Md. Nasim Ali

Development of a hybrid proximal sensing method for rapid identification of petroleum contaminated soils.

UNLABELLED Using 108 petroleum contaminated soil samples, this pilot study proposed a new analytical approach of combining visible near-infrared diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (VisNIR DRS) and portable X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (PXRF) for rapid and improved quantification of soil petroleum contamination. Results indicated that an advanced fused model where VisNIR DRS spectra-based penalized spline regression (PSR) was used to predict total petroleum hydrocarbon followed by PXRF elemental data-based random forest regression was used to model the PSR residuals, it outperformed (R(2)=0.78, residual prediction deviation (RPD)=2.19) all other models tested, even producing better generalization than using VisNIR DRS alone (RPDs of 1.64, 1.86, and 1.96 for random forest, penalized spline regression, and partial least squares regression, respectively). Additionally, unsupervised principal component analysis using the PXRF+VisNIR DRS system qualitatively separated contaminated soils from control samples. CAPSULE Fusion of PXRF elemental data and VisNIR derivative spectra produced an optimized model for total petroleum hydrocarbon quantification in soils.

Genomic profile of the plants with pharmaceutical value

There is an ample genetic diversity of plants with medicinal importance around the globe and this pool of genetic variation serves as the base for selection as well as for plant improvement. Thus, identification, characterization and documentation of the gene pool of medicinal plants are essential for this purpose. Genomic information of many a medicinal plant species has increased rapidly since the past decade and genetic resources available for domestication and improvement programs include genome sequencing, expressed sequence tags sequencing, transcript profiling, gene transmit, molecular markers in favor of mapping and breeding. In recent years, multiple endeavors have been undertaken for genomic characterization of medicinal plant species with the aid of molecular markers for sustainable utilization of gene pool, its conservation and future studies. Recent advancement in genomics is so fast that only some researches have been published till date and to a large extent documentation is restricted to electronic resources. Whole genome profiling of the identified medicinal plant species, carried out by several researchers, based on the DNA fingerprinting, is well documented in the present review. This review will facilitate preparing a database of the widely used, economically important medicinal plant species, based on their genomic organization.

Spectral data mining for rapid measurement of organic matter in unsieved moist compost

Fifty-five compost samples were collected and scanned as received by visible and near-IR (VisNIR, 350-2500 nm) diffuse reflectance spectroscopy. The raw reflectance and first-derivative spectra were used to predict log(10)-transformed organic matter (OM) using partial least squares (PLS) regression, penalized spline regression (PSR), and boosted regression trees (BRTs). Incorporating compost pH, moisture percentage, and electrical conductivity as auxiliary predictors along with reflectance, both PLS and PSR models showed comparable cross-validation r(2) and validation root-mean-square deviation (RMSD). The BRT-reflectance model exhibited best predictability (residual prediction deviation=1.61, cross-validation r(2)=0.65, and RMSD=0.09 log(10)%). These results proved that the VisNIR-BRT model, along with easy-to-measure auxiliary variables, has the potential to quantify compost OM with reasonable accuracy.

Bamboo: an overview on its genetic diversity and characterization.

Genetic diversity represents the heritable variation both within and among populations of organisms, and in the context of this paper, among bamboo species. Bamboo is an economically important member of the grass family Poaceae, under the subfamily Bambusoideae. India has the second largest bamboo reserve in Asia after China. It is commonly known as “poor man’s timber”, keeping in mind the variety of its end use from cradle to coffin. There is a wide genetic diversity of bamboo around the globe and this pool of genetic variation serves as the base for selection as well as for plant improvement. Thus, the identification, characterization and documentation of genetic diversity of bamboo are essential for this purpose. During recent years, multiple endeavors have been undertaken for characterization of bamboo species with the aid of molecular markers for sustainable utilization of genetic diversity, its conservation and future studies. Genetic diversity assessments among the identified bamboo species, carried out based on the DNA fingerprinting profiles, either independently or in combination with morphological traits by several researchers, are documented in the present review. This review will pave the way to prepare the database of prevalent bamboo species based on their molecular characterization.

