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The leaves of Gliricidia sepium (Jacq.) Walp. have been reported to have ethnomedicinal uses such as wound healing, skin itching or dermatitis, and others. This study was therefore conducted to evaluate its biological properties, whether ethanolic leaf extract of G. sepium (Jacq.) Walp. has antimicrobial and antioxidant activities, and whether these are reflected in the presence of antimicrobial and antioxidant phytochemicals in the extract. Antimicrobial properties using the agar well-diffusion method showed inhibition against bacterial organism Bacillus subtilis and fungus Candida albicans. The antioxidant activity evaluated by 2,2-diphenyl-1-picryl-hydrazyl-hydrate (DPPH) photometric assay showed that G. sepium (Jacq.) Walp. is a medium antioxidant with an IC50 of 144 ppm. Phytochemicals present in the extract showed the presence of flavonoids, saponins, steroids, and tannins, which are known as antimicrobial and antioxidant agents. Evaluation of the bioactive compounds in the extract using Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry identified twenty-two (22) possible bioactive compounds. Of these, ten (10) were found to be known antimicrobials, while eight (8) compounds were found to be known antioxidants based on published literature. This study has shown support to the ethnomedicinal uses of the leaves of G. sepium (Jacq.) Walp. as an antimicrobial and antioxidant plant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The bark and wood of sapwood, Dracontomelon dao (Anacardiaceae) are used in traditional medicine to treat several health problems including infections, inflammations, and tumors. This study was therefore conducted to provide some information on the antimicrobial, antioxidant, and cellular metabolic activities of the ethanolic extract of the bark and wood of D. dao. The phytochemical components were assessed to evaluate whether the extract contains the presence of phytochemicals that are considered antioxidants. GCMS analysis was done to identify the compounds present and evaluate their functions through data mining. Antimicrobial activity evaluated using agar well diffusion method showed inhibition of the extract against the grampositive and gram-negative bacteria Salmonella typhimurium, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus subtilis, and the two disease-causing species of fungi, Candida albicans, and Aspergillus niger. The antioxidant activity of the extract was evaluated using 1, 1-diphenyl-2-picryl hydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging method showed strong antioxidant activity with an IC50 <<<<5 ppm comparable to the antioxidant activity of Vitamin C. Cytotoxic activity of the extract evaluated using trypan blue exclusion test showed low survival of normal human lymphocytes with only 20.3% live cells remaining after and being subjected to 1 mg/ml of the extract. Phytochemical screening of the extract revealed the presence of alkaloids, anthraquinones, flavonoids, saponins, steroids, and tannins which are known as antimicrobial and antioxidants. Identification of the bioactive compounds in the extract using GCMS revealed a total of 54 compounds. Twenty-one of these compounds have antimicrobial properties while 15 of these compounds have antioxidant properties based on published literature. Other compounds also suggest biological activities other than antimicrobial and antioxidant that also indicate potential biomedical applications. The information from the results in this study supports the traditional medicinal claims of D. dao have scientific bases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the most popular plants used as a spice by the Maranao Muslims of Marawi City is a white variety of Allium ampeloprasum. This plant is not only popular for the preparation of a variety of dishes but also for the treatment of common infections. This study was conducted to determine the phytochemical constituents, antioxidant and antimicrobial properties of ethanolic extracts of the plant variety. Alkaloids, saponins, flavonoids, and steroids were the phytochemicals that were detected in the samples, while tannins, cyanogenic glycosides and anthraquinones were absent. The plant extract showed strong antioxidant activity based on DPPH assay. The antimicrobial assay showed no inhibition of growth of P. aeruginosa UPCC1244 and B. subtilis UPCC1295 but strong inhibition of E. coli UPCC1195, K. pneumoniae UPCC1360, S. typhimurium UPCC1368 and S. aureus UPCC1142. GCMS analysis showed the presence of compounds with biological properties. This study, therefore, indicated that the plant has potential medicinal and antimicrobial properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Morphological variations in the carapace structure of the freshwater shrimp Macrobrachium sp. collected from the subterranean and aboveground river systems in Marinduque, Philippines were studied using geometric morphometric analysis. Sixteen (16) landmarks were established on the carapace structure of the samples using the MorphoJ software. Variations in carapace shape of the samples were explored using Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and translated to Procrustes coordinates. To compare the differences in carapace shape between the samples, pairwise permutation test Canonical Variate Analysis (CVA) was applied with 10,000 permutations. Discriminate analysis was also used to determine significant difference on the carapace shape. To determine manifestations of allometry, multivariate regression was employed with log of the centroid size as the independent variable and Procrustes coordinate as dependent variable (with 10,000 permutations). Results of the PCA showed some indications of variation in the shape of the carapace that occurred mostly on the rostrum, where the subterranean shrimps generally have longer rostrum, and the aboveground shrimps having a broader rostrum. It also showed that the aboveground samples have a broader carapace compared to that of the subterranean samples. Procrustes pairwise permutation tests using CVA between the carapace shapes of shrimps from the subterranean and aboveground rivers showed a significant difference (Procrustes distance= 0.0418, p=0.0022). Results of the discriminate analysis also showed that carapace of shrimps from the subterranean and aboveground rivers significantly differ (T-square= 3790.74, P-value [parametric] = 0.0064). The multivariate regression showed that the subterranean shrimp samples exhibited allometric relationship between the carapace shape and the long centroid while the aboveground samples did not exhibit allometric relationship. The significant allometry in subterranean shrimps is an indication that the population has a different growth pattern compared to that of aboveground river shrimps population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Guppies (Poecilia reticulata) were reported as indicators of waters in poor conditions, representing one of the most significant models in evolutionary ecology due to the species' quick response to natural selection. The inability of these species to develop perfect symmetry can be associated to the disturbances in their environment. Determining the fluctuating asymmetry (FA) as a measure of the species developmental instability of P. reticulata found in Lake Sebu, South Cotabato, Philippines is an effective tool in finding out the ecological health and to fully understand the shape variability of guppies found in the area. Landmark-based geometric morphometries was used in the study to analyze the biological shape information of the samples. Procrustes ANOVA was employed for the assessment of FA. Statistical analyses showed that there is a significant FA on both sexes of the fishes (p<0.05) while individual symmetry showed otherwise. Results revealed that female guppy showed higher value in FA (83.69%) compared to male's (81.63%). The results taken reflect a high FA in the body shapes of P. reticulata, thus, imply a high level of stress in the water systems in Lake Sebu. This study proves the effectiveness of FA studies to indicate perturbations in the water environment using guppies as stress indicators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The wings of insects are highly compartmentalized by their major and minor veins. Each compartment in insect wings are believed to be potential candidates for separate developmental modules which may correspond to distinct cell lineages and domains of gene expression. Are the entire wings of striped slant-faced grasshopper (Amphitornus sp.) integrated? Or, are the compartments, even smaller part of the wings can be considered as autonomous units of "gene regulation"? Hence, this study was conducted to determine the number and pattern of developmental modules in the wings of Amphitornus sp. Different hypothesis were formulated and tested to determine the developmental modules in the wings, as well as the veins that bounds each compartments. TPSUtiI, TPSdig2 and, Modularity and Integration tool (MINT ver 1.5) were the software's used in this study. A total of 8 and 14 a priori models for the fore- and hindwings were constructed and statistically tested. Results show that fore- and hind wings of Amphitornus sp. compnsed of 3 and 4 developmental modules bounded by their major veins. Fair consistency in the best fit model and pattern of developmental modules was observed. Therefore, compartments in wings correspond to "units of gene regulation." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rice Black Bug (RBB) is small and cryptic pest species that are believed to have caused significant yield loss of rice production in the Philippines. Various studies pointed to the variability in the ecology and morphology of populations of RBB. The present study reports on the variability in the wing venation pattern and shapes of the male and female genital plates structure in a non-outbreak population of RBB from Lala, Lanao del Norte. Results showed immense variability in wing venation patterns particularly in the type and number of marginal cells and the number and pattern of longitudinal veins. The marginal cells were either closed or open. On the other hand, the longitudinal veins were sometimes crossed, looped forming a closed circular pattern or at times show a