Absract Archive   August 2008 Research article Enterobacteriaceae Group Of Organisms In Sewage-Fed Fishes Abstract The skin, gut and muscle of the fish varieties “rohu”, (Labeo rohita) and the fringe-lipped carp, (L.fimbriatus)grown in (I) freshwater,(ii) sewagefed water and (iii) ’reclamied’ water were examined for the Enterobacteriaceae group of organisms. Salmonella sp. did not occur in any of the fishes tested. Shigella flexneri was isolated from the fishes reared in sewage fed to freshwater ponds. However, in’ reclamied’ fishes, S.flexneri was present in the gut and skin and not in the muscle tested after 3 weeks of transfer from sewage-fed to freshwater ponds. The steamed, fried and fish curry preparations examined revealed the complete absence of any of the bacteria including the pathogens. The bacteriological quality of the ambient water samples from different sources indicated higher incidence of (i) Total bacteria (ii) Coliform group and (iii) faecal streptococci in the sewage-fed pond. Introduction The utilization of human and animal waste to fertilize water for improving the growth of aquatic life has been well documented. In Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, the sewage from the residential colony and the Hostel is lead to an oxidation pond and subsequently diluted in fish culture ponds. Experiments conducted by incorporating a seven species combination (Indian major carps, rohu, mrigal, comman crap; the Chinese carps, silver and grass carps and milk fish) have proved very successful yielding up to 8.5 tones of fish/hectare/year. The present study on the screening of pathogens is conducted on the fish and water samples from this culture unit. There is a much scope for expansion of sewage-fed fish culture in various places like municipalities, townships, hostel etc. where there is an organized sewage disposal system. However, one should approach this problem with appropriate precautions to prevent the diseases that might otherwise be transmitted through such fishes cultured in sewage –fed ponds. Hence attempt is made in this study to screen the sewage-fed fishes for the Enterobateriaceae group of organism including the pathogens. Author:P.Rajasekaran. Research article Induction Of Somatic Embryogenesis From Mature Embryo Explants Of Peanut (Arachis hypogea L.) Abstract Mature zygotic embryo axes were inoculated on MS basal medium or medium containing various concentrations of 2, 4-D ranging from 10.8 µM/l 2, 4-D to 108.6 µM/l 2, 4-D along with 0.5 µM/l NAA and various concentrations of 2, 4-D alone. Mature zygotic embryos showed a delayed response when only 2, 4-D was used. The response of somatic embryogenesis from mature embryo axes was highest (63.3%) on medium with 81.4 µM/l 2, 4-D and 0.5 µM/l NAA with induction of 9.5 somatic embryos/explant at the end of culture. Anatomical studies of somatic embryos induced from mature zygotic embryo axes on medium with 45.2 µM/l 2, 4-D and 0.5 µM/l  NAA were carried out and the sections of the somatic embryos showed the presence of normal and fused somatic embryos with multiple meristematic regions. Somatic embryos formed on mature zygotic embryo axes also showed divergent morphological types such as monocotyledonary, dicotyledonary, tubular, and fasciated fused types. Nodular outgrowths were obtained at higher concentration of 2, 4-D (108.6 µM/l 2, 4-D + 0.5 µM/l NAA) and the explants turned brown at the end of culture. Callus proliferated from the base in 80% of the explants in presence of 18.1-36.2 µM/l 2, 4-D and 0. 5 µM/l NAA. Induction of somatic embryogenesis from mature zygotic embryo axes or seedling derived explants would overcome many of the problems encountered in using immature zygotic embryo axes as explants. Key words: Mature Zygotic embryos, Somatic embryogenesis, Abbreviations: 2, 4-D - 2, 4 Dichlorophenoxyacetic acid, NAA – ά - Naphthalene acetic acid Introduction Peanut or groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.) is one of the world’s most important oilseed and protein rich crop. The oldest indications of groundnut cultivation are from pre-Columbian Peruvian societies of 2000-3000 B.C., well to northwest of native Bolivia. Current commercial peanut cultivars are allotetroploids, apparently derived from a single hybridization event between diploid parents, Arachis duranensis and Arachis ipaensis (Kochert, 1996).  Conventional methods of plant improvement have met with limited success in development of disease resistant cultivars due to the narrow genetic variability present in the groundnut germplasm.  The development of suitable protocols for plant regeneration is one of the prerequisites for genetic improvement of plants using biotechnological methods (Rey et al., 2000).  Comparatively with respect to plant genetic transformation, plants regenerated through somatic embryogenesis may be more useful than plants obtained through organogenesis because, in most cases, somatic embryos are of single cell origin and chimeric plants are less likely to develop (Rey et al., 2000).  Author :A. Roja Rani. Research article Cyanide Detoxification and Recovery of Gold from Gold Effluent Abstract Growing global concern on environmental health is forcing all the processing to adopt greener and cleaner manufacturing practices. Cyanide is one of the most potential toxic chemicals, which has a tremendous application in various fields and is also the main source of contamination of water basins with heavy metals. About 20% of cyanide is used in the gold mining industries. Mine wastes have heavy metals, acids which causes acute, chronic illness not only to human being but also to other organisms. The traditional treatment method followed for cyanide destruction was non profitable with more toxic by products such as liquid chlorine. Microbes have the ability to bind metals. Hence, to save the environment from pollution and find a method, which is rapid, efficient, inexpensive with low level of technology the biodegradation process of Pseudomonas fluorescens is to be carried out. The green algae Chlorella vulgaris bind noble metals like gold, silver, platinum regardless of the pH conditions with the use of microbes, not only the heavy metal is destructed but also recovery of noble metals can be achieved which is the main aim of our work. The strong bond link between metals and microorganisms helps in destruction and recovery of metals. Keywords: Cyanide destruction, Pseudomonas fluorescens, gold recovery, Chlorella vulgaris.          