Biology subjects

Mirza, B.

Publications and source records attributed to Mirza, B..

4 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2026

Self-powered electronics-free Wearable Disposable Electrotherapy (WDE) platform for accelerated wound healing

Electrical stimulation accelerates wound repair by modulating endogenous bioelectric signals that regulate inflammation, angiogenesis, extracellular matrix remodeling, and cellular responses within the wound microenvironment. However, clinical translation has been hindered by cumbersome devices with procedures that disrupt standard wound-care workflows, direct electrode contact with the wound bed, and/or limited stimulation output. Wearable Disposable Electrotherapy (WDE) integrates an electronics-free printed electrochemical architecture into an mm-thick patch that looks and is applied like a conventional bandage. The device is self- powered and delivers a single electrotherapy dose simply by application to the skin. Device dose-control (electrochemical performance) and efficacy were evaluated in a full-thickness excisional wound model in rats, compared with a sham device and a conventional Constant Current (CC) stimulator. WDE or control treatments were applied daily from day 1 through day 13, with endpoint evaluation on day 14. WDE delivered electrical stimulation comparable to CC while reducing the time required to achieve 50% wound closure by 2.08 days ([~]29%) relative to sham treatment. Histological and immunofluorescence analyses at day 14 demonstrated enhanced tissue remodeling, including increased collagen deposition ([~]25%), tissue cellularity ([~]73%), myofibroblast-associated SMA expression ([~]2.6-fold), angiogenesis-associated CD31 expression ([~]2.0-fold), and increased expression of both M2- (CD206, [~]2.0-fold) and M1- associated (iNOS, [~]1.7-fold) markers compared with sham. A novel cellular-resolution dosimetry model, leveraging charge-based boundary element method accelerated with the fast multipole method (BEM-FMM), provides a biophysical framework linking electrical stimulation with wound microenvironment and tissue repair mechanisms. Together, these findings establish WDE as a practical bioelectric wound dressing that accelerates wound healing and tissue remodeling, with the simplicity and scalability of disposable bandages.

bioengineering↗

bioRxiv2025

Bacteria accumulate more rapidly on shorter lived flowers, but abiotic factors affect flower aging and bacterial accumulation

Outcomes of ecological interactions often depend on the abundance and identity of the organisms involved. Flower-bacteria interactions can strongly affect plant ecology, and the identities of epiphytic flower bacteria are relatively well documented. Yet little is known about how the abundance of epiphytic bacteria on flowers changes over time. In this field study, we quantified how the abundance of culturable epiphytic bacteria on flowers changed as flowers aged and how abiotic factors influenced bacterial abundance and flower longevity. To accomplish this, we sampled flowers from anthesis to senescence of 8 plant species that varied substantially in terms of flower longevity and comprised 8 different genera from 7 different families. As expected, flowers of all plant species accumulated more bacteria with age. However, plant species with longer-lived flowers accumulated bacteria relatively more slowly, suggesting such plant species may have evolved more effective antibacterial defenses. Although elevated temperature is often expected to boost bacterial growth and diminish flower longevity, temperature was negatively associated with both flower longevity and bacterial accumulation, suggesting that changes to flower longevity strongly affect bacterial populations. In contrast, precipitation was positively associated with flower longevity and negatively associated with bacterial accumulation, likely because precipitation reduced plant water stress while also dislodging bacteria from flowers. Finally, we discuss the implications of our results for plant-bacterial-pollinator interactions.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2020

Metagenomic Analysis of Bacterial Community Associated with Rhizosphere and Phyllosphere of Basmati Rice