complex criss-crossed pattern. Landmark-based geometric morphometric analyses of the shapes of the male and female genitalia showed variations in the length-width aspect ratio, concavity of the anterior margins and shapes of the posterior and anterior protrusions. The results may imply a high genetic diversity in this population of RBB despite present in a non-outbreak level. This diversity may have implications to the control and management of this rice insect pest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rice stem borers are considered as the most serious insect pest of rice in Asia. It infects its plant host by burrowing into the stem using its mandible. However, apart from the mandible, the head of rice stem borers is also associated in the incursion process since it facilitates the entry of larvae to the rice plant. Differences in the head capsules have a direct effect on the ability of the insects to ingest hard foods rapidly. Different rice varieties in the Philippines serve as plant host for this pest and infestation occurred in different geographical location. Variations in habitat and plant host were thought to generate environmental variation in morphometric traits and host adapted herbivore phenotype respectively. Landmark based geometric morphometric analysis was used to assess the hypothesis that the head shape of white stem borer differ between populations with respect to different rice varieties and geographical location where it was obtained. Relative warp analysis showed variation in the head shape between different white stem borer (Schirpophaga innotata Walker) populations infesting different varieties of rice. Non-significant head shape variations were obtained between geographically separated populations. These results indicate that the rice host varieties play an important role in the selection of individuals that are able to counteract the resistance factors in plants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many studies about wing morphology have been conducted in the field of entomology that aims to clarify the relationship in closely related taxa and to identify different population within and between species. However, less has been reported that exploit wing shape morphology to discriminate female and male population within species. Differences in wing morphology between sexes of the same species of insects often reflect disparity in flight performance and flight range which might be of considerable significance in the monitoring and control of pest species. This study was conducted to determine differences in flight morphology between sexes of the white stem borer (Schirpophaga innota Walker) by looking at variation in the shapes of the entire wing and its compartments using the method of geometric morphometrics. The results showed considerable variation in the forewings and hindwings between female and male specimen as shown in relative warp analysis. Discriminant function analysis and MANOVA also showed statistically significant wing shape variation between sexes demonstrating the presence of sexual dimorphism within the species of white stem borers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Weedy rice is a serious threat to food security in a global scale. They invade lowland ricefields by having intermediate phenotypes between rice cultivars and its wild type. They grow sympatrically with the cultivars and compete effectively with the crop that often result to excessive yield loss, but un-fortunately this pest is difficult to control due to phenotypic resemblance and close genetic relationships with the rice cultivars. The high variability of weedy rice phenotype in the field is suggestive also that it reflect phenotypic relationships to its wild ancestors. In the current study, we explore the phenotypic affinity of weedy rice in the Philippine archipelago using seed shape. The shape is known to have large genetic bases and so its utility in the study is reliable. Using the Geometric Morphometric (GM) tool specifically elliptic Fourier analysis (EFA) and Multivariate Analysis in statistics, we found that 64% of the weedy rice in the archipelago has phenotypic affinity to 13 wild landraces (AA genome) collected from 15 different locations within West Africa, Carribean Islands, Latin America, India, Australia, South Asia and Southeast Asia. Ten populations have affinity to O. meyeriana (GG genome) in the Philippines and Malaysia. Both weedy populations from Misamis Oriental, Philippines (WRMIS1) and Nueva Ecija, Philippines (WRNE2) have affinity to PsBRc 64 and PSBRc 82, respectively while two populations from Iloilo, Philippines (WRILO1 & WRILO2) have affinity to O. latifolia in Costa Rica. Overall results display a complex pattern of phenotypic affinity, thus suggesting multiple origins of weedy rices in the Philippines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Together with petal color and other floral characteristics, petal shape and size vary widely within Mokara orchids. An appropriate understanding of their flower forms is fundamental and necessary for the improvement of this economically and aesthetically important plant. This study was therefore