African Journal of
Biotechnology

  • Abbreviation: Afr. J. Biotechnol.
  • Language: English
  • ISSN: 1684-5315
  • DOI: 10.5897/AJB
  • Start Year: 2002
  • Published Articles: 12496

Table of Content: 16 January 2013; 12(3)

January 2013

Nanotechnology: Interdisciplinary science of applications

  Nanotechnology is the study of particle sizes between 1 and 100 nanometers at least at one dimension. Particle size reduced to nanometer length scale exhibit more surface area to volume size ratio and showing unusual properties makes them enable for systematic applications in engineering, biomedical, agricultural and allied sectors. Nanomaterial can create from bottom up or top down approaches using physical,...

Author(s):   J. C. Tarafdar, Shikha Sharma and Ramesh Raliya        

January 2013

Genetic transformation of moss plant

  Bryophytes are among the simplest and oldest of the terrestrial plants. Due to the special living environment and characteristics, bryophytes have become attractive experimental tools for the elucidation of complex biological processes in plants. Mosses grow rapidly when cultured on simple salt media, thereby making them ideal materials for metabolic studies, particularly transformation and gene homologous...

Author(s):   Liu Jing, Qian Wenjing, Song Dan and He Zhengquan        

January 2013

A two-dimensional electrophoresis protocol suitable for Medicago truncatula leaf proteome

  Medicago truncatula leaves were used as the experimental materials. Total proteins of leaves were extracted by trichloracetic acid (TCA)-acetone method and proteins had a better separation using gel strips, forming an immobilized non-linear 3 to 10 pH gradient focusing 123,000 vhr combined with 12% sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE). The gels were stained with Coomassie...

Author(s):   Weimin Li, Xin Zhang, Wen Dong, Rong Jin, Yuping Wang, Di Wang, Feng Zhang and Zhenwu Wei        

January 2013

Inter-simple sequence repeat (ISSR) polymorphism-based analysis of diversity in the freshwater turtle genus Pangshura

  Assessment of genetic variability among the freshwater turtles is critical to the development of effective conservation strategies. In the present study, analysis of phenetic relationship of the genus Pangshura was studied using inter simple sequence repeat (ISSR) markers  to see the concordance of currently available morphological data with genetic data along with spatial pattern of...

Author(s):   Chittaranjan Baruah, M. A. Laskar and D. K. Sharma        

January 2013

Identification of single nucleotide polymorphism of growth hormone gene exon 4 and intron 4 in Pesisir cattle, local cattle breeds in West Sumatera Province of Indonesia

  The pupose of this study was to identify genetic polymorphisms of bovine growth hormone gene exon 4, and intron 4 in local cattle breeds in West Sumatera Province of Indonesia. DNA was isolated from 60 blood samples and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) product of GH5 fragment (366 bp) were directly sequenced. Multiple alignments, including...

Author(s):   Yurnalis, Sarbaini, Arnim, Jamsari, and Wolfgang Nellen      

January 2013

Plants diversity and phytoaccumulators identification on the Akouedo landfill (Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire)

  Phytoremediation is an emerging technology to remediate contaminated soils. Their implementation in developing countries may be limited by the plant species used. To overcome this situation, plants from the Akouedo landfill have been inventoried in order to identify indigenous plants adapted to soil and environmental conditions. Two sampling zones have been defined, based on the waste dumping activities or...

Author(s):   Aman MESSOU, Lacina COULIBALY, Lassina DOUMBIA and Germain GOURENE        

January 2013

Evaluation of genetic diversity between toxic and non toxic Jatropha curcas L. accessions using a set of simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers

  Scepticism about Jatropha as a competitive biofuel feedstock especially on marginal soils has been growing; in fact, the jatropha-biofuel chain is risky economically and often financially unfeasible without significant government subsidies under these conditions. A valorization of the by-products and in particular of the extruded seed cake (about 70% (w/w) of the processed seed), as animal feed, currently...

