Department of Bioscience & Bioengineering

&ldquo;IIT Jodhpur is committed to impart quality education to facilitate the creation of qualified, competent and responsible human resources to meet the emerging technological challenges of the world. It is working towards creating an equitable learning platform that is positive, accessible and effective in the face of the modern societal and scientific advancements.

Flexibility in curriculum, in all its academic programs, encompassing elements of teaching, research, creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship is the most unique feature of IIT Jodhpur. The Department of Science and Technology (DST), under the National Mission on Cyber Physical Systems, has identified IIT Jodhpur as a Technology &amp; Innovation Hub in the area of Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality. The institute has also been nominated as the coordinator for the Jodhpur City and Knowledge Cluster by the Office of Principal Scientific Adviser, Government of India.

The sprawling 852-acre IIT Jodhpur campus is a majestic tribute to the deep-rooted diverse cultural heritage of the region. The campus is an architectural masterpiece, which is slated to become an international exemplar of sustainability with net-zero energy, and advanced water and waste management strategies.&rdquo;

IIT Jodhpur

This foreword is to introduce the reason for this special issue of the journal. Professor Vasudev Mangesh (Nitant) Kenkre has had a distinguished career as a statistical physicist, teacher, educator and a magnet for a great many statistical physicists from around the world across nearly five decades. This volume is to celebrate Nitant's work. The contributors are mostly his former students, friends and collaborators. This foreword captures a fraction of what Nitant means to us. © 2022 World Scientific Publishing Company.

World University root node

International Journal of Modern Physics B

Foreword to this special issue

Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology

Inflammation and Myeloid Cells in Cancer Progression and Metastasis

An established formal way to solve the Liouville equation for dynamical systems with hermitian Hamiltonians is to frame the problem via parametrization in a canonical ensemble. The goal is to solve for the dynamics in the canonical ensemble. This approach allows one to examine temperature-dependent relaxation functions as a part of the construction of the full solution to the Liouville equation. Of course, a full solution to the Liouville equation may not always be necessary as it is the relaxation function which often tends to be of interest. The formalism involves evaluation of infinite continued fractions and this can at times be an especially challenging problem. Here we explore the relaxation function in near-equilibrium systems in the presence of strong nonlinearity. Due to computational challenges, we consider small systems. However, even our small system considerations may be adequate to infer about the relaxation in large systems. We show that the nonlinear systems tend to lead to nonconvergent infinite continued fractions. These continued fractions cannot be approximated perturbatively. We close by presenting a new strategy to evaluate them, thereby demonstrating a successful way to examine relaxation processes in strongly nonlinear systems. © 2022 World Scientific Publishing Company.

Solving the Liouville equation to probe relaxation in strongly nonlinear systems

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small, non-coding RNAs, 18–25 nt in length, that play a crucial role in regulating genes associated with the physiological processes and responses to various biotic and abiotic stresses. Different conserved and species-specific microRNAs and their functions have been identified, primarily in plants such as rice and Arabidopsis with sequenced genomes. Our present study identifies drought-responsive miRNAs and their potential targets from mungbean under three days of drought stress induced by PEG-6000. We constructed small RNA libraries from both control and drought-treated tolerant and susceptible mungbean genotypes and identified various miRNAs involved in drought stress regulation. Analysis of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) revealed 79 up-regulated and 158 down-regulated novel miRNAs and two up-and down-regulated known miRNAs under drought. Annotation of the miRNAs followed by target prediction and expression analysis revealed five miRNAs, Vra-miR160, Vra-miR164, Vra-miR167, Vra-miR394, and Vra-miR398, were potentially involved in the regulation of drought-responsive genes. Their predicted target genes were an Auxin response factor (ARF), a NAC (for petunia NAM and Arabidopsis ATAF1, ATAF2, and CUC2) transcription factor, Serine acetyltransferase 1, and Multicopper oxidase LPR2-like. The expression of drought-responsive miRNAs and their targets were validated by real-time PCR. Our data suggest that various known and novel microRNAs activated transcription factors, enzyme kinases, and hormone signaling pathways alleviate drought stress in the tolerant K-851 genotype of mungbean. © 2022 The Authors

Current Plant Biology

Identification of differentially expressed mungbean miRNAs and their targets in response to drought stress by small RNA deep sequencing

Environmental Technology and Innovation

Superiority of activated graphite/CuO composite electrode over Platinum based electrodes as cathode in algae assisted microbial fuel cell

An accurate understanding of biomolecular mechanisms and diseases requires information on protein qua-ternary structure (QS). A critical challenge in inferring QS information from crystallography data is distinguishing biological interfaces from fortuitous crystal-packing contacts. Here, we employ QS conservation across homologs to infer the biological relevance of hetero-oligomers. We compare the structures and compositions of hetero-oligomers, which allow us to annotate 7,810 complexes as physiologically relevant, 1,060 as likely errors, and 1,432 with comparative information on subunit stoichiometry and composition. Excluding immuno-globulins, these annotations encompass over 51% of hetero-oligomers in the PDB. We curate a dataset of577 hetero-oligomeric complexes to benchmark these annotations, which reveals an accuracy &gt;94%. When homology information is not available, we compare QS across repositories (PDB, PISA, and EPPIC) to derive confidence estimates. This work provides high-quality annotations along with a large benchmark dataset of hetero-assemblies.

