WHY DO FIREFLIES GLOW ?????

                           why do fireflies glow ????

Light production in fireflies is due to a type of chemical reaction called bioluminescence, which, in fireflies, occurs in specialized light-emitting organs usually on the lower abdomen. The enzyme luciferase acts on luciferin in this organ to stimulate light emission. Genes coding for these substances have been inserted into many different organisms. Luciferase is also used in forensics, and the enzyme has medical uses. 

For adult beetles, it is primarily used to locate other individuals of the same species for reproduction. Many species, especially the famous lightning bugs of the genera Photinus, Photuris and Pyractomena, are distinguished by the unique courtship flash patterns emitted by flying males in search of females. Photinus females as usual in this family generally do not fly, but give a flash response to males of their own species.             Bioluminescence is a very efficient process. Some 90% of the energy a firefly uses to create light is actually converted into visible light. By comparison, an incandescent electric bulb can convert only 10 percent of total energy used into visible light, and the remainder is emitted as heat. 

 

  Tropical fireflies, particularly in Southeast Asia (Thailand and Malaysia), routinely synchronize their flashes among large groups, a startling example of spontaneous biological order. This phenomenon occurs through the night along river banks in the Malaysian jungles every day of the year. Current hypotheses about the causes of this behavior involve diet, social interaction, and altitude.

                      

Many fireflies do not produce light. Usually these species are diurnal, or day-flying, such as those in the genus Ellychnia. A few diurnal fireflies that primarily inhabit shadowy places, such as beneath tall plants or trees, are luminescent. One such genus is Lucidota. 

All fireflies glow as larvae. Bioluminescence serves a different function in lampyrid larvae than it does in adults. It appears to be a warning signal to predators, since many firefly larvae contain chemicals that are distasteful or toxic.

 CREATED BY----

CLONING

In biology, cloning is the process of producing similar populations of genetically identical individuals that occurs in nature when organisms such as bacteria,insects or plants reproduce asexually.

  Cloning in biotechnology refers to processes used to create copies of DNA fragments (molecular cloning), cells (cell cloning), or organism. The term also refers to the production of multiple copies of a product such as digital media or software.

Clones are organisms that are exact genetic copies. Every single bit of their DNA is identical. Clones can happen naturally, identical twins are just one of many examples. Or they can be made in the lab. 

The term clone is derived from the Ancient Greek word which means "twig", referring to the process whereby a new plant can be created from a twig.

In horticulture, the spelling clon was used until the twentieth century; the final e came into use to indicate the vowel is a "long O" instead of a "short O". Since the term entered the popular lexicon in a more general context, the spelling clone has been used exclusively. In botany, lusus was the word which was traditionally used.

Cloning was first experimented on dolly the sheep. Artificial cloning technologies have been around for much longer than Dolly, though.

There are three types of cloning:

·       Molecular Cloning­- It involves making of multiple molecules. Initially, the DNA of interest needs to be isolated to provide a DNA segment of suitable size. Subsequently, a ligation procedure is used where the amplified fragment is inserted into a vector . The vector is linearised, and incubated with the fragment of interest under appropriate conditions with an enzyme. Following ligation the vector with the insert of interest is transfected into cells. Finally, the transfected cells are cultured. As the aforementioned procedures are of particularly low efficiency, there is a need to identify the cells that have been successfully transfected with the vector construct containing the desired insertion sequence in the required orientation.

Cell cloning-In the case of unicellular organisms, this process is simple and essentially only requires the inoculation of the appropriate medium. However, in the case of cell cultures from multi-cellular organisms, cell cloning is an arduous task as these cells will not readily grow in standard media.

A useful tissue culture technique used to clone distinct lineages of cell lines involves the use of cloning rings (cylinders). According to this technique, a single-cell suspension of cells that have been exposed to a mutagenic agent or drug used to drive selection is plated at high dilution to create isolated colonies, each arising from a single and potentially clonal distinct cell.