Rice is one of the most important crops for feeding about more than half of the worlds 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 phyllosphere of rice plants provide specific habitats for various micro-organisms. In the present study, the bacterial population dwelling the rhizosphere and phyllosphere of Basmati rice were explored using metagenomic approach from rice growing areas of Punjab, Pakistan. The bacterial communities associated with the rice rhizosphere of different rice growing areas as well as phyllosphere/rhizosphere were compared. Out of 20,069 16S rRNA gene sequences retreived from rhizosphere soil, 6485 were originated from Faisalabad, 5174 from Gujranwala and 8410 from Sheikhupura. Data analyses revelead that Proteobactria was dominant phylum at all three sites. Choloflexi was second abundant phylum at Sheikhupura, while Actinobacteria and Firmicutes at Gujranwala and Faisalabad. In addition to dominant culturable PGPB Bacillus genus at all three sites, Nitrosospira, Gaiella, Marmoricola, Clostridium sensu stricto. Maximum geners were detected from Faisalabad (159), followed by Sheikhupura (146) and Gujranwala (131). Comparison of the common sequences at the genus-level revealed that maximum number of shared genera (101) were observed in Sheikhupura and Gujranwala. 50 genera were specifically related to Faisalabad, while 27 and 21 genera were detected for Sheikhupura and Gujranwala. In the phyllosphere, Proteobacteria (79.6%) was detected as dominant phylum followed by Firmicutes (9.8%), Bacteroidetes (8.6%), Chloroflexi (4.3%) and Actinobacteria (0.9%). Comparison of phyllosphere and rhizosphere showed less bacterial diversity in the phyllosphere but Bradyrhizobium, Sphingomonas, GP6, Pseudomonas, Bacillus are abuundant. Fifteen genera were detected at both compartments. Furthermore, we may select these strains for development of compatible inocula for application in the rhizosphere and phyllosphere of rice.

microbiology↗

bioRxiv2020

Plastid genomics of Nicotiana (Solanaceae): insights into molecular evolution, positive selection and the origin of the maternal genome of Aztec tobacco (Nicotiana rustica)

The genus Nicotiana of the family Solanaceae, commonly referred to as tobacco plants, are a group cultivated as garden ornamentals. Besides their use in the worldwide production of tobacco leaves, they are also used as evolutionary model systems due to their complex development history, which is tangled by polyploidy and hybridization. Here, we assembled the plastid genomes of five tobacco species, namely N. knightiana, N. rustica, N. paniculata, N. obtusifolia and N. glauca. De novo assembled tobacco plastid genomes showed typical quadripartite structure, consisting of a pair of inverted repeats (IR) regions (25,323-25,369 bp each) separated by a large single copy (LSC) region (86,510 -86,716 bp) and a small single copy (SSC) region (18,441-18,555 bp). Comparative analyses of Nicotiana plastid genomes showed similar GC content, gene content, codon usage, simple sequence repeats, oligonucleotide repeats, RNA editing sites and substitutions with currently available Solanaceae genomes sequences. We identified twenty highly polymorphic regions mostly belonging to intergenic spacer regions (IGS), which could be appropriate for the development of robust and cost-effective markers to infer the phylogeny of genus Nicotiana and family Solanaceae. Our comparative plastid genome analysis revealed that the maternal parent of the tetraploid N. rustica was the common ancestor of N. paniculata and N. knightiana, and the later species is more closely related to N. rustica. The relaxed molecular clock analyses estimated that the speciation event between N. rustica and knightiana appeared 0.56 Ma (HPD 0.65-0.46). The biogeographical analysis showed a south-to-north range expansion and diversification for N. rustica and related species, where N. undulata and N. paniculata evolved in North/Central Peru, while N. rustica developed in Southern Peru and separated from N. knightiana, which adapted to the Southern coastal climatic regimes. We further inspected selective pressure on protein-coding genes among tobacco species to determine if this adaptation process affected the evolution of plastid genes. These analyses indicated that four genes involved in different plastid functions, such as DNA replication (rpoA) and photosynthesis (atpB, ndhD and ndhF), came under positive selective pressure as a result of specific environmental conditions. Genetic mutations of the following genes might have contributed to the survival and better adaptation during the evolutionary history of tobacco species.

genomics↗