Analysis of 16S rRNA amplicon data illuminates the major role of environment in determining the marine plastisphere microbial communities.

Microplastics (MPs) are a potential threat to the marine environment and its associated ecosystem functions. Earlier investigations revealed that the microbiome plays a crucial role in deciding the fate of MPs in the environment. Further studies also highlighted the influences of environment and polymer types on the plastisphere microbiome.

Existence of rare actinobacterial forms in the Indian sector of Southern Ocean: 16 S rRNA based metabarcoding study.

The significance of the Southern Ocean (SO) as a sink of atmospheric CO and other greenhouse gases is well established. Earlier studies have highlighted the role of microbes in various SO ecosystem processes. However, the diversity and role of actinobacteria in the Indian sector of SO (ISO) water and sediments are unknown.

Establishing African genomics and bioinformatics programs through annual regional workshops.

The African BioGenome Project (AfricaBP) Open Institute for Genomics and Bioinformatics aims to overcome barriers to capacity building through its distributed African regional workshops and prioritizes the exchange of grassroots knowledge and innovation in biodiversity genomics and bioinformatics. In 2023, we implemented 28 workshops on biodiversity genomics and bioinformatics, covering 11 African countries across the 5 African geographical regions. These regional workshops trained 408 African scientists in hands-on molecular biology, genomics and bioinformatics techniques as well as the ethical, legal and social issues associated with acquiring genetic resources.

Don't let valuable microbiome data go to waste: combined usage of merging and direct-joining of sequencing reads for low-quality paired-end amplicon data.

The pernicious nature of low-quality sequencing data warrants improvement in the bioinformatics workflow for profiling microbial diversity. The conventional merging approach, which drops a copious amount of sequencing reads when processing low-quality amplicon data, requires alternative methods. In this study, a computational workflow, a combination of merging and direct-joining where the paired-end reads lacking overlaps are concatenated and pooled with the merged sequences, is proposed to handle the low-quality amplicon data.

Antibiotic Indexing and Heavy Metal Reduction Potential of Four Multi-metal Tolerant Bacterial Strains in Real-Time Sanitary Landfill Leachate Matrix.

Sanitary leachate from urban landfills is known to be contaminated with multi-metals and residual antibiotics. Current research edges on exploring the multi-metal and antibiotic sensitivity profile of four indigenous strains, "Brevibacillus spp. Leclercia spp.

Merging and concatenation of sequencing reads: a bioinformatics workflow for the comprehensive profiling of microbiome from amplicon data.

A comprehensive profiling of microbial diversity is essential to understand the ecosystem functions. Universal primer sets such as the 515Y/926R could amplify a part of 16S and 18S rRNA and infer the diversity of prokaryotes and eukaryotes. However, the analyses of mixed sequencing data pose a bioinformatics challenge; the 16S and 18S rRNA sequences need to be separated first and analysed individually/independently due to variations in the amplicon length.

Evaluation of non-cancer risk owing to groundwater fluoride and iron in a semi-arid region near the Indo-Bangladesh international frontier.

Groundwater quality in Hili, a semi-arid border region at Indo-Bangladesh border, was investigated in the post-monsoon season of 2021, succeeded by assessment of probabilistic health risk arising from fluoride (F) and iron (Fe) intake, with the hypothesis that groundwater quality of the region was not satisfactory for human consumption and health, considering earlier reports on high groundwater F and Fe in few of the neighboring districts. All water samples were found to be potable in terms of Ca, Mg, Cl, SO and NO , but F and Fe exceeded prescribed safe limits for drinking water in about 48% and 7% samples. Almost all water samples were found to be good for irrigation in terms of sodium adsorption ratio (SAR), soluble sodium percentage (SSP), Kelly's index (KI), %Na and magnesium ratio (MR).

The groundnut improvement network for Africa (GINA) germplasm collection: a unique genetic resource for breeding and gene discovery.

Cultivated peanut or groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.) is a grain legume grown in many developing countries by smallholder farmers for food, feed, and/or income. The speciation of the cultivated species, that involved polyploidization followed by domestication, greatly reduced its variability at the DNA level.

Review of bioaerosols from different sources and their health impacts.

The emission of bioaerosols in the ambient atmosphere from different sources is a cause of concern for human health and the environment. Bioaerosols are a combination of biotic matter like microbes and pollens. The present review emphasizes the understanding of various sources of bioaerosols (industries, municipal solid waste, and medical facilities), their components, and their impact on human health.

Assessment of meteorological parameters on air pollution variability over Delhi.

In this study, the relationships between meteorological parameters (relative humidity, wind speed, temperature, planetary boundary layer, and rainfall) and air pollutants (particulate matter and gaseous pollutants) have been evaluated during a 3-year period from 2019 to 2021. Diffusion and dispersion of air contaminants were significantly influenced by meteorology over the capital city. The results of correlation matrix and principal component analysis (PCA) suggest a season's specific influence of meteorological parameters on atmospheric pollutants' concentration.

Prediction of glaciated area fraction over the Sikkim Himalayan Region, India: a comparative study using response surface method, random forest, and artificial neural network.

Glacier area fraction at high altitude mountains is a serious worry in today's time triggered by climate change. The current information on this natural resource is very important for the survival of humanity as it affects the water, food, and energy security of people dependent on it. Due to its problematic accessibility and tough environmental condition, ground monitoring is quite challenging.

Performance-based protocol for selection of economical portable sensor for air quality measurement.

An effective micro-level air quality management plan requires high-resolution monitoring of pollutants. India has already developed a vast network of air quality monitoring stations, both manual and real time, located primarily in urban areas, including megacities. The air quality monitoring network consists of conventional manual stations and real time Continuous Ambient Air Quality Monitoring Stations (CAAQMS) which comprise state-of-the-art analysers and instruments.

