Western Ghats Of Tamil Nadu Research Articles

Diversity of Bacillus thuringiensis Isolated from Western Ghats of Tamil Nadu State, India

The Western Ghats of India is the one of the world's 10 "Hottest biodiversity hotspots" that runs along the western part of India through four states including Tamil Nadu. The only biodiversity reserve in the Western Ghats is the Nilgiri biosphere located in the Tamil Nadu state. In the present study, 525 soil samples were collected from all the 14 different divisions of the Western Ghats in Tamil Nadu state, India. A total of 316 new isolates of Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) that produce parasporal crystalline inclusions were isolated from 525 soil samples. Seven different types of crystalline inclusions were observed in the 316 new isolates of Bt. Cuboidal inclusion was predominantly present in 26.9% of the Bt isolates when compared to other shapes. Further characterization of 70 of the 316 Bt isolates for crystal protein profile through SDS-PAGE revealed six different types of crystal protein profile viz., 135 and 65, 135, 95, 65, 43, and 30 kDa crystal proteins. Variation in the mass of crystal protein(s) purified from the isolates of Bt revealed molecular diversity of this bacterium prevalent in the Western Ghats of Tamil Nadu, India.

Spatial distribution pattern of Agamid Lizards (Family: Agamidae) in the Western Ghats of Tamil Nadu, India

Spatial distribution pattern of Agamid Lizards (Family: Agamidae) in the Western Ghats of Tamil Nadu, India

Dimeria jayachandranii (Poaceae), a new species from the Western Ghats, India

A new grass, Dimeria jayachandranii Arisdason & P. Daniel is described and illustrated from the Anamalais Hills on the Western Ghats of Tamil Nadu.

PARTIAL PURIFICATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF PHYTOECDYSONE FROM CHRYSTELLA PARASITICA (L.) AND SCREENING ITS PESTICIDAL PROPERTIES ON LEPIDOPTERAN PESTS

ABSTRACT In the present study the fern Chrystella parasitica (L.) Khun (Deunstaedtiaceae : Pteridophyceae) endemic to Western Ghats of Tamil Nadu was screened for its phytochemical constituents and evaluated its pesticidal properties against two lepidopteran pests viz., Spodoptera litura (Fab.) and Helicoverpa armigera (Hub.). The phytochemical constituents were extracted with two organic solvents such as chloroform and ethanol, then used for the isolation of phytoecdysteroids following the method of CSIRO, Australia. The extracts/fractions those recorded phytoecdysteroids were used for bioefficacy studies. The results of the preliminary phytochemical analysis revealed that all the fractions except AF contains steroids. Among the other groups of phytochemicals, saponins and santhoprotiens were recorded in CE, EE and AF fractions and tannins and flavonoids in EE and AF. HPLC results of the phytoecdysone characterization revealed that C. parasitica contains two major phytoecdysteroids α and β–ecdysteroids. It shows α-ecdysone in CE and -ecdysone in EE and CEF fractions. Among the three extracts/ fractions screened for their pesticidal properties, EE recorded highest toxicity against the experimental insects followed by CEF and CE. Comparative studies between the two lepidopterans, H. armigera proved to be more susceptible than S. litura. The different extracts/fractions exerted different levels of impact on these experimental insects, as evident from the percent mortality, larval, pupal and adult developmental period, percent adult emergence, and developmental abonormalities. The deformities include larval-pupal intermediates, short and stumpy wings, retention of larval/pupal exuvia, head capsule etc.

Frullania ceylanica Nees (Frullaniaceae) – New to the hepatic flora of India

Frullania ceylanica, earlier though to be endemic to Ceylon (Sri Lanka), is added here to the bryoflora of India from the Western Ghats of Tamil Nadu. Based on earlier literature its taxonomy and nomenclature are discussed and a detailed description is provided along with an illustration and information on habitat.

