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A comparative study of termite diversity in different ecosystems (agricultural, horticultural and silvicultural ecosystems) was carried out in mid-hills of Meghalaya to understand the species diversity, richness and abundanceof termite. A standard transect method and tissue paper bait method were used for sampling the termites.Alpha diversity was analysed by using Shannon wiener index and Margalef's D index for Species richness; and Simpson's index for Species dominance; whereas Beta diversity was analysed by using Routledge Be index, Cody Bc index, Whittaker Bw index and Wilson and Shmida Bt index. In the study, a total of 10 species of termites were identified which belonged to three subfamilies viz., Macrotermitinae, Amitermitinae and Termitinae. Macrotermitinae was the most presiding subfamily among the collected termite fauna. Individual species dominance was observed to differ in different ecosystems however, Odontotermes spp. was widely distributed across the ecosystems.The number of species recorded in silvicultural, horticultural and agricultural ecosystem were 7, 3 and 1 respectively. The termite diversity was highest in silvicultural ecosystem and lowest in agricultural ecosystem. The lowest numbers of species recorded in ecosystem may be attributed to its abrupt human disturbance. Shannon Wiener, Margalef's D and Simpson index in agricultural ecosystem, depicted less values compared to horticultural and silvicultural ecosystem. Among the ten species collected, one species i.e. Pseudocapritermis tikaderi which was sampled from silvicultural ecosystems was soil/humus feeder and the rest were wood/litter feeders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Small intestine, hitherto an obscure area for endoscopists before 2000, is now easily evaluated non-invasively using capsule endoscopy and invasively by device-assisted enteroscopies. Major advances in understanding the causes and management of small bowel diseases have been in obscure gastrointestinal (GI) bleed, currently re-named as small bowel bleed, after the discovery of capsule endoscopy. The current article is a narrative review of the technology of capsule endoscopy, its advantages and limitations, future perspective and Indian studies on its utility in patients with small bowel bleed. Till date, eight large series reporting 2319 patients with obscure GI bleed (1554 overt and 765 occult) undergoing capsule endoscopy have been reported from India. Overall yield of capsule endoscopy to detect lesions in these studies varied from 43.5% to 90%. The major causes detected in various studies for small bowel bleed include vascular malformation, portal hypertensive enteropathy, ulcer, stricture, tumor, polyps, etc. Hookworm can cause both occult as well as overt small bowel bleed as shown mainly from India. Capsule endoscopy has also been quite safe in patients with small bowel bleed as despite 0.6% to 15% retention of imaging capsule in Indian studies, development of clinically evident small bowel obstruction has rarely been reported. The major limitations of capsule endoscopy include lack of maneuvrability and therapeutic capability. Research is in progress to overcome some of the limitations of the current capsule endoscopy system. It is concluded that discovery of capsule endoscopy has brought a new paradigm in GI endoscopy and explored a hitherto unexplored area of GI tract, i.e. small bowel that continued to be a black box for the endoscopists., (© 2024. Indian Society of Gastroenterology.)

BACKGROUND: Improvement of workers' safety performance is an integral and essential part of safety management. Relevant safety interventions to improve workers' safety performance are generally difficult to establish when there is a wide range of occupational hazards and at-risk individuals' features. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed at formulating a practical approach to develop and prioritize potential safety interventions based on occupational and individual risk factors perceived by workers to promote workers' safety performance. METHODS: A simple framework developed to identify and prioritize the suitable safety interventions. This framework made use of data collected using standardized and validated questionnaire and domain experts' opinions. Pearson correlation coefficients, exploratory factor analysis, and multiple linear regression were used to identify significant risk factors associated with workers' safety performance. Data were collected by interviewing 202 coal mine workers with occupational injuries, and their immediate supervisors from three mines. RESULTS: Safety performance was associated with the occupational factor-domain (poor working condition, poor safety environment, poor job satisfaction, and high job stress) only (regression coefficient = 2.14, p < 0.01). The following interventions were identified and prioritized to promote workers' safety performance: provide fair compensation to workers, job-specific and safety training, promotion policy, achievable targets, relevant perks/benefits, safety training awareness, workplace lighting, ventilation network, sensitize the management, associate safety performance to promotion, and develop team spirit. CONCLUSION: Our approach helps to identify and prioritize the most relevant interventions to promote safety at work when there are multiple risk factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Genome sequence and identification of specific genes involved in the targeted secondary metabolite biosynthesis are two essential requirements for the improvement of any medicinal plant. Commiphora wightii (Arnott) Bhandari (family: Burseraceae), a medicinal plant native to Western India, produces a phytosterol guggulsterone, which is useful for treating atherosclerosis, arthritis, high cholesterol, acne, and obesity. For enhanced guggulsterone yield, key genes involved in its biosynthesis pathway need to be predicted, for which the genome sequence of the species is a pre-requisite. Therefore, we assembled the first-ever hybrid draft genome of C. wightii with a genome size of 1.03 Gb and 107,221 contigs using Illumina and PacBio platforms. The N50 and L50 values in this assembled genome were ~74 Kb and 3486 bp, respectively with a guanine–cytosine (GC) content of 35.6% and 98.7%. The Benchmarking Universal Single Copy Ortholog (BUSCO) value indicated good integrity of assembly. Analysis predicted the presence of 31,187 genes and 342.35 Mb repeat elements in the genome. The comparative genome analysis of C. wightii with relevant orthogroups predicted a few key genes associated with phytosterol biosynthesis and secondary metabolism pathways. The assembled draft genome and the predicted genes should help the future variety development program with improved guggulsterone contents in C. wightii. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A halophilic archaeon, designated strain LS1_42T, was isolated from Sambhar Salt Lake, Rajasthan, India. Cells were non-motile, coccoid, Gram-stain-variable and present in irregular clusters with light pink pigmented colonies. The strain was strictly aerobic and able to grow without Mg2+. Growth of the strain LS1_42T was observed at 25–45 °C, pH 7.0–11.0 and NaCl concentrations of 10–35% (w/v). The nearest phylogenetic neighbor of strain LS1_42T was Natronococcus amylolyticus Ah-36T based on 16S rRNA and rpoB′ genes with similarity of 95.4% and 91.9%, respectively. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene, rpoB′ gene and whole-genome sequences indicate that the strain LS1_42T belongs to the genus Natronococcus and is closely related to N. amylolyticus. The genome size was 5.38 Mb with 98.9% completeness. The DNA G + C content of the strain LS1_42T was 63.0 mol%. The average nucleotide identity, average amino acid identity and DNA–DNA hybridization values between LS1_42T and N. amylolyticus Ah-36T were 81.3%, 77.7% and 24.8%, respectively. The major polar lipids detected were phosphatidylglycerol and phosphatidylglycerol phosphate methyl ester. On the basis of phenotypic, chemotaxonomic and genome-based analysis, strain LS1_42T represents a novel species within the genus Natronococcus, for which the name Natronococcus pandeyae sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is LS1_42T (MCC 3654T = JCM 33003T = KCTC 4280T = CGMCC 1.16738T). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transport infrastructure connectivity plays an important role in promoting trade between two countries, and creates an impetus for economic development and international cooperation. A synchronous, modern, flexible and appropriate transport infrastructure connectivity system promotes trade, boosts productivity and efficiency of cooperation, and promotes linkages between countries. The Mekong–India Economic Corridor (MIEC) is considered a bridge between India and the Mekong sub-region, including the CLMV countries (Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam). Despite the position of an end point in the connectivity system, Vietnam is an important factor in India’s Look East strategy. Enhancing transport infrastructure connectivity through the MIEC will help promote Vietnam–India comprehensive strategic partnership effectively. The paper, based on objective assessment, presents an in-depth perspective on the transport infrastructure connectivity between Vietnam and India through the MIEC and figures out the bottlenecks in connectivity, cooperation and development between the two countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel actinobacterium, designated Streptomyces sp strain PSKA01T, was isolated from a soil sample of