Background Pest control strategies almost entirely rely on chemical insecticides, which cause environmental problems such as biosphere deterioration and emergence of resistant pests. Bio-pesticide is an alternative approach, which uses organisms such as entomopathogenic fungi, Metarhizium anisopliae, to control pests. Screening such potential organism at a molecular level and understanding their gene regulation mechanism is an important approach to reduce emergence of pesticide resistance and worsening of the biosphere. Understanding promoter regions which play a pivotal role in gene regulation is crucial. In particular, identification of the promoter regions in M. anisopliae Strain ME1 remains poorly understood. To our knowledge, the mitogenome trn gene clusters of M. anisopliae Strain ME1 were not characterized. Here, we used machine learning approach to identify and characterize the promoter regions, regulatory elements, and CpG island densities of 15 protein coding genes of entomopathogenic fungi, M. anisolpliae Strain ME1. Results The current analysis revealed multiple transcription start sites (TSS) for all utilized sequences, except for promoter region genes of Pro-cob and Pro-nad5. With reference to the start codon (ATG), 85.3% of TSS was located above – 500 bp. Based on the standard predictive score at cut off value of 0.8a, the current study revealed 54.7% of predictive score greater than or equal from 0.9 promoter prediction score. Expectation maximization algorithm output identified five candidate motifs. Nonetheless, of all candidate motifs, MtrnI was revealed as the common promoter region motif with a value of 76.9% both in terms of size of binding sites and with an E value of 9.1E−054. Accordingly, we perceived that MtrnI serve as the binding site for tryptophan cluster with P value 0.0044 and C4 type zinc fingers functions as the binding site to regulate gene expression of M. anisopliae Strain ME1. The analysis revealed that mitogenome trn gene clusters of M. anisopliae Strain ME1 showed homologues evolutionary ancestor supported with a bootstrap value of 100%. Conclusion Identified common candidate motifs and binding transcription factors through in silico approach are likely expected to contribute for better understanding of gene expression and strain improvement of M. anisopliae Strain ME1 for its bio-pesticides role.

A study on the population structure of small mammals was carried out in Aridtsy Forest, Awi Zone from August 2011 to February 2012 incorporating both wet and dry seasons. Sherman live traps and snap traps in four randomly selected different trapping grids where distinct habitat types, namely, natural forest, bushland, grassland and farmland were employed. During this study a total of 468 individuals, including eight species of small mammals (live traps) and 89 individuals counting six species of small mammals (snap traps) were trapped in a total of 2352 and 1200 trap nights, respectively. From overall trap, seven species of small mammals were under family muridae and a single species was belonging to family Soricidae. There was also a variation in trap success among different habitat types, with the highest in the bushland. There was an affinity to caught more males comprised 59.7% and females 40.3% of the total capture. There was a statistically significant variation in the capture of adults between seasons, but no statistical variation for subadult and young age groups was recorded between seasons.

The population status and biomass of earthworms were studied in three different land use systems of pasture (Pa), silvopasture (SP), and mixed evergreen forest (MEF) from 2019–2020 in the Solan district of Himachal Pradesh, India. The aim of this study was to assess the population status of earthworms and investigate how different land use systems influence their abundance, diversity, and biomass. Earthworms and soil were sampled using the Tropical Soil Biology and Fertility (TSBF) method in all seasons (winter, spring, summer, monsoon, and autumn). The physicochemical properties of the soil were analyzed to evaluate their effects on the diversity, biomass, and density of animals. The diversity status parameters, such as the Shannon diversity index (H′), Margalef richness index (R), evenness (J′), and dominance index (D), were computed. A total of seven earthworm species, belonging to four families, namely, Amynthas corticis, Aporrectodea rosea, Drawida japonica, Eisenia fetida, Metaphire birmanica, Metaphire houlleti, and Lennogaster pusillus, were identified from all three land use systems. The lowest Shannon diversity index (H′), Margalef index (R), and evenness (J′) index values were registered in MEF (H′ = 0.661, R = 0.762, J′ = 0.369) compared to those in Pa (H′ = 1.25, R = 1.165, J′ = 0.696) and SP (H′ = 0.99, R = 0.883, J′ = 0.552), implying that MEF is the least diversified land system. In contrast, the highest dominance index (D) value was registered in MEF (Pa = 0.39, SP = 0.53, MEF = 0.67), which again showed that MEF is the least diversified land system. The highest values of abundance and biomass were recorded in MEF (754.15 individuals m−2 and 156.02 g m−2), followed by SP (306.13 individuals m−2 and 124.84 g m−2) and Pa (77.87 individuals m−2 and 31.82 g m−2). Both the density and biomass of earthworms increased from Pa to MEF (Pa < SP < MEF). This study is novel because it revealed that the diversity and productivity (biomass and abundance) values of earthworms were negatively correlated (as diversity increased, productivity decreased; as diversity decreased, productivity increased). The total values of abundance and biomass of earthworms in the three land use systems indicated perfect synchrony between aboveground and belowground habitats, whereas the diversity values revealed that MEF was dominated by one or two species and the least diversified. Therefore, for sustainable belowground productivity, aboveground conservation is recommended, and vice versa, regardless of diversity.

during both wet and dry seasons with the aim to study diversity and taxonomy of bird species found in the block. Seven Transect lines of all with length 100m and width 15m were positioned in different representative microhabitat sites of the block. Data collection was carried out from the early morning to late morning and afternoon to late afternoon throughout the study periods. In this study, a total of 99 avian species under 36 families were identified from the Block. The largest and the least number of species of birds were recorded in transect 2 (42.9%) and transect 3 (7.2%) respectively. The variation in species abundance of the transects was statistically significant (χ 2 = 80.44, df=6, p<0.05). The Shannon diversity index (H') ranges from 1.9-3.6 of seven transects considered in the study area. Accordingly, the minimum index value was from transect 1 (1.9) and the maximum was from transect 2 (3.6). However, based on the Shannon diversity index value, the species of avian diversity among the transects was not statistically significant (χ 2 = 0.98, df=6, p>0.05). Evenness index (E) for species of birds among transects ranged from 0.9-1.