No abstract

Prevalence of different species of Penicillium and their concentrations per cubic meter of air were evaluated with the use of Hi-Air sampler system Mark II (Hi-Media Laboratories Ltd., India) in the air of homes (bed-rooms) at four different sites in Nagpur. At each of these sites, air sampling was done fortnightly in triplicate for 2 years duration from June 2000 to May 2002. The sampling was also done in triplicate for the outdoor air in the vicinity of each home on the same day immediately after the indoor sampling was over. The mean concentration of Penicillium colony forming units at four different sites in the indoor air was 32, 46.9, 35 and 35.4 CFU/m 3 , respectively, whereas in the outdoor air at these same four sites, the mean concentration was 24, 28, 25 and 25.8 CFU/m 3 respectively. The Penicillium concentration in the indoor air was found to be higher in winter than in other seasons (ANOVA, p < 0.05). Concentration of Penicillium spp. in intramural environment was always higher than that in extramural environment. Statistically significant difference existed between intramural and extramural environments at all the sites, with maximum difference at a site, which is old crowded area of the city. During the 2-year's investigations, 11 species of Penicillium were isolated from the indoor air while nine species were isolated from the air outside the homes. The dominant species of Penicillium in indoor as well as outdoor air were P. citrinum (33.78 and 32.81%), P. oxalicum (19.70 and 22.60%), and P. chrysogenum (17.64 and 14.50%). The percentage of the Penicillium in the indoor air was 10.70 while it was 8.36 in outdoor air. Indoor air showed the presence of P. glaber and P. sclerotiorum, which were absent in the outdoor air.

No abstract

Oryza sativa L. (Rice) belongs to family poaceae is annual grass. The pollen grains of this plant are short lived. In the course of plant breeding, pollen serves as a powerful means in establishing genetic bases that lead to new cultivars, as also to improve the existing one. The experimental results reveal that the pollen grains of some varieties could be well presented for a period of 20 days at high relative humidity (RH) and low temperature (3oC). The germinabilit of pollen was observed to be good upto 6th day of storage and during the remaining days there appears to be slow decline in the geminiability of stored pollen grains.