conducted to describe variations in the flowers of Mokara with emphasis on the shapes of sepals, petals and labellum using geometric morphometric (GM) methods based on summarized information about contours of the structures. We specifically applied the truss-network based analysis of landmarks and the elliptic Fourier method in describing the petal and sepal outlines. Each of the methods required a dimension reduction technique in the form of principal component analysis to summarize independent shape characteristics. Results showed that classification and discrimination of the varieties based on the shapes of the petals and sepals could be achieved using both techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The wings of dragonflies are highly compartmentalized as shown by the major and minor veins separating the different compartments or modules. There is a long term hypothesis that compartments of the wings as bounded by the veins may correspond to units of "gene regulation". Are the different compartments 'units of gene regulation' and is there genetic conservatism on the wings of the dragonfly? This study was therefore, conducted to evaluate whether there is a number and pattern of developmental modules in dragonfly wings and determine whether there exists genetic conservatism based on intra and inter-modular variations in the wings. The study was conducted in two cosmopolitan species of Libellulid dragonflies. Different hypotheses were formulated and tested as to the possible spatial boundaries based on major wing venations. A priori models applying the tools of geometric morphometrics were constructed and statistically tested for the goodness of fit test (GoF) statistic by comparing the observed and expected covariance matrices. Jackknife support values for each variational model were also computed using γ* as the GoF statistic. Results showed fair consistency in the observed number and patterns of hypothesized developmental modules implying that the wings of these species of dragonflies are highly conserved. It is concluded that there is genetic conservatism in the morphological spaces in the wings of the two species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study was conducted to describe the frequency of occurrence, variations in size and shapes of stabilimenta of four species of Argiope - A. luzona, A. catenulata, A. appensa and A. aemula found in their natural habitat. The description was based on size, shape and frequency of occurrence. Out of 1,094 orb-webs observed, the spinning of stabilimenta is an optional component of web-building since 8%-29% were undecorated. The frequency of occurrence of stabilimentum-building and the cruciate type vary among the four species which may indicate an interspecific variation in stabilimentum structure. Cruciate and discoid types were observed to be dependent of spider size. Larger individuals were observed to be spinning cruciate stabilimenta while the smaller ones spinning the discoid form. This result demonstrates an ontogenetic shift from discoid to cruciate form. Though linear stabilimentum was not observed in the present study, the within-species variation in cruciate stabilimentum (e.g 1-5 arms, continuous or discontinuous) suggests variation in stabilimentum-building behavior among the four species. Spider size was moderately positively correlated with the number of stabilimentum arms or bands in A. luzona, moderately negatively correlated in A. aemula, but no relationship in A. catenulata and A. appensa. The spider size is not correlated with the presence of decoration. The size of discoid stabilimentum as well as the length of cruciate type are both positively correlated with the web size in the four species observed. The spider size is significantly positively correlated with web size in A. aemula but not in the other 3 species. It was also observed that the length of cruciate stabilimentum was significantly negatively correlated with the web size, spinning wider webs with shorter stabilimenta or smaller webs with longer stabilimenta. Spinning wider undecorated or smaller decorated webs was only observed in A. appensa. The results in this study may suggest evidence for a trade-off between the two alternative prey-capture strategies of orb spiders, that is, stabilimentum-building activity and building a web with a large capture area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prior studies have shown different insights about sexual shell dimorphism in the snails of family Viviparidae. This study was conducted to evaluate and determine the occurence of sexual dimorphism and shape variation in the shells of the viviparid snail, Vivipara angularis Muller, from three characters (ventral/aperture, dorsal, and top/whorl) using geometric morphometric analyses. All the three shell characters exhibited significant sexual shell dimorphism, this may be due to adaptations for brooding of the viviparid snails. Results indicate employment of different shell characters subjected to geometric morphometric analysis other than the aperture, in order to discriminate between sexes of the snails accurately. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]