School Of Basic And Applied Sciences
Permanent URI for this communityhttps://kr.cup.edu.in/handle/32116/17
Browse
810 results
Search Results
Item DNA Barcoding, Phylogeny and Phylogeography of Green Sea Weed Ulva from Indian Subcontinent(Central University of Punjab, 2019) Rani, Pooja; Bast, FelixItem Evaluation of amyloid beta (aβ)-induced Mitochondrial dysfunction: Neuroprotective role of Apurinic/apyrimidinic endonuclease (ape1) Via its interaction with cysteamine Dioxygenase (ado)(Central University of Punjab, 2020) Kaur,Navrattan; Mantha, Anil K.Oxidative stress and damage to mitochondrial DNA during the aging process can impair mitochondrial energy metabolism and ion homeostasis in neurons, ultimately leading to neurodegeneration. Themain pathway for repairing oxidative base lesions is base excision repair (BER), and such repair is crucial for neurons owing to high rate of oxygen metabolism. Apurinic/apyrimidinic endonuclease (APE1) is a protein of this pathway involved in DNA repair and also in the redox co-activating function of different transcription factors. Thus, manipulation of DNA repair mechanisms can be thought of as a putative approach to prevent neuronal loss in neurodegenerative disorders like Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Ginkgo biloba has been studied as a possible treatment for dementia and AD. The ginkgolides present in G. biloba possess antioxidant, neuroprotective and cholinergic activities. The aim of the study was to explore the repair and redox functions of APE1 and a detailed mechanism of association of APE1 with ADO (a thiol dioxygenase) and functional cross-talk between them has been studied. In the present study, we have standardized the differentiation of SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cells into the cells possessing a mature neuron-like phenotype. The results of cell viability assay showed that differentiated cells are more sensitive/vulnerable to oxidative stress, which is elicited by Aβ. H2DCFDA and DAF- FM-based detection of ROS and RNS strongly advocates that under oxidative stress conditions elicited by Aβ, GB exerts ameliorating effect to render neuroprotection to the SH-SY5Y cells due to its antioxidant nature. Significant decrease in nNOS expression was seen, when cells were pre-treated with GB and then given Aβ treatment in whole cell, cytosol and nucleus. This shows that GB pre-treatment decreases the RNS (NO) levels due to its anti-oxidant property. Determination of DNA damage in terms of measurement of 8-oxo-dG was seen to be more pronounced in mitochondria. In response to DNA damage, pre-treatment with GB decreased the expression of DNA repair enzyme APE1 expression in mitochondria, showing that GB aids in lowering the oxidative stress generated by Aβ in the mitochondria. In the nuclear extracts, upon treatment with GB, there was a significant increase in ADO expression and Aβ treatment also increased the expression of ADO. Whereas, combination treatment of Aβ and GB led to lower expression of ADO. This points towards the possibility that ADO might be translocating to nucleus under oxidative stress and GB might be affecting APE1 – ADO interaction in lowering oxidative stress by the anti-oxidant action of GB, which was clearly observed by immunostaining using confocal microscopy. JC-1 assay points toward GB’s role in restoring the mitochondrial membrane potential against Aβ- challenge. Determination of apoptotic markers (Caspase 9 and AIF) showed that Aβ(25-35) induced oxidative stress caused initiation of apoptosis and GB treatment was able to rescue apoptosis. Our study elucidates activation of synaptic CaMKII and CREB exerting neuroprotective effects; and GB acting to restore the expression and active, phosphorylated state of CaMKII and CREB in presence of Aβ-induced oxidative stress in the SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cells. This study points towards the use of phytochemicals like GB which will may prove to be beneficial for the enhancement of synaptic functionality and promote neuroprotection.Item Understanding the principles of protein-protein interactions: Designing novel means for virtual proteomics(Central University of Punjab, 2020) Kumar, Vicky; Kulharia, Mahesh and Munshi, AnjanaProteins are the basic functional units in the cellular world of life. They are nano- machines programmed to associate with other biomolecules in order to enact an array of molecular