population. After 10 generations of laboratory breeding, flies showed incipient sexual isolation between control line and some bottleneck lines and also between bottleneck lines. These findings do not fully agree with the general assumption that the establishment of bottlenecks accelerates speciation. The courtship latency and mating speed increases with increasing size of bottlenecks whereas copulation duration and fertility decreases with increasing bottleneck size. There was no sign of rebounding in fitness with in 10 generations as observed by Bryant et al. in house flies.