In normal state of a cell, endogenous antioxidant enzyme system maintains the level of reactive oxygen species generated by mitochondrial respiratory chain.
Tea polyphenols are secondary metabolites of tea plants and are well known for beneficial health effects. They can protect from a variety of illnesses including cancers. Tea polyphenols can prevent cancer by modulating epigenetic aberrations taking place in DNA methylation, histone modifications, and micro-RNAs. By altering these epimutations, they regulate chromatin dynamics and expression of genes those induce or suppress cancer formation. However, majority of the studies in existing literature are carried out for green tea polyphenols rather than black tea polyphenols despite the fact that black tea is the most commonly consumed form of tea (78%) followed by green tea (20%) and other forms of tea. Research findings indicate that tea polyphenols may be potential source from which drugs with less side effects and affordable price can be developed.
An attempt to transfer genes from droughttolerant Diplotaxis harra, a wild relative of Brassica species, to an elite oil-yielding cultivar, B-85, of mustard (Brassica juncea) was made through protoplast fusion, as the two plant systems are sexually incompatible. By following the standard protocol for PEG-mediated protoplast fusion followed by high pH, high Ca(++), DMSO treatment and appropriate cell-culture technique, 16 presumptive somatic hybrid plants could be regenerated. Chromosomal analysis of four such somatic hybrids revealed that three of them were asymmetric. Analysis of morphological characters, meiotic chromosomes, and esterase isoenzyme pattern revealed that all the somatic hybrids were different from each other. Furthermore four chromosomes of each genome could undergo homoeologous pairing at meiosis indicating the possibilities for genetic recombination and chromosomal rearrangements. Irregular distribution of chromosomes at anaphase-II at meiosis has been a consistent feature of these plants. Eventually, pollen of all the somatic hybrids showed complete infertility preventing the recovery of any selfed seed. Nevertheless, ovule fertility of one somatic hybrid was not totally impaired as it had set some seeds upon backcrossing with the B. juncea parent. The esterase isoenzyme banding pattern of 24 individual progeny plants of this backcross provided evidence for their recombinant nature. It was thus confirmed that a transfer of genetic traits from Diplotaxis harra to B. juncea had indeed taken place. Furthermore, it was conceptualised that a transfer of alien genes through the protoplast-fusion technique is primarily possible in situations where meiotic pairing of the chromosomes of the two participating genomes generates recombinant gametocytes which can pass through subsequent filial generations.
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