Kashmir Himalaya, India (latitude:34˚-01′N; longitude:74˚-47′E; altitude: 5328 ft). The taxonomic position of this strain was revealed by a polyphasic approach. Comparative analysis of the 16S rRNA gene sequences indicated that PSKA01T was closely related to the members of the genus Streptomyces, with the highest similarity to Streptomyces venetus CMU-AB225T (99.3%), Streptomyces levis NBRC 15423 T (99.3%), Streptomyces misionensis DSM 40306 T (99.2%), Streptomyces carpinensis NRRL B-16921 T (99.2%), Streptomyces purpurascens NBRC 13077 T (99.2%), and Streptomyces phaeoluteichromatogenes NRRL 5799 T (99.2%). A phylogenomic tree based on genome sequences of the isolated strains, conferred by Type Strain Genome Server (TYGS), separated them from rest of the Streptomyces. The cell wall contained LL-diaminopimelic acid and the whole-cell hydrolysates were xylose and rhamnose. Major fatty acid methyl esters (FAME) were observed as 16:0 iso and 17:0 anteiso. In addition to the differences in phenotypic characters, the average nucleotide identity (ANI), average amino acid identity (AAI), digital DNA–DNA hybridization (dDDH) values, tetranucleotide frequency correlation coefficient (TETRA), and multilocus sequence analysis (MLSA) between PSKA01T and closely related type strains were considerably lower than the recommended threshold value; therefore, this isolate represents a novel Streptomyces species, for which the name Streptomyces cupreus sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is PSKA01T (= JCM 33752 T = MCC 4182 T). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we explore neural machine translation (NMT) for Indian languages. Reported work on Indian language Statistical Machine Translation (SMT) demonstrated good performance within the Indo-Aryan family, but relatively poor performance within the Dravidian family as well as between the two families. Interestingly, by common observation NMT generates more fluent output than SMT. This led us to investigate NMT's potential for translation involving Indian languages. The current practice in NMT is to train the models with subword units. Among subwording methods, byte pair encoding (BPE) is a popular choice. We conduct extensive experiments with BPE-based NMT models for Indian languages. An interesting outcome of our study is the finding that the optimal value for BPE merge for Indian language pairs seems to be falling in the range of 0–5000 which is fairly low compared to that observed for European Languages. Additionally, we apply other techniques such as phrase table injection and linguistic feature based enhancements on corpora, plus BERT augmented NMT to boost performance. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first comprehensive study on Indian language NMT (ILNMT) covering major languages in India. As an empirical paper, we expect this work could serve as a benchmark for ILNMT research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Recent studies have indicated an association of gut microbiota and microbial metabolites with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2D). However, large-scale investigation of the gut microbiota of "prediabetic" (PD) subjects has not been reported. Identifying robust gut microbiome signatures of prediabetes and characterizing early prediabetic stages is important for the understanding of disease development and could be crucial in early diagnosis and prevention. Methods: The current study performed amplification and sequencing on the variable regions (V1–V5) of the 16S rRNA genes to profile and compare gut microbiota of prediabetic individuals (N = 262) with normoglycemic individuals (N = 275) from two cohorts in India and Denmark. Similarly, fasting serum inflammatory biomarkers were profiled from the study participants. Results: After correcting for strong country-specific cohort effect, 16 operational taxonomic units (OTUs) including members from the genera Prevotella9, Phascolarctobacterium, Barnesiella, Flavonifractor, Tyzzerella_4, Bacteroides, Faecalibacterium, and Agathobacter were identified as enriched in normoglycaemic subjects with respect to the subjects with prediabetes using a negative binomial Wald test. We also identified 144 OTUs enriched in the prediabetic subjects, which included members from the genera Megasphaera, Streptococcus, Prevotella9, Alistipes, Mitsuokella, Escherichia/Shigella, Prevotella2, Vibrio, Lactobacillus, Alloprevotella, Rhodococcus, and Klebsiella. Comparative analyses of relative abundance of bacterial taxa revealed that the Streptococcus, Escherichia/Shigella, Prevotella2, Vibrio, and Alloprevotella OTUs exhibited more than fourfold enrichment in the gut microbiota of prediabetic subjects. When considering subjects from the two geographies separately, we were able to identify additional gut microbiome signatures of prediabetes. The