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Peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.) is a major species of the family, Leguminosae, and economically important not only for vegetable oil but as a source of proteins, minerals and vitamins. It is widely grown in the semi-arid tropics and plays a role in the world agricultural economy. Peanut production and productivity is constrained by several biotic (insect pests and diseases) and abiotic (drought, salinity, water logging and temperature aberrations) stresses, as a result of which crop experiences serious economic losses. Genetic engineering techniques such as Agrobacterium tumefaciens and DNA-bombardment-mediated transformation are used as powerful tools to complement conventional breeding and expedite peanut improvement by the introduction of agronomically useful traits in high-yield background. Resistance to several fungal, virus and insect pest have been achieved through variety of approaches ranging from gene coding for cell wall component, pathogenesis-related proteins, oxalate oxidase, bacterial chloroperoxidase, coat proteins, RNA interference, crystal proteins etc. To develop transgenic plants withstanding major abiotic stresses, genes coding transcription factors for drought and salinity, cytokinin biosynthesis, nucleic acid processing, ion antiporter and human antiapoptotic have been used. Moreover, peanut has also been used in vaccine production for the control of several animal diseases. In addition to above, this study also presents a comprehensive account on the influence of some important factors on peanut genetic engineering. Future research thrusts not only suggest the use of different approaches for higher expression of transgene(s) but also provide a way forward for the improvement of crops.

Synthesis of caffeic acid ester essentially requires an efficient esterification process to produce various kinds of medicinally important ester derivatives. In the present study, a comprehensive and comparative analysis of whole-cell catalyzed caffeic acid esters production in ionic liquids (ILs) media was performed. Olive oil induced mycelial mass of halotolerant Aspergillus niger (A.niger) EXF 4321 was freeze dried and used as a catalyst. To ensure maximum solubilization of caffeic acid for highest substrate loading several ILs were screened and 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide ([Emim][Tf 2 N]) was found to have the maximum solubility and favoured for enzymatic activity of freeze dried mycelia. The whole-cell catalyzed synthesis of caffeic acid phenethyl ester (CAPE) conditions were optimized and bioconversion up to 84% was achieved at a substrate molar ratio of 1:20 (caffeic acid:2-phenyl ethanol), 30 °C for 12 h. Results obtained during this study were encouraging and helpful to design a bioreactor system to produce caffeic acid derived esters.

Staphylococcus aureus, a Gram-positive bacterium, can cause a range of illnesses from minor skin infections to life-threatening diseases, such as bacteraemia, endocarditis, meningitis, osteomyelitis, pneumonia, toxic shock syndrome and sepsis. Due to the emergence of antibiotic resistance strains, there is a need to develop of new class of antibiotics or drug for this pathogen. The phosphotransacetylase enzyme plays an important role in the acetate metabolism and found to be essential for the survival of the S. aureus. This enzyme was evaluated as a putative drug target for S. aureus by in silico analysis. The 3D structure of the phosphotransacetylase from S. aureus was modelled, using the 1TD9 chain 'A' from Bacillus subtilis as a template at the resolution of 2.75 Å. The generated model has been validated by PROCHECK, WHAT IF and SuperPose. The docking was performed by the Molegro virtual docker using the ZINC database generated ligand library. The ligand library was generated within the limitation of the Lipinski rule of five. Based on the dock-score, five molecules have been subjected to ADME/TOX analysis and subjected for pharmacophore model generation. The zinc IDs of the potential inhibitors are ZINC08442078, ZINC8442200, ZINC 8442087 and ZINC 8442184 and found to be pharmacologically active antagonist of phosphotransacetylase. The molecules were evaluated as no-carcinogenic and persistent molecule by START programme.