Introduction Biodegradation is the earth’s natural process of converting organic matter into environmentally safe by products such as water, carbon dioxide and ammonia. This process is accomplished through naturally occurring microorganism such as bacteria, algae, fungi, etc. These organic compounds such as heavy metals disturb the ecology .The toxicity of the effluent quality go up due to incomplete decomposition of the organic matter. There are few microbes, which are able to work in highly toxic conditions, total dissolved solid levels (TDS), which are very high, and in some cases they are also able to withstand high temperature. A combination of sophisticated engineering and biotechnology can achieve preferential degradation of specific compounds especially cyanide by adding selected organisms, usually bacteria or algae. Such strains improve the tolerance of toxic load. Mining industry and in particular the gold mining industry, has been using cyanide as the chemical choice in the production processes for many decades. Cyanide complexes are more stable and effective, and do not require additional aggressive chemicals to effect gold recovery. Gold mining operations use very dilute solutions of sodium cyanide, typically in the range of 0.01% and 0.05% cyanide (100 to 500 parts per million). Gold recovery accounts for approximately 18% of total world cyanide production loads. Authors:KIRUTHIKA .J, Shrinithya. Short Communication Versatile Antiangiogenic Steroid -Withaferin A Cancer Cell is a structural and functional unit of all living organism. Our body is made up of billion to trillions of cells which carry out different functions like digestion breathing, thinking, sensation and so on. All these functions can be carried out only by healthy cells, any abnormalities in the cells leads to alteration in the functioning, which as no useful function in the body. These abnormal cells are known as cancer cells. The term used to refer this condition is known as cancer or tumour. In simple term cancer can be defined as mass of undifferentiated, proliferative cells with abnormal function in our body; cancer cells invade other cells and cause metastasis.  The development of new blood vessels is an important process in progression or metastasis of tumour cells; the process of development of blood vessels from pre-existing vessels by physiological process is called as Angiogenesis. Angiogenesis It is a normal process in growth, development and wound healing. It is an important step in conversion of normal state to malignant state which refers to tumor. Angiogenesis process can be stimulated either by mechanical or chemical stimulation. Proteins and growth factors act as chemical stimulator for angiogenesis they are FGF, VEGF, Angiopoietins, MMP, and DII4.Angiogenesis plays a vital role in transition of normal harmless cells to cancer cells and spread of cancer cells from the origin to other places. Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and fibroblast growth factor (FGF) plays a significant role in the formation of blood vessel to facilitate tumor growth, which allows the vessel to enlarge which is termed as sprouting angiogenesis.   Authors:K.Pavithra ,B.Priyadharshini. Short Communication A Novel Target for Leprosy Caused by Mycobacterium leprae Abstract Leprosy, an infection caused by Mycobacterium leprae, primarily affects superficial tissues. The infection results in “Leprosy Reactions” characterized by irreversible nerve damage and disabilities. The present study is aimed at predicting the 3-dimensional structure of Acyl-CoA Synthetase protein in M.leprae, which play a pivotal role in fatty acid metabolism and to find the active site of the protein, which is used as a strategy in drug design. The drug is designed by analogue-based drug design using Dapsone, a widely used drug in leprosy, which creates many side effects during leprosy treatment. The study was done by using different Bioinformatics tools. The study revealed that Acyl-CoA Synthetase protein in M.leprae play an important role in fatty acid metabolism whose 3–dimensional structure has not yet been solved. By confirming the structure of the modeled protein experimentally and knowing its active site helps in designing of effective Anti-Myobacterial drugs. The ligand, (the analogue of Dapsone) thus designed has docked well in the active site region of the protein. The result indicates that the designed drug could have better action than the existing Anti-Myobacterial drug for Leprosy and could have lesser side effects. Keywords Leprosy, Acyl-CoA Synthetase, homology modeling, drug design. Introduction Sasaki et al. (2001) stated that Leprosy, or Hansen's disease, is a chronic infectious disease caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium leprae. WHO (1995) suggests that Leprosy is primarily a granulomatous disease of the peripheral nerves and mucosa of the upper respiratory tract; skin lesions are the primary external symptom. Reich (1987) found that left untreated, leprosy can be progressive, causing