Understanding the relevance of herb-drug interaction studies with special focus on interplays: a prerequisite for integrative medicine.

Integrative medicine refers to the blending of conventional and evidence-based complementary medicines and therapies with the aim of using the most appropriate of either or both modalities for ultimate patient benefits. One of the major hurdles for the same is the chances of potential herb-drug interactions (HDIs). These HDIs could be beneficial or harmful, or even fatal; therefore, a thorough understanding of the eventualities of HDIs is essential so that a successful integration of the modern and complementary alternative systems of medicine could be achieved. Here, we summarize all the important points related to HDIs, including types, tools/methods for study, and prediction of the HDIs, along with a special focus on interplays between drug metabolizing enzymes and transporters. In addition, this article covers future perspective, with a focus on background endogenous players of interplays and approaches to predict the drug-disease-herb interactions so as to fetch the desired effects of these interactions.

In vitro and in vivo Assessment of Protein Acetylation Status in Mycobacteria.

Protein acetylation is one of the standard post-translational modifications found in proteins across all organisms, along with phosphorylation which regulates diverse cellular processes. Acetylation of proteins can be enzymatically catalyzed through acetyltransferases, acetyl CoA synthetases or non-enzymatically through acyl carrier metabolic intermediates. In this protocol, using response regulator proteins as targets we describe the experimental strategy for probing the occurrence of acetylation using purified recombinant proteins in an in vitro setup. Further using M. smegmatis strains overexpressing the wild type or mutant response regulator protein, we also describe how in vivo acetylation can be validated in Mycobacterial proteins. The described approach can be used for analyzing acetylation of any mycobacterial protein under both in vitro and in vivo conditions.

Cyanobacteria: A Precious Bio-resource in Agriculture, Ecosystem, and Environmental Sustainability.

Keeping in view, the challenges concerning agro-ecosystem and environment, the recent developments in biotechnology offers a more reliable approach to address the food security for future generations and also resolve the complex environmental problems. Several unique features of cyanobacteria such as oxygenic photosynthesis, high biomass yield, growth on non-arable lands and a wide variety of water sources (contaminated and polluted waters), generation of useful by-products and bio-fuels, enhancing the soil fertility and reducing green house gas emissions, have collectively offered these bio-agents as the precious bio-resource for sustainable development. Cyanobacterial biomass is the effective bio-fertilizer source to improve soil physico-chemical characteristics such as water-holding capacity and mineral nutrient status of the degraded lands. The unique characteristics of cyanobacteria include their ubiquity presence, short generation time and capability to fix the atmospheric N2. Similar to other prokaryotic bacteria, the cyanobacteria are increasingly applied as bio-inoculants for improving soil fertility and environmental quality. Genetically engineered cyanobacteria have been devised with the novel genes for the production of a number of bio-fuels such as bio-diesel, bio-hydrogen, bio-methane, synga, and therefore, open new avenues for the generation of bio-fuels in the economically sustainable manner. This review is an effort to enlist the valuable information about the qualities of cyanobacteria and their potential role in solving the agricultural and environmental problems for the future welfare of the planet.

Genetic diversity of plant growth promoting rhizobacteria isolated from rhizospheric soil of wheat under saline condition.

In this study, a total of 130 rhizobacteria was isolated from a saline infested zone of wheat rhizosphere, and screened for plant growth promoting (PGP) traits at higher salt (NaCl) concentrations (2, 4, 6, and 8%). The results revealed that 24 rhizobacterial isolates were tolerant at 8% NaCl. Although all the 24 salt tolerable isolates produced indole-3-acetic acid (IAA), while 10 isolates solubilized phosphorus, eight produced siderophore, and six produced gibberellin. However, only three isolates showed the production of 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate (ACC) deaminase. Diversity was analyzed through 16S rDNA-RFLP, and of these isolates with three tetra cutter restriction enzymes (HaeIII, AluI, and MspI), the representative cluster groups were identified by 16S rDNA sequencing. Bacillus and Bacillus-derived genera were dominant which showed PGP attributes at 8% NaCl concentration. Out of 24 isolates, nitrogen fixing ability (nif H gene) was detected in the two isolates, SU18 (Arthrobacter sp.) and SU48.

Characterization of salinity-tolerant mutant of Anabaena doliolum exhibiting multiple stress tolerance.

Results show that an isolated mutant of the cyanobacterium Anabaena doliolum is a fast-growing strain. It exhibits approximately twofold higher NaCl tolerance than the wild type. It also reveals cross-resistance against the herbicide 3-(3,4-dichlorophenyl)-1,1-dimethylurea (DCMU), drug bacitracin, and LiCl. Further, an improved LiCl tolerance property of both the mutant and wild-type strains at high concentration of NaCl (40 m M) may be interpreted in terms of competitive inhibition of the Li(+) uptake by Na(+) ions, whereas bacitracin resistance in these organisms is described to be the result of an alteration in the drug transporting channels of membrane. The multiple stress tolerance property of the A. doliolum may be attributed to altered membrane characteristics in the mutant strain, leading to reduced intake of such toxicants.