Author(s):   Massimo Vischi, Steluta Raranciuc and Mario Baldini        

January 2013

Effects of moderate static magnetic field presowing treatment on seedling growth and oxidative status in two Raphanus sativus L. varieties

  Improvement of seed performance by static magnetic field (SMF) constitutes a safe ecological way to substitute chemicals use. In laboratory conditions, we studied the effects of presowing seeds of two varieties of Raphanus sativus (Red: R.R, Red and White: R+W) by moderate SMF on seedlings’ growth and oxidative status and this by using different intensities (100 and 200 mT) and exposure...

Author(s):   Maroua Akacha Touati, Néziha Ghanem Boughanmi, Mohamed Ben Salem and Rabiaa Haouala          

January 2013

Evaluation of in vitro antimicrobial property of seaweed (Halimeda tuna) from Tuticorin coast, Tamil Nadu, Southeast coast of India

  The seaweed (Halimeda tuna) was examined for antibacterial and antifungal activity in vitro using the well diffusion method, minimum inhibitory concentration, minimum bactericidal concentration and minimum fungicidal concentration. The activity was against 10 bacterial strains (Staphylococcus aureus, Salmonella typhimurium, Salmonella paratyphi, Klebsiella oxytoca, Escherichia coli, Proteus...

Author(s):   K. Indira, S. Balakrishnan, M. Srinivasan, S. Bragadeeswaran and T. Balasubramanian          

January 2013

Effect of dietary mixtures of moringa (Moringa oleifera) leaves, broiler finisher and crushed maize on anti-oxidative potential and physico-chemical characteristics of breast meat from broilers

  This study was carried out to determine the effects of dietary mixtures of moringa (Moringa oleifera) leaves and broiler finisher (M-BF) [moringa leaves, broiler finisher and crushed maize (M-BF-CM); broiler finisher and crushed maize (BF-CM); and broiler finisher (BF)] on antioxidative potential and physico-chemical characteristics of breast meat from broilers. Antioxidant activity (AA), ultimate pH (pHu),...

Author(s):   K. Qwele, V. Muchenje, S. O. Oyedemi, B. Moyo and P. J. Masika        

January 2013

Physico-chemical characterisation and antioxidant activity of some Opuntia ficus-indica varieties grown in North Algeria

  The composition and the antioxidant activity of the juicy pulp of four Opuntia ficus-indica varieties (green, yellow, orange and red) grown in North Algeria were investigated. The juicy pulp was characterized by a high humidity (87.4 to 89.6%), high pH (6.2 to 6.6), low acidity (0.04 to 0.07%), a few amount of proteins (0.35 to 0.49%) and high amount of solid soluble compounds (12 to 15%)....

Author(s):   Chougui Nadia, Louaileche Hayette, Mohedeb Safia, Mouloudj Yasmina, Hammoui Yasmina and Tamendjari Abderezak        

January 2013

Determination of histamine in Iranian cheese using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) method

  Histamine is a simple chemical substance created during processing of the amine acid histidine. Histamine is also an agent in inflammation and the increased presence of histamine causes allergic reaction. Histamine may play a role in the increased prevalence of food intolerances. The objective of this study was to determine histamine contents. Forty four (44) samples of traditional and commercial cheese...

Author(s):   Mojtaba Rashedi, Mohsen Panahi Dorcheh, Mohammad Salajegheh, Amin Mohammadi, Mohammad Reza Hajimirzaei and Ebrahim Rahimi,          

January 2013

An endoplasmic reticulum (ER)-directed fusion protein comprising a bacterial subtilisin domain and the human cytokine interleukin 6 is efficiently cleaved in planta

  A major limitation of plant bioreactors is the lack of suitable and cost-effective purification methods for the extraction of pharmaceutical-grade proteins. In contrast to that, there are numerous established purification systems for heterologous proteins, expressed in Escherichia coli, which are used for the commercial production of therapeutic proteins. Therefore, we wanted to adapt the BioRad...

Author(s):   Henrik Nausch, Heike Mikschofsky, Roswitha Koslowski, Alain Steinmann, Udo Meyer, Inge Broer and Jana Huckauf