study reports a probable association of Megasphaera OTU(s) with impaired glucose tolerance, which is significantly pronounced in Indian subjects. While the overall results confirm a state of proinflammation as early as in prediabetes, the Indian cohort exhibited a characteristic pattern of abundance of inflammatory markers indicating low-grade intestinal inflammation at an overall population level, irrespective of glycemic status. Conclusions: The results present trans-ethnic gut microbiome and inflammation signatures associated with prediabetes, in Indian and Danish populations. The identified associations may be explored further as potential early indicators for individuals at risk of dysglycemia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Present study aimed to evaluate culturable halophilic archaeal diversity of iodised crystal salt, obtained from the solar salterns of Vedaranyam, Tamil Nadu, India. Bright yellow-orange-red pigmented colonies were obtained, by surface spreading of the saturated salt crystal suspension, on complex media such as NTYE (NaCl Tryptone Yeast Extract) and EHM (Extremely Halophilic Medium), followed by incubating the plates for 30–45 days. The viable halophilic pigmented/non-pigmented microbial counts were determined as colony forming units (CFU/g), which were ~1.1 × 104/5.5 × 103 and ~1.0 × 104/4.0 × 103 on NTYE and EHM, respectively. Six morphologically distinct isolates were purified and identified. Morphological characteristics of the isolates revealed the cells to be cocci and involuted/cup shape, whereas chemotaxonomic characteristics revealed the presence of bacterioruberin pigment. Small subunit ribosomal RNA (16S rRNA) gene analysis revealed that, majority of the isolates belonged to genus Halococcus, except one belonged to genus Halorubrum. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study reporting, prevalence of Halococcus in iodised crystal salt, of Vedaranyam, Tamil Nadu, India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: There is scanty data from India regarding MUC protein expression from colorectal cancers (CRC) among Indian patients. Aim of the Study: The aim of this study is to assess the alterations in the expression of MUC2 and MUC5AC in 25 patients with CRC by site of the tumor location and differentiation at histology. Materials and Methods: Patients with proven adenocarcinoma of the colon alone were included for the study. Biopsy specimens obtained from tumorous lesions in the colon were classified based on histopathology as well differentiated, moderately, and poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma. Immunohistochemistry was done in the 4 µm thick sections to identify the expression of MUC2 and MUC5AC mucins. Results: MUC2 was uniformly expressed with near similar intensity while MUC5 was moderately (56%) to highly expressed (36%) in mucinous tumors. In nonmucinous tumors, MUC2 was least expressed (68%) with a significant expression on MUC5AC (88%). Except for rectosigmoid growth which had greater expression of MUC5AC (31%), both proximal and distal carcinomas had significant MUC2 and MUC5AC expression. Conclusion: MUC2 and MUC5AC are expressed in colonic cancers, the former showing mildtomoderate expression and the latter moderatetointense expression. The expression is more in mucinous adenocarcinoma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intertidal sponges, during tidal flux and filter feeding cycle, often get exposed to an influx of water of varying salinities containing halophilic microbes and suspended agricultural detritus. Microbes get established in the lumen of the host during its filter feeding process and might participate in the degradation of incoming particulate matter. We successfully isolated two haloarchaeal bionts, strains GUMFAS1 and GUMFAS7, producing cellulase-free xylanases from one such sponge, identified as Cinachyrella cavernosa inhabiting the intertidal rocky region of Anjuna, Goa-India. The bionts exhibited 4.791 and 8.714 U/mg of cellulase-free xylanase activity, respectively. Xylanase from GUMFAS7 (XS7) showed maximum activity at 37°C, pH 5 and 20% NaCl concentration. Zymographic analysis of XS7 revealed a presence of three bands with xylanase activity of molecular weight 238, 60, and 18 kDa, respectively. The strains were identified by 16S rRNA gene sequencing as Halococcus thailandensis (GUMFAS7) and Halorubrum saccharovorum (GUMFAS1). The latter was identical to another isolate obtained from the waters surrounding the host. These findings reflect a unique type of interaction between haloarchaea and sponge. An in-depth study on this cellulase-free xylanase is underway and expected to be of significance in the field of extremozymes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Objectives: Rare actinomycetes are a promising source of novel metabolites