International Letters of Natural Sciences Vol. 63

Abstract: Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is a principle crop with great economic importance in Vietnam, providing daily food for over 90 million people in this country. However, a large rice growing areas and rice production are being seriously affected by the threats of devastation from climate change. The need to develop salinity tolerance rice varieties to cope with adverse climate change is very imperative. In this study, based on the genome sequence databases of 36 Vietnamese rice landraces, we have identified 9 Vietnamese rice landraces carrying nine SalT candidate gene with the sequence similarity to O. sativa SalT (the published GenBank: Z25811.1) which have shown salinity tolerance are: Te Nuong, Khau mac buoc, Chan thom, Khau giang, Tan ngan, Nang thom cho dao, OM5629, Hom rau and Thom Lai). Amongst them, 4 rice landraces including Nang thom cho dao, OM5629, Hom rau and Thom lai have shown 2 fragments of deletion with 6 and 7 nucleotides which were most identical to the reference SalT gene. Two primers has been successfully designed to identify the SalT candidate gene in Vietnamese rice landraces. This study provides useful information of salinity tolerance of some Vietnamese rice landraces for breeding programs.

Abstract: Heavy metal toxicity has become a universal threat to all life forms, including plants. The main purpose of this study was to identify the gene expression profiling of MAPK, Thioredoxin, and MnSOD genes in wheat seedlings as affected by cadmium treatment. For this experiment, the quantitative Real-Time PCR on RNA isolated from shoots of wheat exposed to CdCl2 at a concentration of 100 mg/L was used. Results showed that in wheat seedling that exposed to cadmium stress for six days of beginning constant cadmium stress, Thioredoxin gene expression showed a large rise compared with the control sample, MnSOD gene expression increased compared with non-treated wheat seedling at the same times, but unlike the Thioredoxin and MnSOD genes, MAPK gene expression has no significant changes. Of course, it is possible that other times of beginning treatments (instead of six days) cause a change in this gene expression.

Abstract: Chalkiness is a major constraint on rice production because it is one of the key factors determining grain quality (appearance, processing, milling, storing, eating, and cooking quality) and price. In this study, we conducted grain chalkiness gene identification using co-dominant insertion/deletion (INDEL) markers and SSR marker combination on 50 different varieties. The application results in 7 InDel markers and SSR marker on chromosome 7 were recorded. Three primers, InDel 5, InDel 14 and RM21938, associated with grain chalkiness. For the InDel 5 primer, the amplification product was 100%. Use of primer InDel 5 in detection and evaluation of genotype to the chalkiness trait of rice grain on 50 rice varieties indicated the suitability level with phenotypic evaluation was 86% and the unsuitability level was 14%. For the InDel 14 primer, the amplification products were 100%. The suitability with phenotypic assessment was 84% and the unsuitability was 16%. For the RM21938 primer, the amplification product was 94%. The suitability with phenotypic assessment was 76% and the unsuitability was 24%. Thirteen of the selected varieties had grain chalkiness gene both InDel 5, InDel 14 and RM21938. Total 13 varieties were detected from InDel 5, InDel 14 and RM12938 primer combinations also showed high efficiency of the InDel technique in identifying chalkiness gene in rice grain. A cluster analysis was performed and a dendrogram was constructed which evinced the nature of phylogenetic classification among the genotypes of the varieties. These markers could be used for developing quality of rice in breeding program.

Abstract: The poultry industry in Nigeria keeps expanding on a daily basis and it is faced with the problem of egg glut almost yearly. Most of the poultry are raised in rural environments where there is no available and avoidable power supply for egg preservation. The study was aimed at using locally available and cheap materials for preservation of eggs quality under the hot ambient temperature. The eggs were divided into three groups of 80 eggs each. The first and second groups were treated with vegetable oil (soybean oil) and shea butter, respectively, while the third group served as control. The eggs were stored under the ambient conditions and assessed for their physical and nutritional qualities on days 1, 8, 15, 22, 29, 36, 43 and 50. The physical quality was assessed by determining the albumen height and the Haugh’s unit, while the nutritional quality was appraised through the protein concentration of the albumen. Based on the values of Haugh’s unit, eggs treated with vegetable oil produced excellent results; good quality eggs were obtained up to 50^th day of storage. Treatment with shea butter maintained quality eggs up to the 29^th day, while with untreated eggs good physical quality was maintained up to 22^nd day of storage. Protein concentrations of eggs in the three groups studied decline with duration of storage, however the protein concentrations of eggs treated with vegetable oil were significantly higher than the other groups (p<0.001). The eggs treated with shea butter recorded a comparative higher protein concentrations than the untreated eggs (p=0.002).

Abstract: This paper aimed at underlying some physico-chemical characteristics of the water of Lake Lanao at Poona-bayabao, Lanao Del Sur during the first quarter of 2015, by evaluating a total of eight (8) water quality parameters. Physical parameters were temperature, depth, transparency, and total suspended solids. On the other hand, the chemical parameters were pH, dissolved oxygen, phosphate and nitrate. Three sampling stations were considered in the study. Community’s knowledge, perceptions, and attitudes towards the utilization and condition of the lake were also evaluated through interview. Results showed that all assessed physico-chemical parameters still conformed to the Philippines standards set by Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) for fresh surface water as Class A as for the year 2015. One-way Anova showed no significant difference in the overall average of the physico-chemical characteristics in the three sampling stations of Lake Lanao (p > 0.05). With the results obtained, the Lake can still be a source of water supply that require complete treatment in order to meet National Standards for Drinking Water (NSDW) of the Philippines, within the year of the conduct of the study. For the assessment of community’s knowledge, perceptions, and attitudes, Kruskal-Wallis test showed that the knowledge, perceptions, and attitudes are not significantly different in terms of stations. A more comprehensive and wider range monitoring is recommended for future study about the lake.