North Eastern Hill University

About: North Eastern Hill University is a education organization based out in Shillong, Meghalaya, India. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Catalysis. The organization has 2318 authors who have published 4476 publications receiving 48894 citations.

Ureogenesis in Indian air-breathing teleosts: adaptation to environmental constraints

Abstract: Most of the Indian air-breathing teleosts are primarily ammoniotelic, but appear to have retained the genes for the urea cycle enzymes, since a full complement of urea cycle enzymes have been reported for many of them. The ability to synthesize urea by these fish is probably due to their amphibious nature, and their normal habitat of swamps, where the water ammonia level may to be quite high, is uninhabitable to any typical freshwater teleosts. One of these air-breathing species, the singhi catfish ( Heteropneustes fossilis ), can tolerate very high ambient total ammonia concentrations (up to 75 mM ammonium chloride) for weeks without any deleterious effects. Transition from ammoniotelism to ureotelism occurs in some of these species of air-breathing fish when exposed to apparently stressful conditions such as higher ambient ammonia, to air, and also when they live in semidry condition inside mud during habitat drying. Although the real mechanism(s) of regulation of ureogenesis is not clear in these fish, given available data, it is hypothesized that the accumulation of ammonia within the body per se under the above stressful conditions is likely the internal modulator for enhanced ureogenesis mainly to avoid any build up of ammonia to a level that can be toxic to these fish. An active urea cycle is believed to predominate over uricolysis as a source of urea, even though both pathways are present in these air-breathing fish. The presence of significant levels of both carbamyl phosphate synthetase (CPS), CPS I-like and CPS III activities, reported in some air-breathing catfishes, may represent intermediate scenarios for a proposed evolutionary transition from CPS III to CPS I, or may play an important physiological adaptive role in the tolerance of these fish to high concentrations of ambient ammonia

Modelling Hotspots for Invasive Alien Plants in India.

Abstract: Identification of invasion hotspots that support multiple invasive alien species (IAS) is a pre-requisite for control and management of invasion. However, till recently it remained a methodological challenge to precisely determine such invasive hotspots. We identified the hotspots of alien species invasion in India through Ecological Niche Modelling (ENM) using species occurrence data from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF). The predicted area of invasion for selected species were classified into 4 categories based on number of model agreements for a region i.e. high, medium, low and very low. About 49% of the total geographical area of India was predicted to be prone to invasion at moderate to high levels of climatic suitability. The intersection of anthropogenic biomes and ecoregions with the regions of 'high' climatic suitability was classified as hotspot of alien plant invasion. Nineteen of 47 ecoregions of India, harboured such hotspots. Most ecologically sensitive regions of India, including the 'biodiversity hotspots' and coastal regions coincide with invasion hotspots, indicating their vulnerability to alien plant invasion. Besides demonstrating the usefulness of ENM and open source data for IAS management, the present study provides a knowledge base for guiding the formulation of an effective policy and management strategy for controlling the invasive alien species.

Karyotypic and electrophoretic studies on taro and its origin

Abstract: Karyotypes and electrophoretic pattern of 15 strains of taro were studied. Strains collected from the northeast India hill state, Meghalaya were diploids and triploids whereas those from the plains of south India were diploids and of north India was a triploid. The diploids had 2n=28 and triploids showed 2n=42 chromosomes. The wild taro had the most asymmetrical karyotype. The protein content varied from 4.2 to 11.4 mg/g dry wt. The maximum protein content was found in a triploid strain 8 (11.4 mg/g dry wt) and minimum in the wild taro (4.2 mg/g dry wt). The number of protein bands was 7 in the wild taro (diploid) and 12 in one of the cultivated triploid strain. Meghalaya strains showed great variation with respect to leaf size and tuber shape and size. All the strains have diverged at morphological, karyotypic and genotypic levels. It is suggested that taro might have originated in the north-eastern India.

Body mass index and morbidity in adult males of the War Khasi in Northeast India

Abstract: Objective: Data on the relationship between obesity, or high body mass index (BMI), and morbidity in adult individuals are frequently reported, but little is known about the relationship between morbidity and low BMI especially in developing countries. The present study was therefore an attempt to evaluate the relationship between BMI and morbidity in adult individuals. Design: The analyses were derived from the data based on self-reported morbidity and anthropometric measurements taken on adult males. The results were presented according to age and income groups for individuals of reporting and non-reporting illness. Subjects: The total sample size was 575 adult males (18–59 y) of the War Khasi population. Setting: Rural area of the state of Meghalaya in Northeast India. Results: The prevalence of chronic energy deficiency (CED) was found to be 35%, although the mean BMI (20.06±2.65 kg/m2) in individuals of non-reporting illness was higher than in those reported for many populations of Northeast India. The relationship between BMI and reported illness was not significant, although the morbidity curve tended to be U-shaped, and the prevalence of reported illness (32%) was highest in the individuals with BMI below 17.0 kg/m2. Moreover, the suggested cut-off 18.5 of BMI for screening the prevalence of CED did not correspond with the rise in morbidity, but both BMI and morbidity were significantly associated with age and income of the household. Conclusion: In view of the present analysis and other related literature, BMI is likely to be a better indicator of standards of living than a predictor of illness as the latter may also predispose individuals to the former. Thus, morbidity and low BMI may be considered parts of ill health, which are influenced by a number of biological and environmental factors especially age, economic conditions, undernutrition, safe water sanitation, community pathogens, prevention and control measures of locally endemic diseases and infections.