Ahmad Zaheer

University of Lahore | UOL · Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology

Serratia species-affiliated DNA sequences have recently been discovered in the root nodules of two chickpea cultivars; however, little is known about their potential influence on chickpea plant growth. All Serratia-affiliated sequences (1136) could be grouped into two clusters at 98 % DNA similarity. The major cluster, represented by 96 % of sequen...

The main objective of the present study was to isolate phytohormone-producing, phosphate-solubilizing strains of Azospirillum from wheat to be used as inoculants for plant growth promotion. Five Azospirillum strains were isolated from the rhizosphere of field-grown wheat (Triticum aestivum L.), and it was confirmed by BOX-polymerase chain reaction...

In the present study, the relative distribution of endophytic rhizobia in field-collected root nodules of the promiscuous host mung bean was investigated by sequencing of 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) and nifH genes, amplified directly from the nodule DNA. Co-dominance of the genera Bradyrhizobium and Ensifer was indicated by 32.05 and 35.84% of the tot...

Objective: Phosphate (P) and zinc (Zn) are essential plant nutrients required for nodulation, nitrogen-fixation, plant growth and yield. Mostly applied P and Zn nutrients in the soil are converted into unavailable form. A small number of soil microbes have the ability to transform unsolvable forms of P and Zn to an available form. P-Zn-solubilizing...

Objective: Maize is an important crop for fodder, food and feed industry. The present study explores the plant-microbe interactions as alternative eco-friendly sustainable strategies to enhance the crop yield. Methodology: Bacterial diversity was studied in the rhizosphere of maize by culture-dependent and culture-independent techniques by soil...

Aims: Soil microbial communities are among the most diverse communities that might be affected due to transgenic crops. Therefore, risk assessment studies on transgenes are essentially required as any adverse effects may depend not only on the specific gene and crop involved but also on soil conditions. Methods and results: The present study dea...

Manganese (Mn) is an essential micronutrient for plant growth that is involved in the structure of photosynthetic proteins and enzymes. Mn deficiency is widespread mainly in dry, calcareous, and sandy soil, which leads to a significant decrease in crop yield. Mn-reducing bacteria promote the solubilization of Mn minerals, thus increasing Mn availab...

Dementia and diabetes are the two major disorders that are linked at both biochemical and molecular levels which is due to the existing similarities between pancreatic beta-cells and neuronal cells at the transcription and translational levels. Both diseases have similar causative genes or factors and dementia is one of the advanced complications i...

Genes differentially regulate transcription processes to maintain biological activities throughout the life of an organism. However, little is known about their fate after organismal death. The Indianmeal moth Plodia interpunctella is a global pest insect that infests stored and manufactured agricultural products. We examined the changes in mRNA le...

Maize is used as staple food in various European countries and it is also used for the production of corn syrups, corn starch and corn ethanol etc. Due to the anthropogenic activities our environment has become polluted. Most of the heavy metals have been eliminated from industrial areas which affect our crop production. The current study was condu...

Heavy metal toxicity affects plant growth, human and animal lives, and microbial activity etc. Heavy metals have badly affected the metabolism and physiological activities of different plants. Heavy metals cannot be destroyed or degraded therefore when their concentration is exceeded they accumulate into the plants and cause toxic effects. Data was...

Waste disposals from industries, commercial, agricultural, medical and automobile are major soil pollutants that contain heavy metals, inorganic and organic compounds etc. In agricultural lands heavy metals accumulated into the soil which effect crop growth, and ultimately food production. Maize genotype Pak-afghoi was used to investigate the effec...

Zinc (Zn) deficiency in major food crops has been considered as an important factor affecting crop production and subsequently the human health. The application of Zn solubilizing bacteria could be a sustainable agronomic approach to increase the soil available Zn. The present field study was conducted at two different sites (Farmers’ fields at Bah...

Rice is one of the most important crops for feeding about more than half of the world's population. Yield of rice crop is significantly hampered by various biotic and abiotic factors. Application of cost-effective and environment-friendly bioinoculant is a common practice to combat the yield losses of rice in this era. The rhizosphere and phyllosph...

Thermophiles are the microorganisms that grow well at high temperatures and are found in specific places such as hot springs, geothermal and volcanic vents. Thermophilic bacteria can produce certain enzymes called thermostable enzymes, which are used for different purposes such as in pharmaceutical, detergent, leather, food, and other industries. S...

Industrial wastewater contains a high amount of heavy metals that have deleterious impact on aquatic life and enter in human food chain. Among heavy metals, cobalt (Co) is a very toxic element present in wastewater of many industries and affecting the environment. It is present in soluble form that is extremely toxic for any biological function. So...

In Rhizobium-legume symbiosis, the nodule is the most frequently studied compartment, where the endophytic/symbiotic microbiota demands critical investigation for development of specific inocula. We identified the bacterial diversity within root nodules of mung bean from different growing areas of Pakistan using Illumina sequencing of 16S rRNA gene...

Background: Breast cancer is a multifactorial disease with the highest frequency in females. Genetic and environmental factors can cause mutation in several genes like tyrosine kinase, JAK2 gene which may initiate cancer. Molecular analysis of mutations in the JAK2 gene along with determination of environmental, clinical and haematological risk fac...

