First observation-based study on surface O3 trend in Indo-Gangetic Plain: Assessment of its impact on crop yield

Tropospheric ozone (O₃) is an important air pollutant which causes substantial losses in crop production. Increasing O₃ levels in India particularly in Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP) is a major issue as it is reducing the crop yield. The present study is an attempt to determine the O₃ and its precursor trend using continuous ground-based observations at a suburban site in IGP. The study focuses on the overall characteristics of annual, monthly, diurnal and hourly measurements of O₃. Annual mean values of O₃ have shown an increment of 19.2% from 2010 to 2015. Similarly, nitrogen oxide (NO_x) levels increased by 30.2%. O₃ levels at the study site showed a significant increasing trend of 0.7 ppb/yr. The observed O₃ trend was analyzed in terms of changes in NO_x levels and meteorological parameters. No significant difference in meteorological parameters was observed during 2010-15, however, NO_x levels have shown an increasing trend of 0.9 ppb/yr. Further to quantify the impact of increasing O₃ on crops, ozone-related crop yield losses for rice and wheat crop were determined for the period 2010-15. AOT40 (accumulated ozone exposure over a threshold of 40 ppb) and M7 (mean 7-h O₃ mixing ratio from 09:00 to 15:59 LT) O₃ exposure metrics were used to calculate the reduction in crop yield during major crop growing seasons: Rabi and Kharif.

Phylogenetic analysis and positive-selection site detecting of vascular endothelial growth factor family in vertebrates

Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), known to play an important role in vascular homeostasis, vascular integrity and angiogenesis, is little known about the evolutionary relationship of its five members especially the role of gene duplication and natural selection in the evolution of the VEGF family. In this study, seventy-five full-length cDNA sequences from 33 vertebrate species were extracted from the NCBI's GenBank, UniProt protein database and the Ensembl database. By phylogenetic analyses, we investigated the origin, conservation, and evolution of the VEGFs. Five VEGF family members in vertebrates might be formed by gene duplication. The inferred evolutionary transitions that separate members which belong to different gene clusters correlated with changes in functional properties. Selection analysis and protein structure analysis were combined to explain the relationship of the site-specific evolution in the vertebrate VEGF family. Eleven positive selection sites, one transmembrane region and the active sites were detected in this process.

Blast cell deficiency of CD11a as a marker of acute megakaryoblastic leukemia and transient myeloproliferative disease in children with and without Down syndrome

BACKGROUND

The classification of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) FAB subtype M7 relies on immunophenotypic assessment. CD41 is expressed throughout all stages of maturation of megakaryocytes and has therefore been described as a specific blast cell marker in AML M7 as well as in transient myeloproliferative disease (TMD) of patients with Down syndrome (DS). However, technical difficulties underlie the need for new markers for these entities.

METHODS

We evaluated the expression of human lymphocyte function-associated antigen 1 (CD11a) in a large cohort of pediatric AML and TMD patients (n = 91) of the Austrian AML-BFM 98 and 2004 studies.

RESULTS

We found a consistent deficiency of CD11a as assessed by mean fluorescence intensity in all patients with non-DS AML M7 (n = 8) and M6 (n = 1), all cases of classical DS-AML (n = 12) as well as TMD (n = 15) that was statistically significant in comparison to non-DS AML M0-M5 patients (n = 55; P < 0.001, sensitivity 100%). Only three of 55 Non-DS M0-5 patients were CD11a deficient (specificity 95%). Monocytic leukemias (M4/5) and normal monocytes typically showed a high CD11a expression, FAB types M1/2 and normal neutrophils an intermediate expression level, while all M3 leukemias were rather low in CD11a expression.

CONCLUSIONS

We conclude, that deficiency of CD11a expression should be added to the diagnostic criteria of AML-M7, classical DS-AML and TMD.