Zeitschrift für Biodiversität, Bioprospektion und Entwicklung

This paper presents a time series study of vegetative composition change in an alpine ecosystem in the Big Pine Creek watershed in California’s Eastern Sierra Nevada Mountain’s. Sixteen sample sites that demonstrated same directional trends in their visible and near-IR responses were examined for changes species composition over the last 30 years using spectral mixture analysis to evaluate how warming temperatures have altered the vegetative mix of those sites. These findings are used to establish the relationship between trends in spectral reflectance and changes in vegetative composition. We found that changes in the compositional make up of a site can result in changes to the spectral response that contradict the trends in vegetative indices and Tasseled Cap transformations. At one particular site, we show that Tasseled Cap indices are all consistent with a statistically significant decline in surface cover while spectral mixture analysis demonstrates statistically significant increases in vegetative cover.

As far as microbial world concerned on earth, there are large number of domains has shown the potential for various applications. Fungal domain is one of them. Since the discovery of penicillin, various fungi has been harnessed for a large number of applications. Still there is a requirement of novel products for human welfare and development. So what are the fungi of next door? Are the fungal endophytes? Yes? This is the area untouched for a longer period of time. These fungi represent one of the most understudied and diverse group of organisms, are ubiquitous and occur within almost all the plants, including a broad range of hosts in various ecosystems, and therefore play an important role in the natural environment. Despite extensive work in this field, the products of these fungi remains poorly characterized. A large number of endophytic fungi such as Taxomyces, Pestalotiopsis, Muscodor, Piriformospora, Alternaria, Colletotrichum, Cryptosporiopsis, produce enormous valuable products for medicinal, agricultural and industrial importance. Some of the well-known products are taxol (Paclitaxel), serine hydrolases for polyurethane degradation, Annulene (Volatile organic compounds), Colletotric acid and Cryptocandin. So what next, are endophytic fungal metabolites are the future products? The present review explore the potential of these endophytic fungi with respect to the production of various novel secondary metabolites/products in comparison with the traditional fungi of importance.

Objective: Extracellular xylanase is produced by several microorganisms mainly from bacterial species such as Bacillus spp. The advances knowledge in the aspect of biochemistry, physiology and genetics of Bacillus spp especially B. subtilis play an important role, giving its huge impact for developing the optimisation of xylanase production. As a result, B. subtilis is widely adopted as a vital model as the producer of industrial xylanase. In this context, the aim of this study is to elucidate the effect of different cost-effective undefined medium of agricultural extracts using soybean hull as part of medium composition on xylanase production by B. subtilis under submerged fermentation (SmF) and solid state fermentation (SsF).

Methods: In the present study, in order to elucidate the optimum carbon source, the culture of B. subtilis ATCC 6633 was grown under the optimised growth conditions in the medium containing soybean hull with agricultural extracts as carbon source including wheat bran, rice bran, palm kernel cake, barley husk, corn cob, sawdust and pineapple peel under SmF and SsF in shake flasks culture, respectively.

Results: Based on our results, it was found that the highest xylanase activity of 11.968 ± 1.419 U/mL was achieved in the presence of wheat bran and soybean hull after 48-h of SmF. The production of xylanase increased to 18.875 ± 0.569 U/mL using pineapple peel and soybean hull, thus becoming the most efficient substrate for SsF.

Conclusion: We concluded that SsF was considerately a potential fermentation method for the production of xylanase. This research presents the overview study of xylanase production by B. subtilis using cheap alternative agricultural extracts such as wheat bran and pineapple peel with the future prospects of large scale xylanase production. Indeed, due to the economical production of xylanase, this enzyme could be used as an effective ecofriendly bio-bleaching agent in various industries especially pulp and paper.

