Search results for: bacteria and Fungi.

Authors: X. Zhao, F. Tian

Abstract:

Mycotoxins are secondary metabolic products of fungi. These are poisonous, carcinogens and mutagens in nature and pose a serious health threat to both humans and animals, causing severe illnesses and even deaths. The rapid, simple and cheap detection methods of mycotoxins are of immense importance and in great demand in the food and beverage industry as well as in agriculture and environmental monitoring. Lateral flow immunochromatographic strips (ICSTs) have been widely used in food safety, environment monitoring. 46 papers were identified and reviewed on Google Scholar and Scopus for their limit of detection and nanomaterial on Lateral flow ICSTs on different types of mycotoxins. The papers were dated 2001-2021. 25 papers were compared to identify the lowest limit of detection of among different mycotoxins (Aflatoxin B1: 10, Zearalenone: 5, Fumonisin B1: 5, Trichothecene-A: 5). Most of these highly sensitive strips are competitive. Sandwich structures are usually used in large scale detection. In conclusion, the limit of detection of Aflatoxin B1 is the lowest among these mycotoxins. Gold-nanoparticle based immunochromatographic test strips have the lowest limit of detection. Five papers involve smartphone detection and they all detect aflatoxin B1 with gold nanoparticles.

Keywords: Aflatoxin B1, limit of detection, gold nanoparticle, lateral flow immunochromatographic strips, mycotoxins, smartphone.

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Authors: M. I. Ribah, M. Jibir, Y. A. Bashar, S. S. Manga

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Food safety is a significant and growing public health problem in the world and Nigeria as a developing country, since food-borne diseases are important contributors to the huge burden of sickness and death of humans. In Nigeria, traditional ready-to-eat meat products (RTE-MPs) like balangu, tsire, guru and dried meat products like kilishi, dambun nama, banda, were reported to be highly appreciated because of their eating qualities. The consumption of these products was considered as safe due to the treatments that are usually involved during their production process. However, during processing and handling, the products could be contaminated by pathogens that could cause food poisoning. Therefore, a hazard identification for pathogenic bacteria on some traditional RTE-MPs was conducted in Kebbi and Sokoto States, Nigeria. A total of 116 RTE-MPs (balangu-38, kilishi-39 and tsire-39) samples were obtained from retail outlets and analyzed using standard cultural microbiological procedures in general and selective enrichment media to isolate the target pathogens. A six-fold serial dilution was prepared and using the pour plating method, colonies were counted. Serial dilutions were selected based on the prepared pre-labeled Petri dishes for each sample. A volume of 10-12 ml of molten Nutrient agar cooled to 42-45°C was poured into each Petri dish and 1 ml each from dilutions of 102, 104 and 106 for every sample was respectively poured on a pre-labeled Petri plate after which colonies were counted. The isolated pathogens were identified and confirmed after series of biochemical tests. Frequencies and percentages were used to describe the presence of pathogens. The General Linear Model was used to analyze data on pathogen presence according to RTE-MPs and means were separated using the Tukey test at 0.05 confidence level. Of the 116 RTE-MPs samples collected, 35 (30.17%) samples were found to be contaminated with some tested pathogens. Prevalence results showed that Escherichia coli, salmonella and Staphylococcus aureus were present in the samples. Mean total bacterial count was 23.82×106 cfu/g. The frequency of individual pathogens isolated was; Staphylococcus aureus 18 (15.51%), Escherichia coli 12 (10.34%) and Salmonella 5 (4.31%). Also, among the RTE-MPs tested, the total bacterial counts were found to differ significantly (P < 0.05), with 1.81, 2.41 and 2.9×104 cfu/g for tsire, kilishi, and balangu, respectively. The study concluded that the presence of pathogenic bacteria in balangu could pose grave health risks to consumers, and hence, recommended good manufacturing practices in the production of balangu to improve the products’ safety.

Keywords: Ready-to-eat meat products, retail outlets, safety assessment, public health.

