The emerging potential of siRNA nanotherapeutics in treatment of arthritis

RNA interference(RNAi)using small interfering RNA(siRNA)has shown potential as a therapeutic option for the treatment of arthritis by silencing specific genes.However,siRNA delivery faces several challenges,including stability,targeting,off-target effects,endosomal escape,immune response activation,intravascular degradation,and renal clearance.A variety of nanotherapeutics like lipidic nanoparticles,liposomes,polymeric nanoparticles,and solid lipid nanoparticles have been developed to improve siRNA cellular uptake,protect it from degradation,and enhance its therapeutic efficacy.Researchers are also investigating chemical modifications and bioconjugation to reduce its immunogenicity.This review discusses the potential of siRNA nanotherapeutics as a therapeutic option for various immune-mediated diseases,including rheumatoid arthritis,osteoarthritis,etc.siRNA nanotherapeutics have shown an upsurge of interest and the future looks promising for such interdisciplinary approach-based modalities that combine the principles of molecular biology,nanotechnology,and formulation sciences.

Identification and mapping of Rpi-blb4 in diploid wild potato species Solanum bulbocastanum

More than 170 years after causing the potato famine in Ireland,late blight is still considered one of the most devastating crop diseases.Commercial potato breeding efforts depend on natural sources of resistance to protect crops from the rapidly evolving late blight pathogen,Phytophthora infestans.We have identified and mapped a novel broad-spectrum disease resistance gene effective against P.infestans from the wild,diploid potato species Solanum bulbocastanum.Diagnostic resistance gene enrichment sequencing(dRenSeq)was used to confirm the uniqueness of the identified resistance.RenSeq and GenSeq-based mapping of the resistance,referred to as Rpi-blb4,alongside recombinant screening,positioned the locus responsible for the resistance to potato chromosome 5.The interval spans approximately 2.3 Mb and corresponds to the DM reference genome positions of 11.25 and 13.56 Mb.

SMRT-AgRenSeq-d in potato (Solanum tuberosum) as a method to identify candidates for the nematode resistance Gpa5

Potato is the thirdmost important food crop in theworld.Diverse pathogens threaten sustainable crop production but can be controlled,in many cases,through the deployment of disease resistance genes belonging to the family of nucleotide-binding,leucine-rich-repeat(NLR)genes.To identify effective disease resistance genes in established varieties,we have successfully established SMRT-AgRenSeq in tetraploid potatoes and have further enhanced the methodology by including dRenSeq in an approach that we term SMR-AgRenSeq-d.The inclusion of dRenSeq enables the filtering of candidates after the association analysis by establishing a presence/absence matrix across resistant and susceptible varieties that is translated into an F1 score.Using a SMRT-RenSeq-based sequence representation of the NLRome from the cultivar Innovator,SMRT-AgRenSeq-d analyses reliably identified the late blight resistance benchmark genes Rpi-R1,Rpi-R2-like,Rpi-R3a,and Rpi-R3b in a panel of 117 varieties with variable phenotype penetrations.All benchmark genes were identified with an F1 score of 1,which indicates absolute linkage in the panel.This method also identified nine strong candidates for Gpa5 that controls the potato cyst nematode(PCN)species Globodera pallida(pathotypes Pa2/3).Assuming that NLRs are involved in controlling many types of resistances,SMRT-AgRenSeq-d can readily be applied to diverse crops and pathogen systems.

Genetically modified crops and climate change linkages: An Indian perspective

Genetically Modified Crops (GMCs) and Climate Change (CC) are the two most contentious ecological issues the world faces today. Application of transgenics in agriculture is most debated because of its direct and indirect implications. The advertized benefits in the backdrop of the potentially harmful effects on health and environment make this an issue of greater concern. On the other hand, Climate Change is a problem of enormous scale and its after-effects even more grave. The impact of climate change on agriculture, though well researched, is still very uncertain. Further, the introduction and global embrace of a technology with unverified credentials may prove to be an ill-conceived and ill-timed act. The future of GMC technology in India will be both challenging as well as exciting. Therefore any decision on this front should be taken with scientific rigor and logic. Our aim is to explore this complex inter-relationship and provide impetus for further research.

Conservation tillage impacts on soil,crop and the environment

There is an urgent need to match food production with increasing world population through identification of sustainable land management strategies.However,the struggle to achieve food security should be carried out keeping in mind the soil where the crops are grown and the environment in which the living things survive.Conservation agriculture(CA),practising agriculture in such a way so as to cause minimum damage to the environment,is being advocated at a large scale world-wide.Conservation tillage,the most important aspect of CA,is thought to take care of the soil health,plant growth and the environment.This paper aims to review the work done on conservation tillage in different agro-ecological regions so as to understand its impact from the perspectives of the soil,the crop and the environment.Research reports have identified several benefits of conservation tillage over conventional tillage(CT)with respect to soil physical,chemical and biological properties as well as crop yields.Not less than 25%of the greenhouse gas effluxes to the atmosphere are attributed to agriculture.Processes of climate change mitigation and adaptation found zero tillage(ZT)to be the most environmental friendly among different tillage techniques.Therefore,conservation tillage involving ZT and minimum tillage which has potential to break the surface compact zone in soil with reduced soil disturbance offers to lead to a better soil environment and crop yield with minimal impact on the environment.&2015 International Research and Training Center on Erosion and Sedimentation and China Water and Power Press.Production and Hosting by Elsevier B.V.This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Pulse Slippage of Resonant Third Harmonic Generation in Electron-Hole Plasma

Effect of pulse slippage on resonant third harmonic generation of a short pulse laser in electron-hole plasma in the presence of wiggler magnetic field has been investigated. The group velocity mismatch of the third harmonic pulse and the fundamental pulse is significant in electron hole plasma. As the third harmonic pulse has higher group velocity than that of fundamental pulse, therefore, it moves faster than the fundamental pulse. It gets slipped out of the domain of fundamental pulse and its amplitude saturates. Phase matching condition is satisfied by applying wiggler magnetic field,which provides additional angular momentum to the third harmonic photon to make the process resonant. Enhancement in the efficiency of third harmonic generation of an intense short pulse laser in electron-hole plasma embedded with a magnetic wiggler is seen.

An Efficient Scrambled Estimator of Population Mean of Quantitative Sensitive Variable Using General Linear Transformation of Non-sensitive Auxiliary Variable

In the present paper,we propose an efficient scrambled estimator of population mean of quantitative sensitive study variable,using general linear transformation of nonsensitive auxiliary variable.Efficiency comparisons with the existing estimators have been carried out both theoretically and numerically.It has been found that our optimal scrambled estimator is always more efficient than most of the existing scrambled estimators and also it is more efficient than few other scrambled estimators under some conditions.