Objective: Phosphorous is an essential micronutrient of plants and involved in critical biological functions. In nature, phosphorous is mostly present in immobilized inorganic mineral and in the fixed organic form including phytic acid and phosphoesteric compounds. However, the bioavailability of bound phosphorous could be enhanced by the use of p...

In present study, the effect of two phosphate-zinc-solubilizing bacterial strains (Pseudomonas stain AZ5 and Bacillus strain AZ17) was evaluated on the yield and quality of winter crop chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.). Zinc and phosphate are essential plant nutrients required for nodulation, nitrogen fixation, plant growth and yield. Mostly applied zi...

ABSTRACT: Objective: Phosphate (P) and zinc (Zn) are essential plant nutrients required for nodulation, nitrogen-fixation, plant growth and yield. Mostly applied P and Zn nutrients in soil are converted into unavailable form. A small number of soil microbes have ability to transform unsolvable forms of P and Zn to an available form. P-Zn-solubilizi...

Different species of the bacterial genus Mesorhizobium are known to induce nitrogen fixing nodules on the roots of chickpea. In the present study, bacterial diversity and distribution of the genus Mesorhizobium in the root nodules and rhizospheric soil of chickpea growing at 5 different localities of Pakistan was investigated by sequencing of PCR-a...

Phosphorus (P) is an essential plant nutrient, but often limited in soils for plant uptake. A major economic constraint in the rice production is excessive use of chemical fertilizers to meet the P requirement. Bioaugmentation of phosphate solubilizing rhizobacteria (PSB) can be used as promising alternative. In the present study 11 mineral PSB wer...

Objective: To study the putative effects of Advanced Oxidation Protein Products (AOPPs) and Advanced Glycation End Products (AGEs) in the development and progression of cardiovascular disease (CVD). Methodology: AGEs, AOPPs, e-NOS, lipid profile, circulating stress and inflammatory biomarkers were evaluated among fifty cardiovascular patients an...

Objective: To study the putative effects of Advanced Oxidation Protein Products (AOPPs) and Advanced Glycation End Products (AGEs) in the development and progression of cardiovascular disease (CVD). Methodology: AGEs, AOPPs, e-NOS, lipid profile, circulating stress and inflammatory biomarkers were evaluated among fifty cardiovascular patients and f...

Objective: To study the putative effects of Advanced Oxidation Protein Products (AOPPs) and Advanced Glycation End Products (AGEs) in the development and progression of cardiovascular disease (CVD). Methodology: AGEs, AOPPs, e-NOS, lipid profile, circulating stress and inflammatory biomarkers were evaluated among fifty cardiovascular patients and f...

Background: Cancer patients when treated with different chemotherapeutic drugs often develop mild to severe sight threatening diseases during or after chemotherapy. The mechanism involved in the pathogenesis of ocular toxicities is poorly understood. Oxidative stress, inflammation and MMPs (angiogenic factor) are involved in the progression of che...

Glycine betaine (GB) is an important organic compound mediating plant responses to environmental stresses. However, despite ample research on this biomolecule, the potential of GB in mitigating the effects of waterlogging in plants has not been established. Therefore, we studied the influence of GB on growth and physiology of tomato plants under wa...

In the present study, bacterial diversity and distribution of the genus Mesorhizobium in the root nodules and rhizospheric soil of chickpea growing at 5 different localities of Pakistan was investigated by pyrosequencing of PCR-amplified 16S rRNA and nifH genes. In the nodules, 56.73% of the retrieved 16S rRNA sequences and only a minor fraction 0....

Microbial enzymes play a key role as metabolic catalysts, leading to their diverse applications and use in various industries. The constant search for novel microbial enzymes has led to improvisations in the industrial processes which is the key for profit growth. Actinomycetes form a significant group of microbial populations in soil, plant tissue...

Dry land soils from the Indo-Gangetic plains are inherently poor in organic matter content and phosphorus (P). Amendment of these soils with P-enriched compost, together with P solubilizing rhizobacterial (PSR) inoculation has been suggested to improve plant growth and P uptake. We performed 3 × 2 factorial experiment using compost i.e. control, ra...

Background and objectives: Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is regarded as a catastrophe of modern age which affecting millions of people around the globe without any age, gender and race discrimination. Due to low survival, late detection, poor prognosis and accelerated mortality rates, this carcinoma has attained profound attention worldwide....

Background Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a group of heterogeneous abnormalities affecting the function and structure of the kidney and mostly further proceeds to cardiovascular damage prior to end stage renal disease (ESRD). The oxidative insult and inflammatory mediators have some undefined role in CKD and cardiovascular complications. It is the...

The present study was carried out to evaluate the antimicrobial activity of ethanolic extracts of Azadirachta indica and Psidium guajava against four clinically important bacteria namely Staphylococcus aureus, Salmonella typhi, E. coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The antimicrobial activity of extracts was done with agar well diffusion assay in plat...