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Authors: Abdulsalam. I. Rafida, Ehae. Abo-Jnha, Kald. Tainah

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This study mainly aims at assessing the level of microbial pollution of the water used in the chair system in dental clinics. For this purpose 36 samples have been randomly collected from a number of dental surgeries in the city of Tripoli in Libya. However, 32 of the samples have tested positive to microbial pollution including 13 of the samples, which have tested positives to Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Based on the results of the test a further investigation of the biofilms incorporated within the dental chair system has been conducted. The laboratory tests of biofilms with similar design to those found in dental chairs have proved that bacterial pollution takes place through saliva of the patients who use the chairs, and that this saliva is rich with nutrients which provides a suitable breeding ground for all types of bacteria.

Keywords: Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Biofilm.

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Authors: Debabrata Pradhan, Dong J. Kim, Jong G. Ahn, Seoung W. Lee

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Spent petroleum catalyst from Korean petrochemical industry contains trace amount of metals such as Ni, V and Mo. Therefore an attempt was made to recover those trace metal using bioleaching process. Different leaching parameters such as Fe(II) concentration, pulp density, pH, temperature and particle size of spent catalyst particle were studied to evaluate their effects on the leaching efficiency. All the three metal ions like Ni, V and Mo followed dual kinetics, i.e., initial faster followed by slower rate. The percentage of leaching efficiency of Ni and V were higher than Mo. The leaching process followed a diffusion controlled model and the product layer was observed to be impervious due to formation of ammonium jarosite (NH4)Fe3(SO4)2(OH)6. In addition, the lower leaching efficiency of Mo was observed due to a hydrophobic coating of elemental sulfur over Mo matrix in the spent catalyst.

Keywords: Bioleaching, diffusion control, shrinking core, spentpetroleum catalyst.

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Authors: Elis N. Herliyana , Kunio Tsunoda, Yusuf S. Hadi, Arinana, Dewi A. Natalia

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This study aims to determine the level of resistance of Hevea brasiliensis and Paraserianthes falcataria (synonym: Falcataria molucana) against wood rot fungi Pleurotus ostreatus based on Indonesian standard SNI 01.7207-2006 and Japanese standard JIS K 1571-2004. The variables measured were visual appearance and weight loss percentage of wood based on longitudinal and cross section fiber directions of rubber wood and sengon wood. Measurement of oven dry weight loss of wood samples performed after 12 weeks incubation. Replication performed was 10 times at each treatment combination. The results based on SNI 01.7207-2006, weight loss value of H. brasiliensis and P. falcataria wood with fiber direction longitudinal were 23,12 and 22,25% respectively and cross section were 20,77 and 18,76% respectively, and all were classified to resistance class IV (no resistance). The results based on JIS K 1571-2004, weight loss value of both woods with fiber direction cross section were 10,95 and 14,20% respectively.

Keywords: H. brasiliensis wood, Natural durability, P. falcataria wood, P. ostreatus.

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Authors: Michele R. Spier, Denise N. X. Salmon, Renato L. Binati, Luíza C. Piva, Adriane B.P. Medeiros, Carlos R. Soccol

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Phytases are enzymes used as an important component in monogastric animals feeds in order to improve phosphorous availability, since it is not readily assimilated by these animals in the form of the phytate presented in plants and grains. As these enzymes are used in industrial activities, they must retain its catalytic activities during a certain storage period. This study presents information about the stability of 4 different phytases, produced by four macromycetes fungi through solid-state fermentation (SSF). There is a lack of data in literature concerning phytase from macromycetes shelf-life in storage conditions at room, cooling and freezing temperatures. The 4 phytases from macromycetes still had enzymatic activities around 100 days of storage at room temperature. At cooling temperature in 146 days of studies, the phytase from G. stipitatum was the most stable with 44% of the initial activity, in U.gds (units per gram of dried fermented substrate). The freezing temperature was the best condition storage for phytases from G. stipitatum and T. versicolor. Each condition provided a study for each mushroom phytase, totalizing 12 studies. The phytases showed to be stable for a long period without the addition of additives.

