Salicylic acid seed priming instigates defense mechanism by inducing PR-Proteins in Solanum melongena L. upon infection with Verticillium dahliae Kleb.

Salicylic acid (SA) is a hormone connected with various cellular functions including the fight against invading pathogens. Priming of seeds pre-sowing is a very simple method to the farmers' to produce better growth, yield and manage the pathogens. The present study was aimed to determine the growth and disease resistance ability in brinjal seeds primed with different concentrations (0.25, 0.5, 0.75 and 1.0 mM) of SA under greenhouse conditions. Priming of seeds with SA significantly increased seed germination and seedling vigor with a maximum of 84% and 859.18, respectively at 0.5 mM concentration. Seed priming with SA also reduced Verticillium wilt incidence to 39.25% (at 0.5 mM) under greenhouse conditions and also enhanced the vegetative growth parameters of the plant compared to control. The induced resistance obtained with SA was in line with higher expression of PR-protein (ß-1,3-glucanase and chitinase) related defense enzymes. Further, an increase of 1.7, 2.9, 2.1, 2.5 and 2-fold increase in gene expression of IAA27, MPK1, GPX, chitinase and ß-1,3-glucanase, respectively were observed in SA primed challenge inoculated seedlings than non-primed susceptible inoculated controls. The higher expression of IAA27, MPK1, GPX, chitinase and ß-1,3-glucanase correlates with the plant growth promoting and disease protection studies as these genes are vital for increasing plant growth and inducing resistance during host-pathogen interaction. Enhanced activation of defense-related activities in plants upon priming with SA suggests that it alters plant physiology which in turn is useful for production and protection of brinjal.

Evaluation of the medical records system in an upcoming teaching hospital-a project for improvisation.

The medical records system of an upcoming teaching hospital in a developing nation was evaluated for its accessibility, completeness, physician satisfaction, presence of any lacunae, suggestion of necessary steps for improvisation and to emphasize the importance of Medical records system in education and research work. The salient aspects of the medical records department were evaluated based on a questionnaire which was evaluated by a team of 40 participants-30 doctors, 5 personnel from Medical Records Department and 5 from staff of Hospital administration. Most of the physicians (65%) were partly satisfied with the existing medical record system. 92.5% were of the opinion that upgradation of the present system is necessary. The need of the hour in the present teaching hospital is the implementation of a hospital-wide patient registration and medical records re-engineering process in the form of electronic medical records system and regular review by the audit commission.

Comparative phytochemical investigation of the sources of ayurvedic drug patha: a chromatographic fingerprinting analysis.

Standardization of herbal drugs based on their chemical and biological activity profile is an important prerequisite for acquiring the herbal market. The main problem encountered in standardization of Ayurvedic drugs is proper identification of the source plant. The present study was aimed to establish identification characters, quality control parameters, chemical and biological parameters for roots of three plants Cissampelos pareira, Cyclea peltata and Stephania japonica (Fam. Menispermaceae) which are being used as source of Patha, in the market. All the three plant were subjected for evaluation of quality control parameters as per WHO guidelines and root extracts and total alkaloidal fractions were subjected for HPTLC and HPLC fingerprinting analysis using a marker compound Bebeerine isolated from roots of Cissampelos pareira. The parameters studied clearly indicated the significant differences among the three plant materials. The roots of Cissampelos pareira can be distinguished from other two plants by presence of high concentration of alkaloids especially the presence of high concentration of pharmacologically active alkaloid bebeerine, which was found to be present in very low concentration in Stephania japonica and absent in roots of Cyclea peltata. The roots of Cyclea peltata were found to contain high concentration of saponins and comparatively in low concentration in Cissampelos pareira where as it was found to be absent in roots of Stephania japonica.

Genetic characterization of the polycotyledon locus in tomato.

Developmental mutants serve as a useful material to unravel the mechanisms necessary for organ development. The polycotyledon (poc) mutant of tomato, with multiple cotyledons in the seedling and varied phenotypic effects in the adult plant is one such mutant. Studies using physiological and anatomical methods in our lab suggest that POC is involved in the negative regulation of polar auxin transport, which is likely the reason for the pleiotropic phenotype in the mutant. Because of the physiological significance of the polycotyledon mutant described in this paper and also being first of its kind in tomato and also other plant species, we are using a map-based cloning approach to map the polycotyledon gene. Molecular mapping of this locus using segregating interspecific F2 mapping population localized polycotyledon gene close to TG424 marker on the long arm of chromosome 9. The closest marker mapped was a PCR marker identified in this study, E8A2 at a distance of 7.4 cM from the poc locus. The absence of tightly linked RAPD markers and the non-availability of more mapped markers in this region led us to initiate chromosome walk to polycotyledon gene. Both the flanking markers TG248 and E8A2 were used to screen the BAC library and a contig was developed for TG248 marker. The BAC-end sequences were analyzed for their use as RFLP markers to enrich this region for markers. Analysis of the BAC-end sequences revealed that poc is localized in the region surrounded by copia-like retrotransposon elements explaining the absence of markers in the euchromatin region on long arm of chromosome 9. Further studies identified two BAC-end sequences which mapped around the poc locus and also indicated very low physical versus genetic distance ratio in this region. The double mutant analyses of poc with the other two known polycotyledon mutants of tomato, pct and dem revealed allelism with pct; therefore, the poc mutant was named as pct1-2, and also the original pct mutant was renamed as pct1-1.