Frankliniella species from India (Thysanoptera: Thripidae), with a new generic synonym and an unusual new species.

Frankliniella genus-group is one of the most important group in the sub-family Thripinae comprising, more than 270 species in nine genera. A morphological-based cladistic analysis of genus-level relationships within this group was performed, based on 54 morphological character states for 26 species, including Thrips physapus as an outgroup. This analysis recovered Pseudanaphothrips as monophyletic and sister-group to a group of five Old World genera: Firmothrips, Kakothrips, Parabaliothrips, Sitothrips and Yaobinthrips. It also showed a sister relationship between eight species of Poaceae-associated Old World species in Frankliniella plus Iridothrips, and a group of five New World species in Frankliniella and Guerothrips. As a result, Iridothrips is here considered a new synonym of Frankliniella, and Frankliniella insolitum sp. n. is described from northern India. A key to the six species of Frankliniella recorded from India is also provided. Images and notes of F. unicolor Morgan based on a paratype of the synonym F. andropogoni Moulton & Andre are also provided.

A new genus and species of subfamily Dendrothripinae (Thysanoptera: Thripidae) from India.

Jammuthrips paikulensis gen. et sp. n. is described from Jammu Kashmir, Union territory of India and the morphological relationships among the closely related genera of subfamily Dendrothripinae are discussed. Key to Indian genera of subfamily Dendrothripinae is provided. Two DNA barcodes of new species were generated and submitted to The Barcode of Life Data Systems (BOLD).

"Association of MTHFR and MS/MTR gene polymorphisms with congenital heart defects in North Indian population (Jammu and Kashmir): a case-control study encompassing meta-analysis and trial sequential analysis".

BACKGROUND: The risk of Congenital Heart Defects (CHD) is greatly influenced by variants within the genes involved in folate-homocysteine metabolism. Polymorphism in MTHFR (C677T and G1793A) and MS/MTR (A2756G) genes increases the risk of developing CHD risk, but results are controversial. Therefore, we conducted a case-control association pilot study followed by an up-dated meta-analysis with trial sequential analysis (TSA) to obtain more precise estimate of the associations of these two gene variants with the CHD risk. METHODS: For case-control study, we enrolled 50 CHD patients and 100 unrelated healthy controls. Genotyping was done by PCR-RFLP method and meta-analysis was performed by MetaGenyo online Statistical Analysis System software. For meta-analysis total number of individuals was as follows: for MTHFR C677T 3450 CHD patients and 4447 controls whereas for MS A2756G 697 CHD patients and 777 controls. RESULTS: Results of the original pilot study suggested lack of association for MTHFR C677T and MS A2756G polymorphism with risk of CHD whereas MTHFR G1793A was significantly associated with the disease. On performing meta-analysis, a significant association was observed with MTHFR C677T polymorphism but not with MS A2756G. Trial sequential Analysis also confirmed the sufficient sample size requirement for findings of meta-analysis. CONCLUSIONS: The results of the meta-analysis suggested a significant role of MTHFR in increased risk of CHD.

Association of ESR1 (rs2234693 and rs9340799), CETP (rs708272), MTHFR (rs1801133 and rs2274976) and MS (rs185087) polymorphisms with Coronary Artery Disease (CAD).

BACKGROUND: Coronary artery disease (CAD) is a complex disease resulting from the cumulative and interactive effects of large number of genes along with environmental exposure. Therefore, the present study was envisaged as an effort to study the association of candidate genes ESR1 (rs2234693 and rs9340799), CETP (rs708272), MTHFR (rs1801133 and rs2274976) and MS (rs185087) polymorphisms with the risk of CAD, targeting the populations of Jammu (JandK). METHOD: A total of 400 confirmed CAD patients and 400 healthy controls were enrolled for the present study. Genotyping was done by polymerase chain reaction- restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP). RESULTS: ESR1 gene (rs9340799) polymorphism was found to be associated with CAD in all the genetic models. The haplotype analysis of ESR1 (rs2234693 and rs9340799) gene revealed that C-G haplotype was conferring approximately 5-fold risk and T-A haplotype was adding 1.4-fold risk towards the disease. 'T' allele of MTHFR rs1801133 SNP was observed to be responsible for development of CAD in our study population (p < 0.0001). In case of MTHFR (rs1801133 and rs2274976) gene, the haplotype T-G was observed to confer 4.7-fold risk towards CAD whereas haplotype C-G provided nearly a 1.7 fold protection towards development of CAD. For MS gene, rs185087 was also found to be associated with CAD in a co-dominant (p = 0.003 and p = 0.03), dominant (p = 0.001) and allelic models (p = 0.001). The gene-gene interaction revealed strong epistasis between single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), ESR1 rs9340799 and MTHFR rs2274976. Furthermore, the dendrogram for gene-environment dataset indicated moderately synergistic interaction between CETP rs708272 and physical inactivity. CONCLUSION: In the study under reference, a significant association of ESR1-XbaI (rs9340799), MTHFR C677T (rs1801133) and MS A2756G (rs185087) gene polymorphisms with the susceptibility of CAD in the population of Jammu region (JandK) has been observed.