Central University of Kerala

About: Central University of Kerala is a education organization based out in Kāsaragod, India. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Catalysis. The organization has 556 authors who have published 881 publications receiving 7474 citations.

Return of the Lemnaceae: duckweed as a model plant system in the genomics and postgenomics era.

Abstract: The aquatic Lemnaceae family, commonly called duckweed, comprises some of the smallest and fastest growing angiosperms known on Earth. Their tiny size, rapid growth by clonal propagation, and facile uptake of labeled compounds from the media were attractive features that made them a well-known model for plant biology from 1950 to 1990. Interest in duckweed has steadily regained momentum over the past decade, driven in part by the growing need to identify alternative plants from traditional agricultural crops that can help tackle urgent societal challenges, such as climate change and rapid population expansion. Propelled by rapid advances in genomic technologies, recent studies with duckweed again highlight the potential of these small plants to enable discoveries in diverse fields from ecology to chronobiology. Building on established community resources, duckweed is reemerging as a platform to study plant processes at the systems level and to translate knowledge gained for field deployment to address some of society's pressing needs. This review details the anatomy, development, physiology, and molecular characteristics of the Lemnaceae to introduce them to the broader plant research community. We highlight recent research enabled by Lemnaceae to demonstrate how these plants can be used for quantitative studies of complex processes and for revealing potentially novel strategies in plant defense and genome maintenance.

Electrochemical oxidation of paracetamol in water by graphite anode: Effect of pH, electrolyte concentration and current density

Abstract: Paracetamol is one of the micropollutant in water and most frequently used drugs as moderate pain reliever. These micropollutants are serious threat to human and environment. In the present investigation, we made attempt to degrade the electrochemical oxidation of paracetamol in water by graphite as anode. Electrooxidation behavior of paracetamol at graphite anode was tested by cyclic voltammetry technique performed in the potential range of -1.0 to +1.0 V versus Ag/AgCl. The optimized conditions were obtained by varying different factors, such as electrolyte concentration (0.02-0.1 M), current density (3.1–7.1 mA/cm2), initial pH (4–8) and paracetamol concentration (20 mg L−1). The results showed that the maximum removal of paracetamol concentration, chemical oxygen demand (COD) and total organic carbon (TOC) reached >90%, >82% and >65% after 240 min electrolysis at an initial pH 4, having paracetamol concentration of 20 mg L−1 at a constant current density of 5.1 mA/cm2 with 0.1 M Na2SO4 supporting electrolyte. Different SO42- concentrations in water promoted the electro generation of strong mediator oxidant species, such as OH, SO4 - and S2O82- increasing the removal efficiency of paracetamol. The degradation of paracetamol and its mineralization trend were monitored by UV–vis spectrophotometric method and total organic carbon (TOC) analyzer, respectively. FT-IR spectra confirmed that the functional group changes after electrolysis of paracetamol. HPLC studies revealed the byproduct (hydroquinone, benzoquinone and carboxylic acid) formation during the electrolysis process. On the other hand, researchers are actively involved in ozonation, photocatalysis, activated charcoal and biological treatments etc., to remove/degrade micropollutant, which are major drawbacks for the implications.

Comparative Analysis of Fruit Metabolites and Pungency Candidate Genes Expression between Bhut Jolokia and Other Capsicum Species.

Abstract: Bhut jolokia, commonly known as Ghost chili, a native Capsicum species found in North East India was recorded as the naturally occurring hottest chili in the world by the Guinness Book of World Records in 2006. Although few studies have reported variation in pungency content of this particular species, no study till date has reported detailed expression analysis of candidate genes involved in capsaicinoids (pungency) biosynthesis pathway and other fruit metabolites. Therefore, the present study was designed to evaluate the diversity of fruit morphology, fruiting habit, capsaicinoids and other metabolite contents in 136 different genotypes mainly collected from North East India. Significant intra and inter-specific variations for fruit morphological traits, fruiting habits and 65 fruit metabolites were observed in the collected Capsicum germplasm belonging to three Capsicum species i.e., Capsicum chinense (Bhut jolokia, 63 accessions), C. frutescens (17 accessions) and C. annuum (56 accessions). The pungency level, measured in Scoville Heat Unit (SHU) and antioxidant activity measured by 2, 2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) free radical scavenging assay showed maximum levels in C. chinense accessions followed by C. frutescens accessions, while C. annuum accessions showed the lowest value for both the traits. The number of different fruit metabolites detected did not vary significantly among the different species but the metabolite such as benzoic acid hydroxyl esters identified in large percentage in majority of C. annuum genotypes was totally absent in the C. chinense genotypes and sparingly present in few genotypes of C. frutescens. Significant correlations were observed between fruit metabolites capsaicin, dihydrocapsaicin, hexadecanoic acid, cyclopentane, α-tocopherol and antioxidant activity. Furthermore, comparative expression analysis (through qRT-PCR) of candidate genes involved in capsaicinoid biosynthesis pathway revealed many fold higher expression of majority of the genes in C. chinense compared to C. frutescens and C. annuum suggesting that the possible reason for extremely high pungency might be due to the higher level of candidate gene(s) expression although nucleotide variation in pungency related genes may also be involved in imparting variations in level of pungency.