Fucoidan is a complex-sulfated polysaccharide distributed in various marine organisms, and the brown algae are reported as the major producer. The fucoidan is important for their high bioactive properties, like antibacterial, anticoagulant, antiviral, anti-tumor, etc., and many more to be explored. There is a strong archival support for the bioactivity and promising properties of this molecule, which creates a hope for this molecule as future drug against thrombosis and some kind of cancers. Reports other than the above bioactive properties have also been a matter of interest for the design of signal or enzyme-arrested new class of drugs. In the past three decades, the research on isolation, molecular characterization, and screening of biological applications has significantly increased. One major issue associated with this molecule is the higher size and seasonal variation in their chemical composition; to resolve the issue and maintain its bioactivity, a prioritized and literal hydrolysis process is required to be developed. Here, in this mini-review, we have tried to summarize the algal fucoidan research and the bioactivities influenced by their molecular size.

A total of 49 protein sequences of alkaline proteases retrieved from GenBank representing different species of Aspergillus have been characterized for various physiochemical properties, homology search, multiple sequence alignment, motif, and super family search and phylogenetic tree construction. The sequence level homology was obtained among different groups of alkaline protease enzymes, viz alkaline serine protease, oryzin, calpain-like protease, serine protease, subtilisin-like alkaline proteases. Multiple sequence alignment of alkaline protease protein sequence of different Aspergillus species revealed a stretch of conserved region for amino acid residues from 69 to 110 and 130-204. The phylogenetic tree constructed indicated several Aspergillus species-specific clusters for alkaline proteases namely Aspergillus fumigatus, Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus oryzae, Aspergillus clavatus. The distributions of ten commonly observed motifs were analyzed among these proteases. Motif 1 with a signature amino acid sequence of 50 amino acids, i.e., ASFSNYGKVVDIFAPGQDILSCWIGSTTATNTISGTSMATPHIVGLSCYL, was uniformly observed in proteases protein sequences indicating its involvement with the structure and enzymatic function. Motif analysis of acidic proteases of Aspergillus and bacterial alkaline proteases has revealed different signature amino acid sequences. The superfamily search for these proteases revealed the presence of subtilases, serine-carboxyl proteinase, calpain large subunit, and thermolysin-like superfamilies with 45 representing the subtilases superfamily.

Recombination is one of the keys factor in evolutionary processes, involved in shaping the architecture of genomes and consequent phenotype. Understanding the recombination phenomenon especially among viruses will help in disease management. The present study aimed for in-silico analysis of recombination phenomenon among Begomoviruses, particularly emphasizing on viruses strains reported from India and neighboring countries. A total of 956 virus sequences have been used in this study. The Tomato yellow leaf curl China viruses, namely $$\hbox {gi}\vert 29825986\vert ;\hbox { gi}\vert 283468151\vert ; \hbox { gi}\vert 190559151\vert$$ and $$\hbox {gi}\vert 61652782\vert$$ were identified with the highest number of recombination event (1273). However, the Mung bean yellow mosaic India virus $$(\hbox {gi}\vert 66351988\vert )$$ was found to have 1170 recombination event. The phylogenic analysis among the highly recombinant sequences was carried to get an insight of the evolution among viral sequences in this class of plant viruses. The phylogenetic analysis revealed a pattern in diversity among these virus strains and a split tree analysis showed diversity in the range of 0.049128335–10.269852. This in silico analysis may pave way for a greater understanding of recombination phenomenon in geminiviruses and it might be helpful for strategic plant viral disease management.

Recently, the interest in mimicking functions of chalcogen-based catalytic antioxidants like selenoenzymes, has been increased. Various attempts had been done with selenium, but very few attempts were carried out with tellurium. Bio-complex formation and characterization of tellurium was not tried earlier by using any organism. The present study was focused on tellurium peptide production, characterization, and bioactivity assessment especially Mimetic to glutathione peroxidase (GPx). The production was achieved by the autolysis of total proteins obtained from Saccharomyces cerevisiae ATCC 7752 grown with inorganic tellurium. The GPx-like activity of the hydrolyzed tellurium peptide was increased when prepared by autolysis, but decreased when prepared by acid hydrolysis. Tellurium peptide produced by autolysis of the yeast cell showed increased GPx-like activity as well as tellurium content. Tellurium peptide showed little toxicity, compared to highly toxic inorganic tellurium. The results showed the potential of tellurium peptide as an antioxidant that can be produced by simple autolysis of yeast cells.