Keywords: macromycetes, phytase, solid-state fermentation, wheat bran, stability

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Authors: R. Weinzierl, R. Estes, N. Tinsley, M. Keshlaf

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The corn earworm, Helicoverpa zea Boddie, is a serious pest of corn. Larval feeding in ear tips destroys kernels and allows growth of fungi and production of mycotoxins. Infested sweet corn is not marketable. Development of improved transgenic hybrids expressing insecticidal toxins from Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) may limit or prevent crop losses. The effectiveness of Attribute^® II Bt resistance and applications of Voliam Xpress insecticide were evaluated for effectiveness in controlling corn earworm in plots near Urbana, IL, USA, in 2013. Where no insecticides were applied, ear infestations and kernel damage in Attribute^® II ‘Protector’ plots were consistently lower (near zero) than in plots of the non-Bt isoline ‘Garrison.’ Multiple applications of Voliam Xpress significantly reduced the number of corn earworm larvae and kernel damage in the Garrison plots, but infestations and damage in these plots were greater than in Protectorplots that did not receive insecticide applications. Our results indicate that Attribute^® II Bt resistance is more effective than multiple applications of an insecticide for preventing losses caused by corn earworm in sweet corn.

Keywords: Bacillus thuringiensis, Helicoverpa zea, insect pest management, transgenic sweet corn.

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Authors: Nasim Shaibani, Saba Ghazvini, Mohammad R. Andalibi, Soheila Yaghmaei

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Nowadays there is a growing interest in biofuel production in most countries because of the increasing concerns about hydrocarbon fuel shortage and global climate changes, also for enhancing agricultural economy and producing local needs for transportation fuel. Ethanol can be produced from biomass by the hydrolysis and sugar fermentation processes. In this study ethanol was produced without using expensive commercial enzymes from sugarcane bagasse. Alkali pretreatment was used to prepare biomass before enzymatic hydrolysis. The comparison between NaOH, KOH and Ca(OH)2 shows NaOH is more effective on bagasse. The required enzymes for biomass hydrolysis were produced from sugarcane solid state fermentation via two fungi: Trichoderma longibrachiatum and Aspergillus niger. The results show that the produced enzyme solution via A. niger has functioned better than T. longibrachiatum. Ethanol was produced by simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (SSF) with crude enzyme solution from T. longibrachiatum and Saccharomyces cerevisiae yeast. To evaluate this procedure, SSF of pretreated bagasse was also done using Celluclast 1.5L by Novozymes. The yield of ethanol production by commercial enzyme and produced enzyme solution via T. longibrachiatum was 81% and 50% respectively.

Keywords: Alkali pretreatment, bioethanol, cellulase, simultaneous saccharification and fermentation, solid statefermentation, sugarcane bagasse

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Authors: Nicole Pearcy, Jonathan J. Crofts, Nadia Chuzhanova

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In this paper, we employ a directed hypergraph model to investigate the extent to which environmental variability influences the set of available biochemical reactions within a living cell. Such an approach avoids the limitations of the usual complex network formalism by allowing for the multilateral relationships (i.e. connections involving more than two nodes) that naturally occur within many biological processes. More specifically, we extend the concept of network reciprocity to complex hyper-networks, thus enabling us to characterise a network in terms of the existence of mutual hyper-connections, which may be considered a proxy for metabolic network complexity. To demonstrate these ideas, we study 115 metabolic hyper-networks of bacteria, each of which can be classified into one of 6 increasingly varied habitats. In particular, we found that reciprocity increases significantly with increased environmental variability, supporting the view that organism adaptability leads to increased complexities in the resultant biochemical networks.

Keywords: Complexity, hypergraphs, reciprocity, metabolism.

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Authors: A. V. Goncharova, T. A. Karpenyuk, Y. S. Tsurkan, R. U. Beisembaeva, A. M. Kalbaeva, T. D. Mukasheva, L. V. Ignatova

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Microorganisms isolated from water and soil of Kazakhstan to identify potential high-effective producers of the arachidonic acid, exhibiting a wide range of physiological activity and having practical applications were screened. Based on the results of two independent tests (the test on the sensitivity of the growth processes of microorganisms to acetylsalicylic acid - an irreversible inhibitor of PGH-synthase involved in the metabolism of arachidonic acid and its derivatives, the test for inhibition of peroxidase activity of membrane-bounding fraction of PGH - synthase by acetylsalicylic acid) were selected microbial cultures which are potential highproducer of arachidonic acid. They are characterized by a stable strong growth in the laboratory conditions. Identification of microorganism cultures based on morphological, physiological, biochemical and molecular genetic characteristics was performed.

Keywords: Arachidonic acid, aspirin-sensitive culture, bacteria, producers, screening.