of pharmaceutical importance. The current study focussed on selective isolation of specific genera of rare actinomycetes and screening the isolates for biosynthetic genes particularly polyketide synthases (PKS) and non ribosomal peptide synthetases (NRPS). Materials and Methods: The soil samples were subjected to various pre-treatments like 1.5% phenol treatment, 0.3% chloramine T treatment, benzethonium chloride treatment, etc. and plated on selective media supplemented with specific antibiotics targeting rare genera of actinomycetes. The putative rare actinomycete isolates were screened for bioactivity using agar cross streak method and agar well diffusion method. The ability of the isolates to produce anti-quorum sensing compounds was tested against Serratia marcescens. The isolates were also screened for the presence of biosynthetic gene clusters associated with PKS-I, PKS-II and NRPS pathways using the degenerate primer sets K1F-M6R, KSa/KSß and A3FA7R, respectively. The expression of these gene clusters was tracked by physicochemical screening of the extracts of isolates using spectroscopic and chromatographic techniques. Results: In this study, 1.5% phenol treatment was found to be the most promising followed by heat treatment and chloramine treatment. Our studies showed that ISP5 agar was the best for isolation of rare genera followed by ISP7, Starch Caesin agar and ISP2 supplemented with antibiotics like gentamicin, nalidixic acid and streptomycin. Micromonospora was the most abundant genus followed by Dactylosporangium. Actinomadura, Nocardiopsis and Actinoplanes were almost equal in number. Primary screening showed that 92% of the isolates were active against one of the test organisms. Thirty seven isolates were found to produce anti-quorum sensing (QS) compounds. NRPS sequences were detected in thirty nine isolates (42.8%), whereas PKS-I and PKS-II sequences were detected in seventeen and twenty eight strains (18.6% and 30.7%), respectively. Conclusion: Nine type I and type II polyketide-producing isolates as well as six peptide-producing isolates were found. The peptide extract of isolate KCR3 and a polyketide extract of isolate NCD10 were found to possess anti-tumor activity exhibiting an IC50 value of 3 μg/ml and 2.5 μg/ml against HeLa cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel marine actinomycete strain designated ICN19 T was isolated from the subtidal sediment of Chinnamuttam coast of Kanyakumari, India and subjected to polyphasic taxonomic analysis. Neighbour-joining tree based on 16S rRNA gene sequences of validly described type strains had revealed the strain ICN19 T formed distinct cluster with Streptomyces wuyuanensis CGMCC 4.7042 T , Streptomyces tirandamycinicus HNM0039 T and Streptomyces spongiicola HNM0071 T . Morphological, physiological and chemotaxonomic characteristics were consistent with those of members of the genus Streptomyces. The strain possessed LL-diaminopimelic acid as the diagnostic diamino acid. The predominant isoprenoid quinone was identified as MK-9(H8) (70%), MK-9(H6) (20%) and MK-9(H2) (2%), with the major cellular fatty acids (>10%) being anteiso-C 15:0 , C 16:0 and iso-C 16:0 . The main polar lipids were found to be diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylinositol mannosides and three unidentified phospholipids. The dendrogram generated on the basis of MALDI-TOF mass spectra supports the strain differentiated from its neigbours. The genome sequence of strain ICN19 T was 9,010,366 bp in size with a total of 7420 protein-coding genes and 98 RNA genes. The genomic G+C content of the novel strain was 71.27 mol%. The DNA-DNA relatedness between strain ICN19 T and the reference strains with S. wuyuanensis CGMCC 4.7042 T , S. tirandamycinicus HNM0039 T and S. spongiicola HNM0071 T were 42.8%, 39.5% and 38%, respectively. Based on differences in physiological, biochemical, chemotaxonomic differences and whole-genome characteristics the isolated strain represents a novel species of the genus Streptomyces, for which the name Streptomyces marianii sp. nov. is proposed. Type strain is ICN19 T (=MCC 3599 T  = KCTC 39749 T ).

