Plant cell contains genetic material in three compartments; namely chloroplast, mitochondria and nucleus. Chloroplast genome encodes a small set of genes compared to nuclear genome. These genes are classified as housekeeping, regulatory and photosynthesis related genes. Most of these genes are subjected to various reverse genetics approaches that led them to classify as essential and nonessential genes based on their role in the plant growth, development and autotrophic status of plants. There are still a few plastid genes and open reading frames in the plastid genomes of higher plants that are yet to be analyzed for their functions. Of these genes, ycf4 and rpl16 were chosen to explore their functions. Plant knockouts were developed for both genes using standard chloroplast transformation approach coupled with reverse genetics strategy. Transgenic plants were confirmed for homoplasmic transplastomes using PCR and Southern blotting approaches. After complete deletion of ycf4 genetic material at genome level characterization at transcriptome level was carried out. It was observed through quantitative PCR approach that transcriptome of few genes were accumulated to low and of other genes to high levels compared to non-transformed wild type plant. It was observed that deletion of ycf4 does not affect the transcripts of PSI and PSII genes except psbC and psbE. Among the ribosomal protein genes and ATP synthase, rps16, rrn16 atpI were affected. Where other genes involved in photosynthesis and regulation of gene expression in Δycf4 plants ycf10, rpoA and rpoB remained unaffected. However, rbcL, and clpP were expressed in very low quantities. Transcripts of ATP synthase subunit (atpB) was accumulated to low levels whereas of clpP gene the transcripts were accumulated to very high levels compared to wild type plant. Photosynthetic rate of genes encoding photosynthesis subunits, contrary to their transcript levels, was greatly affected, and the measured rate was almost half of the wild type plants grown under in vitro controlled growth environment. Similarly, growth and developed of plants was severely affected. Therefore, plants were grown on growth medium supplemented with varied levels of carbon source. It was observed that levels of carbon source when decreased from normal (30g/L) to zero level the growth of plants was severely affected and plants became dead on zero sucrose levels. Similarly, peat moss in pots did not support plants’ autotrophic growth, confirming that ycf4 is an essential subunit of photosynthetic machinery of plants. Electron micrograph of Δplants revealed that structure of chloroplasts have been affected, became round in shape compared to chloroplasts of wild type plants, indicating that ycf4 gene product has role in structural development of chloroplast. Rpl16 knock out were developed successfully however, to investigate its role in chloroplast functioning demands further experiments both transcriptome and proteome levels.
۲۶ اگست ۱۹۴۱ء کو جماعت اسلامی کی بنیاد پڑی ۔۱۹۴۱ء سے ۱۹۴۷ء کے دوران جماعت اسلامی نے اپنے لٹریچر ،ریلیوں ،کنونشز کے ذریعے اپنا پیغام پورے برصغیر میں پھیلایا ۔اس کے بعد ۱۹۶۰ء میں خواتین کاشعبہ الگ سے قائم کیاگیا ۔مولانا مودودیؒ کی سب سے اہم ترین علمی خدمت اردوزبان میں لکھی جانی والی تفسیر" تفہیم القرآن" ہے۔ یہ تفسیر ۱۹۷۲ء میں مکمل ہوئی۔یہ تفسیر چھ جلدوں پرمشتمل ہے ۔
Firstly, I would like to welcome all the readers, authors, editorial team and management of Pakistan Biomedical Journal (PBMJ) to this new journal in Biomedical Sciences. It is an intenational peer-reviewed, open-access journal that merges the basic and clinical research for the better outcome in terms of diagnosis and therapeutics. This approach will update and upgrade the existing knowledge among the researchers and clinicians, regarding the patient care and practice as well as understanding of underlying mechanisms of diseases. The ultimate beneficiary is patient and community as a whole. PBMJ is led by an outstanding Editorial Board comprising of national and international members with multidisciplinary research background. Our goal is to promote the basic and clinical research, health and disease perspectives. We receive original studies, review articles, case reports, systemetic reviews on medical, biomedical, basic and therapeutic research. We welcome scientific contributions from all over the world. It is the need and demand of the recent world scenario to focus on biomedical research. In the current world, basic and medical science cannot be considered as two separate and independent entities. There should be coherent efforts to unveil the basic understandings of pathologies at physiological, cellular and molecular level. Furthermore, the therapeutic strategies should also be explored on regional and global levels, by keeping in mind the different genetic makeups and considering the individual identities. It leads to the field of ‘personalized medicine’. There are many other recent therapeutic regimens such as regenerative medicine, exosomes, gene silencing and gene editing technologies. The world has also advanced in diagnostic modalities. Much focus has been emphasized on rapidness, accuracy and cost-effectiveness of these techniques. Imaging, scanning, histopathological, biochemical and hematological techniques have been much advanced than before. World has been changing rapidly in medical profession. Hence, it is important to be aware of these advancements worldwide and also to share the health related researches at local level. We hope this new journal will be a good addition in this perspective of sharing the recent knowledge, advancements and create awareness among masses.
