Jute (Corchorus sp.) is one of the most important sources of natural fibre, covering ∼80% of global bast fibre production1. Only Corchorus olitorius and Corchorus capsularis are commercially cultivated, though there are more than 100 Corchorus species2 in the Malvaceae family. Here we describe high-quality draft genomes of these two species and their comparisons at the functional genomics level to support tailor-designed breeding. The assemblies cover 91.6% and 82.2% of the estimated genome sizes for C. olitorius and C. capsularis, respectively. In total, 37,031 C. olitorius and 30,096 C. capsularis genes are identified, and most of the genes are validated by cDNA and RNA-seq data. Analyses of clustered gene families and gene collinearity show that jute underwent shared whole-genome duplication ∼18.66 million years (Myr) ago prior to speciation. RNA expression analysis from isolated fibre cells reveals the key regulatory and structural genes involved in fibre formation. This work expands our understanding of the molecular basis of fibre formation laying the foundation for the genetic improvement of jute.

Diabetes mellitus is an endocrinological disorder arising from insulin deficiency or due to ineffectiveness of the insulin produced by the body. This results in high blood glucose and with time, to neurological, cardiovascular, retinal and renal complications. It is a debilitating disease and affects the population of every country of the world. Around 200 million people of the world suffer from this disease and this figure is projected to rise to 300 million in the coming years. The disease cannot be cured with allopathic medicine as the drugs used do not restore normal glucose homeostasis and moreover have side-effects. On the other hand, traditional medicinal practitioners of various countries claim to cure diabetes or at least alleviate the major symptoms and progression of this disease through administration of medicinal plants. The Garos are an indigenous community of Bangladesh, who still follow their traditional medicinal practices. Their traditional medicinal formulations contain a number of plants, which they claim to be active antidiabetic agents. Since observation of indigenous practices have led to discovery of many modern drugs, it was the objective of the present study to conduct a survey among the Marakh sect of the Garos residing in Mymensingh district of Bangladesh to find out the medicinal plants that they use for treatment of diabetes. It was found that the tribal practitioners of the Marakh sect of the Garos use twelve medicinal plants for treatment of diabetes. These plants were

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The nonlinear propagation of the dust-acoustic bright and dark envelope solitons in an opposite polarity dusty plasma system (composed of non-extensive q-distributed electrons, isothermal ions, and positively as well as negatively charged warm dust) have been theoretically investigated. The reductive perturbation method (which is valid for a small, but finite amplitude limit) is employed to derive the nonlinear Schrödinger equation. Two types of modes (namely, fast and slow dustacoustic (DA) modes) have been observed. The conditions for the modulational instability (MI) and its growth rate in the unstable regime of the DA waves are significantly modified by the effects of non-extensive electrons, dust mass, temperatures of different plasma species, etc. The implications of the obtained results from our current investigation in space (viz. Jupiters magnetosphere, upper mesosphere, and comets tails) and laboratory (e.g. direct current and radio-frequency discharges, plasma processing reactors, fusion plasma devices, and solid-fuel combustion products, etc.) dusty plasmas are briefly discussed. I. LEAD PARAGRAPHThe nonlinear propagation of the dust-acoustic bright and dark envelope solitons in an opposite polarity dusty plasma system (containing isothermal ions, non-extensive q-distributed electrons, and positively as well as negatively charged warm dust) has been studied to identify some new features (e.g. conditions for the modulational instabiliuty of the dust-acoustic waves (DAWs), growth rate, formation of the bright and dark envelope solitons, etc.) of the DAWs. These new features should be useful for understanding the nonlinear electrostatic disturbances in space and laboratory dusty plasmas.

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Abstract'Khoyer' is prepared by boiling the wood of Acacia catechu in water and then evaporating the resultant brew. The resultant hard material is powdered and chewed with betel leaves and lime with or without tobacco by a large number of the people of Bangladesh as an addictive psycho-stimulating and euphoria-inducing formulation. There are folk medicinal claims that khoyer helps in the relief of pain and is also useful to diabetic patients to maintain normal sugar levels. Thus far no scientific studies have evaluated the antihyperglycemic and antinociceptive effects of khoyer. The present study was carried out to evaluate the possible glucose tolerance efficacy of methanolic extracts of khoyer using glucose-induced hyperglycemic mice, and antinociceptive effects with acetic acid-induced gastric pain models in mice. In antihyperglycemic activity tests, the extract at different doses was administered one hour prior to glucose administration and blood glucose level was measured after two hours of glucose administration (p.o.) using glucose oxidase method. The statistical data indicated the significant oral hypoglycemic activity on glucose-loaded mice at all doses of the extracts tested. Maximum anti-hyperglycemic activity was shown at 400 mg extract per kg body weight, which was less than that of a standard drug, glibenclamide (10 mg/kg body weight). In antinociceptive activity tests, the extract also demonstrated a dose-dependent significant reduction in the number of writhing induced in mice through intraperitoneal administration of acetic acid. Maximum antinociceptive activity was observed at a dose of 400 mg extract per kg body weight, which was greater than that of a standard antinociceptive drug, aspirin, when administered at a dose of 400 mg per kg body weight. The results validate the folk medicinal use of the plant for reduction of blood sugar in diabetic patients, as well as the folk medicinal use for alleviation of pain.

In this work, we developed the concept of enzyme catalysis-electrophoresis titration (EC-ET) under ideal conditions, the theory of EC-ET for multiplex enzymatic assay (MEA), and a related method based on a moving reaction boundary (MRB) chip with a collateral channel and cell phone imaging. As a proof of principle, the model enzymes horseradish peroxidase (HRP), laccase and myeloperoxidase (MPO) were chosen for the tests of the EC-ET model. The experiments revealed that the EC-ET model could be achieved via coupling EC with ET within a MRB chip; particularly the MEA analyses of catalysis rate, maximum rate, activity, Km and Kcat could be conducted via a single run of the EC-ET chip, systemically demonstrating the validity of the EC-ET theory. Moreover, the developed method had these merits: (i) two orders of magnitude higher sensitivity than a fluorescence microplate reader, (ii) simplicity and low cost, and (iii) fairly rapid (30 min incubation, 20 s imaging) analysis, fair stability (<5.0% RSD) and accuracy, thus validating the EC-ET method. Finally, the developed EC-ET method was used for the clinical assay of MPO activity in blood samples; the values of MPO activity detected via the EC-ET chip were in agreement with those obtained by a traditional fluorescence microplate reader, indicating the applicability of the EC-ET method. The work opens a window for the development of enzymatic research, enzyme assay, immunoassay, and point-of-care testing as well as titration, one of the oldest methods of analysis, based on a simple chip.