functions in response to biological events at cellular and system levels. Understanding the biomolecular phenomenon governing such associations may provide insights into the principles of protein chemistry that have a wide-range of applications. In the current work, two databases (PPInS and NRDB) in which the information of interacting protein chains from the experimentally determined protein- protein complexes (PPCs) for which structural information in terms of SCOP superfamily was available, is demarcated in the form of protein-protein interaction interfaces (PPIIs) were developed. The PPIIs contained in these databases were made available on a web server for public use. These were analysed w.r.t. physicochemical and geometrical characteristics of PPI sites. With the belief that designing of computational tools with prediction ability must be trained and tested on real instances of the phenomenon for which it is designed, the analytical information obtained from the analysis of PPIIs from NRDB was incorporated in development of a computational tool, Anveshan, for prediction of putative protein-protein interaction (PPI) sites. The training and test datasets for Anveshan development were obtained from the PPInS. PPInS is a high-performance database of PPIIs in which atomic-level information of the molecular interactions amongst various protein chains in PPCs together with their evolutionary information in Structural Classification of Proteins (SCOPe release 2.06), is made available. Total 32,468 PDB files representing X-ray crystallized multimeric PPCs with structural resolution better than 2.5 Å were shortlisted to demarcate the PPIIs. Total 111,857 PPIIs with approximately 32.24 million atomic contact pairs were generated and made available on a web server, named PPInS, (http://www.cup.edu.in:99/ppins/home.php) for on-site analysis and downloading purpose. A non-redundant database (NRDB) of PPInS containing 2,265 PPIIs with over 1.8 million ACPs corresponding to the 1,931 PPCs was also designed by removing structural redundancies at the level of SCOP superfamily (SCOP release 1.75) was also designed to provide the foundation to the development of Anveshan. All the PPIIs and PPIPs involved in both these databases were analysed w.r.t. residues interface propensity (RIP), hydrophobic content, solvation free energy, compactness of interacting residue’ neighbourhood, planarity, and depth index. The PPIIs were also examined in the context of sequence similarity shared by the protein chains involved in the PPII formation which revealed the presence of homodimers in abundance in PDB. Therefore, prior to analysing the PPIIs w.r.t to other parameters, PPIIs from both the databases were categorized in three PPII classes depicting the low-sequence similarity (LSS), moderate-sequence similarity (MSS), and high- sequence similarity (HSS) between the protein chains involved in PPIIs. Analysis pertaining to RIP showed the presence of aliphatic and aromatic residues on interaction sites in abundance and the least occurrence of charged residues (except Arg). Physicochemical and structural analysis of PPIPs, initially, showed a significant difference between their parametric scores w.r.t. all three PPII classes from PPInS and NRDB. However, on removing less than 1% statistical outliers from each PPII class, the parametric scores from all three classes of PPInS and NRDB converged to a statistical indistinguishable common sub-range and followed the similar distribution trends. This indicates that the principles of molecular recognition among proteins are not driven by their sequence similarity and reinforces the importance of geometrical and electrostatic complementarity as the main determinants for PPIs. The parametric score obtained by analysing 4,530 PPIPs from NRDB w.r.t. their RIP, their hydrophobic content and the amount of solvation free energy associated with them provided the basis for the implementation of Anveshan. By applying Anveshan on another dataset of 4,290 PPIPs from 2,145 PPIIs, the optimal range of these parametric scores and protein-probe van der Waals energy of interaction was determined. Subsequently, taking the optimal range of PPIP parametric scores and threshold for protein-probe van derWaals energy of interaction into the consideration, the Anveshan was tested on a blind dataset of 554 protein chains. Predicting 10 sites for each protein chain and taking the best-predicted patch into