A relative in-depth review of current earthquake loss estimation software packages are given and compared in this paper. A simple and user-friendly tool for quick seismic risk assessment has been developed for Indian condition using spectrum-based, micro-level-based ground motion attenuation relation. The attenuation relation used here defines a suitable hazard scenario with moment magnitude and location of the earthquake as parameters. A comparison of losses using the proposed software with other open-source software tools has been carried using two case studies situated at different location of India, covering different building typologies. It is observed that the losses estimated by the proposed tool found to be less than the losses estimated by other two tools based on macroseismic intensity and PGA approach. The variation in the loss estimates results mainly from the lack of correlation between the different definitions of seismic hazard and different vulnerability models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: The aim was to compare biliary amylase, common channel, and gall bladder/liver histopathology between spherical and fusiform choledochal cysts. Materials and Methods: Children undergoing cyst excision with Roux-en-Y hepatico-jejunostomy over a 17 months period were prospectively studied. The common channel was assessed by three-dimensional (3D) magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography (MRCP). Results: Among 22 patients (spherical = 10, fusiform = 12), there was a higher incidence of spherical cysts in infants (5/7-71.4%) and fusiform cysts in older children (10/15-66.7%) (P = 0.09). Common channel identified in 14 (64%) cases was long (>10 mm) in 5 (38.2%) (one spherical, four fusiform [P = 0.5]) with associated high biliary amylase levels (>500 IU/L) in four (one spherical, three fusiform) (P = 0.05). Exact point of junction of common bile duct with pancreatic duct was visible with coronal half-Fourier-acquisition single-shot turbo spin-echo and 3D sampling perfection with application with optimize contrast using different flip angle evolution sequence using a reformatted plane of axis, particularly coronal, and coronal oblique orientation. Biliary amylase was raised (>100 IU/L) in 4 (40%) in the spherical group, compared to 8 (67%) in the fusiform group. Mean biliary amylase was similar in gallbladder and cyst in spherical but higher in gallbladder in fusiform cysts. Mean biliary amylase was <500 IU/L in 85.7% infants. Five out of 7 infants had liver fibrosis or cirrhosis on histopathology (P = 0.05). There were no dysplastic changes in the gallbladder epithelium. Conclusion: Three-dimensional MRCP delineated the common channel in two-third cases especially in coronal and coronal oblique orientation. The long common channel may have an etiological role in fusiform cysts. Spherical cysts, especially in infants, have a higher incidence of obstructive cholangiopathy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context: Bombay blood group although rare is found to be more prevalent in the Western and Southern states of India, believed to be associated with consanguineous marriage. Aims: To estimate the prevalence of the Bombay blood group (Oh) in the urban population of Puducherry. To find the effect of urbanization on consanguineous marriage and to establish whether consanguinity plays a part in the prevalence of Oh group. To compare Oh group prevalence with that of other neighboring states, where population is not predominantly urban. Settings and Design: This is a descriptive study in a tertiary care hospital in Puducherry, over a period of 6 years. Materials and Methods: All blood samples showing ‘O’ group were tested with anti-H lectin. Specialized tests like Adsorption Elution Technique, inhibition assay for determination of secretor status were performed on Oh positive cases. Any history of consanguineous marriage was recorded. Statistical Analysis Used: All variables were categorical variable and percentage and proportions were calculated manually. Results: Analysis of the results of 35,497 study subjects showed that the most common group was ‘O’ group constituting 14,164 (39.90%) of subjects. Only three “Oh” that is, Bombay phenotype (0.008%) were detected. Consanguinity was observed in two cases (66.66%). Conclusions: This study shows the prevalence of Bombay blood group representing the urban population of Puducherry, to be high (0.008%) and associated with consanguineous marriage (66.66%). Thus, consanguinity is still an important risk factor present, even in an urban population in Southern India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bacterial diversity of soil samples collected from different geographical regions of Himalayan mountains was studied through culturable (13 samples) and culture-independent approaches (5 samples based on abundance of diversity indices in each ecological niche). Shannon-Wiener diversity index and total bacterial count ranged from 1.50 ± 0.1 to 2.57 ± 0.15 and 7.8 ± 1.6 × 10 to 30.9 ± 1.7 × 10 cfu ml of soil, respectively. Based on morphology and pigmentation, 406 isolates were selected by culturing in different cultivable media at various strengths and concentrations. All the strains were subjected to amplified ribosomal DNA restriction analysis and the representative isolates from each cluster were chosen for 16S rRNA gene sequence-based identification. Soil habitat in Himalayan foot hills was dominated by the genera Arthrobacter, Exiguobacterium, Bacillus, Cedecea, Erwinia, and