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Authors: A. Ashjaran, M. E. Yazdanshenas, A. Rashidi, R. Khajavi, A. Rezaee

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fibers of pure cellulose can be made from some bacteria such as acetobacter xylinum. Bacterial cellulose fibers are very pure, tens of nm across and about 0.5 micron long. The fibers are very stiff and, although nobody seems to have measured the strength of individual fibers. Their stiffness up to 70 GPa. Fundamental strengths should be at least greater than those of the best commercial polymers, but best bulk strength seems to about the same as that of steel. They can potentially be produced in industrial quantities at greatly lowered cost and water content, and with triple the yield, by a new process. This article presents a critical review of the available information on the bacterial cellulose as a biological nonwoven fabric with special emphasis on its fermentative production and applications. Characteristics of bacterial cellulose biofabric with respect to its structure and physicochemical properties are discussed. Current and potential applications of bacterial cellulose in textile, nonwoven cloth, paper, films synthetic fiber coating, food, pharmaceutical and other industries are also presented.

Keywords: Microbial cellulose, Biofabric, Microorganisms Acetobacter xylinum, Polysaccharide

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Authors: Rania Samir Zaki

Abstract:

Because of their inhibitory effects, selected probiotic Lactobacilli may be used as antimicrobial against some hazardous microorganisms responsible for spoilage of fresh minced beef (cattle) minced meat and camel minced meat. Lactic acid bacteria were isolated from camel meat. These included 10 isolates; 1 Lactobacillus fermenti, 4 Lactobacillus plantarum, 4 Lactobacillus pulgaricus, 3 Lactobacillus acidophilus and 1 Lactobacillus brevis. The most efficient inhibitory organism was Lactobacillus plantarum which can be used as a propiotic with antibacterial activity. All microbiological analyses were made at the time 0, first day and the second day at altered ranges of temperature [4±2 ⁰C (chilling temperature), 25±2 ⁰C, and 38±2 ⁰C]. Results showed a significant decrease of pH 6.2 to 5.1 within variant types of meat, in addition to reduction of Total Bacterial Count, Enterococci, Bacillus cereus and Escherichia coli together with the stability of Coliforms and absence of Staphylococcus aureus.

Keywords: Antibacterial, camel meat, inhibition, probiotics.

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Authors: A. Shyamala Devi, K. Chitra Devi, R. Rajendiran

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A total of 6 isolates of Bacillus subtilis were isolated from oil mill waste collected in Namakkal district, Tamilnadu, India. The isolated bacteria were screened using lipase screening medium containing Tween 80. BS-3 isolate exhibited a greater clear zone than the others, indicating higher lipase activity. Therefore, this isolate was selected for media optimization studies. Ten process variables were screened using Plackett–Burman design and were further optimized by central composite design of response surface methodology for lipase production in submerged fermentation. Maximum lipase production of 16.627 U/min/ml were predicted in medium containing yeast extract (9.3636g), CaCl2 (0.8986g) and incubation periods (1.813 days). A mean value of 16.98 ± 0.2286 U/min/ml of lipase was acquired from real experiments.

Keywords: Bacillus subtilis, extracellular lipase, Plackett–Burman design, response surface methodology.

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Authors: Kalyanasundaram.D., Kavitha. S

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Field experiments were conducted at Annamalai University Experimental Farm, Department of Agronomy; to device suitable weed control measures for direct seeded puddled rice and to study the effect of the weed control measures on the soil microbial population. The treatments comprised of incorporation of pressmud @ 6.25 t ha-1 and application of herbicide butachlor @1.5 kg a. i. ha- 1 with and without safener 4 days after sowing (DAS), 8 DAS alone and also in conjunction with hand weeding at 30 DAS. Hand weeding twice and a weedy check were also maintained. At maximum tillering stage, the population of bacteria was significantly reduced by butachlor application. The injury to microbes caused by herbicide disappeared with the advancement of crop's age and at flowering stage of crop, there was no significant difference among the treatments. The fungal and actinomycetes population remained unaltered by weed control treatments at both the stages of observation.