External and internal stimuli trigger the response of signals in the cell which amplified and communicated by various complex signal transduction networks are mostly initiated with the activation of different receptor proteins. These signaling networks perform as protective strategy to allow cells to cope with external stresses that usually restrain the plant growth and development. Protein kinases are among the most common cellular regulatory components of signal transduction in plants. Protein phosphorylation plays prominent role in various biochemical pathways in plants as a result of active implication in the regulation of cell growth and development. Therefore, protein kinase becomes the most common target used to improve plant growth and development. Gravity force, touch, light, gradients in temperature, humidity, ions, chemicals and oxygen are among the environmental elements influencing the physiological and biological aspects of plants. Hence, many different plant species adopt and response to different environmental stresses where they develop physiological strategies to generate their optimum growth. Beside the involvement in the signal transduction pathways, protein kinases also encourage the proteinprotein interaction events within the cells. Therefore, protein phosphorylation plays pivotal roles in activating the protein kinases and transcription factors in various signal transduction pathways. A process whereby a cell communicates and responses to the stimuli from external environment to alter its growth, development, physiology and morphology is known as signal transduction. This signal transduction process involves a serial of biochemical phenomenon that are performed and conducted by many types of enzymes within the cells. Most of the signals are perceived and recognized at the cell surface. The integration and interaction of various signaling information and activities are important, for example, addition of a phosphate to a protein kinase to target the protein substrate. Hence, modification of protein forms protein-protein interaction useful for signal transduction in plant growth and development.

Explorations and germplasm inventories of fish biodiversity in the aquatic water bodies of India are being progressively updated and analysed with several new discoveries however; a well-defined number of existing fish species at regional/state level remains to be determined. Of the total freshwater fish diversity of the country, imperilment ranges from 10-13% indicates widespread and pervasive degradation of aquatic freshwater fish habitats. The State of West Bengal is endowed with 7.5% of the water resource of the country and that is becoming increasingly scarce with the uncontrolled growth of population, expansion of irrigation network and developmental needs. Concern over declining harvests and an obvious reduction in biodiversity of fish species has led to a more holistic approach to fisheries management and research. The state is endowed with vast aquatic resources in the form of rivers, ponds/tanks, reservoir, beel and boar, brackish water fishery and also predominated by several wetlands. Perusal of literature reveals that several scattered information on fish biodiversity of West Bengal is available. In the present review, altogether, 190 native freshwater fish species were recorded from the West Bengal contributing nearly 23% of the Indian freshwater fishes. The presented review highlighted a concise review of Indian fish biodiversity, analyse the threats, challenges, conservation programmes and offer hope for the future of the nation’s imperilled freshwater fish sustainability of the West Bengal. Conserving the biodiversity of these fishes and at the same time managing their exploitation in a sustainable way is a difficult exercise. The diverse assemblages of freshwater species of the state should be targeted by all who have a stake in our freshwater heritage. This paper highlights the pattern of freshwater fish biodiversity in many perspectives, utilization, threats and discusses the management strategies to be implemented for the conservation of freshwater fish diversity in the state.

Endorhizospheric bacteria also known as endophytic bacteria that resides within living plant tissues without substantially harming plants have found a large number of applications in today’s agriculture such as nutrient cycling, tolerance to biotic and abiotic stress as well as promotion of plant growth. In present study an attempt has been made to test biodiversity of endophytic plant growth promoting bacteria from different plant species. As nitrogen fixation is one of the prime mechanism of plant growth promoting activity exerted by microorganisms, endophytic nitrogen fixing bacteria were isolated from from surface sterilized plant parts viz. root, stem and leaves of species Cynodon dactylon (Durva), Pothos scandens (Money plant), Ipomea batata (Sweet potato), Saccharum officinarum (Sugarcane) cv. CO.LK-8001 and CO.-84135, Musa paradica (Banana) and Zea mays (maize) cv. GM-6 by using nitrogen free media selective for growth of nitrogen fixing bacteria. In all total 10 isolates were obtained form different plant species and parts and showed variation in their biochemical and physiological characteristics. All the isolates were found to fix nitrogen and nitrogen fixation rates of all the isolates ranged from 4.0 to 36.3 mg N fixed / gm of sugar consumed. Moreover, they also showed solubilizing tri calcium phosphate in Pikovskaya’s broth.

Although Nigeria encompasses one of the most abundant anuran faunas in the world, quantitative information on anuran ecology are limited, especially in the Southwestern region. Four study sites with different vegetation structures in southwest Nigeria were selected and monitored for anuran species. Four species (Rana asdpersa, R. aurora, R. clamitans and R. sylvatica) of the family Ranidae were identified. The study sites were located at Okitipupa, Ore, Osogbo and Ile-Ife. This study was carried in both rainy and dry season, between the years 2002 and 2007. In general, fewer number of amphibian species were observed during the dry season at the four study sites. Total number of individuals caught in the study sight was slightly higher in the rainy season (53.4%) than in the dry season (46.6%). In each of the seasons, more of R. clamitans and R. sylvatica were captured than R. aurora and R. adspersa; with R. aurora accounting for the least number of frog species caught in both dry and rainy seasons. Habitat destruction and modification are key causes of habitat loss of anuran species observed in this study. Focus should be on conservation strategies that monitor and detect changes (increase/decrease) in the diversity and abundance of the ranids and other anurans within a specified study area of interest over time.

