Shigellosis is an endemic disease prevalent in developing and poor countries due to fecal-oral transmission resulting a significant morbidity and mortality rate. Emergence of multidrug resistant (MDR) in Shigella sp. reveals the inefficacy towards the first line antibiotics like quinolones, cotrimoxazole and ampicillin against it. There is continuous need to monitor the characteristics and antibiotic resistance patterns of this pathogen regarding the identification of new potential therapeutic drug targets. Availability of complete protein of different Shigella species viz flexneri, body, dysentery and son has made it possible to carry out the Insilico analysis of its protein for the identification of potential vaccine and drug targets. Subtractive proteomics approach is being used to mine the list of proteins present in different Shigella species which are non-homologous to human and essential for the survival of the pathogen. The metabolic chokepoint analysis also enriches the list of essential protein and adds those proteins in the list which are uniquely found in pathogenic pathway, catalyzed by single enzyme and involved in multi pathways. Screening of essential proteins against human gut flora and approved drug targets revealed the targets which are non-homologous to human gut flora and homologous to the approved drug targets. Broad spectrum drug targets screening revealed a list of highly conserved proteins of various pathogens including different Shigella species. Probably the drug developed against these targets may be useful in treating multiple diseases or diseases which results due to co-infection of different pathogens. Subcellular localization prediction revealed a list protein, which could be potential vaccine targets in different Shigella species. Virtual screening against these identified targets might be useful in the discovery of novel Drug against MDR Shigella species.

Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) polymorphism was employed to assess the genetic diversity in the elite germplasm of Dalbergia sissoo. Sixty-seven clones that are under cultivation in northern India, originated from six different states of India and Nepal were analyzed with 30 RAPD primers that generated a total of 342 fragments out of which 290 were polymorphic. Total genetic diversity (Ht) varied between 0.01 and 0.37, with an average of 0.19. Shannon's Information index (I) varied between 0.02 and 0.54, with an average of 0.31. Marker attributes like Polymorphism Information Content (PIC), Marker Index (MI) and Effective Multiplex Ratio (EMR) values were calculated to assess the discriminatory power of 30 primers used. The PIC values ranged from 0.01 to 0.37 with an average of 0.17 per primer and the EMR ranged from 0.17 to 21.00 with a mean of 8.66 across all genotypes. Closely related clones were C49 and C51 with similarity index of 0.86 while the least similar or most dissimilar clones were C14 and S-DB showing similarity index of 0.58. The UPGMA-phenogram categorized the 67 clones into six clusters based on genetic similarity and dissimilarity. The clustering of clones in relation to their geographical location has been discussed.

Six populations of Pinus gerardiana from the states of Himachal Pradesh representing the natural range of distribution were evaluated for genetic diversity using the RAPD markers. Fifteen random decamer primers, selected from thirty-five primers initially screened, were used to assess variation. A total of 149 amplified products were generated out of which 111 amplicons were polymorphic. All selected primers produced polymorphic amplification products, however, the extent of polymorphism varied with each primer. The value of similarity coefficient had a very narrow range from 0.53 to 0.67. The genetic distance varied from 0.32 to 0.44 between populations. The UPGMA dendrogram revealed the clustering of six populations of P. gerardiana in two clusters. First cluster consisted of four populations i.e. Lawrang, Respa, Speelo-1 and Speelo. The second cluster consisted of two populations i.e. Ampa and Kanam having a similarity coefficient of 0.66. The populations of the P. gerardiana showed high homogeneity and a very low amount of genetic divergence as evident by the very narrow range of the similarity coefficient and genetic distance. The average percent polymorphism is also very low in this species.

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