Somatic-cell nuclear transfer can also be used to create embryos for research or therapeutic purposes. The most likely purpose for this is to produce embryos for use in stem cell research. This process is also called "research cloning" or "therapeutic cloning." The goal is to harvest stem cells that can be used to study human development and to potentially treat disease. While a clonal human blastocyst has been created, stem cell lines are yet to be isolated from a clonal source.

Organism Cloning-It involves creating a new multicellular organism which are genetically identical to each other. It is asexual method of reproduction(which is naturally occurring phenomenon in many species). Scientists have achieved many achievements in field of cloning, including asexual reproduction of cows and sheeps like dolly the sheep. Cloning has been common practice in the horticultural world for hundreds of years.

 So, at last I would say that we can’t decide that cloning is useful or harmful.                                                                                   

CAT FISH

                                       

                                                                                                                                                        CAT FISH

FRUIT THAT GROW IN SHAPE OF A BABY CALLED GINSENG FRUIT

Since the beginning of agriculture, human have been customising their fruit and vegetables to suit their needs. Now baby pears have come into existence.Chinese farmer grow fruits that look like a baby. It is believed in fairy tale that baby-shaped fruit gives immortality. It is a pear with closed eyes, miniscule nose and mouth and daintily crossed hands. This form looks oddly realistic.

It is also called ''Buddha fruit'' and ''Butter fruit''. It grows on the plant named monkey orchids. These pears grow in China. It is a type of deciduous tree that belong to family of roses. It has oval or heart shaped green leaves. It is easily digested, which is one of the reasons why even babies can eat it. It can improves functioning of the immune system. It increases absorption of calcium. Chinese people believe that sharing of pear may disturb relationship between friends or lovers. It is very healthy and beneficial. As we know ''natural things benefits more than artificial''. 

Life of Du.Dee.

Life of Du.Dee. 

 American Pekin Duck

The American Pekin Duck or Long Island duck, is a breed of domestic duck used primarily for egg and meat production. It was bred from the Mallard in China. The ancestors of those ducks originated from the canals which linked waterways in Nanjing and originally had small bodies and black feathers. With the relocation of the Chinese capital to Beijing, supply barge traffic increased in the area which would often spill grain on which the ducks fed. Over time, the ducks slowly increased in size and grew white feathers. The new breed of duck had been domesticated by Chinese farmers, by the five dynasties.

The Pekin duck is the most popular commercial duck breed in the United States, after James Palmer of Stonington, Connecticut imported a small number to Long Island from China in 1873, . The animals and their meat are sometimes referred to as "Long Island duckling". Around 95% of duck meat consumed in the United States is Pekin duck.

Pekin duck embryos take around 28 days to develop in the egg at 99.5°F (37.5°C) and 50-75% humidity.

Pekin hatchlings have bright yellow plumage with an orange bill, shanks, and feet.
Hatchlings should not be given free access to swimming water unless they have been hatched naturally by other ducks. The feathers of a young duckling are not sufficiently developed to properly protect them for extended periods in the water and they do not produce enough preen oil to waterproof this plumage.

Fully mature adult Pekin ducks weigh between 8 and 11 pounds (3.6 and 5 kilograms) in captivity. Their average lifespan (if not eaten at an early age) is about 9 to 12 years. Their external feathers are white, sometimes with a yellowish tinge.

 

Spotted Deer (Chital)

The chital, also known as chital deer or spotted deer , is a deer which commonly inhabits in regions of India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, and in small numbers in Pakistan.

The chital's coat is pinkish fawn, marked with white spots, and it’s under parts are also white. Its antlers, which it sheds annually, are usually three-pronged and curve in a lyre shape which may extend to 75 cm (2.5 ft). Compared to the hog deer, its close relative, the chital has a more cursorial build. It also has a more advanced morphology with antler pedicles being proportionally short and its auditory bullae being smaller.

It also has large nares. The male chital averages about 90 cm (35 in) tall at the shoulder, with a total length of 170 cm (67 in), including a 20 cm (7.9 in). Males, at a typical weight of 30 to 75 kg (66 to 165 lb), are somewhat larger than females, at 25 to 45 kg (55 to 99 lb). Exceptionally large males can weigh up to 98 to 110 kg (216 to 243 lb). Their lifespans are around 8–14 years.