Pavetta badullensis Ridsd. (Rubiaceae) - A Sri Lankan element and an addition to Indiafrom Western Ghats of Tamil Nadu

Pavetta badullensis Ridsd. (Rubiaceae) is, a Sri Lankan element and so far, restricted to Sri Lanka, a new distributional record for India from the Southern Western Ghats of Tamil Nadu. For the easy identity and further collection in field, a short description with an illustration and other details are provided here.

Antimicrobial activity of Streptomyces spp. ERI-26 recovered from Western Ghats of Tamil Nadu

A new actinomycetes isolate ERI-26 was recovered from Nilgiri forest soil of Western Ghats and screened for its antimicrobial activity against pathogenic bacteria and fungi. Cultural characteristics were assessed in different culture media and 16s rRNA pattern strongly suggested that this isolate belonged to Streptomyces. The morphological and physiological characters were recorded. ERI-26 exhibited resistance to streptomycin. ERI-26 had the ability to produce enzymes such as amylase, cellulase and catalase. Maximum biological activity was obtained on Modified Nutrient Glucose Agar (MNGA) medium. ERI-26 showed activity against bacteria such as Bacillus subtilis, Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus epidermidis, Enterococcus faecalis and fungi such as Candida albicans, Aspergillus niger and Aspergillus flavus. The antibacterial substances were extracted using methanol from MNGA medium in which ERI-26 had grown for six days at 28 °C. The antimicrobial activity was assessed using broth microdilution technique. The lowest Minimum Inhibitory Concentration of methanol fractions of ERI-26 against S. epidermidis was 375 μg/ml and against C. albicans was 500 μg/ml.

Grewia kothayarensis (Tiliaceae), a new species from Southern Western Ghats, India

Grewia kothayarensis sp. nov., a new species of Tiliaceae is described with illustration from Southern Western Ghats of Tamil Nadu, India.

Forest Land and Forest Produce - A Perspective from Experiences at Palni Hills, Western Ghats, Tamil Nadu

A public presence ensures public participation and public participation assures forest conservation. This equation was the theme of the case shared by Ashoka Fellow R.Kannan working in the Palni Hills, a part of the Western Ghats in Tamil Nadu. Kannan is showing the villagers and farmers how to hold the forest, grow crops, diversify the rural economy, protect the region's dwindling water supply and attract interest of forest officials and conservationists.

Rediscovery of two endemic and threatened taxa from the Western Ghats of Tamil Nadu, India

Rediscovery of Euonymus paniculatus (Celastraceae) Wight ex Lawson and Syzygium beddomei (Duthie) Chithra (Myrtaceae), two endemic and threatened taxa are relocated from the Western Ghats of Tamil Nadu, India after 110 years.

Gomphia barberi, a new species of Ochnaceae from Tirunelveli Hills, Western Ghats of India

Gomphia barberi sp. nov. (Ochnaceae) is described with an illustration from the Tirunelveli Hills of southern Western Ghats of Tamil Nadu, India.

Fissidens griffithii Gangulee (Musci: Fissidentales) - An addition to the bryoflora of India

Fissidens griffithii, a moss, earlier known to occur only in Bhutan, is recorded for India from the southern Western Ghats of Tamil Nadu. A detailed description and an illustration are provided.

