The continuous occurrence of adaptation of an organism to starvation and physical stress in natural ecosystems has forced the development of a very complex adaptational network in living organisms, specially prokaryotes. Insights into this network can be obtained by comparing the protein pattern in growing and starved or stressed cells by two-dimensional protein gel electrophoresis. The first paper, “Stress Adaptation of Bacteria: Profile of a Network” by M K Chattopadhyay, Niharika M V N V, Kavitha K, Priyanka S,Bhavya A, Neha Ghosh, Arpita Raj, Dipanwita Sengupta and M V Jagannadham establishes molecular links between the mechanisms involved in adaptation of extremophilic bacteria to different stressors. The stress phenomenon in bacteria is discussed with all known mechanisms and biotechnological aspects are also highlighted.

Half of the world’s population depends partially on rice. Almost 20% of total rice yield is lost because of different bacterial and fungal diseases. Plant breeders are now utilizing marker-assisted selection for identification of specific genes. The authors, A Chandrasekhara Reddy, V Praveen Kumar, S Prasanthi and R Chakravarthy in their paper, “Evaluation of Variable Factors to Study Pathogenicity in Oryza sps Using Molecular Markers”, have provided important information on molecular markers in effective identification of pathological symptoms expressed in different parts of the plant body, which, in turn, provides control measures by causing inactivation of disease-inducing characteristics.

The genetic markers have also been utilized for understanding the taxonomic relationship between different species. Ashok Kumar and Padmini Srivastava in their paper, “Genetic Analysis of Ten Genotypes of Pinus roxburghii Using RAPD Molecular Markers”, have analyzed the genetic variation and relationship between ten genotypes of Pinus roxburghii by utilizing the tools of molecular taxonomy.

Carolinerose J and Rashmi M in their paper, “A Study of Serum Liver Enzymes and Lipid Level in Patients Infected with Salmonella typhi”, have compared the serum liver enzymes and lipid levels in people infected with S. typhi with normal people, and found that cholesterol level and triglycerides increased in typhoid patients.

The antisense technology is emerging as a powerful tool in combating many diseases in human beings. One of the bottlenecks in using this technology is nonspecific binding of oligonucleotides. The fifth paper, “Disulphide Bond Containing Deoxyoligonucleotide, RNA/DNA Duplex Formation”, by Ajay Kumar, describes the synthesis of disulphide bond containing oligonucleotide and its binding with ribonucleic acid sequences.

Another important technique, i.e., Response Surface Methodology (RSM), which includes statistical and mathematical tools for developing, improving and optimizing processes, has been explained in the paper, “Response Surface Method as an Efficient Tool for Modeling and Optimizing Performance” by the authors, Yisa Yakubu and Angela Chukwu.

- - S K Verma
Consulting Editor