Human Papilloma Virus Related Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma-an updated review

Human papilloma virus (HPV) related head and neck squamous cell cancer (HNSCC) has varying etiology, genetic as well as environmental factors involved and differential clinicicopathological features. HNSCC came in the limelight recently due to increased incidence rate and insufficient diagnostic methods. This review will comprehensively focus on the characteristics of HPV associated HNSCC.  It will provide an updated review of our understanding of HPV role in Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) known to date. Curruntly, three vaccines are available (Gardasil, Gardasil 9 and Cervarix). These vaccines prevent infections with HPV types 16 and 18 HPV-16 is most common type associated with HNSCC. HPV related HNSCC has better prognosis, does not mutate  but inactivatestumor suppressor genes and therefore has comparatively better treatment options. However, there is still a need to improve our methods of sampling, HPV molecular assay and type of specimen to be used.

Gene Pyramiding for Quality Enhancement and Resistance to Bacterial Blight in Rice

Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is an important cereal crop but its yield is stagnant in Pakistan for the last several years. A number of strategies have been proposed to overcome yield stagnation of rice. One such strategy is to develop rice cultivars with an ideal plant phenotype, possessing long heavy panicles, good photosynthetic proficiency and strong culms that are resistant to lodging. Using a similar approach several advance lines of rice has been developed by Dr. Fida Muhammad Abbasi at Hazara University Mansehra Pakistan by modifying the plant architecture of JP-5 and Basmati-385. These advance lines needs to be properly evaluated for their yield and yield attributing traits and molecular characterization for resistance to bacterial blight, presence of aroma and resistance characterization to local races of bacterial blight. Therefore in the present study 30 well performing homozygous advance lines and 6 cultivated varieties were subjected to the process of evaluation on the basis of morphological traits, physical grain quality, molecular analysis for the presence of aroma and bacterial blight (BB). In addition to the above mentioned experiments, a parallel experiment was design in order to pyramid four broad spectrum BB resistance genes (Xa4, xa5, xa13 and Xa21) in the background of Basmati-385. For this purpose Basmati-385 which is an indica variety and possess better grain quality but is susceptible to bacterial blight was crossed with IRBB59 which possess BB resistance genes xa5, xa13 and Xa21. A total 19 hybrid seeds (F0) were obtained and were grown in sterile petri plates. A large number of F2 plants were grown but only the progeny of 30 selected plants were advanced up to F5 generation. Marker assisted selection (MAS) as well as phenotypic selections were carried out in each successive generation. In the F5 generation two lines i.e., line-6 and line-14 were identified pyramided with all the four BB resistance genes. Our results demonstrate that the pyramided lines displayed a high level of resistance to all the three local isolates of Xoo used in this study. In the present study advance lines developed by Hazara University, along with cultivated check varieties of rice were evaluated on the basis of 29 quantitative traits. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed significant variation among the advance lines and cultivated varieties of rice for all these traits. Moderate to high coefficient of variation (CV %), was noticed in all the measured traits with the exception of 1000 grains weight. Cluster analysis was performed to know the extent of genetic diversity and phylogenetic relationship among the genotypes. The data was subjected to the process of standardization prior to analysis. On the basis of quantitative traits, advance lines and cultivated varieties were allocated into three main groups (A, B and C) at a Euclidean distance of approximately 12 in the phylogenetic tree. The cluster A comprised of 10 genotypes including all the cultivated varieties except JP-5. The members of cluster A comprise mainly of genotypes that have relatively low yield and week plant morphology. Cluster B consist of 13 genotypes. These genotypes are high yielding and possess better plant morphology. Cluster C comprised of 11 genotypes including cultivated variety JP-5. Genotypes in this cluster have relatively high plant height and moderate yield as compared to genotypes in the other two clusters. The dendogram analysis thus showed that significant diversity exist among the genotypes that can be exploited for further improvement of these genotypes.