Pseudomonas. Five 16S rRNA gene libraries from the selected five samples yielded 268 clones and were grouped into 53 phylotypes covering 25 genera including the genus of Ferribacterium, Rothia, and Wautersiella, which were reported for the first time in Himalayan tracks. Principal coordinates analysis indicates that all the clone libraries were clearly separated and found to be significantly different from each other. Further, extracellular investigation of cold-active enzymes showed activity of cellulase (23.71 %), pectinase (20.24 %), amylase (17.32 %), phytase (13.87 %), protease (12.72 %), and lipase (23.71 %) among the isolates. Four isolates namely Exiguobacterium mexicanum (BSa14), Exiguobacterium sibiricum (BZa11), Micrococcus antarcticus (BSb10), and Bacillus simplex (BZb3) showed multiple enzyme activity for five different types of enzymes. In addition, various genera like Exiguobacterium, Erwinia, Mycetecola, Cedecea, Pantoea, and Trichococcus have also shown novel hydrolytic enzyme activity in the Himalayan foothills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Life in salt pans with varying chemical compositions require special adaptation strategies at both the physiological and molecular level. The Marakkanam salt pan in South India is characterized with a high fluctuation in salinity (19–490 ppt), Ultravioletradiation, and heavy metal concentrations. Several bacterial species have been isolated and identified in the view of phylogenetic analysis and for the subsequent production of industrially important enzymes. However, limited information exists on the genomic basis of their survival under variable environmental conditions. To this extent, we sequenced the whole genome of the Salinivibrio sp. HTSP, a moderately halophilic bacterium. We analysed the physiological and genomic attributes of Salinivibrio sp. HTSP to elucidate the strategies of adaptation under various abiotic stresses. The genome size is estimated to be 3.39 Mbp with a mean G + C content of 50.6%, including 3150 coding sequences. The genome possessed osmotic stress-related coding sequences, and genes involved in different pathways of DNA repair mechanisms and genes related to the resistance to toxic metals were identified. The periplasmic stress response genes and genes of different oxidative stress mechanisms were also identified. The tolerance capacity of the bacterial isolates to heavy metals, UV-radiation, and salinity was also confirmed through appropriate laboratory experiments under controlled conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Microorganisms thrive in extreme environments and are known for synthesizing valuable metabolites. Salt-loving microorganisms can flourish in saline environments which inhibit the growth of other microbial life, and they possess the potential to produce stable and novel biomolecules for the use in biotechnological applications, including anticancer compounds. Sambhar Lake is the largest inland soda lake in India and is an appropriate habitat for halophilic bacterial and archaeal strains in terms of diversity and potential production of bioactive compounds. In the present study, a moderately halo-alkaliphilic bacterial strain C12A1 was isolated from Sambhar Lake, located in Rajasthan, India. C12A1 was gram-positive, motile, rod-shaped, formed oval endospores, produced carotenoids, and exhibited optimal growth at 37 °C in 10–15% NaCl (pH 8). C12A1 was found to be able to hydrolyze skimmed milk, gelatin, and Tween 80 but unable to hydrolyze starch and carboxymethylcellulose. C12A1 showed 98.87% and 98.50% identity in 16S rRNA gene sequence to P. halophilus and P. salipiscarius, respectively. Nevertheless, C12A1 was clustered within the clade consisting of P. salipiscarius strains, but it showed a distinct lineage. Thus, C12A1 was designated as Piscibacillus sp. Cell proliferation assay results showed that C12A1 broth extract (BEP) decreased cell viability in breast cancer MDA-MB-231 cells, which was confirmed by the MTT (3-(4, 5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2, 5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide) assay. Induction of cell toxicity was visualized by microscopy. Reverse Transcriptase PCR (RT-PCR) analysis demonstrated that BEP inhibited the expression of proliferative B-cell lymphoma-extra large (Bcl-xL) and cell cycle marker Cyclin-dependent kinase 2 (CDK2) at transcript levels. Similarly, cell migration and colony formation along with mesenchymal marker vimentin and stem cell marker BMI transcripts were found to be inhibited when cells were treated with the BEP. The anti-breast cancer potential of C12A1 indicates that microorganisms inhabiting saline-alkaline habitats, with Piscibacillus sp. in particular, are a promising source for discovery of novel bioactive substances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]