Potential of Bioenergy Production from Grasses and its Impact on Environment

Kataria Rashmi, Chaudhary Gaurav and Ghosh Sanjoy

The use of renewable energies offers significant opportunities to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and secure energy supply. However, the substantial rise in the use of biomass from agriculture, forestry and waste for producing energy might put additional pressure on farmland and forest diversity as well as on soil and water resources. It may also counteract other current and potential future environmental policies and objectives such as waste minimization and environmentally oriented farming. This paper analyses how much biomass could technically be available for energy production without increasing additional pressures on the environment and food and feed supply along with primary potential for bioenergy production taking care of number of environmental criteria. Currently India produces 1.34 billion metric ton of CO2 which is around 4.9% of the total world’s emission. Currently India consumes around 165Mtoe (million ton oil equivalents) of crude oil and around 68.5% of which is being imported. Total land area reported of India is around 305.27Mha (Million hectares) out of which 51.09Mha is left unused as waste land and marginal land. This study shows if that area is used for energy crop like Kans grass (a variety of switch grass) plantation for bioethanol production, it can produce 1318 million barrels of ethanol and then India would not require importing oil from foreign countries at all. This analysis also shows a saving of 5.15 million ton of CO2 emission per year. This paper also suggests that the land that is used for excess food and feed production for exporting them to the foreign countries needs to be re-looked. This also can be thought that instead of using land for exporting agricultural products, may be used for energy production and can be exported which may give more benefit to the country.

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Continuous Mode Lactic Acid Fermentation based on Renewables

Venus Joachim

Renewable resources can be converted biotechnologically by enzymes and microorganisms, giving us access to a multitude of new, biocompatible products and possible uses. Feedstocks like grains and green biomass are also being used as raw materials for the biotechnological production of lactic acid. Lactic acid, its salts and esters have a wide range of potential uses and are extensively used in diverse fields. The goal is to develop a fermentation process based on the substitution of expensive nutrient supplements by cheaper materials from renewable resources due to their main proportion of the whole process costs. After the optimization of the parameters pH-value, temperature and the composition of the fermentation medium respectively, the process operation were changed first from a discontinuous to a repeated batch and finally to a continuous process. For the continuous cultivation there were tested several settings of the input flow for different nutrients (carbon source, salts), procedures of cell retention and control systems. One of the usual ways to keep the biomass inside the system for increasing the overall productivity is the cell retention with hollow fibre membranes. Depending on the process conditions (input concentration, composition of the feed) of a continuous mode fermentation, the stationary lactic acid concentration is about 70 g•L-1 during the first period and up to 60 g•L-1 for the second one. The overall productivity as a characteristic value could be increased up to 25 g•L-1•h-1. In comparison to the process without cell recycle (e.g. chemostat mode) there is a triple up to four time’s higher productivity of lactic acid.

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PCR based Detection of Phorate Genotoxicity Effects in Rohu (Labeo rohita) Fingerlings

Mohanty G., Mohanty J., Garnayak S. K. and Dutta S. K.

Concern about genetic alterations in fish population due to an increase of genotoxic pollutants in the water bodies has led to the adaptations of most recent, less time consuming and some reliable molecular techniques. The present work thus focuses on the use and capability of one of the modern and useful molecular techniques, RAPD – PCR in the detection of genotoxic effects of phorate, an organophosphate pesticide on rohu (Labeo rohita) DNA isolated from blood and liver cells. Rohu fingerlings weighing between 10-15 g were exposed to 0.01ppm of phorate for 24, 48, 72 and 96 h along with the controls. RAPD – PCR were carried out with the blood and liver DNA samples of both control and treated groups at each of the four sampling hours. A total of six selected RAPD primers were used for PCR amplification. Template stability was taken as the measure of DNA damage caused by pesticide. The results obtained showed significant difference in the template stability in the blood DNA of phorate treated groups at only 72 h. Liver DNA of phorate treated fishes was however, unable to show any significant difference in the template stability at any of the sampling hours. Thus, the present study indicates that phorate is having genotoxic effects on rohu DNA at the specific doses tested and RAPD-PCR may possibly be able to detect the effects. However, further studies are necessary before adapting this technique for routine genotoxicity tests in other fishes.

