Isaria tenuipes Peck, an entomopathogenic fungus from Darjeeling Himalaya: Evaluation of in-vitro antiproliferative and antioxidant potential of its mycelium extract.

BACKGROUND: Isaria tenuipes is one of the potent species in the members of the genus Isaria, which is well reported to possess multiple bioactive substances of therapeutic importance. Therefore, an in vitro experimental study was carried to evaluate the bioactivities of the crude methanolic extract from the mycelium of this fungus. METHODS: The fungus was authenticated through morphological characters and the species discrepancy was resolved using the nuclear rDNA ITS sequence. The methanolic extract was fingerprinted by FTIR. The antioxidant components in terms of total phenols and flavonoids were determined as gallic acid and quercetin equivalents respectively. Antioxidant activities of the methanolic extract was assessed using 1, 1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), 2, 2/-azinobis-(3-ethylbenzthiazoline-6-sulphonic acid) radical cation (ABTS0+), Fe2+chelating activity, and hydroxyl radical scavenging assays. Cytotoxicity of the extract was determined by [3-(4, 5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2, 5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide] (MTT) assay on three cancer cell lines: HeLa, HepG2, and PC3. Apoptosis was further studied by propidium iodide (PI) and Annexin-V/PI staining flow cytometric analysis. Anti-proliferation capacity was studied by colony-forming assay. RESULTS: In the present study total phenol content of the dried methanol extract was 148.09 ± 3.51µg gallic acid equivalent/mg and flavonoid was 9.02±0.95 µg quercetin/mg. The antioxidant activities of methanol-water extract (8:2 v/v) from cultured mycelia of I. tenuipes investigated and evaluated with 1, 1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging assay revealed IC50 value of 5.04mg/ml with an inhibition rate of 74.77% at 10mg/ml and with an iron-chelating assay the chelating ability was recorded to be 86.76% where the IC50 value was 4.43 mg/ml. In comparison among the antioxidant assays, 2,2/-azinobis-(3-ethylbenzthiazoline-6-sulphonic acid) radical cation (ABTS0+) and hydroxyl assay exhibited radical scavenging rate of 44.42% and 49.82% respectively at a concentration of 10 mg/ml. The IC50 value of the extract in MTT assay was 43.45µg/ml with HeLa cells, 119.33µg/ml with PC3 cells, and 125.55µg/ml with HepG2 cells. CONCLUSION: In this study, it can be concluded that the crude methanolic extract exhibited potent antioxidant and antiproliferative activities suggesting natural antioxidative and antiproliferative agents.

Complete chloroplast genome of the hot desert herb Fagonia indica (Zygophyllaceae) from south-central Arabia.

The complete chloroplast genome sequences of the hot desert herb Fagonia indica (Zygophyllaceae) is being reported in this study. The total plastome length was 128,379 bp (GC content 34.02%). The gene order in F. indica was found similar to the angiosperm except for the loss of one copy of the IR and by the presence of a single, large inversion that reverses the order of the genes between rbcL and rps16. A total number of 115 unique coding genes which includes 80 protein-coding gene, 31 tRNA genes, and 4 rRNA genes were annotated. The phylogenetic analysis of representative plastomes from the Roisds revealed two distinct clades of Krameriaceae and Zygophyllaceae.

Permanent Draft Genome Sequence of the French Bean Symbiont Rhizobium sp. Strain RSm-3 Isolated from the Eastern Himalayan Region of India.

The genus Rhizobium contains many species able to form nitrogen-fixing nodules on plants of the legume family. Here, we report the 6.9-Mbp draft genome sequence of Rhizobium sp. strain RSm-3, with a G+C content of 61.4% and 6,511 candidate protein-coding genes.