High frequency in vitro propagation of Kidney Tea Plant

Multiple shoots were obtained on MS medium containing 2.22 mM BA, from nodal explants of a medicinally valuable plant Orthosiphon spiralis (Lour.) Murr. 'Kidney Tea Plant'. The regenerated shoots were further subcultured and rooted on 1 / 2 strength MS medium supplemented with IBA 4.9 mM. 60-70 per cent of plants were successfully established in the field. Abbreviations: BA - 6-benzyl adenine; IBA - indole-3-butyric acid; NAA - a-naphthalene acetic acid; MS - Murashige and Skoog salt medium Orthosiphon spiralis (Lour.) Murr. (Lamiaceae), spiralis is variably distributed and very rare in the commonly called 'Kidney Tea Plant', is a medicinal field and conservation of this species is needed to plant widely used in the treatment of various kidney ensure its sustainable utilization (Rajendran et al., and urinary bladder diseases including nephro- 2001). The present study was undertaken to develop a cirrhosis and phosphaturia. The activity of the leaves reproducible protocol for in vitro micropropagation is attributed to the presence of a bitter glycoside, using axillary shoot buds. Perusal of literature re- orthosiponin (Wealth of India, 1966). Orthosiphon vealed that this is the first report on tissue culture stamineus and Orthosiphon aristatus are synonyms of studies on this plant species. Orthosiphon spiralis. Orthosiphon stamineus exhibits Orthosiphon spiralis mother plants were collected hypoglycemic activity (Mariam et al., 1996) and the from the Western Ghats of Tamil Nadu, India. Nodal plant is also used to treat hepato-renal syndrome explants measuring 5 to 8 mm in length were washed (Shantanova et al., 1997) and renal ischaemia well under running tap water for 20 min, surface (Nikolaev et al., 1996). Ohasi et al. (2000) have sterilized with 0.1% (w / v) HgCl for 2 min and 2 isolated two new pimarane-type diterpins, neoor- washed five times with sterile distilled water. The thosiphols A and B that exhibit suppressive effect on explants were implanted vertically on the culture rat thoracic aorta. Sumaryonon et al. (1991) reported medium in glass tubes (203150 mm). The MS basal the accumulation of a phenolic compound rosmarinic medium (Murashige and Skoog, 1962) was sup- acid in O. aristatus cell cultures. For commercial plemented with sucrose (3% w / v) and different con- exploitation, the flowers and the floral buds of O. centrations of cytokinins viz. BA (0.44-22.2 mM), spiralis are usually removed to enhance the quantity 2iP (0.49-24.5 mM) and kinetin (0.46-23.0 mM). of the active constituent in the leaves. This practice The medium was adjusted to pH 5.8, gelled with 0.7% consequently hinders the seed setting and subsequent (w / v) agar (Hi Media, Mumbai), and autoclaved at utilization of the plant for conventional method of 121 8C for 20 min. The cultures were maintained at

Biomass, litterfall and aboveground net primary productivity of herbaceous communities in varied ecosystems at Kodayar in the western ghats of Tamil Nadu

Influence of herbaceous weed community on the forest ecosystem structure and function are essential to manage or control weeds effectively. Therefore, an attempt was made to study biomass, litter production and aboveground net primary productivity (ANPP) of herbaceous community was studied in natural secondary forest and man-modified ecosystems such as rubber plantation, Albizia plantation and wasteland. Man-modified ecosystems showed significantly greater herb density than the natural ecosystem. This may be due to open habitat in the man-modified ecosystems, which favoured colonisation of exotic weed species resulting in greater herb density. All the landuses studied here showed greater standing crop biomass in the tree layer compared to herbaceous layer. However, herbaceous layer aboveground biomass and net primary production varied among the landuse types considerably. Greater biomass of annual exotic weeds and Lantana camara in these man-modified ecosystem could be attributed to high degree of disturbance and open environment. Greater standing crop biomass and net primary productivity of Chromolaena odorata in rubber plantation may be due to the existing practice of ineffective aboveground mechanical weeding. Lower ANPP and greater biomass accumulation quotient of exotics such as C. odorata and L. camara in the natural secondary forest may be attributed to less favourable resource conditions for its growth and also possibly lack of occurrence of disturbance. Percentage contribution of exotic plants to the total herbaceous community in terms of litter production and ANPP was higher in the wasteland and lower in the disturbed forest. But, the native plants contribution showed a reverse trend. Percentage contribution of exotic plants to the total herbaceous community in terms of litter production and ANPP was higher in the wasteland and lower in the disturbed forest. But, the native plants contribution showed a reverse trend. Greater herbaceous community litter production and net primary productivity in the man-modified ecosystems might be due to faster turnover of ruderal herbaceous community or modification of the tree layer.