account, Anveshan was successful in predicting 69.67% sites correctly with at least 50% accuracy in both precision and coverage separately. On predicting only one PPI site for each protein chain, sites predicted by Anveshan on an average covered 21.91% of actual sites in them. Analysing the sites predicted by SPPIDER, it was found that 22.7% of actual sites were covered in predicted sites. However, on predicting two sites for each protein chain, the percentage coverage of actual sites in the sites predicted by Anveshan exceeded two- fold (i.e. 41.81%), thus making Anveshan a superior approach.Item Synthesis and Biological Evaluation of Inhibitors of Topoisomerases and Histone Deacetylase for In Vitro Anticancer Activity(Central University of Punjab, 2019) Joshi, Gaurav; Kumar, Raj & Singh, SandeepTopoisomerases (Topos) and histone deacetylases (HDACs) are validated oncotherapeutic targets due to their involvement in most of the cellular events such as initiation, proliferation, and survival of cancer cells. Widespread research has undergone to design and discover small molecule inhibitors of each protein which has led to the development of several drugs that are making their presence felt in clinic. Considering the issues of stability, toxicity, reported crosstalk(s) and resitance of existing pharmacophores, we herein report the discovery of target-based molecules pertaining to pyrazolo[1,5-c]quinazolines, 2-aryl quinolines and imidazo[1,2- a]quinoxaline scaffolds as inhibitors of TopoI or dual TopoI and II designed rationally via in silico tools. The chemical space of scaffolds was further exploited to design and synthesise dual/multi inhibitors of Topo-HDAC by connecting pharmacophoric features of HDAC inhibitors via a linker. Detailed biological evaluation of synthetics was performed using multiple cancer cell lines as well as normal cells/cell lines. Utilizing MTT, dye exclusion, redox potential, cell cycle and annexin V vs PI assays in 2D as well as 3D cultures, we established their preferential cytotoxic potential. Signaling responsible for anticancer mechanism was delineated using western immunoblotting and qPCR assays. Further, in vitro assays v for topoisomerases (DNA relaxation and catenation), and/or HDAC1 revealed target specificity of synthetics. In addition, we also demonstrated a novel bioreductive methodology, specific to cancer cells, exploiting cancer microenvironment leading to delivery of molecularly targeted agents as topo(s) inhibitors.Item In silico identification of natural anticancer product and their efficacy in breast cancer cells and cancer stem like cells(Central University of Punjab, 2020) Kushwaha, Prem Prakash; Kumar, ShashankBreast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed lethal cancer in women worldwide. Notch signaling pathway is directly linked to breast cancer recurrence and aggressiveness. Natural remedies are becoming a prime choice to overcome against cancer due to lesser side effect and cost-effectiveness. Literature survey and in silico study identified Bulbine frutescens (Asphodelaceae), Kurarinone (KU) and 3-O-(E)-p- coumaroylbetulinic acid (CB) as lead plant product/phytochemicals. Methanolic and hexane extract of B. frutescens (BME and BHE respectively), KU and CB were studied for their anticancer activity and notch signaling pathway inhibitory potential in breast cancer cells. Moreover, KU and CB were also studied for their effect in mammosphere. Literature-based identification of methanol soluble phytochemicals of B. frutescens and in silico docking study revealed Bulbineloneside D as a potent notch signaling inhibitor (ϒ-secretase). In silico docking potential of KU and CB were equal to standard gamma secretase inhibitor DAPT (-8.74 kcal/mol). KU-gamma secretase complex showed lower RMSD value, marginal fluctuation in Radius of gyration (Rg), more number of inter hydrogen bonding, and stable secondary structure of the protein which indicates KU as candidate gamma secretase inhibitor (GSI). B. frutescens extracts (IC50 4.8– 28.4 μg/ml), Kurarinone (IC50 0.43-3.42 µM) and CB (IC50 0.99-5.88 µM) significantly decreased cell viability in MDA-MB-231 and T47D cells in time dependent manner. B. frutescens, KU and CB induced cell cycle arrest at G1 phase in MDA-MB-231 and T47D cells. RT-PCR analysis of cell cycle (cyclin D1, CDK4, and p21) and apoptosis modulating genes (caspase 3, Bcl2 and survivin) revealed upexpression of p21, and