a b s t r a c tThe present work is definitely an approach towards attaining price competency of bio-diesel to petroleum diesel. The oils extracted from abundantly available waste of Zahidi, Basra and Khazravi date seeds were used to produce biodiesel using acid (HCl), base (KOH), immobilized enzyme (lipase), immobilized enzyme/acid (lipase/HCl) and immobilized enzyme/base (lipase/KOH) catalyzed processes. Mixed catalysis (immobilized enzyme þ acid or immobilized enzyme þ base) resulted in better yields in comparison to acid or base catalysis. The properties of biodiesel were evaluated by fuel standard tests and the results were compared with EN14214 and ASTM D6751 standards. Biodiesel produced from date seed oil was found to have a high cetane number (55e60.3), low iodine value (44e50) and good flash point (135e140 C). Pour point of pure biodiesel produced from Khazravi and Zahidi was found to range from 2 to À2 C. Biodiesel produced from Basra exhibited good pour point (À4.7 to À8.3 C) in comparison to other varieties. The components present in biodiesel produced from various date varieties were determined by gas chromatographic-mass spectrometric analyses (GCMS). The fatty acid (%) detected in date seed biodiesel were oleic acid (33.4e47.4), lauric acid (19e28), palmitic acid (13.6e19.2), myristic acid (13.6e17.44) and linoleic acid (6.4e8.5). A special feature of date seed oil biodiesel was the presence of considerable amounts of low chain fatty acids.
Good quality deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is the pre-requisite for its downstream applications. The presence of high concentrations of polysaccharides, polyphenols, proteins, and other secondary metabolites in mango leaves poses problem in getting good quality DNA fit for polymerase chain reaction (PCR) applications. The problem is exacerbated when DNA is extracted from mature mango leaves. A reliable and modified protocol based on the cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) method for DNA extraction from mature mango leaves is described here. High concentrations of inert salt were used to remove polysaccharides; Polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) and β-mercaptoethanol were employed to manage phenolic compounds. Extended chloroform-isoamyl alcohol treatment followed by RNase treatment yielded 950-1050 µg of good quality DNA, free of protein and RNA. The problems of DNA degradation, contamination, and low yield due to irreversible binding of phenolic compounds and coprecipitation of polysaccharides with DNA were avoided by this method. The DNA isolated by the modified method showed good PCR amplification using simple sequence repeat (SSR) primers. This modified protocol can also be used to extract DNA from other woody plants having similar problems.
The genetic basis of salinity tolerance of maize was examined using the triple test cross (TTC) method. The TTC progenies were evaluated for seedling root growth in saline solutions with NaCl concentrations of 0 (control) and 80 mM. Analysis of root length data of the progenies suggested that epistatic effects were important for salinity tolerance at the seedling stage. Additive × additive effects were more important for both absolute and relative root length under NaCl stress. Additive × treatment interaction was not significant, whereas epistasis × treatment interactions were significant. Non-additive effects predominantly controlled tolerance at the seedling stage, and dominance appeared to be ambidirectional for salinity tolerance.
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