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Candida albicans causes two types of major infections in humans: superficial infections, such as skin and mucosal infection, and life-threatening systemic infections, like airway and catheter-related blood stream infections. It is a polymorphic fungus with two distinct forms (yeast and hyphal) and the morphological plasticity is strongly associated with many disease causing proteins. In this study, 137 hyphae associated proteins from Candida albicans ( C. albicans) were collected from different sources to create a Protein-Protein Interaction (PPI) network. Out of these, we identified 18 hub proteins (Hog1, Hsp90, Cyr1, Cdc28, Pkc1, Cla4, Cdc42, Tpk1, Act1, Pbs2, Bem1, Tpk2, Ras1, Cdc24, Rim101, Cdc11, Cdc10 and Cln3) that were the most important ones in hyphae development. Ontology and functional enrichment analysis of these proteins could categorize these hyphae associated proteins into groups like signal transduction, kinase activity, biofilm formation, filamentous growth, MAPK signaling etc. Functional annotation analysis of these proteins showed that the protein kinase activity to be essential for hyphae formation in Candida . Additionally, most of the proteins from the network were predicted to be localized on cell surface or periphery, suggesting them as the main protagonists in inducing infections within the host. The complex hyphae formation phenomenon of C. albicans is an attractive target for exploitation to develop new antifungals and anti-virulence strategies to combat C. albicans infections. We further tried to characterize few of the most crucial proteins, especially the kinases by their sequence and structural prospects. Therefore, through this article an attempt to understand the hyphae forming protein network analysis has been made to unravel and elucidate the complex pathogenesis processes with the principal aim of systems biological research involving novel Bioinformatics strategies to combat fungal infections.

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The present investigation aims to explore the importance of some traditional black rice varieties with their nutraceutical properties. The beneficial properties of these varieties remain unknown to the majority of the population due to the inadequate data. Decorticated rice grains of four black rice varieties were evaluated and compared with two commonly consumed white rice varieties - Gobindabhog (traditional aromatic) and BPT 5204 (modern high yielding variety). The sugars and total lipid levels were similar in Gobindabhog and BPT 5204. The black rice varieties, however, had considerably greater protein, thiamin, riboflavin, pantothenic acid, pyridoxine, and antimicrobial activities compared to the two selected white rice varieties. The ICPMS analysis of black rice grains showed that the former also had higher levels of Mn, Fe, and Zn than the white rice varieties. However, BPT 5204 contained a greater amount of Cu than the black rice varieties. Total flavonoid and phenolic content, as well as antioxidant potentiality of black rice varieties were also considerably higher than those of the white rice varieties.