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Polymorphism of GSTP1 Gene in Esophageal Cancer Patients in Kashmir

Ganai B.A., Nighat P., Masood A ., Zargar M.A. and Andrabi S.W.

Polymorphism of Glutathione- S- transferase gene in esophageal cancer patients carried out worldwide is well reviewed and its importance for development of esophageal cancer well established. The same fact has been seen true for esophageal cancer patients in Kashmir valley. Out of 16 blood samples collected from esophageal cancer patients who reported at Institute of Medical Sciences Soura, Srinagar, DNA isolation of 12 samples was done and 176 bp gene was amplified by using simple PCR. The PCR-RFLP pattern was carried, out of which 7 were found to be homozygous A/A* variants, 4 Homozygous B/B* variants and 1 as heterozygous A/B*.

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Anti-inflammatory Activity of Chloroform Extract of Andrographis Paniculata Nees Stem

Radhika P., Prasad Rajendra Y., Sastry B.S. and Rajya Lakshmi K.

The anti-inflammatory activity of chloroform extract of Andrographis paniculata stem was determined using carrageenan induced rat hind paw oedema model for acute inflammation. Ibuprofen was used as a standard drug in this study. The chloroform extract of Andrographis paniculata stem showed statistically significant effect in 6th hour at a dose of 200mg/kg and the results were comparable with the standard anti-inflammatory drug Ibuprofen (10 mg/kg) (t=64.06, p<0.001).

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Monitoring Tobacco Canopy Reflectance to Estimate Physiological Indexes and Microelements in Canopy Leaves

Li Xiang-Yang, Liu Guo-Shun and Shi Zhou

ASD Field spec FR 2500 were used to collect tobacco canopy spectral data in this experiment, then the spectral reflectance curves were analyzed and the estimating models of eighteen physiological indexes and microelements in canopy leaves were set up by stepwise regression and tested by the correlation between estimated values and measured values. The results indicated that the models had good estimating effects and the characteristic spectral variables of eighteen physiological indexes and microelements were screened out. Thereinto, that of chlorophyll a were Dr, lb, SDb, Db; chlorophyll b were (SDr-SDb)/(SDr+SDb), lb, Dr; chlorophyll a+b were Dr, lb, SDb, Db; carotenoid were Dr, SDb, SDr/SDy; nicotine were Dr, lg, lb, NDVI; the characteristic spectral parameters of total nitrogen were lg, Dr, PVI; reducing sugar were Dy, Db, SAVI; total sugar were Dr, RVI, lg, ly; starch werelg, Dr; dissociative amino acid was lg; Ca were Dr, lb; K were lg, Dr, SDr; Mg was Dr; B were Dr, lg, RDVI, Rg/Rr; Cu were Dr, DVI; Fe were Dr, lb; P were Dr, lg and Zn were lg, Dr.

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Effect of Various Plant / Algal Extracts on Rooting of Allium Cepa and Croton Sp.

Padhi S.B. and Devi Anita

Algal Research Laboratory, Post Graduate Dept. of Botany, Berhampur Univesity, Berhampur 760 007 (Orissa),INDIA The effects of plant extracts of Eichhornia crassipes, an aquatic weed, Rhizoclonium hieroglyphicum, a green alga and Anabaena, a blue green alga on the rooting and sprouting behaviour of Onion bulbs (Allium cepa ) and Croton sp. were studied. The extract of all the treatments showed enhanced result over the control value. In Croton sp. 10 % extract of Rhizoclonium hieroglyphicum showed maximum stimulations responce than Anabaena (10%) and Eichhornia crassipes 10% extract. The onion bulbs when treated with 5% extract of Eichhornia crassipes, Rhizoclonium hieroglyphicum and Anabaena showed stimulating responces on the sprouting behaviour of roots and seedling growth. The activity of the oxidising enzymes , Peroxidase and Catalase were carried out in the root of Croton sp. and onion seedlings . Both the enzyme shared an increasing trend at lower concentration of plant extracts.

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Rapid Multiplication of Turmeric in-vitro using Young Sprouting Rhizome Buds as Explants

Pandey Aditi, Pandey Sanjay, Mundhara Girdhar L. and Katiyar Sanjay K.