caspase 3, and down expression of cyclin D1, CDK4, Bcl2 and survivin genes in test extract/phytochemicals treated breast cancer cells. Western Blot analysis showed reduced expression of cyclin D1 and increased procaspase 3 protein expression in extract/phytochemicals treated breast cancer cells in time dependent manner. Fluorescence spectrophotometry and confocal microscopy showed extract/phytochemicals induced nuclear morphology and mitochondrial integrity disruption, and increased reactive oxygen species production in MDA-MB-231 and T47D cells at IC50 and sub IC50 concentration. Flow cytometric apoptosis analysis of extract/phytochemicals treated MDA-MB-231 cells showed significant increase in early apoptotic population in comparison to non-treated cells at IC50 and sub IC50 (half of the IC50) concentration. Dual-Luciferase Reporter assay confirmed notch promoter inhibitory activity of B. frutescens, Kurarinone and CB in HEK293 transfected cells at IC50 concentration. Moreover, RT-PCR analysis showed down regulation of notch responsive genes (Hes1 and Hey1) at transcription levels in extract/phytochemical treated breast cancer cells in time dependent manner. Western Blot analysis showed reduced notch responsive protein (Hes1, Hey1 and E-cadherin) expression in extract/phytochemical treated breast cancer cells. KU and CB treatment decreased the mammosphere formation ability in MCF-7 cells at IC50 concentration by lowering the notch signaling target proteins (Hes1, Hey1, and E-cadherin) and proteins involved in cancer cell self-renewal (c-Myc, SOX-2, CD44). In conclusion, extract/phytochemicals have cell cycle arrest, ROS production, apoptosis induction, and mitochondria membrane potential disruption efficacy in breast cancer cells. KU and CB have the ability to downregulate the notch signaling pathway in breast cancer and cancer stem like cells.Item Design, Synthesis and Evaluation of Donepezil-Rasagiline Based Compounds as Multipotent Inhibitors for the Treatment of Alzheimer’s Disease(Central University of Punjab, 2019) Kumar, Bhupinder; Kumar, VinodAlzheimer’s disease (AD) is multifactorial in nature and different enzymes including MAO, AChE, and amyloid beta are implicated in its pathogenesis. The pathomechanism of AD is complex in nature and single target drugs proved to be ineffective for the treatment of the disease. With an aim of developing dual/multipotent inhibitors, 4,6- diphenylpyrimidines were optionally substituted with propargyl group and an ethyl chain containing a cyclic or acyclic tertiary nitrogen atom (piperidine/morpholine/pyrrolidine/N,N-dimethyl) as potential pharmacophores for MAO and AChE enzymes. Compound VB1 was found to be the most potent MAO-A (IC50 value of 18.34 ± 0.38 nM) inhibitor and VB8 was found to be the most potent AChE (IC50 value of 9.54 ± 0.07 nM) inhibitor. Compound VB3 was another promising compound in series-I with IC50 values of 28.33 ± 3.22 nM and 18.92 ± 0.29 nM against MAO-A and AChE, respectively and displayed very high selectivity index (103) for AChE over BuChE. These compounds were found to be reversible inhibitors of MAO and AChE enzymes and non-toxic to the human neuroblastoma SH-SY5Y cells. Based on structure-activity relationship analysis of the first series of compounds, second series of the compounds were designed by fixing the position of piperidine/morpholine ethyl chain at the para position of one of the phenyl rings. In the second series, compound VP15 v was found to be a multi-potent inhibitor of MAO-B and AChE with IC50 values of 0.37 ± 0.03 μM and 0.04 ± 0.003 μM, respectively. VP15 was found to be selective for MAOB with selectivity index of 270 over MAO-A. It also displayed SI of 625 for AChE over BuChE. VP15 was found to be irreversible inhibitor of MAO-B. In the third series of target compounds, both the phenyl rings of diphenylpyrimidines were substituted with O-propargyl groups. Different derivatives have been synthesized with O-propargyl groups substituted at ortho, meta and para positions of the phenyl rings. In the third series of compounds, AVB1 and AVB4 were found to be the most potent inhibitors of AChE and MAO-B with IC50 values of 1.35 ±0.03 μM and 1.49 ± 0.09 μM, respectively. In the reversible inhibition studies, the lead compounds were found to be reversible inhibitors of MAO-B and AChE enzymes. In the ROS protection inhibition studies, AVB1 and AVB4 displayed good activity in SH-SY5Y cells and AVB1 reduced