Fulltext

Structure

PDB-wide identification of physiological hetero-oligomeric assemblies based on conserved quaternary structure geometry

Gliomas are the most prevalent primary brain tumors with immense clinical heterogeneity, poor prognosis and survival. Gliomas arise from glial cells and are heavily infiltrated with innate immune cells. In India high-grade gliomas or Glioblastomas (GBM) account for 59.5% of CNS tumours. A key challenge for clinical management of GBM is its highly heterogeneous nature-between patients and within a single tumour-making current therapies ineffective. The nucleotide-binding domain, and leucine-rich repeat containing receptors (NLRs) and absent-in-melanoma 2 (AIM2) are innate immune receptors crucial for initiation and progression of several cancers. There is a dearth of reports investigating NLRs and AIM2 in glioma pathology.We are interested in studying the cellular and molecular contribution of NLRs and AIM2 in malignant gliomas in the Indian subcontinent. We previously reported a data-driven approach&nbsp;…

The Journal of Immunology

<a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?view_op=view_citation&amp;hl=en&amp;user=sxkAmsoAAAAJ&amp;cstart=20&amp;pagesize=80&amp;citation_for_view=sxkAmsoAAAAJ:IWHjjKOFINEC">Understanding NLRs and AIM2 cellular and molecular signalling in glioblastoma pathophysiology</a>

Objective: Information on etiology of congenital nephrotic syndrome in non-Caucasian populations is limited. This study aimed to determine the genetic basis of congenital nephrotic syndrome in Indian patients. Methods: In this observational, cross-sectional study, whole exome sequencing was performed on samples from all children diagnosed with congenital nephrotic syndrome, presenting at centers collaborating in a nationwide registry and biorepository. Analysis was targeted to focus on reported or novel, pathogenic or likely pathogenic variants in 89 genes implicated in etiology of nephrotic syndrome. Sanger sequencing was used to confirm disease-causing variants in patients and allelic segregation of compound heterozygous variants in samples from parents. Inheritance of a shared haplotype was analyzed among ten individuals carrying the most common variant. Results: During 2017–2019, 34 patients with congenital nephrotic syndrome were screened. Consanguinity and similar illness in siblings were reported in eleven patients each. Homozygous or compound heterozygous, pathogenic or likely pathogenic variants were found in NPHS1 in 24 cases, including two novel variants. One patient each had homozygous pathogenic or likely pathogenic known or novel variant in NPHS2, PLCE1, OSGEP and LAMB2 genes. Patients with OSGEP and LAMB2 mutations had phenotype typical of Galloway Mowat and Pierson syndromes, respectively. Three variants in NPHS1 were common to 16 individuals. One reported variant in exon 19 (c.2600G>A; p.Gly867Asp) appears to share a common founder. Conclusion: A genetic cause was determined for 82.4% patients with congenital nephrotic syndrome. Variants in NPHS1 are most common in Indian patients and founder mutations might be present. © 2021, Indian Academy of Pediatrics.

Indian Pediatrics

Next-Generation Sequencing for Congenital Nephrotic Syndrome: A Multi-Center Cross-Sectional Study from India

The disruption of antioxidant defense has been demonstrated in severe acute respiratory syndrome due to SARS-CoV infection. Selenium plays a major role in decreasing the ROS produced in response to various viral infections. Selenoprotein enzymes are essential in combating oxidative stress caused due to excessive generation of ROS. Selenium also has a role in inhibiting the activation of NF-kappa B, thus alleviating inflammation. In viral infections, selenoproteins have also been found to inhibit type I interferon responses, modulate T cell proliferation and oxidative burst in macrophages, and inhibit viral transcriptional activators. Potential virally encoded selenoproteins have been identified by computational analysis in different viral genomes like HIV-1, Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV), and hepatitis C virus. This review discusses the role and the possible mechanisms of selenium, selenoproteins, and virally encoded selenoproteins in the pathogenicity of viral infections. Identification of potential selenoproteins in the COVID 19 genome by computational tools will give insights further into their role in the pathogenesis of viral infections.

EXCLI JOURNAL

SELENIUM TO SELENOPROTEINS - ROLE IN COVID-19

Here, we demonstrate an interesting strategy of modulating mitochondrial reactive oxygen species (ROS) using the organic electron acceptor molecule carbonyl-bridged bithiazole attached with bis-trifluoroacetophenone (BBT). This molecule was found to affect complex I activity. It has the propensity to bind close to the flavin mononucleotide site of complex I of mitochondria where it traps electron released from nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADH) and elevates intracellular ROS, which suggests that the bridged carbonyl in BBT plays a crucial role in the acceptance of electron from NADH. We understand that the potential of the NADH/NAD+ redox couple and low-lying LUMO energy level of BBT are compatible with each other, thus favoring its entrapment of released electrons in complex I. This effect of BBT in ROS generation activates JNK and p38 stress-dependent pathways and resulted in mitochondrial-dependent apoptotic cell death with the reduction in expression of several important cyto-protecting factors (Hsp27 and NFκB), indicating its potential in inhibition of cancer cell relapse. Intriguingly, we found that BBT is not a P-glycoprotein substrate, which further reveals its excellent anticancer potential. This study enlightens us on how the power of electron acceptor ability became an emerging strategy for modulation of intracellular function. © 2021 The Authors. Published by American Chemical Society.

ACS Omega

Power of an Organic Electron Acceptor in Modulation of Intracellular Mitochondrial Reactive Oxygen Species: Inducing JNK- And Caspase-Dependent Apoptosis of Cancer Cells