Jambul (Syzygium cumini) Pulp Extract Enhances Viability, Motility, and In Vitro Fertilizability of Cryopreserved Bovine Semen.

To study the ameliorative capacity of Syzygium cumini fruit Pulp Extract (SPE) on cryopreserved bovine semen, three ejaculates each of three fertile bulls (total nine samples) were collected. Each sample was mixed with semen dilution medium in 1:2 ratios, centrifuged, and 50% of the supernatant was discarded. The remaining sample was mixed with semen cryopreservation extender (SCE) in 1:4 ratios. Three aliquots (0.3 mL) of each extended semen sample were further diluted with (1) 0.7 mL SCE (SCE group), (2) 0.7 mL SCE containing SPE equivalent to 7 ppm total antioxidants (SPE7 group), and (3) 0.7 mL SCE equivalent to 14 ppm antioxidants (SPE14 group). For each aliquot, semen quality was analyzed in situ as well as after cryopreservation. Results show significant improvement in sperm membrane integrity, motility, and fertilizability in SPE7 (63.5% ± 2.04%, 56.22% ± 1.7%, 51.1%, respectively) and SPE14 (68% ± 1.12%, 63.67% ± 1.06%, 57.7%, respectively) than the SCE group (62.33% ± 1.22%, 54.9% ± 1.34%, 48.8%, respectively). Similarly, significant improvement in the mean percent number of progressively motile sperm at the expense of the mean percent twitching, shaking, and whirling spermatozoa, both before and after cryopreservation, were observed in SPE7 (72 ± 1.06, 61.2 ± 1.2) and SPE14 (78.89 ± 1.12, 67 ± 1.32) groups to that of the SCE (59.6 ± 0.97, 52.3 ± 3.5). In addition, the mean percent of progressively motile spermatozoa showing 20 µm/s or above velocity, before and after cryopreservation, were significantly higher in SPE7 (58.9 ± 4.7, 43.6 ± 1.5) and SPE14 (66.9 ± 0.8, 51.3 ± 0.8) groups than that of the SCE (42.3 ± 3.1, 30 ± 2.4). These findings indicate that SPE can significantly improve various quality parameters of the cryopreserved bovine semen.

Role of Molecular Biology in Cancer Treatment: A Review Article.

BACKGROUND: Cancer is a genetic disease and mainly arises due to a number of reasons include activation of onco-genes, malfunction of tumor suppressor genes or mutagenesis due to external factors. METHODS: This article was written from the data collected from PubMed, Nature, Science Direct, Springer and Elsevier groups of journals. RESULTS: Oncogenes are deregulated form of normal proto-oncogenes required for cell division, differentiation and regulation. The conversion of proto-oncogene to oncogene is caused due to translocation, rearrangement of chromosomes or mutation in gene due to addition, deletion, duplication or viral infection. These oncogenes are targeted by drugs or RNAi system to prevent proliferation of cancerous cells. There have been developed different techniques of molecular biology used to diagnose and treat cancer, including retroviral therapy, silencing of oncogenes and mutations in tumor suppressor genes. CONCLUSION: Among all the techniques used, RNAi, zinc finger nucleases and CRISPR hold a brighter future towards creating a Cancer Free World.

Phenotypic Stability of Zea mays Grain Yield and Its Attributing Traits under Drought Stress.

Phenotypic stability under stress environment facilitate the fitness of genotype and opens new horizons to explore the cryptic genetic variation. Variation in tolerance to drought stress, a major grain yield constraint to global maize production, was identified, at the phenotypic and genotypic level. Here we found a prominent hybrid H9 that showed fitness over four growing seasons for grain yield under water stress conditions. Genotypic and phenotypic correlation of yield attributing traits over four seasons demonstrated that cobs per plant, 100 seed weight, number of grains rows per cob, total dry matter, cob diameter had positive association (r2 = 0.3-0.9) to grain yield. The perturbation was found for chlorophyll content as it showed moderate to strong association (P < 0.01) over four seasons, might be due to environment or genotype dependent. Highest heritability (95%) and genetic advance (79%) for grain yield was found in H9 over four consecutive crop growing seasons. Combined analysis over four seasons showed that studied variables together explained 85% of total variation in dependent structure (grain yield) obtained by Principal component analysis. This significant finding is the best example of phenotypic stability of grain yield in H9 and made it best fitted for grain yield under drought stress scenario. Detailed genetic analysis of H9 will help us to identify significant loci and alleles that made H9 the best fitted and it could serve as a potential source to generate novel transgressive levels of tolerance for drought stress in arid/semiarid regions.