the ROS levels up to 30% at 5 μM. This series of compounds were also found to be non-toxic to the SH-SY5Y cells in the cytotoxicity studies. Thus, from the present study it can be concluded that 4,6-diphenylpyrimidine derivatives can act as potential lead for the development of effective drug candidates for the treatment of AD. Compound VB3 and VP15 were found to be the most potent dual inhibitors of MAO and AChE.Item DNA barcoding and phylogeny based comparative evaluation of anti-cancer properties of Caulerpa (J V Lamouroux) spp. from Indian coasts(Central University of Punjab, 2019) Mehra, Richa; Bast, Felix and Singh, SandeepA total of 15 Caulerpa samples were collected from Indian coasts and identified based on morphological and molecular data inferred from ITS, 18S, tufA and rbcL. Seven different species viz. C. scalpelliformis, C. racemosa, C. sertularioides, C. verticillata, C. taxifolia, and C. corynephora; and their geographical isolates were identified. Barcode data for these species was generated using aforementioned molecular markers and used for phylogenetic assessment. Phylogenetic trees using Bayesian inference (BI) and Maximum Likelihood (ML) function were generated for each molecular marker. tufA was found to be most suitable marker for the genus Caulerpa, resolving the species into 17 different lineages, with 15 corresponding to already known sections and 2 new lineages. Besides, a database named DbIndAlgae of Indian algae was generated and all the morphological as well as molecular data generated in this study is uploaded on the database. In addition, the phycochemical analysis revealed the presence of alkaloids, terpenoids, steroids, tannins, saponins, flavonoids, and phenols in different Caulerpa species. The selective cytotoxicity of methanolic extracts of Caulerpa (CMEs) was evaluated on MDA-MB-231, T47-D and H1299 cells, and the results revealed significant cytotoxicity of all species. C. racemosa KNY-254 and C. taxifolia TEN-158 were found to be most potent on MDA-MB-231 cells with IC50 value of 0.226 ± 0.004 and 0.246 ± 0.009 µg/µL. The mitochondrial membrane perturbation was revealed by JC-1 and apoptotic cell death was confirmed by Annexin V/FITC staining. CMEs also induced ROS in MDA-MB-231 cells as depicted by DHE, and increased activity of SOD, decreased activity of gluthatione reductase. The CMEs also exhibit anti-invasion activity and inhibited up to 71% migration across the artificially scratched wound in MDA-MB-231, w.r.t. untreated control cells. Moreover, chemical probing of C. racemosa KNY-254 by LC-MS analysis revealed six previously reported and six unreported molecules. The molecular docking analysis revealed weak to moderate interactions with all of the protein targets viz. Bcl2, AMPK, mTOR, BID, PERK, IGF-1R, PI3K, PTP1B and Akt2, known to play important role in cancer cell signaling. Additionally, a moderately positive correlation amongst the phylogeny and anti-cancer activity was observed suggesting that phylogeny might provide cues for anti-cancer activity, subject to further validations.Item Transcriptomic investigations of gene networks in response to arsenic accumulation in Brassica juncea (L.) Czern & Coss(Central University of Punjab, 2019) Thakur, Sapna; Bhardwaj, PankajArsenic (As), a widespread toxic metalloid is class I carcinogen known to cause adverse health effects in human. In the present study, As accumulation potential and differential gene expression in B. juncea is investigated. The amount of arsenic accumulated varied in the range of 15.99 to 1138.70 mg/Kg on dry weight basis in five cultivars. A decrease in chlorophyll content and increase in membrane damage and enzymatic activities of antioxidants was observed with increase in As concentration in the B. juncea cultivars. Using maximum As accumulating cultivar (RLM514), a total of 10,870 significantly differentially expressed transcripts in response to As treatment were identified. Further, the pathway analysis revealed a large scale reprogramming of genes involving carbon metabolism (2.5%), plant hormone signaling (1.4%), and glutathione metabolism (0.6%). Moreover, a comparative account of Cd toxicity revealed a total of 11,294 transcripts to be significantly differentially expressed. The genes related to response to chemical, oxidative stress, transport, and secondary metabolism were upregulated whereas multicellular organismal development, developmental process, photosynthesis