Sitophilus granarius (L.), Rhyzopertha dominica (F.) and Oryzaephilus surinamensis (L.) are the damaging insect pests of cereals and their commodities and are able to cause significant losses. Current research was performed to evaluate the lethal and progeny inhibition effect of microbial-based insecticides i.e entomopathogenic fungi (EPF) Metarhizium anisopliae and Beauveria bassiana as well as bacterial based insecticides (spinetoram and abamectin) solitary andwith combination of two formulations of diatomaceous-earth (DE) against S. granarius, O. surinamensis and R. dominica. Three concentrations (1x108, 1.5x108 and 2x108 spores/kg grain) of each EPF were used while for bacterial based insecticides concentrations were 0.5, 1.0 and 1.5ppm. Similarly, for diatomaceous earth, three different doses (200, 400 and 800 ppm) of every formulation were applied. Completely Randomized Design (CRD) was used with three repetitions of all treatments. Mortality of test insects was recorded after 7, 14 and 21 days while after 60 days for post-treatment progeny build up. Each bioassay was performed at three levels of temperature (25°, 30° and 35°C) and relative humidity (r.h.; 45, 60 and 75%). Collected statistics were examined with applicable statistical methods using R-Software.The data analyses had shown diversified results regarding test insect susceptibility at different abiotic conditions. In case of Bacterial based insecticides, the response of treatment remained best at high temperature and low r.h. for all test insects. Complete control was achieved after 14 days for S. granarius and R. dominica while for O. surinamensis 100% mortality was not attained even after 21-d of exposure period. Progeny production was remained totally suppressed for S. granarius and R. dominica while in case of O. surinamensis there was significant reproduction at some abiotic conditions with maximum production at temperature of 30°C with 75% r.h. The response of-D.E against test insects was also effective and the most vulnerable species was O. surinamensis followed by S. granarius and R. dominica. It was observed that high temperature, low r.h. levels, higher dosages and long exposure periods increased the efficacy of DEs. Regarding progeny production, low temperature and high humidity remained most favourable for progeny emergence in DE-treated grains. The effects of EPF remained somewhat similar to the response of DE but overall mortality was low. Among tested species of insects R. dominica remained most susceptible to the application of EPF followed by O. surinamensis and S. granarius. The best abiotic condition for B. bassiana was low temperature (25°C) and moderate (60%) humidity while for M. anisopliae moderate temperature (30°C) and moderate (60%) humidity remained suitable at which maximum response was attained. Long exposure intervals and higher dose rates increased the mortality in each case. In the case of progeny development, the emergence of offspring was suppressed at moderate and low temperature for M. anisopliae and B. bassiana respectively with moderate r.h. When DE was applied in combination with the microbial insecticides, a synergistic effect was noticed in all combinations and R. dominica and S. granarius remained more susceptible as compared to O. surinamensis. The response of abiotic condition was significant for combination of DE and EPF while for DE and bacterial based insecticide it was non-significant. The results of the study divulge that all applied microbial based insecticides and DE are very effective for the control of these test insects and different abiotic conditions are responsible for affecting their efficacy. Furthermore, the combinations of these microbial insecticides with DE have a synergistic response against test insects. This study also recommends that attention should be paid to the interaction of abiotic factors with the efficacy of DE and microbial insecticides before planning IPM strategy for stored grain insect pests.