Anthonycooke2253

© Prof. H.S. Srivastava Foundation for Science and Society 2020.In the present study sensitivity of a medicinal plant Eclipta alba L. (Hassk) (False daisy) was assessed under intermittent (IT) and continuous (CT) doses of elevated ultraviolet-B (eUV-B). Eclipta alba is rich in medicinally important phytochemical constituents, used against several diseases. The hypothesis of this study is that alterations in UV-B dose may modify the quantity and quality of medicinally valuable components with changes in the morphological and physiological parameters of test plant. To fulfill our hypothesis IT and CT of eUV-B (ambient ± 7.2 kJ m-2 day-2) was given for 130 and 240 h respectively to assess the impact of UV-B stress. Capsazepine Growth and physiological parameters were adversely affected under both the treatments with varying magnitude. The observation of leaf surfaces showed increase in stomatal and trichome densities suggesting the adaptive resilience of the plants against UV-B. Besides, biosynthesis of wedelolactone, a major medicinal compound of E. alba was observed to be stimulated under UV-B exposure. The essential oil content was reduced under IT while increased under CT. A total of 114 compounds were identified from oil extract of E. alba. n-Pentadecane (25.79%), n-Octadecane (12.98%), β-Farnesene (9.43%), α-Humulene (4.95%) (E)-Caryophyllene (4.87%), Phytol (4.25%), α-Copaene (2.26%), Humulene epoxide (1.46%), β-Pinene (1.07) and β-Caryophyllene oxide (1.06%) were identified as major components of oil. CT induced the synthesis of some medicinally important compounds such as α-terpineol, δ-cadinene, linolenic acid, methyl linoleate and myristic acid amide. Hence, the study revealed that continuous UV-B exposure of low intensity could be helpful for commercial exploitation of essential oil in E. alba. © Prof. H.S. Srivastava Foundation for Science and Society 2020.This study was performed to investigate the constituents, in vitro antifungal activity and phytotoxicity potential of the essential oil from Juniperus polycarpos var. turcomanica leaves. The essential oil was analyzed by GC-FID, and GC/MS, which predominantly contains α-pinene (51.21%), germacrene-B (4.80%), and ∆-cadinene (2.56%). The antifungal activity of the essential oil against some phytopathogenic fungi, including Alternaria alternata, Colletotrichum trichellum, Curvularia fallax, Cytospora sacchari, Fusarium oxysporum, and Macrophomina phaseolina was performed through disk diffusion and agar dilution assays. The essential oil of J. polycarpos var. turcomanica had high antifungal activity against tested phytopathogenic fungi. The most susceptible fungi to the essential oil were C. trichellum in agar dilution and M. phaseolina and C. fallax in disk diffusion methods, whereas, the most resistant fungus to the essential oil was obtained from A. alternata in both assays. Screening methods had an influence on antifungal activity of the essential oil as most of the tested fungi in this study were shown to be more resistant in disc diffusion methods. According to the phytotoxic assay results, the essential oil from J. polycarpos var. turcomanica had high phytotoxicity against three species of weeds, including P. oleracea L., A. retroflexus L., and D. stramonium L. The results of this research suggest that the herbicidal and antifungal activities of the essential oil from J. polycarpos var. turcomanica can be attributed to its major group of constituents, monoterpenes hydrocarbons. © Prof. H.S. Srivastava Foundation for Science and Society 2020.Wurfbainia villosa, which belongs to the huge family Zingiberaceae, is used in the clinic for the treatment of spleen and stomach diseases in southern China. The complete chloroplast genome of W. villosa was sequenced and analyzed using next-generation sequencing technology in the present work. The results showed that the W. villosa chloroplast genome is a circular molecule with 163,608 bp in length. It harbors a pair of inverted repeat regions (IRa and IRb) of 29,820 bp in length, which separate the large single copy (LSC, 88,680 bp) region and the small single copy (SSC, 15,288 bp) region. After annotation, 134 genes were identified in this plastome in total, comprising of 87 protein-coding genes, 38 transfer RNA genes, 8 ribosomal RNA genes and one pseudogene (ycf1). Codon usage, RNA editing sites and single/long sequence repeats were investigated to understand the structural characteristics of the W. villosa chloroplast genome. Furthermore, IR contraction and expansion were analyzed by comparison of complete chloroplast genomes of W. villosa and four other Zingiberaceae species. Finally, a phylogeny study based on the chloroplast genome of W. villosa, along with that of 15 different species, was conducted to further investigate the relationship among these lineages. Overally, our results represented the first insight into the chloroplast genome of W. villosa, and could serve as a significant reference for species identification, genetic diversity analysis and phylogenetic research between W. villosa and other species within Zingiberaceae. © Prof. H.S. Srivastava Foundation for Science and Society 2020.Leaf senescence is an important developmental process for the plant life cycle. It is controlled by endogenous and environmental factors and can be positively or negatively affected by plant growth regulators. It is characterised by major and significant changes in the patterns of gene expression. Auxin, especially indole-3-acetic acid (IAA), is a plant growth hormone that affects plant growth and development. The effect of IAA on leaf senescence is still unclear. In this study, we performed microarray analysis to investigate the role of IAA on gene expression during senescence in Arabidopsis thaliana. We sprayed IAA on plants at 3 different time points (27, 31 or 35 days after sowing). Following spraying, PSII activity of the eighth leaf was evaluated daily by measurement of chlorophyll fluorescence parameters. Our results show that PSII activity decreased following IAA application and the IAA treatment triggered different gene expression responses in leaves of different ages. © Prof. H.S. Srivastava Foundation for Science and Society 2020.