were downregulated by Cd treatment. Furthermore, 616 membrane transport proteins were found to be significantly differentially expressed. Cd-related transporters such as metal transporter (Nramp1), metal tolerance protein (MTPC2, MTP11), cadmiumtransporting ATPase, and plant cadmium resistance protein (PCR2, PCR6) were upregulated while cadmium/zinc- transporting ATPase (HMA2, HMA3, HMA4), highaffinity calcium antiporter (CAX1), and iron transport protein (IRT1) were downregulated by Cd treatment. Pathway analysis revealed signaling cascades including plant hormones signaling, MAPK signaling and Ca signaling was modulated suggesting their role in Cd-stress tolerance. The regulation overview using MapMan also revealed gene expression related to plant hormones, calcium regulation and MAP kinases were altered under Cd-stress.Item STRUCTURAL AND ELECTROCHEMICAL PROPERTIES OF INTERCALATED AND DISPERSED TYPE POLYMER NANOCOMPOSITE FILMS(Central University of Punjab, 2019) Arya, Anil; Sharma, A. L.The renewable and green source of energy now becomes the burning topic for worldwide research among the scientists. The demand for such energy resources is increasing day by day and it becomes the lifeblood of modern society. Global warming, finite fossil-fuel supplies, and city pollution conspire to make the use of environmentfriendly energy sources. Due to the enlarged dependency of a modern human being on energy resources in every sector and a limited supply of fossil fuels, leads to two main problematic consequences: (1) vulnerability of nation-states to fossil-fuel imports and (2) CO2 emissions that are acidifying our oceans and creating global warming. The controlled environment/climate has drawn the attention of the scientific community towards development and replacement of fossil fuels by an alternative/efficient energy resources. The prospective renewable energy resources are solar, tidal, hydro, wind energy etc. Next challenge comes to store it and could be supplied as per the demand. The said challenge could be overcome through the electrochemical storage/conversion devices (ESCDs) like supercapacitor, Lithium-ion batteries (LIB) and fuel cells. Especially, LIB having the ability to the portability of stored energy and to deliver it as and when required without gaseous exhaust, unlike fossil fuels. A secondary battery converts chemical energy into electrical energy and vice versa. Its structure is composed of a positive electrode as a cathode, a negative electrode as an anode, and electrolyte. Simultaneous movement of ions and electrons occurs in the battery system; ions flow through the electrolyte while electrons are generated at the anode and flow towards the cathode via an external circuit. The heart of the battery is the electrolyte as it is sandwiched between both electrodes and participate in charging/discharging. Although all the three components affect the overall cell performance, the electrolyte is dominating in nature and deciding the specific capacity, energy density, working voltage and the lifespan of the battery. Various types of electrolytes are liquid electrolytes, semi-gel and gel electrolytes. However, safety issues with lithium-metal anodes, the reaction of volatile/flammable organic solvents and the leakage of electrolytes have hindered the commercialization of any lithium-ion battery based on such electrolyte. The drawbacks associated with the battery comprising of above-mentioned electrolyte pushes us to develop new generation solid state polymer nanocomposite films (PNC films) which could possess inherent safety and good compatibility with electrodes as compared with liquid, semi-gel and gel electrolytes. v PNC films have numerous advantages like they are light in weight, flexible, have interfacial compatibility, no leakage issue and are very processable. Most importantly, they are very safe. SPEs are prepared by dissolving lithium salts in a high-molecularweight polymer matrix. The polymer acts as the host for the transmission of lithium ions through the motion of polymer segments. Solid polymer based electrolytes appear to be attractive as they can compensate for the volume changes of electrodes by elastic and plastic deformation. A PEO-based SPE is the most preferred polymer host in the research system due to its flexible backbone and ability to solvate lithium ions, with the coordination number dependent upon the salt concentration and identity of the