INDIAN SCIENCE CONGRESS - India Environment Portal

46
Proc. 98th Indian Science Congress, Part II : Abstracts of Symposium/Invited Lecture
infection pattern than the type species G. riveae. Physiologically, variation in
nutrient requirements in the haplophase is minimal, while nutrient requirements of
dikaryophase is seemingly implicit in host specificity, while for those with a wide
host range have apparent requirement.
There is a variation in spore germination and germination products in smut
fungi though basic germination pattern for Ustilaginaceae with phragmobasidium
with lateral and terminal sporidia and Tilletiaceae with holobasidium with terminal
sporidia is fixed. Conjugation of germination products is very frequent in Ustilaginales
and very often basidial cells conjugate to establish dikaryophase. However, the
species of Georgefischeria did not show conjugation of germination products.
Variation in growth type and mutability of monosporidial colonies in culture are
notable in smuts. Monosporidial colony growth is extremely slow in Georgefischeria
riveae on 2% PDA and 2% HEA (host-extract-agar). The variations with different
parameters in smuts are important and considerable mainly in taxonomy, phylogenetic
studies, disease development.
43. Understanding Life at High Temperature
Ved Pal Singh
Depatment of Botany
Delhi University
Keywords : Thermal envioronment,Radioactivity, Solar radiation
The changing climate of the Mother Earth has left human civilization at the
crossroad, which inculcates in us the desire to understand as to how to cope with
harsh environments, especially the global warming. Thermal environments result
from : (i) solar heating, (ii) combustion processes, (iii) radioactive decay, and (iv)
geothermal activity. Although, in man-influenced environments, most of the heat
generated comes from combustion processes (both biological and non-biological),
but the contribution of radioactivity in heat production cannot be underestimated
because of fast growing nuclear energy establishments all over the world. It is,
therefore, imperative to have an insight into the mechanism(s), which could provide
the basis for thermophilic existence of living beings, considering microbial model as
a case study, since this is the only group which can withstand wide range of thermal
environments. Most biomolecules, including enzymes, necessary for various meta-