Keywords: Butachlor, Herbicide, Direct sown rice, Microbial population

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Authors: Musammat F. Nahar, Anna Roujeinikova

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Bacterial molecular chaperone DnaK plays an essential role in protein folding, stress response and transmembrane targeting of proteins. DnaKs from many bacterial species, including Escherichia coli, Salmonella typhimurium and Haemophilus infleunzae are the molecular targets for the insect-derived antimicrobial peptide pyrrhocoricin. Pyrrhocoricin-like peptides bind in the substrate recognition tunnel. Despite the high degree of crossspecies sequence conservation in the substrate-binding tunnel, some bacteria are not sensitive to pyrrhocoricin. This work addresses the molecular mechanism of resistance of Helicobacter pylori DnaK to pyrrhocoricin. Homology modelling, structural and sequence analysis identify a single aminoacid substitution at the interface between the lid and the β-sandwich subdomains of the DnaK substrate-binding domain as the major determinant for its resistance.

Keywords: Helicobacter pylori, molecular chaperone DnaK, pyrrhocoricin, structural biology.

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Authors: Santi Behera, M. Tripathy, J. K. Satapathy

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Power systems are operating under stressed condition due to continuous increase in demand of load. This can lead to voltage instability problem when face additional load increase or contingency. In order to avoid voltage instability suitable size of reactive power compensation at optimal location in the system is required which improves the load margin. This work aims at obtaining optimal size as well as location of compensation in the 39- bus New England system with the help of Bacteria Foraging and Genetic algorithms. To reduce the computational time the work identifies weak candidate buses in the system, and then picks only two of them to take part in the optimization. The objective function is based on a recently proposed voltage stability index which takes into account the weighted average sensitivity index is a simpler and faster approach than the conventional CPF algorithm. BFOA has been found to give better results compared to GA.

Keywords: BFOA, GA, SSVSL, WASI.

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Authors: P. Panichnumsin, B. K. Ahring, A. Nopharatana, P. Chaipresert

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In this study, we illustrated the performance and microbial community of single- and two-phase systems anaerobically co-digesting cassava pulp and pig manure. The results showed that the volatile solid reduction and biogas productivity of two-phase CSTR were 66 ± 4% and 2000 ± 210 ml l-1 d-1, while those of singlephase CSTR were 59 ± 1% and 1670 ± 60 ml l-1 d-1, respectively. Codigestion in two-phase CSTR gave higher 12% solid degradation and 25% methane production than single-phase CSTR. Phylogenetic analysis of 16S rDNA clone library revealed that the Bacteroidetes were the most abundant group, followed by the Clostridia in singlephase CSTR. In hydrolysis/acidification reactor of two-phase system, the bacteria within the phylum Firmicutes, especially Clostridium, Eubacteriaceae and Lactobacillus were the dominant phylogenetic groups. Among the Archaea, Methanosaeta sp. was the exclusive predominant in both digesters while the relative abundance of Methanosaeta sp. and Methanospirillum hungatei differed between the two systems.

Keywords: Anaerobic co-digestion, Cassava pulp, Microbialdiversity, Pig manure.

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Authors: Luísa P. Cruz-Lopes, Artur Figueirinha, Isabel Brás, Bruno Esteves

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Portugal is an important wine and olive oil producer, activities which generate a high quantity of residues commonly called grape stalks and olive cake, respectively. In this work grape stalks and olive cake were used as lignocellulosic adsorbents for wastewater containing lead treatment. To attain a better knowledge of the factors that could influence the quality of the treated wastewater, a chemical characterization of the materials used in the treatment was done. To access the ecotoxicological safety of the treated wastewater, several tests were performed.

The results of the toxicity test show that the samples leachate has a mild effect on the living models tested. The tests performed in lemna and bacteria were the most sensible to toxicity effects of the samples. The results obtained in this work evidenced the importance of use of simple and fast toxicity tests to predict impacts in the environment.

Keywords: Chemical composition, ecotoxicological, lignocellulosic residues, safety.

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Authors: Elya S. Pepoyan, Astghik Z. Pepoyan

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The Zung self-depression scale and Beck Anxiety Inventory were used both to study the depression and anxiety levels of Armenian Crohn’s disease patients, and to reveal the relation between emotional status and placebo effect of these patients. On the other hand, the blood cell analyses and gut bacteria investigations were used to assess the placebo effect on ESR, and haemoglobin-s and leukocyte-s levels as well as gut commensal E. coli quantities of these patients. Despite of registered high levels of depression and anxiety, the high placebo effect on psychoemotional status for investigated patients during the investigations was described. On the other hand, no positive effect of placebo on measurements of ESP and hemoglobin-s levels of Crohn’s disease patients was revealed. The importance of use of psychotherapies for optimal outcomes during treatments of Crohn’s disease is discussed.