permanent damage to the skin, nerves, limbs, and eyes. The clinical symptoms of leprosy vary but primarily affect the skin, nerves, and mucous membranes. Rees et al. (1970) found that until the development of dapsone, rifampin, and clofazimine in the 1940s, there was no effective cure for leprosy. The search for more effective anti-leprosy drugs to dapsone led to the use of clofazimine and rifampicin in the 1960s and 1970s. Later, Shantaram Yawalkar et al (1982) formulated a combined therapy using rifampicin and dapsone, intended to mitigate bacterial resistance. WHO (1994) stated that Multidrug therapy (MDT) and combining all three drugs was first recommended by a WHO Expert Committee in 1981. Author :Suhanya Ramamoorthi. Short Communication Occurrence And Distribution VA-Mycorrhizal Fungi in the soils polluted with Tannery Effluent. Abstract The rhizosphere soils and ten dominant grass species polluted with tannery effluents were tested for the occurrence and distribution of vesicular  - arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and determined the impact of the physico – chemical factors in relation to the quantitative and qualitative assessment of VAM fungi in soils polluted with tannery effluent over non – polluted soil. 15 species of VAM belonging to five genera viz., Glomus, Sclerocystis, Acaulospora, Gigaspora and Scutellospora were recorded and identified. Glomus aggrigatum was noticed as the moist dominant effluent tolerant strain of VAM fungi in soils polluted with effluents. In the non – polluted soils, all the plant species were colonized with VAM fungi. Whereas in polluted soils, eight grass species only were colonized and the percentage of root colonization was less. Key words: Tannery effluent, VA – mycorrhizae, Glomus aggrigatum.     Introduction Most of the industries dump their liquid waste in streams and river producing changes in physicochemical and biological conditions of water and soil. Major industrial pollution sources in the country are mills of textaile, leather, dyes, chemicals and number of other industries, in addition to municipal and domestic waste effluents. Leather industry in one of the foreign exchange – earner in India. There are 2,161 tanneries in India, which process 500,000 tonnes of hide and skins annually. Total annual discharge of waste water is 9,420,000m3 (Jogdand, 1995) and is disposed into river and on land. In order to find out the potential use of the tannery effluent, an experiment was conducted at the Trichy light letter private limited, Sempattu, Thiruchirappalli  of Thiruchirappalli district. Materials and Methods Effluent coming out of the Trichy Light lether Private Limited, Sempattu Trichy passes through an irrigated water channel. Ten grass species belonging to two families of angiosperms were selected based on their relative abundance in each study site. Plants were surveyed for colonization by VAM fungi at 3 sites polluted with tannery effluent and non-polluted soils of Sempattu of Trichy . At each site an area of 3m2 was chosen for sampling. Both the study sites, the root samples and rhizosphere soils were collected. The soil samples were examined from VAM spore numbers after wet sieving and decantation (Gerdemann and Nicolson, 1963). The root samples were cleared with 10% KOH and stained with trypan blue in lactophenol (Phillips and Hayman, 1970). Percentage of root colonization was calculated (Krishna and Dart, 1984). Altogether, fifteen species of VAM fungi were isolated and brought into pot culture studies with plants of Allium cepa L. After the plants were 90 days old, the spores and sporocarps were then reisolated for identification (Schenck and Perez, 1988). Standard methods of soil physico­chemical analyses were examined (Jackson, 1973). Author :V.Mahesh. Tools & Techniques                                             Filtration Technique In Vaccine Manufacturing Abstract The Pharmaceutical products must conform to well defined quality standards. Vaccines play a vital role in humanity, vaccines safeguard the children from life threatening diseases and in vaccine production and filtration is one of the most imperative steps. The various filtrations like microfiltration, ultrafiltration, membrane chromatography, crossflow filtration are important play an important role during the production of immunobiologicals. All the filtration techniques in same principle and they are differentiated from their principle only. The techniques of filtration are same for bacterial and viral vaccines. In the complex of manufacturing environment of vaccines for fulfilling all necessary processing requirements under validation control and good manufacturing practices. Key words Vaccine, Microfiltration, Crossflow filtration and hollow fiber. Introduction Vaccines play the vital role for humanity as their use safeguard the children from life threatening diseases like tuberculosis, polio, whooping cough, tetanus, encephalopathy, yellow fever, measles etc. The national governments are responsible for immunization and they are adhering with WHO immunization project, and their guidance. The UNICEF plays an important role in this regard. The Pharmaceutical products must conform to well defined quality standards. The production of infusion and injectable solutions, or those which come in contact with open wounds, are regulated by such standards. Quality results can only be achieved by effectively safe guarding an entire process against contamination. Membrane technology is critically reviewed in international pharmacopeias, with a concentration on sterilizing grade filters. In the vaccine production the process namely filtration is an important manufacturing process and this article deals with various filtration technologies. Author:S. Jagan Nathan.