A study was carried out to find out the effects of calcium carbonate, potassium iodide and zinc sulphate in lead induced toxicities in rat with the observation of toxic signs, postmortem changes and determination of lead quantity in different organs of the body. Twenty-five long Evans rats weighing between 202-305g were randomly divided into five groups keeping group A as untreated control. Rest four groups (B, C, D & E) were treated with lead acetate @ 20mg/kg body weight in addition, rats of groups C, D & E were given Calcium carbonate (50mg/kg body weight), potassium iodide (20mg/kg bwt) and zinc sulphate (10mg/kg bwt.) respectively. Treatments were continued for 42 consecutive days. Rats of group B showed reduction in fecal consumption, anxiety, indigestion, fatigue, muscle tremor, paralysis and ruffled hair coat. However, rats of group C were apparently normal but rats of group D and E showed mild toxic signs of similar nature. On postmortem examination, severe congestion and blackish discoloration with enlargement of the liver, kidney, spleen and inflammation of the gastric mucosa were observed in rats of group B. However, these changes were less severe in other groups. The significant reduction of lead in blood, liver, kidney and brain was observed in rats of group C, D and E in comparison to group B. In addition, significant reduction of lead content was observed in femur of group C only. The present findings revealed that during lead exposure administration of calcium carbonate may be effective in modifying and preventing lead deposition in tissues followed by zinc sulphate and potassium iodide in rat.

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Soil salinity is a major constraint to soybean production. Five soybean genotypes were grown in pots with hydroponic culture under control and different salt stressed conditions to observe salt tolerance capacity on the basis of phenotypic screening and measure genetic diversity and relatedness among the genotypes. Minimum effects of salinity on root and shoot length was observed in Binasoyben-3, GC840 and Binasoyben-5at different salt stresses. Root dry weight and shoot dry weight of different soybean genotypes under different salt stresses were depicted. The highest reduction in root weight was noted in Binasoybean-1. The same genotypes were used to assess genetic diversity among them with simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers. A total of 33 alleles were detected among 5 soybean genotypes by using 10SSR markers. The number of alleles per locus ranged from 2 to 5, with an average of 3.33 alleles across the 10 loci. Rare alleles were observed at 10 SSR loci with an average of 2.8 alleles per locus. In this experiment, two SSR loci were found to be null alleles. The average values of null allele were 0.2. PIC values ranged from 0.27 in Satt184 to 0.77 in Satt339 with the average value of 0.56.The major allele frequency of the most common allele at each locus ranged from 0.80 in Satt184 to 0.20 in Satt339with a mean frequency of 0.48. The size of the different major alleles at different loci ranged from 173 bp for Satt509 to 407 bp for Satt339. The highest gene diversity (0.80) was observed in loci Satt339 and the lowest gene diversity (0.32) was observed in loci Satt184 with the mean diversity of 0.61. The lowest genetic distance (0.60) was observed in Asset vs Binasoybean-3 and Binasoybean-5 vs Binasoybean-3. The highest genetic distance (1.0) was observed between a numbers of genotype pairs with GC840 vs Asset. The UPGMA cluster analysis led to the grouping of the 5 genotypes into two major clusters. GC840, an advanced line identified to be salt tolerant, together with Binasoybean-5 and Binasoybean-3 clustered in the same sub group. The results from morphological and molecular study suggested that GC840 and Binasoybean-3 are moderately tolerant to salt stress. Progressive Agriculture 30 (1): 1-9, 2019