Keywords: Crohn's disease, emotional disorders, placebo, gut microflora and blood composition.

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Authors: Renzo Carta, Francesco Desogus

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Variations in the growth rate constant of the Listeria monocytogenes bacterial species were determined at 37°C in irradiated environments and compared to the situation of a nonirradiated environment. The bacteria cells, contained in a suspension made of a nutrient solution of Brain Heart Infusion, were made to grow at different frequency (2.30e2.60 GHz) and power (0e400 mW) values, in a plug flow reactor positioned in the irradiated environment. Then the reacting suspension was made to pass into a cylindrical cuvette where its optical density was read every 2.5 minutes at a wavelength of 600 nm. The obtained experimental data of optical density vs. time allowed the bacterial growth rate constant to be derived; this was found to be slightly influenced by microwave power, but not by microwave frequency; in particular, a minimum value was found for powers in the 50e150 mW field.

Keywords: Growth rate constant, irradiated environment, Listeria monocytogenes, microwaves, plug flow reactor.

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Authors: Saimir Heta, Ilma Robo, Nevila Alliu, Tea Meta

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Background: Plasma levels of inflammatory markers are the expression of the infectious wastes of existing periodontitis, as well as of existing inflammation everywhere in the body. Materials and Methods: The study consists of the clinical part of the measurement of inflammatory markers of 23 patients diagnosed with chronic periodontitis and the recording of parental periodontal parameters of patient periodontal status: hemorrhage index and probe values, before and 7-10 days after non-surgical periodontal treatment. Results: The level of fibrinogen drops according to the categorization of disease progression, active and passive, with the biggest % (18%-30%) at the fluctuation 10-20 mg/d. Fluctuations in fibrinogen level according to the age of patients in the range 0-10 mg/dL under 40 years and over 40 years was 13%-26%, in the range 10-20 mg/dL was 26%-22%, in the 20-40 mg/dL was 9%-4%. Conclusions: Non-surgical periodontal treatment significantly reduces the level of non-inflammatory markers in the blood. Oral health significantly reduces the potential source for periodontal bacteria, with the potential of promoting thromboembolism, through interaction between thrombocytes.

Keywords: Chronic periodontitis, atherosclerosis, risk factor, inflammatory markers.

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Authors: Olusegun K. Afolabi, Emmanuel B. Oyewo

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Fluoroquinolones are a group of antibiotics widely used because of their broad spectrum activity against both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. In this study, ciprofloxacin and levofloxacin were administered to rats at therapeutic doses to evaluate their effects on plasma arylesterase activity, as well as, on hepatic advanced oxidized protein products (AOPPs) and malondialdehyde (MDA) levels, as measures of oxidative stress. Ciprofloxacin (80 mg/kg body weight) and levofloxacin (40 mg/kg body weight) were administered to male albino rats for 7 and 14 days. The data obtained demonstrated that plasma arylesterase activity was significantly decreased by both drugs with ciprofloxacin administration inhibiting the activity by 29% and 30% while Levofloxacin treatment resulted in 35% and 30% inhibition, after 7 and 14 days treatment respectively. Hepatic AOPP and MDA levels were both elevated by these antibiotics. This study supplies further evidence that fluoroquinolones at therapeutic doses promote oxidative stress.

Keywords: Arylesterase, Ciprofloxacin, Levofloxacin, Oxidative Stress.

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Authors: T. Thompson, E. F. Zegeye

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Bacterial Cellulose (BC) is a structural organic compound produced in the anaerobic process. This material can be a useful eco-friendly substitute for commercial textiles that are used in industries today. BC is easily and sustainably produced and has the capabilities to be used as a replacement in textiles. However, BC is extremely fragile when it completely dries. This research was conducted to improve the mechanical properties of the BC by reinforcing with an organic polymer and exfoliated graphite (EG). The BC films were grown over a period of weeks in a green tea and kombucha solution at 30 °C, then cleaned and added to an enhancing solution. The enhancing solutions were a mixture of 2.5 wt% polymer and 2.5 wt% latex solution, a 5 wt% polymer solution, a 0.20 wt% graphite solution and were each allowed to sit in a furnace for 48 h at 50 °C. Tensile test samples were prepared and tested until fracture at a strain rate of 8 mm/min. From the research with the addition of a 5 wt% polymer solution, the flexibility of the BC has significantly improved with the maximum strain significantly larger than that of the base sample. The addition of EG has also increased the modulus of elasticity of the BC by about 25%.

