No abstract

COVID-19 is highly contagious and is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2. It spreads by means of respiratory droplets and close contact with infected persons. With the progression of disease, numerous complications develop, particularly among persons with chronic illnesses. Pathological investigations indicate that it affects multiple organs and can induce acute respiratory distress syndrome. Prevention is vital and self-isolation is the best means of containing this virus. Good community health practices like maintaining sufficient distance from other people, wearing protective face masks and regular hand washing should be adopted. Convalescent plasma transfusion and the administration of the antiviral Remdesivir have been found to be effective. Vaccines offer lifesaving protecting against COVID-19 which has killed millions and our best bet for staying safe. Screening, suppression/containment as well as mitigation are the strategies implemented for controlling COVID-19 pandemic. Vaccination is essential to end the COVID-19 pandemic and everyone should have an access to them. The current COVID-19 pandemic brought the global economy to a standstill and has exacted an enormous human and financial toll.

The effect of cadmium (Cd) was studied on root tips of Pisum sativum L. Seeds of P. sativum were treated with a series of concentrations ranging from 0.125, 0.250, 0.500 and 1.000 mM for 6 h. The effect of Cd was analyzed by studying the percentage seed germination, radicle length (RL), mitotic index (MI) and chromosomal aberrations (CAs) in root tip. The results revealed that Cd had significant impeding effect on the root meristem activity of P. sativum at 0.500 and 1.000 mM as noticed by reduction in seed germination percentage and RL compared to control. Furthermore, it also reduced MI in doserelated manner compared to control. Additionally, the variation in the percentage of mitotic abnormalities was observed. The overall percentage of aberrations generally increased with increasing concentrations of Cd. Among these abnormalities laggards, bridges, stickiness, precocious separation and fragments were most common. The obtained results demonstrated that the Cd treatment leads to a significant reduction in MI and increase in CAs.Overall results allow us to suggest that the Cd has clastogenic effect on the crop.

In recent years industrialization is growing rapidly due to which the pollution load in water, air and soil is increasing day by day. Heavy metal pollution of the soil has raised concern in recent years due to its possible impact not only on human health but also on the plant system. To understand the consequences on plant systems, in the present study we cultivated the Cicer plant in soil polluted with heavy metals (Cd, Pb, Cr and Zn) collected from the Jhansi City of Uttar Pradesh, India with a geographical area of 502.75 thousand hectares. Seeds of Cicer were germinated in polluted soil sites such as T1 (Garden Soil, Control); T2 (Bharat Heavy Electrical Limited (BHEL)-Industrial); T3 (BHEL-Agricultural); T4 (Bijouli-Industrial); T5 (BijouliAgricultural). The effect of soil polluted with the heavy metals was analyzed by studying the percentage of seed germination, radicle length (RL), mitotic index (MI) and chromosomal aberrations (CAs) in root tip meristems. The results revealed that polluted soil with heavy metals T2 (BHELIndustrial site) and T4 (Bijouli-Industrial site) had a significant impeding effect on the root meristem activity in Cicer as noticed by the reduction in seed germination percentage and RL compared to the control. Additionally, the variation in the percentage of mitotic abnormalities was observed. In general, increased percentage of chromosomal aberrations was observed in root tip cells of seedlings grown in polluted soil. Among these abnormalities laggards, bridges, stickiness, precocious separation and fragments were the most common. The obtained results demonstrated that heavy metal polluted soils led to a significant MI reduction and CA increase in root tip meristems of Cicer. ª 2015 The Author. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of King Saud University. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

In this study, we investigated the pattern of short-term temporal variation in the arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi and physico-chemical edaphic properties of some wheat growing areas of the Bundelkhand region, Central India. Rhizospheric soil samples were collected every month from December 2007 to May 2008 from four wheat growing sites around Jhansi (Bundelkhand region). AM fungal root colonization, sporulation and physico-chemical edaphic properties during this period were determined and compared to evaluate the dynamics of response of wheat towards the AMF along crop maturation. Maximum AMF root colonization recorded was 54.3% indicating that AMF, particularly in low phosphorus (P) soils, can be important even in case of less responsive crop like wheat. In the two out of four sites studied, the AMF spore density increased with the increase in soil temperature. Absence of this type of pattern in remaining two sites indicated that site-specific environmental and agricultural conditions may affect the degree of wheat response to AMF. It also suggested that AMF communities inhabiting agroecosystems may exhibit considerable temporal sporulation patterns. The maximum AMF colonization was observed during February-March 2008, whereas maximum AMF sporulation was noticed during March-April 2008. Statistically significant negative correlation of AMF spore density with pH, organic carbon (OC) and available P was observed in the one of the sites studied. Overall assessment of the data indicated that season and location significantly affected the interaction of AM fungi with winter wheat necessitating the further need to understand the ecology of AMF populations with reference to specific host species under different micro-climatic conditions of Bundelkhand region.