The objective of the study is to reveal the seasonal variations in the river water and sediment quality with respect to heavy metal contamination. To get the extent of trace metals contamination, water and sediment samples were collected from five different sites along the course of Sabarmati River and its tributary Kharicut canal in pre-monsoon, monsoon and post-monsoon seasons. The concentration of trace metals such as chromium, copper, lead, nickel and zinc was determined using inductively coupled plasma spectroscopy. The concentrations of heavy metals were found to be higher in the pre-monsoon season than in the monsoon and post-monsoon seasons in water samples. The pollution load index, contamination factor and degree of contamination (C(d)) in sediments were calculated to know the extent of anthropogenic pressures. The values of C(d) clearly indicated very high degree of contamination at Kharicut canal (S-4: 32.25 and S-5: 54.52) and considerable degree of contamination at three sites of Sabarmati river viz; S-1, S-2 and S-3 with values 14.30, 14.42 and 17.21, respectively. Lead and nickel could not be traced in any of the river water samples.

Ethenyl indole exhibits antioxidant activity in a substituent dependent manner. Ethenyls bearing strong electron withdrawing substituents show weak or no antioxidant activities, whereas ethenyls with electron donating substituents exhibit antioxidant properties comparable to vitamin E.

Aim: To gain a greater understanding of the ecology and metabolic potential of the rumen microbiome with the changes in the animal diet. Methods: Diet composed of varying proportion of green and dry roughages along with grains was given to 8 Mehsani buffaloes, and rumen metagenome was sketched using shotgun semiconductor sequencing. Results: In the present study, the Bacteroidetes were found to be dominant at the phyla level and Prevotella at the genus level. The ratio of Firmicutes to Bacteroidetes was found to be higher in the solid fraction as compared to the liquid fraction. In the solid fraction of the dry roughage group, the significant increment (p < 0.05) in Bacteroidetes abundance was observed with increment of roughage concentration. At the genus level, Clostridium significantly increased with the increment in roughage concentration. A comparison of glycoside hydrolase and cellulosome functional genes revealed more glycoside hydrolase 3 encoding genes with higher fiber diet and significant difference in carbohydrate-active enzymes family composition between green and dry roughage groups of the liquid fraction. Conclusion: The present study provides a base to understand the modulating behavior of microbiota which can be manipulated to improve livestock nutrient utilization efficiency and for targeting the efficient catabolism of complex carbohydrate molecules as well.

Patel et al.: Seasonal and temporal variation in soil microbial biomass C, N and P in different types land uses of dry deciduous forest -377 - Abstract. The soil microbial biomass of soil is being increasing recognized as sensitive indicator of soil quality. Its knowledge is fundamental for sustainable environment management. The soil microbial biomass C, N and P were studied in four different land uses of dry tropical forest of Udaipur, Rajasthan, Western India to assess the influence of abiotic, physico-chemical variables and difference in different land uses (mixed forest, butea plantation, grassland and agricultural lands) on the seasonal variation in soil microbial biomass. Microbial biomass C, N and P were highest during rainy season and lowest during winter in all the four different land use with the exception of microbial N which was lowest in summer in mixed forest and butea plantation. Microbial biomass C and N were shown to be significantly correlated to the abiotic and physico-chemical variables of the soil, such as soil temperature, relative humidity, soil moisture, organic C, total N, clay, and pH. Present study clearly shows that land use has a significant effect on microbial biomass C, N and P in soil by altering natural soil characteristics under the same ecological conditions.

Microbes are ubiquitously distributed in nature, and recent culture-independent studies have highlighted the significance of gut microbiota in human health and disease. Fecal DNA is the primary source for the majority of human gut microbiome studies. However, further improvement is needed to obtain fecal metagenomic DNA with sufficient amount and good quality but low host genomic DNA contamination. In the current study, we demonstrate a quick, robust, unbiased, and cost-effective method for the isolation of high molecular weight (>23 kb) metagenomic DNA (260/280 ratio >1.8) with a good yield (55.8 ± 3.8 ng/mg of feces). We also confirm that there is very low human genomic DNA contamination (eubacterial: human genomic DNA marker genes = 227.9:1) in the human feces. The newly-developed method robustly performs for fresh as well as stored fecal samples as demonstrated by 16S rRNA gene sequencing using 454 FLX+. Moreover, 16S rRNA gene analysis indicated that compared to other DNA extraction methods tested, the fecal metagenomic DNA isolated with current methodology retains species richness and does not show microbial diversity biases, which is further confirmed by qPCR with a known quantity of spike-in genomes. Overall, our data highlight a protocol with a balance between quality, amount, user-friendliness, and cost effectiveness for its suitability toward usage for culture-independent analysis of the human gut microbiome, which provides a robust solution to overcome key issues associated with fecal metagenomic DNA isolation in human gut microbiome studies.