Background Ovarian cancer is the 5th most common cause of deaths in the women among gynecological tumors. There are many growing evidences that stress and other behavioral factors may affect cancer progression and patient survival. The purpose of this study is to determine the key role of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs), and cytokines in the aggre...

Cancer invasion involves a series of fundamental heterogeneous steps, with each step being distinct in its type regarding its dependence on various oncogenic pathways. Over the past few years, researchers have been focusing on targeted therapies to treat malignancies relying not only on a single oncogenic pathway, but on multiple pathways. Scientis...

A cross sectional prospective study was designed to find out the prophetic effect of hyperprolactinemia mediated depression (HMD) in schizophrenics susceptible to thyroid disorders. One hundred newly diagnosed patients (61 males and 29 females) suffering from schizophrenia in the age group of 24-67 years were recruited in the study. Fifty age and s...

Plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) are a group of soil microorganisms that improve plant growth and yield through a number of diverse mechanisms such as phosphate solubilization, nitrogen fixation, production of phytohormones, and repression of soil borne pathogens. Due to high cost of chemical fertilizers and negative environmental effect...

Background and aims Chickpea is mainly cultivated in nutrient deficient soils in rainfed areas where application of phosphate (P) fertilizer is the main limitation for resource poor farmers. Therefore the present study was conducted to detect P-solubilizing bacteria from field-grown chickpea by DNA-based method, which followed their cultivation for...

The main objective of the present study was the isolation and identification of the nodule endophyte of mung bean root nodules by morphological characteristics, plant infectivity tests for nodulation and 16S rRNA sequence analysis. Two bacterial isolates obtained from the nodules of mung bean were identified as Ensifer strains on the basis of colon...

The main objective of the present study was the isolation and identification of the nodule endophyte of mung bean root nodules by morphological characteristics, plant infectivity tests for nodulation and 16S rRNA sequence analysis. Two bacterial isolates obtained from the nodules of mung bean were identified as Ensifer strains on the basis of colon...

Beneficial role of microbes, originating from soil or other sources, has been recognized in many biogeochemical cycles and environmental protection as well as in several processes and products of food, feed and textile industry. In the modern era of scientific advancements, microbial genomes have been utilized not only for improvement of useful pro...

On Oct 1, 2014 this sequence version replaced gi:425025377.

On Sep 30, 2014 this sequence version replaced gi:392841078.

Alkaline proteases are the most important group of extremoenzymes which have a wide array of applications in various industries such as detergent, food, pharmaceutical, leather and silk. For the purpose of maximum alkaline protease production, response surface methodology was performed using Bacillus licheniformis. The sources used were glucose as...

In rainfed farming, livestock is the main source of livelihood as the agriculture crops often confront drought situations and thus may not reach to maturity. Brassica having tape root system has the ability to grow under rainfed conditions. To provide green fodder to livestock during winter fodder scarcity period, an experiment was conducted to com...

Abstract: Resistance (R) genes containing nucleotide binding site (NBS) and leucine rich repeats (LRR) are the most prevalent types of resistance (R) genes in plants. The objective of this study was to isolate, identify and analyze resistance genes from disease (rust) and resistant wheat lines by PCR based strategy. Fifteen degenerate primers were...

The aim of the present study was to isolate and characterize plant growth promoting rhizobacteria from the rhizosphere of field-grown maize. Among the five bacterial isolates obtained in the present study, the isolates M1, M7 and ZN1 showed typical Azospirillum-like cell morphology, motility and high sequence similarity of 16S rDNA to the genus Azo...

Understanding the causes and consequences of biological diversity is a central goal of biology. Only 1-3% of the soil microbial population is culturable. DNA-based methods have been developed to have an insight into the remaining fraction of soil microflora. Few of these studies have been done aiming at comparison of extreme environment of salinity...

Beneficial role of microbes, originating from soil or other sources, has been recognized in many biogeochemical cycles and environmental protection as well as in several processes and products of food, feed and textile industry. In the modern era of scientific advancements, microbial genomes have been utilized not only for improvement of useful pro...

Plant growth promoting rhizobacteria have gained extensive importance worldwide. These are naturally occurring bacteria that actively colonize the plant roots and improve plant growth. Plants inoculated with some potential PGPR strains exhibit improved biomass production. It has been observed that PGPR exert their growth promoting effects on plants...

The aim of the present study was to isolate phosphate solubilizing bacteria from wheat rhizosphere and investigate their potential for plant growth promotion. Three phosphate solubilizing bacterial strains were isolated by serial dilution method from the rhizosphere of wheat grown under wheat-cotton and wheat-rice crop rotation. 16S rRNA gene seque...

Background: High incidence of breast cancer and its fatal effect has reached an alarming stage across the globe, including the third world countries. Many factors have been reported to be associated with the development of breast cancer but detailed structural and functional information is missing. CA 15-3 is one of the known potential tumor marke...

Resistance (R) genes containing nucleotide binding site (NBS) and leucine rich repeats (LRR) are the most prevalent types of resistance (R) genes in plants. The objective of this study was to isolate, identify and analyze resistance genes from disease (rusts) resistant wheat lines by PCR based strategy. Fifteen degenerate primers were designed fr...