Personal protective equipment and micro-nano plastics: A review of an unavoidable interrelation for a global well-being hazard.

The usage and the demand for personal protective equipments (PPEs) for our day-to-day survival in this pandemic period of COVID-19 have seen a steep rise which has consequently led to improper disposal and littering. Fragmentation of these PPE units has eventually given way to micro-nano plastics (MNPs) emission in the various environmental matrices and exposure of living organisms to these MNPs has proven to be severely toxic. Numerous factors contribute to the toxicity imparted by these MNPs that mainly include their shape, size, functional groups and their chemical diversity.

Community kitchen tandoors (CKT)-a potential candidate for air pollution mitigation strategies?

Community kitchen tandoor (CKT) is a clay-based hollow cylindrical device commonly used in South Asian and Middle Eastern countries for baking flatbreads and cooking meat. These CKTs, generally fuelled by charcoal or wood, contribute significantly to the pollution loads in ambient air along with occupational exposure hazards. CKTs, being a part of the informal sector, lack emissions and safety guidelines.

Characterization of organic contaminants associated with road dust of Delhi NCR, India.

Hydrophobic organic contaminated polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and CHNS (carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen and sulphur species) are explosively associated with road dust particles. A few organic contaminants are toxic in nature and have an unpleasant effect on human health. The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the United States-Environmental Protection Agency has considered several PAHs and PCBs as carcinogens for human beings.

Cyclic volatile methyl siloxanes (D4, D5, and D6) as the emerging pollutants in environment: environmental distribution, fate, and toxicological assessments.

Cyclic volatile methyl siloxanes (cVMS) have now become a subject of environmental contamination and risk assessment due to their widespread use and occurrence in different environmental matrices. Due to their exceptional physio-chemical properties, these compounds are diversely used for formulations of consumer products and others implying their continuous and significant release to environmental compartments. This has captured the major attention of the concerned communities on the grounds of potential health hazards to human and biota.

Spatial distribution and temporal variation of biomass burning and surface black carbon concentrations during summer (2015‒2021) in India.

Historical biomass burning in summer season (April‒June, during 2015‒2021) was assessed by studying active fire spot data recorded by the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) aboard NASA/NOAA Suomi NPP satellite and mapping the same over Indian landmass. The fire spots often formed regional clusters and most profusely covered the states of Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Telengana, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Manipur, Nagaland, and Mizoram during April but their number decreased conspicuously in May and further in June. Forward movements of air masses potentially carrying fire-induced air pollutants from five principal fire cluster regions (northern, south eastern, western, north-eastern, and central) of India during April and May in 2021 were traced by 6-day forward airtrajectory modelling.

Field validated biomarker (ValidBIO) based assessment of impacts of various pollutants in water.

The sensitivity of fish towards pollutants serves as an excellent tool for the analysis of water pollution. The effluents generated from various anthropogenic activities may contain heavy metals, pesticides, microplastics, and persistent organic pollutants (POPs) and ultimately find its way to aquatic environment. The enzymatic activities of fish collected from water bodies near major cities, oil spillage sites, agricultural land, and intensively industrialized areas have been reported to be significantly impacted in various field studies.

Diurnal and Seasonal Variation of Atmospheric Particulate Matter and Trace Gases in Industrial Area of Delhi: A Study.

The diurnal and seasonal variation of PM, SO, NO, NH and water-soluble compounds were studied in Naraina industrial area; Delhi from January to December, 2017. It was observed that annual average concentrations of PM SO, NO, NH SO, NO, NH,Na, K, Ca, Mg, Cl and F in the day time were 227 ± 91, 9 ± 5, 59 ± 22, 65 ± 15, 17.45 ± 5.

Microbial Treatment of Raw and Primary Treated Sanitary Landfill Leachate by Indigenous Strain Brevibacillus agri.

Landfill leachate is a potential environmental threat. Sanitary landfills are model sites which contains a leachate collection pool and a processing facility to treat it up to environmental standards before discharge. The present study is the very first endeavor to establish leachate treatment efficiency of indigenous microbial strain Brevibacillus agri.

Regional scenario of air pollution in lockdown due to COVID-19 pandemic: Evidence from major urban agglomerations of India.

Air pollution in India during COVID-19 lockdown, which imposed on 25th March to 31st May 2020, has brought a significant improvement in air quality. The present paper mainly focuses on the scenario of air pollution level (PM, PM, SO, NO and O) across 57 urban agglomerations (UAs) of India during lockdown. For analysis, India has been divided into six regions - Northern, Western, Central, Southern, Eastern and North-Eastern.

Use of enzymatic biomarkers of Labeo rohita to study the effect of polybrominated diphenyl ether (BDE- 209) via dietary exposure in laboratory conditions.

Fishes have been widely used as a representative to estimate the health of an aquatic ecosystem. In the present study, Labeo rohita was selected for biomarker study against decabromodiphenyl ether (BDE-209), a persistent organic pollutant (POP), as it is a widely used Indian carp. The results suggested significant effects on the optimum metabolism of Labeo rohita.

Quantitative assessment and mitigation measures of air pollution from crematoria in NCT of Delhi.

The modernization of crematoria and replacement of existing fuel requirements for better air quality is a key challenge in view of the associated religious beliefs in India where conventional open pyre funeral practices are followed. Unlike developed nations, the lack of appropriate site selection criteria, combustion efficient crematorium oven designs, and pollution control devices at these facilities necessitates formulation of appropriate policy measures to reduce emissions. The existing practices do not address such localized sources that affects the micro air pollution patterns owing to their marginal contribution in the total air pollution load of the city.