Response of Cyanobacteria to Herbicides: A Biochemical and Molecular Approach

📖 The Scoop

Cyanobacteria, formerly called blue-green algae, are the most primitive form of algae under plant kingdom. These are called blue-green algae because they contain the photosynthetic pigments-phycocyanin (dominant pigment), phycoerythryin and chlorophyll a, which are responsible for their characteristic blue-green colour. They are known by different names such as, Blue-Green Algae or Cyanobacteria, Schizobacteria or Myxobacteria, Myxophyceae and Cyanophyceae. These are the first plant forms, which got the power of chlorophyll in their thylakoids and started the life supporting process of photosynthesis on the earth. Inoculation of crop plants with nitrogen fixing microbes (in the form of biofertilizers) has become an accepted biotechnology in US, Germany, Brazil, Israel, Egypt, China, India and some other parts of the world also. The paddy field ecosystem provides a favorable environment for the growth of cyanobacteria (blue green algae) with respect to their requirements for light, water, high temperature, and nutrient availability. Cyanobacteria produce and secrete a variety of biological substances such as auxins (Indole Acetic Acid, Indole Butyric Acid, Naphthalene Acetic Acid), gibberellins (GA1 to GA3) and vitamins, which promote the crop growth. Cyanobacteria can also reduce the oxidizable matter of the soil, remove soil compaction, narrow the C:N ratio and facilitate the aeration in the rhizosphere zone. Environmental stresses influence a plethora of physiological activities in living organisms. Cellular adaptation to environmental stress is the major process that protects organism from deleterious effects of various stresses like pesticide, salt, temperature, heavy metals etc. Being cosmopolitan in distribution, cyanobacteria are thought to have been exposed to different levels and types of stressors during their development, thus providing a suitable system for analyzing the adaptive mechanisms developed in response to changing stress conditions. Looking into the enormous potentiality of cyabobacteria, the authors have presented their intensive investigation in the form of a book Response of Cyanobacteria to Herbicides: A Biochemical and Molecular Approach to explore morphological changes such as color of the cells, cell shape and heterocyst frequency of herbicide-treated cyanobacterial species such as Anabaena fertilissima Rao, Aulosira fertilissima Ghose and Westiellopsis prolifica Janet., variations in pigment contents like chlorophyll a, total carotenoids, phycobilin pigments - phycocyanin, phycoerythrin and allophycocyanin of herbicide-treated cyanobacterial species, response of metabolites like carbohydrates, amino acids, proteins, phenols and activity of enzymes like nitrate reductase, glutamine synthatase and succinate dehydrogenase of herbicide-treated cyanobacterial species, functional group variation and detoxicants of herbicide-treated cyanobacterial species, protein profiling by Soduim Dodecyl Sulfate - Polyacrylamide Gel Electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE), genomic DNA profiling by Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD), and molecular characterization by 16S rDNA amplification of all three selected species of cyanobacteria. The present book would be helpful in enriching the knowledge of readers about herbicidal toxicology, biochemical response, and molecular aspects of cyanobacteria at lab scale as well as field studies.     

Genre: Science / Environmental Science (fancy, right?)