Aims: Bacillus licheniformis MZK-05 is a keratinolytic bacterium having potential in dehairing of leather and feather hydrolysis. The present study aimed at to improving the production level of keratinase through gene cloning and expression of recombinant keratinase. Methodology and results: Bacillus licheniformis MZK-05 produced an amplicon of 1,156 bp in a polymerase chain reaction while targeting the gene, kerA, responsible for the enzyme keratinase. The amplicon was subsequently cloned into the plasmid vector pGEX-6p-2 for expression in Escherichia coli BL21. A 58 kD GST-KerA fusion protein was expressed upon IPTG induction which was eventually cleaved by PreScission protease that produced a 39 kD protein.A corresponding increase in proteolytic (312 U/mL) and keratinolytic (196 U/mL) activity were observed with the expressed keratinase. Specific enzyme activities for protease and keratinase, an indication of efficiency of the enzyme, were 2621.84 U/mg and 1647 U/mg, respectively and the specific keratinase activity was the highest activity ever reported by any recombinant bacterial strain. Conclusion, significance and impact study: Since the production of keratinase by wild type strain is limited to a certain level, the industrial need could be met by improving the production level through gene cloning and expression of recombinant keratinase. In this connection, the cloning of kerA gene from B. licheniformis MZK-05 into pGEX-6p-2 vector, its expression in Escherichia coli BL21 host and prediction of 3-D model of the expressed protein were performed which will be the basis for industrial production of keratinase in Bangladesh.

Objectives: To assess the iron status of women using oral contraceptive pill (OCP) and compare this status with that of women of non-OCP users. Methods: This prospective cross-sectional comparative study was done in Dhaka Medical College from January 2006 to December 2006. Total 61 apparently healthy women of low socioeconomic class, age ranged 20-40 years were selected from different areas of Dhaka city. Of them 41 women were OCP users (Study group) and 20 women were non-OCP users (for comparison). OCP users again subdivided into subgroups according to duration of OCP use. Serum ferritin and haemoglobin level were taken as parameters of iron status in both groups. Statistical analysis was done by the SPSS 12.0 programme. Results: The mean (±SD) of serum ferritin level were 59.45±24.79ng/ml and 77.36±35.16 ng/ml in non-OCP & OCP users respectively. The difference of mean (±SD) of serum ferritin levels were significant (p:<0.05) between two groups. The mean (±SD) of haemoglobin levels were 11.54±0.76gm/dl and 12.04±0.79gm/dl in non-OCP user and OCP users respectively. The difference of mean (±SD) were significant (p:<0.05) between two groups. Levels of serum ferritin & haemoglobin were 19ng/ml and 10.95gm/dl respectively in women using OCP for 1 year. But their levels became 144 ng/ml and 13.95gm/dl respectively in women using OCP for 12 years. Conclusion: This study suggests that OCP use raises serum ferritin and haemoglobin levels and thus has beneficial effects on iron status of the body. http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/bjpp.v26i1-2.19963 Bangladesh J Physiol Pharmacol 2010; 26(1&2) : 25-29

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Explants of nodal and root segments of bitter gourd were cultured on MS supplemented with various concentrations of BAP in combination with either 2,4-D or NAA. Nodal segments produced the highest percentage (93.75) of callus in MS supplemented with 1.0 mg/l 2,4-D and 1.0 mg/l BAP whereas, root segments produced the highest (85.00%) callus in 0.6 mg/l NAA and 2.5 mg/l BAP combination. A combination of 1.0 mg/l 2,4-D and 1.0 mg/l BAP exhibited 75.00% shoot regeneration from nodal segments. The highest shoot length (5.15 cm) was recorded with 2.5 mg/l BAP and 0.2 mg/l IAA from nodal segments. No sign of regeneration of shoot was found from root segments in any of the combinations. However, some combinations produced only roots.

A polymerase chain reaction (PCR) based approach, namely random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) analysis was applied to l0 varieties of onion (Allium cepa) in order to assess the degree of polymorphism within the genes and to investigate if this approach was suitable for genetic studies of onion. For this study, ten cultivars of onion were evaluated for variability using a set of 15 random l0-mer primers. The polymorphisms in PCR amplification products were subjected to the unweighed pair group method for arithmetic averages (UPGMA) and plotted in a phenogram. The dendogram constructed from the similarity data showed that all the cultivars analyzed were related. Among them, 12 of the primers revealed scorable (168 bands) polymorphisms between cultivars of A. cepa and the rest did not show polymorphism in their genetic level. In this study, it was found that Bermis and India-2 were more dissimilar and on the other hand, Faridpuri and Bhati were the most similar in their genetic level. Keywords: RAPD; onion; genetic diversity; polymorphism. DOI: 10.3329/bjar.v35i2.5894Bangladesh J. Agril. Res. 35(2) : 313-322, June 2010