Genetic Variations in Asparagus racemosus, an Endangered Medicinal Herb Endemic to India Using RAPD Markers.

Aim: To study the genetic diversity in Asparagus racemosus germplasm using RAPD molecular markers for its better conservation and utilization. Study Design: RAPD markers used to check genetic diversity in Asparagus racemosus using different softwares. Place and Duration of Study: Department of Bio & Nano Technology, Guru Jambheshwar University of Science & Technology, Hisar-125001 between May 2013 to June 2014. Methodology: A total of 60 RAPD markers used to check polymorphism at genetic level among 60 asparagus genotypes. PCR amplified bands were scored as 0 and 1 for absence and presence. The binary data so obtained used to reveal genetic polymorphism via NTSYS, POPGENE and AMOVA analysis. Results: A significant level of genetic diversity (81.48%) among all genotypes was assessed by using RAPD molecular markers. Out of 60, 49 RAPD primers produced 425 polymorphic loci. The value of Jaccard’s coefficient varied from 0.48 to 0.97 for RAPD. OPB-15 primer proved to be the most polymorphic marker among all used. The POPGENE analysis revealed 44.44, 79.01 and 64.20% polymorphism for RAPD analysis in groups with low, intermediate and high saponin content. The overall value of Shannon’s index and Nei’s genetic diversity was 0.3402 & 0.2169 for RAPD marker system. Conclusion: These results showed RAPD marker system useful in detecting significant genetic polymorphism among genotypes which can be used for production and conservation of improved genotypes.

Role of Nitric Oxide During Liver Transplantation.

Nitric oxide (NO) is a gaseous molecule produced from Nitric Oxide Synthases (NOS) enzyme. Three isoforms of NOS have been observed: endothelial NOS (eNOS), inducible NOS (iNOS) and neuronal NOS (nNOS). All three of these isoforms are expressed in liver in varying spatial and temporal ways. In liver, both nNOS and eNOS maintain homeostasis. Whereas iNOS is not expressed constitutively in liver, but rather is expressed in most liver cell types given the appropriate stimulatory conditions. Conflicting results have been observed on the behaviour and possible roles of the NO in several models of ischemia/ reperfusion injury during liver transplantation. Indeed, endogenous NO production has been associated with either protective or cytotoxic effects. Thus some, not all studies suggest that although eNOSderived NO production is protective in ischemia/reperfusion, iNOS derived NO production may contribute to ischemia/ reperfusion injury. This review article focuses on possible role of NO in liver transplantation.

Utilization of intron-flanking EST-specific markers in the genetic characterization of Artemisia annua genotypes from the trans-Himalayan region of Ladakh, India.

Genetic variation was assessed utilizing intron-flanking EST-specific markers among genotypes of Artemesia annua collected from two sampling sites viz. Nubra (9,600 ft) and Leh (11,500 ft) valleys of the trans-Himalayan region, Ladakh, India. The available ESTs (3,60,906) sequences of A. annua were aligned with the genomic sequences of Arabidopsis to developed ‘intron-flanking’ EST-PCR based primers. These primers anneal with the conserved region of exon (flanking to the intron) and amplified the introns. Out of the 39 primers selected and tested on 20 genotypes of A. annua, we successfully exploited 81 codominant intron length polymorphism (ILP) markers, with an average of 2.08 markers per primer and 92.04% polymorphism detection. Clustering of genotypes revealed distribution of genotypes into 2 distinct clusters with respect to their site of collection. Significantly, this study demonstrates that Arabidopsis genome sequence can be useful in developing gene-specific PCR-based markers for other non-model plant species like A. annua in the absence of genome sequences.

Docking mode of delvardine and its analogues into the p66 domain of HIV-1 reverse transcriptase: screening using molecular mechanics-generalized born/surface area and absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion properties.

Delvardine and its structural derivatives are important non-nucleoside HIV-1 reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTIs). In this work,15 delvardine analogues were studied. A free energy-of-binding (FEB)expression was developed in the form of an optimized linear combination of van der Waal (vdW), electrostatic, solvation and solvent-accessible surface area (SASA) energy terms. The solvation energy terms estimated by generalized born/surface area (GB/SA) play an important role in predicting the binding affinity of delvardine analogues. Out of 15 derivatives, substitution of CH3 with H at the Y and R positions, as well as substitution of SO2CH3 with only CH2 at the Z position in S2, S8 and S12 analogues, were found to be the most potent (glide score = -7.60, -8.06 and -7.44; pIC50 =7.28, 7.37 and 7.64) in comparison with the template delvardine (which is used currently as the drug candidate). All the three analogues also passed the absorption, distribution,metabolism and excretion (ADME) screening and Lipinski's rule of 5, and have the potential to be used for second-generation drug development. The work demonstrates that dock molecular mechanics-generalized born/surface area (MM-GB/SA-ADME) is a promising approach to predict the binding activity of ligands to the receptor and further screen for a successful candidate drug in a computer-aided rational drug design.