Bankura Christian College

Climate change poses significant threats to global agricultural productivity, necessitating innovative strategies to ensure food security and ecological sustainability. One promising avenue lies in the deliberate design and deployment of synthetic microbiomes and engineered rhizospheres to enhance plant resilience under environmental stress. This review places particular emphasis on multi-kingdom microbial interactions including bacteria, fungi, protists, and archaea and their potential for tailored, stress-specific applications within engineered rhizosphere systems. By integrating knowledge from microbial ecology, genomics, and systems biology, researchers have begun to unravel the complex interactions between plants and their associated microbial communities. Engineered microbial assemblies tailored to specific host plants and environmental conditions have shown potential in stabilizing crop performance during drought, salinity, and nutrient limitations. Moreover, the manipulation of root exudation patterns and soil physicochemical properties can be harnessed to recruit beneficial microbes and suppress harmful ones. The review also examines the role of synthetic biology tools, such as CRISPR-based genome editing and metabolic pathway engineering, in optimizing microbial traits for enhanced plant support. However, knowledge gaps remain in understanding multi-kingdom dynamics, optimizing SynComs for specific environmental contexts, and translating laboratory successes to reliable, field-scale applications. Additionally, advances in high-throughput screening, machine learning, and metagenomic profiling are accelerating the identification of key microbial taxa and functions relevant to plant health. Despite these promising developments, challenges remain in scaling these approaches for field applications and ensuring their ecological safety and consistency. This review explores the need for interdisciplinary efforts to translate laboratory insights into field-ready technologies, ultimately contributing to the development of climate-resilient and sustainable agricultural systems.

Late Quaternary climate change and the associated glacio-fluvial dynamics, especially in the high-altitude Himalayan region, are major scientific concerns. The Parbati River basin, located in the Kullu district, is highly vulnerable to changing temperature patterns and associated snow cover dynamics, including Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs), glacial retreats, and avalanches. The current study examined the assessment of snow-covered areas (SCA) using the Normalized Difference Snow Index (NDSI) and temperature dynamics, as measured by Land Surface Temperature (LST), which relies primarily on Landsat imagery from 2003 to 2023. The research revealed a strong negative correlation between LST and NDSI, with an increase in LST from -42 degrees C in 2003 to -13 degrees C in 2023 leading to a drastic decline in snow cover, at a rate of -31.85 square kilometres per year between 2003 and 2023. Furthermore, this region exhibited a sharp shift in the snowline position, from 123.05 m/year in 2003 to 2023. The outcome is crucial for illustrating the effects of climate change on highly mountainous, snow-covered basins.

INTRODUCTION:Wound healing is an important process in tissue regeneration and repair, during which events such as cell movement, proliferation, and tissue remodeling are keyfactor. Several pathological conditions, such as diabetes, hinder wound-healing processes. Mechanistically, healing processes are governed by many signaling pathways, which also influence scar formation; the ERK/MAPK pathway is a principal regulator of both wound healing and scar formation. Given the prevalence of chronic wounds worldwide, understanding this pathway is crucial for developing better treatment strategies. MATERIALS AND METHODS:Recent literature on the role of the ERK/MAPK pathway in healing chronic wounds, particularly in tissue repair and scar formation, was critically reviewed, exploring public databases and following the PRISMA approach. The findings on decoding the role of ERK pathways in wound healing, especially chronic wounds in diabetes, and screening phytomedicines for targeting the ERK/MAPK cascade are presented. RESULTS:The ERK/MAPK pathway controls the major stages of wound healing, viz., inflammation, cell migration, proliferation, and collagen deposition. DISCUSSION:Studies suggest that natural remedies, including extracts such as lemongrass, aloe vera and phytochemicals like citral, aloesin, catechin, can effectively modulate ERK signaling to shift the wound toward healing rather than scar formation. Although some progress has been made, further studies are needed to elucidate the diverse functions of ERK isoforms fully and to develop therapies with greater precision. CONCLUSION:ERK/MAPK-targeted phytotherapy is a useful intervention strategy that appears to facilitate healing of chronic wounds associated with life-threatening diseases.

Abstract Cellular organisms function as sophisticated molecular systems, orchestrating molecules and reactions for complex construction and environmental interactions. Examination of ciliates provides significant insights into cellular processes. The integration of ciliate observations with genetic and molecular analyses enhances our understanding of their behaviour and activity patterns. The diverse behaviours of ciliates, which have evolved in terms of activity and sensing, inform multiple fields, including genetics, toxicology, ecology, biochemistry, and molecular biology. Furthermore, the study of subcellular structures in ciliates offers innovative research opportunities and positions them as potential model organisms. Studies on ciliates provide insights into pathogen elimination, host-symbiont dynamics, and the molecular function of metazoan organelles. Researchers have investigated epigenetic regulation and molecular pattern formation during ciliate cell division. The rapid generation and growth rates of ciliates make them ideal for studies of population, predator-prey, and food-web dynamics. Protozoa are also suitable for studying epigenetics, aging, genome modifications, and cellular processes.

Diabetic foot ulcers (DFUs) are a serious diabetic complication leading to high rates of morbidity, amputation risks, and economic burdens on the treatment facilities. The present review continues our exploration of the novel paradigm of combining micronutrients with nanoparticles to address diabetes-related DFUs effectively. We performed a detailed examination of published studies to discuss our views on the ever-increasing utilization of essential micronutrients like zinc, selenium, and vitamins A, C, D, and E to modulate oxidative stress levels, stimulate the secretion of vascular endothelial growth factors, and aid in tissue repair mechanisms. This detailed scrutiny was carried out in parallel to analyze various nanoparticle-based systems to specifically address their bioavailability, stability, deliverability, and efficiency in carrying out wound repair in DFUs. Both micronutrients and nanoparticles have shown substantial activity to increase antioxidant mechanisms, boost the immunomodulatory system, and accelerate tissue repair mechanisms in DFUs. Both methods utilize advanced delivery mechanisms to precisely deliver drugs to the affected areas reliably. Novel delivery methods with micronutrients in DFUs showed a therapeutic integration approach to quicken the healing time to DFUs in faster re-epithelialization, decrease microbial counts, increase extracellular matrix remodeling, and improve healing rates in clinical settings. There is a need for further clinical development to stabilize formulations of combining micronutrients with delivering nanoparticles to serve clinical needs effectively in DFUs. There is a great potential influence in applying this novel multipurpose approach to treat DFUs effectively to increase healing rates and minimize risks of complications in diabetic clients.