Being a precious gift from all Mighty Allah medicinal plants are of crucial importance in modern era. Medicinal plants including A. calamus, P.specie, C. serrata, P.Oweta, M. longifolia T. aficianali, B. implexical, S. specie, and F.volgare were analyzed for proximate composition and mineral content to explain their medicinal properties with their chemical composition. The crude protein content of wild medicinal plant was in the range of 1.7% to 2.7%.The minimum protein was observed in C. serrata followed by B. implexical (1.8%) while the maximum was found in M. longifolia and F. volgare which was 2.7% each. The fiber content of the plants was in the range of 3.2 to 7.3%. The least amount (32%) of fiber was present in M. longifolia and the highest amount of fiber was possessed by P. oweta which contained 7.3% of fiber. The mineral content showed that all the plants were contained lower amount of sodium (Na) and nickel (Ni). However they contained all other mineral in considerable or even in greater amount. Na content of the plants was present in the range of 1.1 to 8.0ug/g. The highest amount was observed in S.specie which contained 8.0 ug/g of the Na. The range of calcium (Ca) content was 234.0 to 408.4. Magnesium (Mg), chromium (Cr), manganese (Mn), iron (Fe), Ni and zinc (Zn) were present in the ranges of 72.5 to 95.0, 2.0 to 14.0, 4.85 to 90.45, 1.20 to 209.25, 18.8 to 81.2, 0.8 to 5.7 and 6.60 to 24.2ug/g respectively. The higher iron and copper contents showed that plants might be helpful in restoring the Fe and Cu deficiency in the body when consumed regularly. The appreciable amount of Zn, Mg and Mn showed that the plant curing effect might be related to their mineral composition. However the presence of Cr and Ni might endanger their used in regular diets, which might cause accumulation of these minerals in the body which are considered as heavy metals when present in large amount.

The comparative faunistic analysis of species diversity of family Gelechiidae in Islands of Peter the Great Gulf and in neighboring continental territories is made. The island fauna turned out depleted because of small size of islands, limited landscape diversity and impossibility of active moth migration due to their weak flying abilities. However the concentration of species diversity in islands is almost two orders of magnitude larger than that in continental part. The proportion of Gelechiid groups with certain type of geographic range in islands is similar to that in continental part, that is treated by recent their isolation. The fauna of every examined island is disharmonic, representing by some species from every genus and includes small number of common species that is interpreted by continual species extinction and an insignificant random drift from mainland.

The inhabitants of Mizoram (Mizos) use several plants for their healthcare and our main interest was to investigate the scientific basis of the medicinal use of these plants. Therefore, the root-stock of Alocasia indica, mature leaves of certain plants including Biden pillosa, Blumeopsis flava, Chromolaena odorata, Cissus discolor, Croton caudatus, Elaeagnus caudata, Leucaena leucocephala, Passiflora edulis and Spilanthes acmella, the latex of Carica papaya and rhizomes of Curcuma caesia were dried and powdered. The chloroform, ethanolic and aqueous extracts of each plant was prepared and subjected to phytochemical analysis and thin layer chromatography (TLC). The phytochemical analysis of the above plants showed the presence of alkaloids, flavonoids, saponins, and steroids. Most of these plants contained tannins with the notable exception of Croton caudatus. Similarly, the majority of plant species analyzed showed the presence of phlobatannins except Spilanthes acmella and Passiflora edulis. The cardiac glycosides were absent in Elaeagnus caudata and terpenoids in Leucaena leucocephala and Elaeagnus caudata. The presence of different phytochemical constituents was confirmed by TLC profiling by comparing the Rf values in various solvent systems. Our study indicates that despite the lack of real knowledge of chemistry, the traditional healers knew the medicinal importance of these plants. The medicinal properties of these plants may be due to the presence of various phytochemicals including flavonoids, alkaloids, saponin, steroids, tannins, phlobatannins, terpenoids and cardiac glycosides.