Rapid estimation of compost enzymatic activity by spectral analysis method combined with machine learning

The aim of this study was to investigate the feasibility of using visible near-infrared (VisNIR) diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS) as an easy, inexpensive, and rapid method to predict compost enzymatic activity, which traditionally measured by fluorescein diacetate hydrolysis (FDA-HR) assay. Compost samples representative of five different compost facilities were scanned by DRS, and the raw reflectance spectra were preprocessed using seven spectral transformations for predicting compost FDA-HR with six multivariate algorithms. Although principal component analysis for all spectral pretreatments satisfactorily identified the clusters by compost types, it could not separate different FDA contents. Furthermore, the artificial neural network multilayer perceptron (residual prediction deviation=3.2, validation r(2)=0.91 and RMSE=13.38 μg g(-1) h(-1)) outperformed other multivariate models to capture the highly non-linear relationships between compost enzymatic activity and VisNIR reflectance spectra after Savitzky-Golay first derivative pretreatment. This work demonstrates the efficiency of VisNIR DRS for predicting compost enzymatic as well as microbial activity.

Selection of Rice Genotypes for Salinity Tolerance Through Morpho-Biochemical Assessment

The present study reported the morpho-biochemical evaluation of 15 selected rice genotypes for salt tolerance at the seedling stage. Growth parameters including shoot length, root length, plant biomass, plant turgid weight, plant dry weight along with relative water content were measured after exposure to saline solution (with electrical conductivity value of 12 dS/m). Genotypes, showing significant differential responses towards salinity in the fields, were assessed through 14 salinity-linked morpho-biochemical attributes, measured at 14 d after exposure of seedling in saline nutrient solution. Relative water content, chlorophyll a/b, peroxidase activity and plant biomass were identified as potential indicators of salt tolerance. Principal component analysis and successive Hierarchical clustering using Euclidean distance revealed that Talmugur, Gheus, Ghunsi, Langalmura, Sabitapalui, and Sholerpona were promising genotypes for further breeding programmes in rice. The maximum Euclidean distance was plotted between Thavallakanan and Talmugur (7.49), followed by Thavallakanan and Langalmura (6.82), indicating these combinations may be exploited as parental lines in hybridization programmes to develop salinity tolerant variety.

Plant Tissue Culture as Potential Option in Developing Climate Resilient Spices

According to, Food and Drugs Administration spices are “Aromatic vegetable substance, in the whole, broken, or ground form, whose significant function in food is seasoning rather than nutrition”. Spices have gained a significant position in modern life due to its economic importance and its cuisine, food and medicinal value. In modern era of civilization, global warming and climate changes are becoming a major threat for all living organisms of the globe including spices. Despite the tremendous progress and mechanization in the agriculture sector, it is also experiencing the multidimensional negative impact of climate changes. The natural resources of spices are declining day by day due to deforestation and industrialization. Besides, low productivity, seasonal dependency, high susceptible to diseases and poor genetic variation are major problems for spices cultivation. So production and supply of quality products is becoming a great challenge. In addition, there is a need to develop climate resilient crops in order to face the consequences of global warming in near future. Plant Tissue Culture technology is a proven techniques for generating quality planting materials and developing new elite germplasms of several crops. The regeneration of planting materials by this technique depends on major factors of plant tissue culture methods are type of explants, culture media and culture condition. Modification of media components and using suitable explants under stress conditions, several stress-tolerant/resistant crops have been regenerated through this technique. This chapter focuses to enumerate applicability and scope in the improvement of spices with response to climatic change. Major aspects of plant tissue culture for spices improvement are mainly restricted to somatic embryogenesis, protoplast fusion (i.e. cybrid) while disease free plants can be regenerated through micropropagation. Anther/pollen culture was exclusively reported for haploid/double haploid plant production. Somaclonal variations regenerated through plant tissue culture exhibited the scope to induce variation under laboratory condition. Moreover, secondary metabolites enhancement particularly in spices with pharmaceutical importance and long term conservation of rare germplasms are the areas of intrusion. Since traditional breeding is laborious and time taking process, plant tissue culture may serve as chief tool or as an inseparable add-on tool to recombinant DNA technonology.