Contraceptive Utilisation Among Mothers of Reproductive Age in Ajman, United Arab Emirates.

OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to determine contraceptive utilisation among mothers aged 18-49 years old in Ajman, United Arab Emirates (UAE). METHODS: This cross-sectional study was carried out from May to November 2013. A total of 400 participants were recruited from two primary healthcare centres and one private hospital in Ajman. An interviewer-administered validated questionnaire was used for data collection. RESULTS: The frequency of previous and current contraceptive use was 68.0% and 61.8%, respectively. Expatriates more frequently used contraceptives in comparison to Emiratis (77.3% versus 54.3%, respectively). Contraceptive use increased significantly with age (75.5% among >35-year-olds versus 57.3% among ≤25-year-olds; P <0.050) and education level (83.3% among postgraduates versus 60.0% among those with primary education; P <0.050). In addition, contraceptive use was significantly higher among those living in a nuclear family system (P <0.050). A univariate analysis indicated significant associations between contraceptive use and age, nationality, education level, type of family system, employment sector, parity, knowledge of birth control measures and source of birth control information (P <0.050 each). However, no significant associations were found via multivariate analysis. CONCLUSION: Healthcare practitioners can play a pivotal role in providing contraceptive advice which could lead to an improvement in contraceptive utilisation. Efforts are recommended to raise awareness regarding newer forms of contraceptives among mothers of reproductive age in the UAE.

The sequence divergence in cytochrome C oxidase I gene of Culex quinquefasciatus mosquito and its comparison with four other Culex species.

The genetic diversity of Culex quinquefasciatus mosquito based on the standard barcode region of cytochrome C oxidase I (COI) gene fragment was studied in the present study. The COI gene sequences of Cx. quinquefasciatus were also compared with four other species of Genus Culex (i.e. Cx. tritaeniorhynchus, Cx. fuscocephala, Cx. pipiens, and Cx. theileri). Our data set included sequences of Culex mosquitoes from 16 different countries of world. The average intraspecific and interspecific divergences recorded were 0.67% and 8.27%, respectively. The clades for five species were clearly separated except Cx. quinquefasciatus and Cx. pipiens. It is concluded that the DNA barcoding is effective and reliable tool for the identification of selected Culex species but create little problem in case of sister species.

Multivariate Analysis of Grain Yield and Its Attributing Traits in Different Maize Hybrids Grown under Heat and Drought Stress.

This study was carried out to evaluate F1 single cross-maize hybrids in four crop growing seasons (2010-2012). Morphological traits and physiological parameters of twelve maize hybrids were evaluated (i) to construct seed yield equation and (ii) to determine grain yield attributing traits of well-performing maize genotype using a previously unexplored method of two-way hierarchical clustering. In seed yield predicting equation photosynthetic rate contributed the highest variation (46%). Principal component analysis data showed that investigated traits contributed up to 90.55% variation in dependent structure. From factor analysis, we found that factor 1 contributed 49.6% variation (P < 0.05) with primary important traits (i.e., number of leaves per plant, plant height, stem diameter, fresh leaves weight, leaf area, stomata conductance, substomata CO2 absorption rate, and photosynthetic rate). The results of two-way hierarchical clustering demonstrated that Cluster III had outperforming genotype H12 (Sultan × Soneri) along with its most closely related traits (photosynthetic rate, stomata conductance, substomata CO2 absorption rate, chlorophyll contents, leaf area, and fresh stem weight). Our data shows that H12 (Sultan × Soneri) possessed the highest grain yield per plant under environmentally stress conditions, which are most likely to exist in arid and semiarid climatic conditions, such as in Pakistan.

Atresia of the ascending colon: a rarity.

Atresia of the colon is among the rare types of all gastrointestinal atresias. Ascending colon is the rarest site of all the colonic atresias. The authors report a case of a 4-day-old male baby who presented with the features of distal intestinal obstruction. At laparotomy type I atresia of the ascending colon, just distal to cecum, was found. Primary ceco-colic anastomosis along with a covering ileostomy was performed. Ileostomy was reversed 3 weeks later.