anion. The main advantage of a PEO is its high solvation power. Hence it can form a complex easily with many alkali salts and provides a direct path for cation migration due to the presence of the ether group in the polymer backbone. But the low conductivity value (10–10 S cm−1 ) and poor mechanical properties of PEOs at ambient temperatures limit their use in devices. Many approaches have been explored to improve the ionic conductivity in order to suppress the concentration polarization and desirable electrochemical properties such as polymer blending, cross-linking, the addition of nano-sized fillers etc. Out of these approaches at host polymer level blending seems more appropriate and justified. Further to scale the relevant properties parameters by minimizing the concentration polarization, two novel approach i.e. (i) nanofiller dispersed polymer nanocomposites, and (ii) intercalated polymer nanocomposites have been adopted. The idea behind using nanofiller was the expectation to get percolation pathways composed of inorganic fillers grains through a flexible polymeric matrix. Such a phenomenon could lead to an increase in ionic conductivity followed, possibly, by an enhancement of the cation transport number while preserving mechanical properties and flexibility of the composite electrolyte prepared in the thin film configuration. The second one is also a thought-provoking approach and plays key role in (i) suppressing the concentration polarization by avoiding anion mobility, (ii) enhancement of the ion migration by allowing the cation coordinated polymer chain confinement in clay galleries, and (iii) negative surface charge on clay acts as Lewis acid and competes with Li+ cation to form complex with polymer which reduces ion coupling. An attempt has been made to understand the role of nanofiller and nanoclay in dispersed and intercalated blend polymer nanocomposites prepared by solution cast technique. A strong correlation exists between crystallinity, conductivity, free ion area, the number density of charge carriers, ion mobility, diffusion coefficient, activation energy, and glass transition temperature. Polymer-intercalated polymer nanocomposites display remarkable higher ionic conductivity, broad voltage stability window, high specific capacity and open-circuit voltage than the dispersed based polymer nanocomposites. Here we provide a cumulative account of an efficient polymer nanocomposite materials to identify their importance in the energy storage/conversion devices.Item Studies on adaptive environmental responses in Himalayan Rhododendron arboreum(Central University of Punjab, 2019) Choudhary, Shruti; Bhardwaj, PankajTemperate plants acclimatize to survive freezing temperatures, which are otherwise prerequisite in the initiation/transition of a developmental phase. The dominance of Rhododendron arboreum under a highly fluctuating Himalayan environment makes it enticing for genetic structure and functional analysis. In the present study, transcript, small RNA and metabolome libraries from flowers and foliar tissues of reproductive and vegetative seasons were analyzed. The high-quality paired-end reads were assembled into 157,427 non-redundant transcripts and categorized functionally based on gene ontology, pathway, and transcription factor database. The screening for molecular markers identified 35,419 SSR and 811 high-quality SNPs. A comparison of transcript profiles for the vegetative and flowering season tissues revealed that 12,577 unigenes with fluctuating expression were responsible for seasonal adaptations. Additional to the gene interaction networks, 421 ions obtained from LC-MS were annotated to distinct pathways, especially secondary metabolites. Thirdly, 466 conserved and novel miRNAs, 442 precursors, and 27,139 targets were predicted and the miRNAs modulating circadian clock and reproductive development were discussed further. Other than the genes, miRNAs, and compounds held for an active metabolism, signaling, development, and their regulations, supplementary responses to abiotic/biotic stimuli were induced. A multifaceted response not only sponsored the climatic encounters but brought the shift from vegetative to reproductive growth. The genome-wide profiling and the spatiotemporal variation in mRNA and miRNA expression, as well as the nontargeted metabolome, will enhance the understanding of development and tolerance strategies in high altitude tree species.