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In the present study, we tested the antioxidant activity of phycoerythrin (PE, an oligomeric light harvesting protein isolated from Lyngbya sp. A09DM) to curtail aging effects in Caenorhabditis elegans. Purified PE (100 μg/ml) dietary supplement was given to C. elegans and investigated for its anti-aging potential. PE treatment improved the mean life span of wild type (N2)-animals from 15±0.1 to 19.9±0.3 days. PE treatment also moderated the decline in aging-associated physiological functions like pharyngeal pumping and locomotion with increasing age of N2 worms. Moreover, PE treatment also enhanced the stress tolerance in 5-day-aged adults with increase in mean survival rate from 22.2±2.5 to 41.6±2.5 % under thermo stress and from 30.1±3.2 to 63.1±6.4 % under oxidative (hydrogen peroxide)-stress. PE treatment was also noted to moderate the heat-induced expression of human amyloid-beta(Aβ 1-42 ) peptide and associated paralysis in the muscle tissues of transgenic C. elegans CL4176 (Alzheimer's disease model). Effectiveness of PE in expanding the life span of mutant C. elegans, knockout for some up (daf-2 and age-1)-and down (daf-16)-stream regulators of insulin/IGF-1 signaling (IIS), shows the independency of PE effect from DAF-2-AGE-1-DAF-16 signaling pathway. Moreover, the inability of PE in expanding the life span of hsf-1 knockout C. elegans(sy441) suggests the dependency of PE effect on heat shock transcription factor (HSF-1) controlling AGE (2014) stress-induced gene expression. In conclusion, our results demonstrated a novel anti-aging activity of PE which conferred increased resistance to cellular stress resulting in improved life span and health span of C. elegans.

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The data on microclimate were collected between 2010 and 2011 in five forest communities (dry miscellaneous, sal mixed, lowland miscellaneous, teak and savannah) in a tropical moist deciduous forest in Katerniaghat Wildlife Sanctuary, Uttar Pradesh, India to compare how vegetation structure affects microclimate. Diurnal variations in microclimatic variables [photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) at forest understory level, air temperature, soil surface temperature, ambient CO 2 , air absolute humidity] were measured with LI-COR 840, LI-COR 191, LI-COR 190 SZ, LI-1400-101 and LI-1400-103 (LI-COR; Lincoln, NE, USA) at centre of three 0.5 ha plots in each forest community. The diurnal trend in microclimatic parameters showed wide variations among communities. PAR at forest floor ranged from 0.0024 to 1289.9 (lmol m -2 s -1 ) in post-monsoon season and 0.0012 to 1877.3 (lmol m -2 s -1 ) in mid-winter season. Among the five communities, the highest PAR value was observed in savannah and lowest in sal mixed forest. All the forest communities received maximum PAR at forest floor between 1000 and 1200 h. The ambient air temperature ranged from 19.15 to 26.69°C in post-monsoon season and 11.31 to 23.03°C in mid-winter season. Soil temperature ranged from 13.54 to 36.88°C in postmonsoon season and 6.39 to 29.17°C in mid-winter season. Ambient CO 2 ranged from 372.16 to 899.14 lmol mol -1 in post-monsoon season and 396.65 to 699.65 lmol mol -1 in mid-winter season. In savannah ecosystem, diurnal trend of ambient CO 2 was totally different from rest four communities. According to Canonical correspondence analysis, PAR and ambient CO 2 are most important in establishment of forest community, among microclimatic variables.

To investigate the potential of RNA interference (RNAi) as antiviral agent against rabies, two small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) targeting rabies virus (RABV) nucleoprotein (N) and polymerase (L) genes were designed and evaluated. Both siRNAs knockdown or silenced the target RABV genes as evaluated in a plasmid based transient expression model. For efficient delivery, adenoviruses expressing the siRNAs were constructed and antiviral potential of the delivered siRNAs was investigated in BHK-21 cells. When cells treated with adenoviruses expressing siRNAs were challenged with RABV, there was 88.35±2.4% and 41.52±9.3% reduction in RABV multiplication in infected cells with siRNAs targeting RABV-N and L genes, respectively. Relative quantification of RABV transcripts using real-time PCR revealed knockdown of both RABV-N and L gene transcripts, however, significant reduction was observed only with adenovirus expressing siRNA against RABV-N. When mice treated intracerebrally with adenoviruses expressing siRNAs were challenged peripherally with lethal RABV by the intramuscular route in masseter muscle, there was 66.6% and 33.3% protection with adenoviruses expressing siRNAs against RABV-N and L genes, respectively. These results demonstrated that adenovirus expressing siRNA against RABV-N efficiently inhibited the RABV multiplication both, in vitro and in vivo and conferred significant protection against lethal RABV challenge. This supported the hypothesis that RNAi, based on siRNA targeting RABV-N gene can prevent RABV infection and holds the potential of RNAi as an approach to prevent rabies infection.