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Thermal springs have been the most resourceful ecological niches to understand the intricacies of the microbial community structure building. In the present study, the microbial community structure...

In this investigation, sixty morphologically different ginger rhizomes, collected from an active germplasm conservatory of High Altitude Research Station, Odisha, India, were characterized using morphological traits and molecular markers. Larger variations in morphological characters were observed among the 45 ginger accessions out of 60 accessions. Out of 22 markers, 9 ISSR and 13 SSR markers used for analysis generated 42 and 160 polymorphic bands accounting to 55% and 63.29% of the total polymorphic bands, respectively; this depicts that SSR markers have better efficiency over ISSR markers. A high degree of variation is detected in multivariate analysis (PCA and UPGMA) of both morphological traits and combined molecular markers, in which the ginger accessions clustered into five and four distinct groups. This explains the existence of large variation in morphological traits despite markers used. Genetic distance between the accessions determined from Nei’s dissimilarity matrix was used to find out the potential duplicates within the accessions collected. Twenty-nine accessions having mean genetic distance (MGD) less than threshold MGD (average MGD) value 0.174 were considered as ‘potential duplicate’ accessions and were reduced to one group, and the rest 31 were considered distinct genotype out of 60 accessions. From this analysis, 48.3% of the collection were considered as potential duplicates and deemed to be redundant. However, careful elimination of redundant through molecular analysis supported with passport data will help to eradicate existing synonyms used by farmers and improve management practices of the ginger germplasm conservatory.

Worldwide concern about the energy security and search for alternate energy source as fuel has created attention because of increased demand and fast depleting nonrenewable resources of fuel. In order to meet the increasing energy demand, we need to approach the sustainable, cost-effective alternates which should be able to cater unlimited resource utilization potential. Among the next-generation biofuels, butanol is the one which shows the ability to meet both the current and upcoming future energy crisis over the existing biofuels, for its distinguished merits; high energy density, high air-fuel ratio and lower hygroscopicity which make butanol superior over the other. In this review, we summarized all the methods attempted to screen out a high-stress tolerant strain through the various approach like; variation in sampling methods, media optimization, manipulation in physiochemical parameters etc. and then adapting them to high butanol environment. Secondly, the possible techniques involved in the identification of butanol tolerant gene and its overexpression in heterologous host or butanol tolerant microbes through genetic engineering, manipulating the metabolic pathway through engineering synergistically integrated with other disciplines such as synthetic biology as well as systems biology, has been discussed in detail. Apart from this, the present review also highlights the various bottlenecks, achievements and prospects for the commercialization of the butanol as the next generation of biofuel.

An efficient and reproducible protocol for in vitro plant regeneration was developed for Lawsonia inermis L. using cotyledonary node explant derived from axenic seedlings. Highest shoot proliferation frequency (ca 96.6%) was achieved on Murashige and Skoog’s, 1962 (MS) basal medium supplemented with 8.88 μM 6-Benzyladenine (BA) + 2.68 μM Napthalene acetic acid (NAA). Up-scaling of shoots was carried out using in vitro nodes on MS medium supplemented with 4.44 μM BA. So overall, an average of 238 shoots was produced at 75 days. Of the four different forms of cotyledonary node explants evaluated, highest shoot multiplication was observed in cotyledonary node explant with two whole cotyledons. In vitro regenerated shoots were best rooted (ca 34.3 roots / shoot) on ½ MS medium devoid of any growth regulator. The plantlets were successfully acclimated in sand:soil:: 1:1and established in the garden soil. Random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) and inter-simple sequence repeat (ISSR) analysis revealed a homogeneous amplification profile for all micropropagated plants validating the genetic fidelity of the in vitro-regenerated plants and supporting the regeneration protocol for economic commercial exploitation.

The emergence of extended-spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL)-producing Klebsiella pneumoniae has been increasing rapidly across the world. The presence of virulence factors in ESBL producers further adds to the pathogenicity and severity of infection, which often complicate empirical therapy and sometimes result in treatment failures. In the present study, 227 non-repeated clinical isolates of K. pneumoniae obtained from different clinical specimens from a tertiary care hospital in India were analyzed to detect the genes responsible for ESBL production (blaTEM, blaCTX-M, and blaSHV), virulence (fimH-1, mrkD, entB, irp-1), and capsule production (K1-K2). Phenotypically identified 72 ESBL producing K. pneumoniae isolates were further subjected to PCR based genotypic analysis but only 20 were found to have at least one of the ESBL producing genes. blaTEM was the most predominant gene (100%), followed by blaSHV (90%), and blaCTX-M (85%). Similarly, the most common virulence genes were fimH-1 (70%), entB (65%), markD (55%), irp-1 (25%), K1 (25%), and K2 (20%). REP-PCR profile separated them into five major clusters (I-V), indicating the existing heterogeneity among the isolates. The resistance profile data obtained from the present study can serve as the information base to understand the infection pattern prevailing in the hospital and for physicians to recommend suitable antibiotics for the patients.

Ginger (Zingiber officinale Rosc.) rhizome has great demand in food and pharmaceutical industry. Odisha is the second largest ginger-cultivating state, and considered as best suitable after Kerala, in India. Forty-eight germplasm from 10 agro-climatic zones of Odisha were genetically characterized and potential duplicates were identified employing 25 polymorphic markers (RAPD, ISSR, SSR). These markers together amplified 170 polymorphic, 136 monomorphic, and 2 unique bands. SSR markers were the most efficient in generating highest primer resolving power (44.85), primer index (10.28), and number of polymorphic bands (67). Genotype–environment interaction was clearly demonstrated from UPGMA dendrogram based on Jaccard’s similarity coefficients and SAHN clustering which divided 48 samples into 8 sub-clusters (showing 80 % congruence with their places of geographical origin). H (0.211), I (0.38), and Gst (0.239) indices revealed genetic diversity within and genetic differentiation among 10 populations. AMOVA showed higher genetic variability among populations (64 %) than within populations (36 %). Ginger accessions having a mean genetic distance less than 0.21 (threshold average genetic distance) were considered redundant. Forty-eight samples could be reduced to 11 genetically diverse groups (each group contains duplicates but is different from each other) which confirmed 77 % of the collection to be redundant. Identification of duplicates can be useful to eliminate confusion regarding synonyms among farmers, help selection of suitable ginger seed material, and facilitate judicious management of germplasm in conservatory. Genetic diversity analysis unraveled the scope of genetic improvement and breeding program. Clustering analysis showed grouping of majority of samples to respective agro-climatic zones and established the possible interaction between genotype and environment.