The microbial intervention for sustainable management of aquaculture, especially use of probiotics, is one of the most popular and practical approaches towards controlling pathogens. Vibrio harveyi is a well-known pathogenic bacterium, which is associated to a huge economic loss in the aquaculture system by causing vibriosis. The present study is crafted for screening and characterization of anti-Vibrio strains, which were isolated from various traditional fermented Korean foods. A total of 196 strains have been isolated from soybean paste (78 strains), red chili paste (49 strains), soy sauce (18 strains), jeotgal-a salted fish (34 strains), and the gazami crab-Portunus trituberculatus (17 strains). Fifteen strains showed an inhibitory effect on the growth of V. harveyi when subjected to coculture condition. Among the strains isolated, one has been identified as a significant anti-Vibrio strain. Further biochemical characterization and 16S rDNA sequencing revealed it as Pseudoalteromonas aliena, which had been deposited at the Korean Culture Center of Microorganisms (KCCM), Korea and designated as KCCM 11207P. The culture supernatants did not have any antimicrobial properties either in pure or in coculture condition. The culture supernatant was not toxic when supplemented to the swimming crab, Zoea, and Artemia larvae in aquaculture system. The results were very encouraging and showed a significant reduction in accumulated mortality. Here, we reported that pathogenic vibriosis can be controlled by Pseudoalteromonas sp. under in vitro and in vivo conditions. The results indicated that the biotic treatment offers a promising alternative to the use of antibiotics in crab aquaculture.

Aspergillus is a leading causative agent for fungal morbidity and mortality in immuno-compromised patients. To identify a putative target to design or identify new antifungal drug, against Aspergillus is required. In our previous work, we have analyzed the various biochemical pathways, and we found Ketol Acid Reducto-Isomerase (KARI) an enzyme involves in the amino acid biosynthesis, could be a better target. This enzyme was found to be unique by comparing to host proteome through BLASTp analysis. A homology based model of KARI was generated by Swiss model server. The generated model had been validated by PROCHECK and WHAT IF programs. The Zinc library was generated within the limitation of the Lipinski rule of five, for docking study. Based on the dock-score six molecules have been studied for ADME/TOX analysis and subjected for pharmacophore model generation. The Zinc ID of the potential inhibitors is ZINC00720614, ZINC01068126, ZINC0923, ZINC02090678, ZINC00663057 and ZINC02284065 and found to be pharmacologically active agonist and antagonist of KARI. This study is an attempt to Insilco evaluation of the KARI as a drug target and the screened inhibitors could help in the development of the better drug against Aspergillus.

Staphylococcus aureus is one of the most important and studied gram positive bacterial strains, which have a great potential to infect human beings as well as other mammals. The hospital-acquired methicillin-resistant, vancomycinsusceptible gram–positive bacteria strain is responsible for much life threatening diseases like Toxic-shock syndrome, staphylococcal scarlet fever, meningitis, osteomyelitis, etc. This antibiotic resistance strain, lead to development of the new antibiotics or drug molecules which can kill or suppress the growth of Staphylococcus aureus. We have performed an insilico comparative analysis of metabolic pathways of the host Homo sapiens and the pathogen S. aureus. The e-value threshold cut-off was set to 0.005. We have identifi ed total 235 enzyme sequences, which are non homologous to Homo sapiens protein sequences and among them 59 enzymes are found to be essential for survival of the S. aureus according to the DEG database. Further PA-SUB analysis Results showed that about 52.5% enzymes are found to be in the cytoplasm, 13.5% enzymes are found to be in extracellular, 6.7% enzymes are plasma membrane protein and 27.1% enzymes are given no positive prediction. In this comparative analysis, we have also found 5 unique pathways among 59 essential and 23 non homologous enzymes.