Plant species diversity and tree population structure of a humid tropical forest in Tamil Nadu, India

Vegetation structure and species composition of tropical ecosystems were studied through nine transects at Veerapuli and Kalamalai reserve forests in the Western Ghats of Tamil Nadu, India. Species diversity, dominance, species richness and evenness indices of plant communities and also population structure of woody plants were enumerated. A total of 244 species (183 genera and 76 families) were recorded. Species richness (number of species) were 82,142 and 96 species per 0.3 ha respectively for the study areas of low-elevation forest (LEF), mid-elevation forest (MEF) and high elevation forest (HEF). Species diversity indices were greater in MEF compared to the other two forests except juveniles. In contrast, greater dominance value indices were recorded in LEF than other forests. Density and basal area of the MEF were twice greater than the LEF, while HEF showed greater tree density and low basal area when compared to LEF. The stem density and species richness (number of species) decreased with increased size classes of trees observed in the present study indicated good regeneration status. Population structure of juveniles and seedlings also reflects good regeneration status. Terminalia paniculata (IVI of 99.9) and Hopea parviflora (IVI of 103.8) were dominant tree species respectively in LEF and MEF whereas in HEF Agrostistachys meeboldii (63.65), Cullenia excelsa (63.67) and Drypetes oblongifolia (39.67) share the dominance. Past damage (anthropogenic perturbation) may be one of the reasons for single species dominance in LEF and MEF. Occurrence of alien species such as Eupatorium odoratum and Ageratum conyzoides also indicated the past disturbance in LEF. The variations in plant diversity and population structure are largely due to anthropogenic perturbation and other abiotic factors.

Arisaema jethompsonii (Araceae): A New Species from the Western Ghats, India

Sumnmary. Arisaema jethompsonii, a new species from the Western Ghats of Tamil Nadu, allied to A. tortuosum (Wall.) Schott, is described and illustrated. During a study of the south Indian Araceae involving taxonomy, cytology and palynology (Thiyagaraj 1994), an Arisaema was collected at the southern end of the Western Ghats in Tirunelveli-Kanyakumari. It could not be identified with any of the 17 known south Indian species, and is described here as new. Arisaema jethompsonii Thiyagaraj & P. Daniel sp. nov. Arisaema tortuosae (Wall.) Schott affinis, sed foliolis 5 - 7, non 5 - 18, anguste ellipticis, marginibus integris vel leviter undulato-crenatis, limbo spathae base incisurato, apice acuto, appendice inclusa cylindracea, apice curvata obtusa et verrucosa differt. Typus: India, Tamil Nadu, Kanyakumari Distr., Thiyagaraj 173 (holotypus MH; isotypus K). Perennial, monoecious or dioecious herb, 40- 100 cm high, glabrous; corm subglobose, 1.5 - 2 (5) cm across. Cataphylls 1 - 3, up to 35 cm long, membranous, mottled with white-purple markings. Leaves 2 (- 3); petioles slender, up to 50 cm long, mottled with white-purple markings, closely sheathing at the base up to ?4 of their length and forming a pseudostem; leaflets 5 - 7, pedate, short-petiolulate, narrowly elliptic, 6- 25 x 2.5- 8 cm, attenuate at the base, entire to faintly undulatecrenate along the margins, acuminate at the apex, green above, glossy beneath; lateral nerves 12 - 15 on each side, impressed above, arising at an angle of 45o with the midnerve, arcuate at the margin. Peduncle slender, :/4 enclosed by the leaf-sheath, exserted up to 12 cm from the pseudostem; tube of the spathe cylindric, 4 - 5 cm long; limb ovate, acuminate, leaning in front, notched at the base, 4- 5 cm long, with

Sorghum nitidum (Vah1) Pers., occurrence, morphology and cytology

The distribution, collection, morphology and cytology ofSorghum nitidum (Vah1) Pers. belonging to the sectionParasorghum of genusSorghum are presented. The species collected in the western ghats of Tamil Nadu and Kerala has 10 normal (A) chromosomes (2n=10) and 3 supernumerary (B) chromosomes, which are reported for the first time in Indian collections.