Spaceflights results in the reduction of immune status of human beings and increase in the virulence of microorganisms, especially gram negative bacteria. The growth of Klebsiella pneumoniae is enhanced by catecholamines and during spaceflight, elevation in the levels of cortisols occurs. So it is necessary to know the changes in physiology, virulence, antibiotic resistance and gene expression of K. pneumoniae under microgravity conditions. The present study was undertaken to study effect of simulated microgravity on growth, morphology, antibiotic resistance and cross stress resistance of K. pneumoniae to various stresses. The susceptibility of simulated microgravity grown K. pneumoniae to ampicillin, penicillin, streptomycin, kanamycin, hygromycin and rifampicin were evaluated. The growth of bacteria was found to be fast compared with normal gravity grown bacteria and no significant changes in the antibiotic resistance were found. The bacteria cultured under microgravity conferred cross stress resistance to acid, temperature and osmotic stress higher than the normal gravity cultured bacteria but the vice versa was found in case of oxidative stress.

Mulberries have importance in the sericulture industry as food for Bombyx mori, silkworm reared for its silk. Korean Morus alba have many cultivars and, for the protection of these cultivars and for utilization in plant-breeding programs, genetic information and the diversity among cultivars are essential. This study with 14 mulberry genotypes was undertaken using RAPD and ISSR fingerprinting to discover the genetic divergences between cultivars. Polymorphism rate among the cultivars produced by RAPD primer was found to be 64.48% and 66.29% relative to ISSR primer. The genetic relationships among the cultivars were identified using a dendrogram constructed with the UPGMA clustering method. Nei's method was used to calculate the genetic dissimilarity coefficients between each pair of genotypes, and the highest dissimilarity coefficient of 0.246 was exhibited between Suwon and Hwanggum cultivars. To determine the efficiency of each primer, a polymorphic index was calculated, and the robustness of the dendrogram was checked using cophenetic correlation coefficient. The results of this study can be utilized for the improvement of mulberry varieties in plant-breeding programs.