Silene longisepala Nasir (Caryophyllaceae) is a plant endemic to Chitral District in mountainous north-west Pakistan. This taxon was previously known from only two localities. In field studies during 2005–2007, 24 new localities in lower Chitral were discovered. We found 608 mature individual plants in 22 localities in 2005, 520 mature individuals in 17 localities in 2006, and 531 mature individuals in 18 localities in 2007. Considering the population size in 2007, an extent of occurrence of 3,587 km2 and area of occupancy of 104 km2, we recommend that the species is categorized as Endangered on the IUCN Red List. The main threat to the species is habitat destruction from road construction, land conversion for agriculture and soil erosion following deforestation; we witnessed the direct effects of these pressures on S. longisepala during our fieldwork. In some localities, however, S. longisepala is fortuitously protected by the general inaccessibility of its habitat. There is no legal framework in Pakistan for the protection of rare and endemic plant taxa on private lands and therefore ex situ conservation may be required for narrow endemics such as S. longisepala. Our methodology in this study, in which we combined detailed field surveys with monitoring, could form a model for conservation research on rare and endemic plant taxa in Pakistan and elsewhere.

Endophytic bacteria have been utilized as an alternative source to chemical fertilizers and pesticides to enhance plant productivity and defense mechanisms against biotic and abiotic stress. Five endophytic bacterial strains were isolated from the seeds of three different Pakistani wheat varieties (Ghaneemat-e-IBGE, Atta-Habib, and Siren). The isolated strains AH-1, S-5, S-7, GI-1, and GI-6 showed phylogenetic similarity with Bacillus altitudinis, B. aryabhattai, B. wiedmannii, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Burkholderia gladioli, respectively. All strains showed catalase activity (except AH-1) and Indole-3-acetic acid production, with the highest concentration (16.77 μg·mL−1) found for GI-6, followed by S-5 (11.5 μg·mL−1), nitrogen assimilation (except S-7), phosphorus solubilization (except S-7 and AH-1), and ability to produce siderophores, with maximum productions for GI-6 (31 ± 3.5 psu) and GI-1 (30 ± 2.9 psu). All five analyzed strains possessed antimicrobial activity, which was particularly strong in GI-6 and S-5 against Klebsiella pneumonia, Escherichia coli, and Bacillus subtilis. Increasing salinity stress with NaCl negatively affected the bacterial growth of all isolates. However, strains GI-6 and S-5 showed salt tolerance after three days of incubation. A drought tolerance test resulted in a negative impact of poly ethylene glycol on bacterial growth, which was, however, less pronounced in GI-6 strain. The GI-6 strain revealed growth-promoting effects on inoculated wheat plants.

The Agrobacterium-mediated floral dip protocol is the most extensively used transformation method for a model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. Several useful methods for Agrobacterium tumefaciens–mediated transformations of Arabidopsis are existing, but they are time consuming and with low transformation efficiency. Here, we developed a transgenic Arabidopsis lines TET12p::TET12-RFP in a short period of time and enhanced transformation efficiency by using a modified transformation method by applying drought stress after floral dip. In this protocol, Agrobacterium cells carrying TET12p::TET12-RFP recombinant vectors were resuspended in a solution of 5% sucrose, 0.05% (v/v) silwet L-77 to transform female gametes of developing Arabidopsis inflorescences. Treated Arabidopsis were then applied with different levels of drought stresses to stimulate plants for the utilization of maximum plant energy in seed maturation process. The applied stresses achieved the fast maturation of already treated inflorescences while stopped the growing of newly arising untreated inflorescence, thus decreased the chances of wrong collection of untransformed seeds. Consequently, the collected seeds were mostly transgenic with a transformation frequency of at least 10%, thus the screening for positive transformants selection was more advantageous on a selective medium as compared to a classical floral dip method. Within 2-3 months, two hundred of individual transgenic plants were produced from just 10 infiltrated plants. This study concludes that application of drought stresses in a specific stage of plant is a beneficial strategy for achieving the transgenic Arabidopsis in a short period of time with high transformation efficiency.

The parathyroids from ten consecutive cases of chronic renal failure coming to operation in a period of seven years were studied by light and electron microscopy. The clinical and biochemical data as well as the levels of immunoreactive parathormone (iPTH) were reviewed. For the sake of comparison adenomata from two cases of primary hyperparathyroidism were studied. In the cases of chronic ;renal failure there were six cases of tertiary hyperparathyroidism with adenoma formation, surrounded by dense fibrous tissue and compression of adjacent parathyroid cell amidst a background of hyperplasia. Two cases showed secondary parathyroid hyperplasia and the remaining two cases were adenomata which clinically affected only one gland. Neither the biochemical data nor levels of iPTH allowed the cases with secondary hyperplasia to be separated from those with tertiary hyperparathyroidism. Similarly electron microscopy showed no distinct differences between these two groups of adenomata from cases of primary hyperparathyroidism. The diagnosis of tertiary hyperparathyroidism is made on a combination of clinical, biochemical and histological features, the histological features being most important. It is concluded that tertiary hyperparathyroidism is part of a histological spectrum in response to chronic renal failure and autonomous glands are related to the mass of parathyroid tissue present.

Mechanisms underlying human immunodeficiency virus-1 encephalopathy are not completely known; however, recent studies suggest that the viral protein gp41 may be neurotoxic via activation of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) in glial cells. In the present study, we investigated the NO-generating activity of primary human fetal astrocytes in response to gp41 and the relationship to microglial cell production of interleukin-1 (IL-1). Gp41 failed to trigger iNOS mRNA expression in highly enriched (>99%) astrocyte or microglial cell cultures. However, gp41-treated microglia released a factor(s) that triggered iNOS mRNA expression and NO production in astrocytes. Because IL-1 receptor antagonist protein blocked gp41-induced NO production, a pivotal role was suggested for microglial cell IL-1 production in astrocyte iNOS expression. Also, gp41 induced IL-1beta mRNA expression and IL-1 production in microglial cell but not astrocyte cultures. Using specific inhibitors, we found that gp41-induced IL-1beta production in microglia was mediated via a signaling pathway involving protein-tyrosine kinase. These data support the hypothesis that gp41 induces astrocyte NO production indirectly by triggering upregulation of microglial cell IL-1 expression.