Constitutional type of an individual or prakriti is the basic clinical denominator in Ayurveda, which defines physical, physiological, and psychological traits of an individual and is the template for individualized diet, lifestyle counseling, and treatment. The large number of phenotype description by prakriti determination is based on the knowledge and experience of the assessor, and hence subject to inherent variations and interpretations. In this study we have attempted to relate dominant prakriti attribute to body mass index (BMI) of individuals by assessing an acceptable tool to provide the quantitative measure to the currently qualitative ayurvedic prakriti determination. The study is cross sectional, multicentered, and prakriti assessment of a total of 3416 subjects was undertaken. Healthy male, nonsmoking, nonalcoholic volunteers between the age group of 20-30 were screened for their prakriti after obtaining written consent to participate in the study. The prakriti was determined on the phenotype description of ayurvedic texts and simultaneously by the use of a computer-aided prakriti assessment tool. Kappa statistical analysis was employed to validate the prakriti assessment and Chi-square, Cramer's V test to determine the relatedness in the dominant prakriti to various attributes. We found 80% concordance between ayurvedic physician and software in predicting the prakriti of an individual. The kappa value of 0.77 showed moderate agreement in prakriti assessment. We observed a significant correlations of dominant prakriti to place of birth and BMI with Chi-square, P < 0.01 (Cramer's V-value of 0.156 and 0.368, respectively). The present study attempts to integrate knowledge of traditional ayurvedic concepts with the contemporary science. We have demonstrated analysis of prakriti classification and its association with BMI and place of birth with the implications to one of the ways for human classification.

The fisheries sub-sector of aquaculture—i.e., the pisciculture industry, contributes significantly to a country’s economy, employing a sizable proportion of the population. It also makes important contributions to household food security because the current demand for animal protein cannot be fulfilled by harvesting wild fish from riverines, lakes, dams, and oceans. For good pond management techniques and sustaining fish health, the fisherfolk, and the industry require well-established regulatory structures, efficient disease management strategies, and other extended services. In rearing marine fish, infections resulting from disease outbreaks are a weighty concern because they can cause considerable economic loss due to morbidity and mortality. Consequently, to find effective solutions for the prevention and control of the major diseases limiting fish production in aquaculture, multidisciplinary studies on the traits of potential fish pathogens, the biology of the fish as hosts, and an adequate understanding of the global environmental factors are fundamental. This review highlights the various bacterial diseases and their causative pathogens prevalent in the pisciculture industry and the current solutions while emphasising marine fish species. Given that preexisting methods are known to have several disadvantages, other sustainable alternatives like antimicrobial peptides, synthetic peptides, probiotics, and medicinal treatments have emerged to be an enormous potential solution to these challenges. Graphical abstract

Background:Human variations related to immune response and disease susceptibility is well-documented in Ayurveda. Prakriti (body constitution) is the basic constitution of an individual established at the time of birth and distinguishes variations, into three broad phenotype categories such as vata, pitta and kapha. Variation in immune response is often attributed to and measured from the difference in cluster differentiation (CD) markers expressed in lymphocytes. Currently, there are no reports available on the expression of CD markers related to prakriti. Objective: This is a pilot study performed to evaluate a panel of lymphocyte subset CD markers in dominant prakriti individuals. Materials and Methods: Immunophenotyping was carried out using whole blood from a total of healthy 222 subjects, who are grouped into kapha (n = 95), pitta (n = 57) and vata (n = 70) prakritis. CD markers such as CD3, CD4, CD8, CD14, CD25, CD56, CD69, CD71 and HLA-DR were analyzed using flow cytometry method. Differences between groups were analyzed using one-way ANOVA or Kruskal-Wallis analysis of variance (ANOVA) and multiple comparisons between groups were performed by Bonferroni or Mann-Whitney U test with corrections for type I error respectively. Significance was evaluated by ANOVA and Pearson's correlation. Results: We observed a significant difference (P < 0.05) in the expression of CD markers such as CD14 (monocytes), CD25 (activated B cells) and CD56 (Natural killer cells) between different prakriti groups. CD25 and CD56 expression was significantly higher in kapha prakriti samples than other prakriti groups. Similarly, slightly higher levels of CD14 were observed in pitta prakriti samples. Conclusion: Significant difference in the expression of CD14, CD25 and CD56 markers between three different prakriti is demonstrated. The increased level of CD25 and CD56 in kapha prakriti may indicate ability to elicit better immune response, which is in conformity with textual references in Ayurveda.

The requirement for natural resources and energy increases continually with the increase in population. An inevitable result of this is soil, water, and air pollution with diverse pollutants, including heavy metals. Synthetic Biology involves using modular, interchangeable biological parts, devices in standard chassis or whole organisms to achieve a programmed result that can be quantified and optimized till it meets the required efficiency. This makes synthetic biology techniques very popular to tackle pressing global issues such as heavy metal poisoning. This review aimed to highlight various advancements as well as benefits, risks, and problems in synthetic biology techniques for detection, bioaccumulation, and biosorption of various heavy metals using engineered organisms. We found that while such an approach is cost-effective, accessible, and efficient, there are several inherent technological and ethical issues including but not limited to metabolic burden and consequences of use of genetically modified organisms respectively. Overcoming these hurdles will probably take time and innumerable conversations, and should be done through education and a culture of responsible research, rather than enforcing restrictions on the development of synthetic biology.

As synthetic biology advances, the necessity for robust biocontainment strategies for genetically engineered organisms (GEOs) grows increasingly critical to mitigate biosafety risks related to their potential environmental release. This paper aims to evaluate environment signal-dependent biocontainment systems for engineered organisms, focusing specifically on leveraging triggered responses and combinatorial systems. There are different types of triggers—chemical, light, temperature, and pH—this review illustrates how these systems can be designed to respond to environmental signals, ensuring a higher safety profile. It also focuses on combinatorial biocontainment to avoid consequences of unintended GEO release into an external environment. Case studies are discussed to demonstrate the practical applications of these systems in real-world scenarios.