BackgroundBiofortification of staple food crops with zinc (Zn) can be one of the cost-effective and sustainable strategies to combat zinc deficiency and prevent morbidity among the target population. Agronomic approaches such as application of Zn fertilizers to soil and/or foliar spray seem to be a practical tool for Zn biofortification of wheat. However, there is a need to evaluate its efficacy from randomized controlled trials. This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of zinc biofortified wheat flour on zinc status and its impact on morbidity among children aged 4–6 years and non-pregnant non lactating woman of child bearing age (WCBA) in Delhi, India.MethodsIn a community based, double-masked randomized controlled trial, 6005 participants (WCBA and child pairs) were enrolled and randomly allocated to receive either high zinc biofortified wheat flour (HZn, 30 ppm zinc daily) or low zinc biofortified wheat flour (LZn, 20 ppm zinc daily) for 6 months (WCBA @ 360 g/day and children @ 120 g/day). Baseline and endline blood samples were obtained for assessing hematological markers; zinc status and data on compliance and morbidity were collected.ResultsCompliance rates were high; ~ 88% of the WCBAs in both the groups consumed 50% or more of recommended amount of biofortfied wheat flour during the follow up. Similarly 86.9% children in HZn and 87.5% in LZn consumed 50% or more of recommended wheat flour intake. There was no significant difference in mean zinc levels between the groups at end study. This observation might be due to a marginal difference in zinc content (10 ppm) between the HZn and LZn wheat flour, and a short intervention period. However a positive impact of bio-fortification on self-reported morbidity was observed. Compared to children in LZn group, children in HZn group had 17% (95% CI: 6 to 31%, p = 0.05) and 40% (95% CI: 16 to 57%; p = 0.0019) reduction in days with pneumonia and vomiting respectively. WCBA in the HZn group also showed a statistically significant 9% fewer days with fever compared to LZn group.ConclusionsBiofortified wheat flour had a good compliance among children and WCBAs. Significant improvement on some of the self-reported morbidity indicators suggests that evaluating longer-term effects of biofortification with higher grain zinc content would be more appropriate.Trial registrationhttp://ctri.nic.in/Clinicaltrials/, CTRI/2014/04/004527, Registered April 7, 2014.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s12937-018-0391-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Null mutations were generated in the erg-3 gene of Neurospora crassa by repeat-induced point mutation (RIP). The mutants were viable, lacked ergosterol, were resistant to the steroidal glycoside a-tomatine and were sensitive to the phytoalexins pisatin and biochanin A. RIP was frequently associated with silencing of the hph gene located adjacent to the duplicated erg-3 sequence. The silencing of hph was reversible in the two cases examined and appeared to be due to the spread of cytosine methylation associated with RIP. The erg-3 mutant could be complemented by transformation with recombinant genes that encode proteins chimeric for amino acid sequences from the transmembrane (TM) domain of human lamin B receptor (LBR). This indicates that the LBR T M domain possesses A14n15-red~cta~e activity.

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The aim of this study is to assess the frequency of both physiological and pathological cutaneous lesions in first seven days of life in a tertiary care hospital of western Uttar Pradesh. Overall 500 neonates either inborn or attending paediatric OPD/ clinic and delivered in the hospital were included in the study. The study took 6 months, consent from parents of those neonates were taken. Clinical examination, dermatological examinations were carried out to check their eligibility to enter this study and to diagnose the skin lesions. Consultations to dermatologists were done in the beginning of the study, especially, in the doubtful cutaneous lesions. Skin lesions were present in 476 (95.2%) neonates. Of these 60 neonates (12%) have pathological lesions, 430(86%) had only physiological lesion, while 14 neonates (2.8%) had both physiological and pathological lesions. Of physiological lesions Epstein pearls were most common (78%) second most common lesion was Mongolian spots (65%), desquamation was seen in 52% cases, & milia (42%). Pathological lesions pustulosis was most common seen in 28% cases; second most common lesion was oral thrush (26%).

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