Keywords: Bacterial cellulose, exfoliated graphite, kombucha scoby, tensile test.

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Authors: Maryam Nejat Dehkordi, Per Lincoln, Hassan Momtaz

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Interaction of Schiff base complexes of Iron and Manganese: Iron [N, N’ Bis (5- (triphenyl phosphonium methyl) salicylidene) -1, 2 ethanediamine) chloride, [Fe Salen]Cl; Manganese [N, N’ Bis (5- (triphenyl phosphonium methyl) salicylidene) -1, 2 ethanediamine) acetate, were investigated by spectroscopic and isothermal titration calorimetry techniques (ITC). The absorbance spectra of complexes have shown hyper and hypochromism in the presence of DNA that is indication of interaction of complexes with DNA. The linear dichroism (LD) measurements confirmed the bending of DNA in the presence of complexes. Furthermore, Isothermal titration calorimetry experiments approved that complexes bound to DNA on the base of both electrostatic and hydrophobic interactions. More, ITC profile exhibits the existence of two binding phases for the complexes. Antibacterial activity of ligand and complexes were tested in vitro to evaluate their activity against the gram positive and negative bacteria.

Keywords: Schiff base complexes, Linear dichroism (LD), Isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC).

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Authors: Nichole Haag, Kimberly Velk, Tyler McCune, Chun Wu

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Methicillin/multiple-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) are infectious bacteria that are resistant to common antibiotics. A previous in silico study in our group has identified a hypothetical protein SAV1226 as one of the potential drug targets. In this study, we reported the bioinformatics characterization, as well as cloning, expression, purification and kinetic assays of hypothetical protein SAV1226 from methicillin/vancomycin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus Mu50 strain. MALDI-TOF/MS analysis revealed a low degree of structural similarity with known proteins. Kinetic assays demonstrated that hypothetical protein SAV1226 is neither a domain of an ATP dependent dihydroxyacetone kinase nor of a phosphotransferase system (PTS) dihydroxyacetone kinase, suggesting that the function of hypothetical protein SAV1226 might be misannotated on public databases such as UniProt and InterProScan 5.

Keywords: Dihydroxyacetone kinase, essential genes, Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, drug target.

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Authors: Bousselessela H., Yahia M., Mahboubi A., Benbia S., Yahia Massinissa

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In order to enhance the knowledge of certain phytochemical Algerian plants that are widely used in traditional medicine and to exploit their therapeutic potential in modern medicine, we have done a specific extraction of terpenes and alkaloids from the leaves of Euphorbia granulata to evaluate the antioxidant and antibacterial activity of this extracts. After the extraction it was found that the terpene extract gave the highest yield 59.72% compared with alkaloids extracts. The disc diffusion method was used to determine the antibacterial activity against different bacterial strains: Escherichia coli (ATCC25922), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (ATCC27853) and Staphylococcus aureus (ATCC25923). All extracts have shown inhibition of growth bacteria. The different zones of inhibition have varied from (7 -10 mm) according to the concentrations of extract used. Testing the antiradical activity on DPPH-TLC plates indicated the presence of substances that have potent anti-free radical. As against, the BC-TLC revealed that only terpenes extract which was reacted positively. These results can validate the importance of Euphorbia granulata in traditional medicine.

Keywords: Euphorbia granulata, Euphorbiaceae, alkaloids, terpenoids, antioxidant activity, antibacterial activity.

