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Infertility is currently a huge burden in India. Artificial Reproductive Techniques (ART) are helpful for the couples in various cases of infertility. Various drugs are available today which includes ovulation inducing agents like clomiphene or letrozole, gonadotropins like Follicle Stimulating Hormone (FSH) and menotropins (Human Menopausal Gonadotropin; HMG) for follicular growth. Also, certain drugs are available, used for controlling the ovarian stimulation or causing hyperstimulation which includes Gonadotropin Releasing Hormone (GnRH) analogues. GnRH analogues especially the antagonists (e.g., Cetrorelix, Ganirelix) are the commonly used drugs for down regulating the gonadotropin production from the pituitary which eventually helps in avoiding the premature Luteinizing Hormone (LH) surges. These hormonal preparations like FSH, HMG are available as urinary (uFSH), Highly Purified (HP-FSH) and/or recombinant (rFSH) preparations. Even with the availability of so many drugs today, infertility management is a challenge to the doctors. Choosing a right protocol is still a widely debated topic and requires years of clinical experience. Currently there are no guidelines recommending the use of drugs which are available today. This overview helps in understanding the commonly used protocols in the management of infertility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The purpose of present study was to evaluate the role of pre-ovulatory GnRH agonist therapy on IVF outcomes in GnRH antagonist cycles. Methods: In this prospective study we recruited 100 infertile women undergoing IVF cycles with GnRH antagonists. The patients were assigned to two groups: Group A (the study group, n=42) were assigned for receiving hCG+triptorelin for the final oocyte maturation and group B (the control group, n=58) were assigned for only hCG. The t-test, chi-square (x2), and Fisher's exact test were used for data analysis.' A p<0.05 was taken as statistically significant. The results are presented by mean± SD, and in percents (%). Results: LH levels significantly (p<0.001) increased in the study group on the day of oocyte retrieval. All embryological parameters including the number of mature oo- cytes, fertilization and cleavage rates, number of high quality embryos and number of cases whose embryos were frozen were non-significantly higher in the study group. There were small but non-significant improvements in the clinical pregnancy, ongoing pregnancy, live birth and implantation rates in the study group. Conclusion: Administering a single dose of GnRH agonist before oocyte retrieval in antagonist cycles may be helpful in improving the pregnancy rate but the results need to be verified in a larger trials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Groundnut, Arachis hypogaea L., crop is an important oil seed crop in India and is prone to attack by numerous fungal and viral diseases, among the soil-borne diseases, stem rot caused by Sclerotium rolfsii Sacc. is economically important. Incidence (86.6%) of the stem rot disease was recorded in Coimbatore district, Tamil Nadu, India, during the roving survey. For its management, an attempt was made to isolate bacterial endophyte from peanut seeds of different groundnut cultivars by culture-dependent analysis. Totally, 16 bacterial endophytes (endophytes groundnut (EGN) 1 to EGN 16 along with standards TNAU-Pf1 and EPC 5) were obtained and characterized through morphological, biochemical and molecular studies and also phytostimulation activities were performed. Among the isolates, EGN 1 and EGN 4 showed positive results for indole acetic acid (IAA), siderophore, phosphate solubilization and protease tests in vitro. The dual culture analysis showed inhibition rates of 60.1% (dual plate assay), 68.23% (filter paper disc assay) and 100% (triangle method of streaking and culture filtrate assay) for EGN 1 against S. rolfsii. Further, the crude metabolite assay showed 97.7% inhibition in EGN 1, followed by 87.7% in EGN 4. The roll towel study showed a high vigour index of 4286.7 in EGN 1; hence, this isolate was chosen. Further, thin-layer chromatography (TLC) analysis showed various bands at 0.72 Rf, whereas GC-MS analysis indicated the prominent peaks of hexadecanoic acid and cis-vaccenic acid that may responsible for antifungal activity. In a molecular approach, the genomic DNA of EGN 1 strain was used to amplify a 1200 bp PCR-fragment and sequenced. Short conclusion: The overall outcome of this study showed that Pseudomonas spp. EGN 1 had a great potential as a bio-stimulant and biocontrol agent to manage effectively the stem rot in peanut. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]