Factors affecting macropropagation of bamboo with special reference to culm cuttings: a review update

BackgroundThe gap between demand and supply of bamboo is increasing daily due to the destruction of natural bamboo resources. Therefore, there is a pressing need to find suitable methods for large-scale propagation of bamboo. Currently, bamboo is propagated mainly using vegetative means since seed supplies are often variable or limited.MethodsCurrent literature on available methods of bamboo propagation (seed and vegetative) were reviewed to establish the key limiting factors involved in the propagation of bamboo.ResultsThe vegetative propagation of bamboo via culm cuttings was found to be the simplest and most cost-effective method developed over the last few decades.ConclusionsAdditional work is required to increase the success rate of culm cuttings, and finding improved substrates for the propagules could be one area of investigation.

Diversity of bacterial communities inhabiting soil and groundwater of arsenic contaminated areas in West Bengal, India

Soil and water contaminated with arsenic (As) through natural or anthropogenic inputs are commonly considered as native source of tolerant bacterial strains. The present study was successful in characterizing 12 hyper-tolerant bacteria, satisfying maximum tolerable concentration (MTC) for arsenate (As5+) ≥ 300 mM and arsenite (As3+) ≥ 30 mM, isolated from As affected North 24 Parganas and South 24 Parganas districts of West Bengal, India. Most of the bacteria showing higher level of tolerance to As5+ and As3+ were found as gram-positive and bacilli in shape. Positive responses to different biochemical tests indicated that some of these bacteria could be potent sources of various biotechnologically important enzymes. Some of the hyper-tolerant bacteria could reduce As5+ to As3+ while all others could oxidise As3+ to As5+. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that those hyper-tolerant bacterial strains were distributed among three phyla such as Actinobacteria, Firmicutes, and γ-Proteobacteria. The Firmicutes were well represented in this study with more than half of the hyper-tolerant strains corresponding to members of this group. Moreover, majority of the isolates except SR10 belonging to this phylum were affiliated to different species of the genus Bacillus and showed different tolerance capability to As3+ and As5+. We present the first report of the genus Paenibacillus as being involved in arsenite oxidation with hyper-tolerance property to As. Four isolates named as SDe5, SDe12, SDe13, and SDe15 belonging to genera Bacillus and Rhodococcus exhibited highest tolerance to As and therefore represented as good candidates for bioremediation processes of native polluted soil and ground water.

Improvement of Vermicompost: Influence of Feeding Materials and Inoculation of Nitrogen-Fixing and Phosphate-Solubilising Bacteria

Rapid urbanisation, encroachment of fertile area and booming population are leading to generation of massive amount of waste. Vermicompost has been proved as potential technology for converting different organic solid waste including municipal waste and agricultural waste into valuable wealth through a type of biological alchemy of earthworm. The egested cast can be used to improve the fertility and physical characteristics of soil. So definitely the material that ingested by the epigeic earthworm could be one of the source of variation of quality of the ultimate product. The enrichment can also be achieved by inoculating microorganisms at initial stage of decomposition. With these two aims, the present work was carried out to study the effect of different organic wastes, namely water hyacinth, cow dung, green gram, vegetable waste and poultry litter, with microbial inoculants on chemical and biochemical properties of vermicompost. Significant variation with respect to microbial count both at initial stage and final product was observed with exception like total bacterial count at initial stage and total fungal count and Pseudomonas count in final product. Inoculation of microorganisms increased the P content in vermicompost. During the incubation period, the inoculated bacterial strains proliferated rapidly, solubilised added and native phosphate. It was also observed that the percentage increase in microbial population was found maximum in water hyacinth [327.78%]. It is evident from results that the significant increase of total phosphorus and total potassium and significant decrease in TOC, EC and pH in final vermicompost of different animal/agro and kitchen wastes by the use of earthworm Eisenia foetida are due to the vermic activity.