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Authors: F. Allag, S. Bouharati, M. Belmahdi, R. Zegadi

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The rapid expansion of deserts in recent decades as a result of human actions combined with climatic changes has highlighted the necessity to understand biological processes in arid environments. Whereas physical processes and the biology of flora and fauna have been relatively well studied in marginally used arid areas, knowledge of desert soil micro-organisms remains fragmentary. The objective of this study is to conduct a diversity analysis of bacterial communities in unvegetated arid soils. Several biological phenomena in hot deserts related to microbial populations and the potential use of micro-organisms for restoring hot desert environments. Dry land ecosystems have a highly heterogeneous distribution of resources, with greater nutrient concentrations and microbial densities occurring in vegetated than in bare soils. In this work, we found it useful to use techniques of artificial intelligence in their treatment especially artificial neural networks (ANN). The use of the ANN model, demonstrate his capability for addressing the complex problems of uncertainty data.

Keywords: Desert soil, Climatic changes, Bacteria, Vegetation, Artificial neural networks.

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Authors: Alexander Kaplunovsky, Vladimir Khailenko, Alexander Bolshoy, Shara Atambayeva, AnatoliyIvashchenko

Abstract:

Eukaryotic protein-coding genes are interrupted by spliceosomal introns, which are removed from the RNA transcripts before translation into a protein. The exon-intron structures of different eukaryotic species are quite different from each other, and the evolution of such structures raises many questions. We try to address some of these questions using statistical analysis of whole genomes. We go through all the protein-coding genes in a genome and study correlations between the net length of all the exons in a gene, the number of the exons, and the average length of an exon. We also take average values of these features for each chromosome and study correlations between those averages on the chromosomal level. Our data show universal features of exon-intron structures common to animals, plants, and protists (specifically, Arabidopsis thaliana, Caenorhabditis elegans, Drosophila melanogaster, Cryptococcus neoformans, Homo sapiens, Mus musculus, Oryza sativa, and Plasmodium falciparum). We have verified linear correlation between the number of exons in a gene and the length of a protein coded by the gene, while the protein length increases in proportion to the number of exons. On the other hand, the average length of an exon always decreases with the number of exons. Finally, chromosome clustering based on average chromosome properties and parameters of linear regression between the number of exons in a gene and the net length of those exons demonstrates that these average chromosome properties are genome-specific features.

Keywords: Comparative genomics, exon-intron structure, eukaryotic clustering, linear regression.

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Authors: Imana Shahrin Tania, Mohammad Ali

Abstract:

The present study reports the synthesis, characterization and application of nano-sized zinc-oxide (ZnO) particles on a cotton fabric surface. The aim of the investigations is to impart the antimicrobial activity on textile cloth. Nanoparticle is synthesized by wet chemical method from zinc sulphate and sodium hydroxide. SEM (scanning electron micrograph) images are taken to demonstrate the surface morphology of nanoparticles. XRD analysis is done to determine the crystal size of the nanoparticle. With the conformation of nanoformation, the cotton woven fabric is treated with ZnO nanoparticle by mechanical thermo-fixation (pad-dry-cure) technique. To increase the wash durability of nano treated fabric, an acrylic binder is used as a fixing agent. The treated fabric shows up to 90% bacterial reduction for S. aureus (Staphylococcus aureus) and 87% for E. coli (Escherichia coli) which is appreciable for bacteria protective clothing.

Keywords: Nanoparticle, zinc oxide, cotton fabric, antibacterial activity, binder.

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Authors: N. K. Srivastava, M. K. Jha, I. D. Mall, Davinder Singh

Abstract:

The treatment of the industrial wastewater can be particularly difficult in the presence of toxic compounds. Excessive concentration of Chromium in soluble form is toxic to a wide variety of living organisms. Biological removal of heavy metals using natural and genetically engineered microorganisms has aroused great interest because of its lower impact on the environment. Ralston metallidurans, formerly known as Alcaligenes eutrophus is a LProteobacterium colonizing industrial wastewater with a high content of heavy metals. Tris-buffered mineral salt medium was used for growing Alcaligenes eutrophus AE104 (pEBZ141). The cells were cultivated for 18 h at 30 oC in Tris-buffered mineral salt medium containing 3 mM disodium sulphate and 46 mM sodium gluconate as the carbon source. The cells were harvested by centrifugation, washed, and suspended in 10 mM Tris HCl, pH 7.0, containing 46 mM sodium gluconate, and 5 mM Chromium. Interaction among induction of chr resistance determinant, and chromate reduction have been demonstrated. Results of this study show that the above bacteria can be very useful for bioremediation of chromium from industrial wastewater.

Keywords: Chromium, Genetic Engineering, IndustrialWastewater, Plasmid

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