Background: Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the progressive brain disorder which degenerates brain cells connection and causes memory loss. Although AD is irreversible, it is not impossible to arrest or slow down the progression of the disease. However, this would only be possible if the disease is diagnosed at an early stage, and early diagnosis requires clear understanding of the pathogenesis at molecular level. Overactivity of GSK-3β and p53 accounts for tau hyperphosphorylation and the formation of amyloid-β plaques. Objective: Here, we explored GSK-3β and p53 as blood-based biomarkers for early detection of AD. Methods: The levels of GSK-3β, p53, and their phosphorylated states were measured using surface plasmon resonance and verified using western blot in serum from AD, mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and geriatric-control (GC) subjects. The neurotoxic SH-SY5Y cell line was treated with antioxidant Emblica Officinalis (EO) for rescue effect. Results: GSK-3β, p53, and their phosphorylated states were significantly over expressed (p >  0.001) in AD and MCI compared to GC and can differentiate AD and MCI from GC. The expression level of GSK-3β and p53 proteins were found to be downregulated in a dose-dependent manner after the treatment with EO in amyloid-b-induced neurotoxic cells. Conclusion: These proteins can serve as potential blood markers for the diagnosis of AD and EO can suppress their level. This work has translational value and clinical utility in the future.

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Background: The choice of appropriate breeding method for improvement of traits depends largely on gene action. Hence, an understanding of the inheritance of quantitative traits is essential to develop an efficient breeding strategy.Methods: Twelve generations of three inter-varietal crosses involving four diverse parents of garden pea were studied for biochemical traits and powdery mildew disease severity to analyze the nature of gene effects by using generation mean anaylsis.Result: Duplicate type of epistasis was observed for protein content in all or one or other crosses. In most cases, the presences of linkage among interacting genes or higher order interactions at several loci were involved. Non-fixable gene effects were many times higher than fixable one in all the crosses indicating a major role non-additive gene effects in the inheritance of these traits. The type of gene effects along with presence of non-allelic interactions suggested the adoption of population improvement methods to break undesirable linkages through recombination. The other alternative can be to defer selection in the later generations by advancing segregating populations through bulk pedigree or SSD methods with one or two inter-matings like recurrent selection. Based on pod characteristics and powdery mildew disease severity203 single plant progenies were isolated over the generations of three crosses along with bulk seed following SSD and bulk method to isolate transgressive segregants.

Vegetables are nutritionally rich, high-valued crops and remunerative enough to replace subsistence farming. However, vegetables especially Solanaceous vegetables are highly sensitive to biotic and sudden irregularities in weather factors at any phase of crop growth can affect the normal growth, flowering, fruit development and subsequently the yield. Grafting in vegetable has emerged as a promising surgical alternative over relatively slow conventional breeding methods aimed at increasing tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses thus enabling expansion of commercial production of vegetable in problematic soils. Accordingly, the aim of the current review is to reassess the perspective of grafting in above said group of vegables.

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