This video shows the alarm call of chital as a tiger was nearby. Deer mainly calls when there is a threat around there to alert all other animals from being eaten up.
Chital have well-developed preorbital glands which have hairs that are like stiff little branches. They also have well-developed metatarsal glands and pedal glands on their hind legs. Males have larger preorbital glands than females and are opened very often in response to certain stimuli.

 

project on endangered aquatic life published by Abhilash kumar samal

                            Endangered and Threatened Marine Species

                                             Bluefin Tuna

Schooling bluefin tuna swim in an open-ocean pen off the Spanish coast, where they will be fattened up to satisfy human palates. Bluefins are some of the sea’s fastest fishes, reaching top speeds of some 43 miles (70 kilometers) an hour. But they’ve been unable to outrun fishing fleets, which have pushed some populations, like the Atlantic bluefin, toward the edge of extinction. Scientists warn that overharvesting continues unabated despite feeble international efforts at regulating the catch.

Humphead Wrasse

Large lips and a forehead hump are hallmarks of the reef-dwelling humphead wrasse, popular with divers and fishermen across much of the Indo-Pacific. Incredibly, some humphead wrasses are born as females but undergo sex changes around age nine and end their lives as males. These big (420-pound/190-kilogram) fish live long lives, more than 30 years, and probably never occurred in great densities.

Whale Shark

When it comes to feasting the whale shark is more whale than shark—this filter feeder simply opens its enormous mouth and swims to collect plankton and small fish. The ocean’s largest fish, whale sharks grow to lengths rivaling those of a typical school bus (40 feet/12 meters). The sharks are gentle giants, but their vulnerable populations are targeted by fisheries of Asian nations like Taiwan and the Philippines.

Mitochondrial DNA         

 Mitochondrial DNA, also known as mtDNA, is the DNA found in the cell organelle mitochondria of eukaryotic cells. It was discovered by brothers Margit M.K. Nass and Sylvan Nass in the 1960's. They used an electron microscope and described them as DNase-sensitive threads inside mitochondria.   They convert chemical energy from food into adenosine triphosphate which can be used by cells. Mitochondrial DNA can be assessed as the smallest coding for 37 genes and containing approximately 16,569base pairs in humans. There are two types of mtDNA-Heavy stand and Light strand. Heavy strand of mtDNA carries 28 genes and light strand of mtDNA carries 9 genes. MtDNA is solely inherited from the mother in most of the organisms. It is the first historically known significant part of the human genome to have been sequenced. MtDNA is thought to be derived from circular genome of bacteria that were engulfed by early ancestors of eukaryotic cells. 

MtDNA as seen in mitochondria:-

MtDNA in Mitochondria In humans, there are approximately 100 to 100000 separate copies of mtDNA present per cell. Replication of mitochondria is done controlled by nuclear genes. It provides 30 ATP molecules per glucose molecule in contrast to the 2 ATP molecules provided by glycolisis per glucose molecule. Therefore mtDNA is essential to all higher organisms for sustaining life.  When mtDNA is inherited from the mother, there is usually no change in mtDNA. Mitochondrial diseases are a group of disorders caused by dysfunction of mitochondria. These can be either inherited through mtDNA or through chromosomal inheritance, both of which are maternally inherited. This provides that if the mother is diagnosed with any mitochondrial trait then all her children will inherit it, but if the father is diagnosed with any mitochondrial trait then his children won't inherit the diagnose. Though the idea is controversial, some researchers have been able to recognize a certain link between aging and mitochondrial genome dysfunction. MtDNA plays a crucial role in identification of people. Forensic experts often use mtDNA to identify the deceased. Though it cannot help in identification on its own, it can be very handy in identifying people when combined with any other evidence.MtDNA is prone to affection from free oxygen radicals through the rare mistakes it makes  while producing ATP. Such mistakes can be triggered by genetic disorders, cancer and  temperature variations. Scientists have recently discovered that a mutation in mtDNA can be used to help diagnose prostate cancer in patients with negative prostate biopsy.

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