Lignocellulosic biomasses (LCB), second-generation biofuels are used as an alternative means to cope with the burning issues of depleting fossil fuels like petroleum products with the added advantage of renewability, lower emission, and lesser pollution. For the increment in the production of LCB biofuels, microbial pre-treatment processes are conducted which accelerates the degradation of organic polymers like lignin and hemicellulose with the activity of potential microorganisms. To increase the efficiency of degradation of hemicellulose, hemicellulolytic fungi including Trichoderma and Aspergillus and other bacteria produce multi-enzymatic complexes like cellulosomes. Similarly, organisms like Tinea versicolor, Dichomitus squalens, Phlebia floridensis, Daedalea flavida, and Phlebia radiata contain lignin-degrading auxiliary enzymes and lignin modifying enzymes like laccase and heme-containing peroxidase which aid in delignification process. Several factors are associated with pre-treatment processes like the type of strain, inoculum load, pH, temperature, fatty acids, C/N ratio, time, aeration, grindability, surface area, particle size, and supplements added. To enhance the pretreatment method, the combination of microbial with physical, chemical, and mechanical methods is suggested which leads to a synergistic effect and better yield of the final product. Overall, biofuels should be more employed and this review aims to bring light to the microbial pre-treatment approaches which can aid in the efficient production of biofuels that can directly contribute to environmental sustainability.

The hematopoietic cells are multipotent primitive cells, which differentiate into either common myeloid and lymphoid progenitor. However, if there an abnormality in this process of differentiation, condition of leukemia arises, which is the 11th leading cause of cancer-related mortality worldwide in the year 2018. These abnormalities are brought about by array of mutations occurring at cellular level. According to the two-hit model hypothesis, key oncogenic events are classified into two classes: class I mutations and class II mutations. Class I  mutations are those that causes activation of the receptor tyrosine kinase (RTK), FLT3, c-kit (KIT), and Ras signaling pathways thereby increasing proliferation rate of progenitor cells. Class II mutations include recurrent chromosomal abnormalities such as t(8; 21), inv(16), and t(15; 17), which result in fusion transcripts of RUNX1/ETO, CBF/MYH11, and PML/RAR, respectively that eventually impair hematopoietic differentiation. The factors associated with leukemia can be biological, chemical or socio-economical. The advancement in the researches on the topic have aided to the development of various technologies such as detection of DNMT3A and xenografts assays, in order to detect these mutations in pre-leukemic cells. This review aims to provide an introduction to the condition, its types and provide brief summary on genes and mutations responsible for the condition. The factors associated with leukemia and technologies involved in the detection of leukemia are also reviewed.