Wound healing effects of 50% ethanol extract of dried whole plant of Bacopa monniera (BME) was studied on wound models in rats. BME (25 mg/kg) was administered orally, once daily for 10 days (incision and dead space wound models) or for 21 days or more (excision wound model) in rats. BME was studied for its in vitro antimicrobial and in vivo wound breaking strength, WBS (incision model), rate of contraction, period of epithelization, histology of skin (excision model), granulation tissue free radicals (nitric oxide and lipid peroxidation), antioxidants (catalase, superoxide dismutase, and reduced glutathione), acute inflammatory marker (myeloperoxidase), connective tissue markers (hydroxyproline, hexosamine, and hexuronic acid), and deep connective tissue histology (dead space wound). BME showed antimicrobial activity against skin pathogens, enhanced WBS, rate of contraction, skin collagen tissue formation, and early epithelization period with low scar area indicating enhanced healing. Healing effect was further substantiated by decreased free radicals and myeloperoxidase and enhanced antioxidants and connective tissue markers with histological evidence of more collagen formation in skin and deeper connective tissues. BME decreased myeloperoxidase and free radical generated tissue damage, promoting antioxidant status, faster collagen deposition, other connective tissue constituent formation, and antibacterial activity.

The population dynamics and key mortality factors of the Oriental armyworm, Mythimna separata (Walker) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), a serious pest of cereal crops in Asia and Australia, were studied in southern India. Adults were generally caught in light traps 15-20 days after the initiation of the monsoon rains in the first week of June, and reached a peak in September, nearly one month after the peak in larval density. Rainfall, and maximum and minimum relative humidity were positively associated moth catches in the light traps, while maximum temperature, open pan evaporation, solar radiation, sunshine hours, and wind velocity showed a negative correlation with moth abundance. Stepwise regression analysis of moth catches with weather conditions over the previous 2 and 4 weeks explained 54-68% of the variation in the number of moths caught in the light traps. Five hymenopteran parasitoids [Costesia ruficrus (Haliday), Metopius rufus Cameron, Disophyrys sp., Compoletis chlorideae Uchida, Enicospilus sp.], and five dipteran parasitoids [Carcelia illota (Curran), Sturmiopsis inferens Townsend, Palexorista solennis (Walker), P. laxa (Curran), and Megasellia sp.], mermithid (Neoplectana sp.), and nuclear polyhedrosis virus (NPV) regulated its populations under natural conditions. Parasitism levels were much greater in sorghum (34.6%) than in pearl millet (17.6%). Cotesia ruficrus was the principle mortality factor, which caused up to 47% parasitism in October. Its activity was greater in sorghum (24.6%) than in pearl millet (14.9%). This parasitoid species could be exploited for the biological control of this pest.

BackgroundSoybean (Glycine max (L. Merr.)) resistance to any population of Heterodera glycines (I.), or Fusarium virguliforme (Akoi, O’Donnell, Homma & Lattanzi) required a functional allele at Rhg1/Rfs2. H. glycines, the soybean cyst nematode (SCN) was an ancient, endemic, pest of soybean whereas F. virguliforme causal agent of sudden death syndrome (SDS), was a recent, regional, pest. This study examined the role of a receptor like kinase (RLK) GmRLK18-1 (gene model Glyma_18_02680 at 1,071 kbp on chromosome 18 of the genome sequence) within the Rhg1/Rfs2 locus in causing resistance to SCN and SDS.ResultsA BAC (B73p06) encompassing the Rhg1/Rfs2 locus was sequenced from a resistant cultivar and compared to the sequences of two susceptible cultivars from which 800 SNPs were found. Sequence alignments inferred that the resistance allele was an introgressed region of about 59 kbp at the center of which the GmRLK18-1 was the most polymorphic gene and encoded protein. Analyses were made of plants that were either heterozygous at, or transgenic (and so hemizygous at a new location) with, the resistance allele of GmRLK18-1. Those plants infested with either H. glycines or F. virguliforme showed that the allele for resistance was dominant. In the absence of Rhg4 the GmRLK18-1 was sufficient to confer nearly complete resistance to both root and leaf symptoms of SDS caused by F. virguliforme and provided partial resistance to three different populations of nematodes (mature female cysts were reduced by 30–50%). In the presence of Rhg4 the plants with the transgene were nearly classed as fully resistant to SCN (females reduced to 11% of the susceptible control) as well as SDS. A reduction in the rate of early seedling root development was also shown to be caused by the resistance allele of the GmRLK18-1. Field trials of transgenic plants showed an increase in foliar susceptibility to insect herbivory.ConclusionsThe inference that soybean has adapted part of an existing pathogen recognition and defense cascade (H.glycines; SCN and insect herbivory) to a new pathogen (F. virguliforme; SDS) has broad implications for crop improvement. Stable resistance to many pathogens might be achieved by manipulation the genes encoding a small number of pathogen recognition proteins.