Tissue culture, an important area of biotechnology can be used to improve the productivity of planting material through enhanced availability of identified planting stock with desired traits. Few attempts have been made to standardize the different factors for in-vitro regeneration of some of the medicinal plants. Turmeric is used as traditional medicine in many countries because of the antibiotic and antiseptic effects of curcumin, an important constituent of turmeric. In this experiment two species of Curcuma T16 (Ama haldi) and T20 (Raipur local)) were used for standardization of high frequency in-vitro regeneration protocol of Curcuma spp. Three explants (leaves, rhizome part and young sprouted buds with rhizome) were used for in-vitro culture using different media. Among all the concentrations and combinations tested in the present study, MS media with 2.0 mg/l BAP+ 2.0 mg/l KIN were found best for shoot initiation. Young sprouted buds produced 5.06 mean numbers of shoots with 88.8 percent response in T20 (Local Raipur) and 4 mean number of shoot with 82.30 percentage response in T16 (Ama haldi). The different concentrations of NAA and BAP showed variable response within 10-15 days following subculture. The best growth and multiple shoots formation were observed in MS medium supplemented with 1.5 mg/l NAA and 2.0 mg/l BAP The mean number of shoots was 9 with 92.85 percent response in the genotype T20 (Local Raipur). Eighty five percent response and 8 mean numbers of shoots were recorded for T16 (Ama haldi) in 1.5 mg/l NAA and 2.0 mg/l BAP. All other treatments except, the treatments mentioned above were found to be less responsive for shoot multiplication.

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Effect of Electric Field on Growth and Biopigments of the Cyanobacterium Spirulina platensis

Rawat Sapna and Singh G.P.

To investigate the influence of electric field on the growth and biopigments of cyanobacteria Spirulina platensis, a self design electric field apparatus has been tested. Cultures were subjected to a range of voltage of electric field 1 KV and 5 KV for a period of 10 to 60 minutes. Growth and pigments like chlorophyll-a and phycobiliproteins (Phycocyanin, allophycocyanin and phycoerythrin) were enhanced with 30 minute treatment at 1 KV and 10 minute treatment at 5 KV along a small reduced percentage of carotenoids. However the growth of S. platensis was inhibited at higher dose of electric field. Decrease in growth with increase in electric field voltage and duration of electric field treatment was possibly due to irreversible breakdown by voltage dependent gating in the cell membrane.

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Review Paper: Dye-Doped Nanoparticles: The Bioconjugated Nanoparticles for Biotechnology and Bioanalysis

Vijayasree N., Haritha K., Subhash V. and Rao K.R.S.S.

Nanomaterials are at the leading edge of the rapidly developing field of nanotechnology. The unique size-dependent physical and chemical properties of NPs make them superior to other currently used materials in many areas of human activity. Using NPs as biomolecular probes allows us to probe biological processes without interfering with them. Various NPs have been developed, among them the significant one being the dye-doped polymer NPs. Also pure silica NPs, magnetic silica NPs have been developed which are also successfully utilized as biomolecular probes for ultrasensitive bioanalysis.

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Review Paper: Quantitative trait loci (QTL) mapping for Crop Improvement

Joshi Raj Kumar and Bandyopadhyay Tapas Kumar

Chromosome segments controlling quantita-tive traits are called as quantitative trait locus/loci (QTL). A QTL is defined as a region of the genome that is associated with an effect on a quantitative trait. These traits are controlled by multiple genes, each segregating according to Mendel’s laws. These traits can also be affected by the environment to varying degrees. QTL mapping can enumerate genes contributing to a trait and estimate their relative importance. With the advent of molecular DNA markers, several QTL mapping studies have been carried out successfully in diverse crop species. However, it requires a combination of modern molecular genetics techniques and powerful statistical methods which is sometimes difficult to understand. There are many factors that influence QTL mapping such as population size and type, level of replication of phenotypic data, environmental effects and genotyping errors. Keeping this in mind, this review is written to highlight the basic concept behind QTL mapping, process of QTL detection, its importance and its application in overall crop improvement.

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