African Journal of
Biotechnology

  • Abbreviation: Afr. J. Biotechnol.
  • Language: English
  • ISSN: 1684-5315
  • DOI: 10.5897/AJB
  • Start Year: 2002
  • Published Articles: 12481

Table of Content: 25 April 2011; 10(17)

April 2011

Enhanced accumulation of catharanthine and vindoline in Catharanthus roseus hairy roots by overexpression of transcriptional factor ORCA2

The AP2/ERF-domain transcription factor ORCA2 from Catharanthus roseus was demonstrated earlier to regulate the expressions of Str gene, an important gene involved in the terpenoid indole alkaloids biosynthetic pathway in C. roseus cells. Therefore, the factor was postulated to play an important role in the production of secondary metabolites in plants. To investigate the effect...

Author(s): Dong-Hui Liu, Wei-Wei Ren, Li-Jie Cui, Li-Da Zhang, Xiao-Fen Sun and Ke-Xuan Tang

April 2011

Cytological characterization of anther culture derived plants from the interspecific crosses between Oryza sativa x Oryza australinesis and Oryza sativa x Oryza brachyantha

Anther culture is being used in cereal crop improvement both as a source of haploids and for inducing the new genetic variability. We studied the possibilities of producing the aneuploids in rice by anther culture. Anthers for callus induction were plated on semi solid media. Callus formation was observed 20 days after plating. The anthers became necrotic prior to callus formation. Tapei 309 exhibited the highest callus...

Author(s): Fida M Abbasi,Kehkashan Akbar, Mujaddad Ur Rehman, Muhammad Tariq Khan, Sajjad Iqbal, Anees Fatima, Noshine  , Hamid Ali and Muniba Fida Abbasi

April 2011

Molecular modeling of mutant kinase domain of Btk, a Tec family member, for structure prediction

Bruton's tyrosine kinase (Btk), a member of non-receptor tyrosine kinases, is one of the crucial kinases for the B-cell maturation and mast cell activation. This work was planned to develop the full length Btk protein structure via different approaches. The threading approach provided suitable full length Btk protein structure. Furthermore, this structure was utilized to predict the consequences of 16 selected...

Author(s): Hina Iqbal, Asif Mir and Rani Faryal

April 2011

Detection of pepper leaf curl virus through PCR amplification and expression of its coat protein in Escherichia coli for antiserum production

Pepper leaf curl virus (PepLCV) is the most destructive pathogen of pepper and causes substantial economic losses of chilli production worldwide. Curling and puckering of leaves and stunted growth of the plants are typical symptoms of the viral infection. For a reliable detection of PepLCV, coat protein specific primer pairs were designed and after polymerase chain reaction amplification (PCR), -1 kb amplification...

Author(s): D.P. Sinha, S. Saxena, S. Kumar   and M. Singh

April 2011

Association of porcine UCP3 gene polymorphisms with fatness traits in a Pietrain×Jinhua F2 population

Uncoupling protein 3 (UCP3) is a mitochondrial transmembrane carrier which uncouples oxidative phosphorylation and plays an important role in energy homeostasis and fatty acid transporting. In this study, two missense mutations (T221C and A448G) were detected in porcine UCP3 gene. Genotype frequencies were analyzed using polymerase chain reaction restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) in...

Author(s): Zhe Chen, Xiaofeng Zhao, Zhu Hao, Xiaoling Guo, Xiaoling Jiang and Ningying Xu

April 2011

Identification of Microsatellite (SSR) and RAPD Markers Linked to Rice Blast Disease Resistance gene in Rice (Oryza sativa L.)

A mapping population comprising 220 F2 individuals was developed by raising the selfed F1 seed of a single hybrid plant, White Ponni x Moroberekan. Two hundred and twenty two F3 families were phenotyped for blast resistance under artificial condition. Fifty random amplified polymorphic (RAPD) primers were used to identify parental polymorphism. Twelve RAPD markers which showed clear polymorphism were...

Author(s): Immanuel Selvaraj C, Pothiraj Nagarajan, Thiyagarajan K, Bharathi Mand Rabindran R

April 2011

Genetic parameters of variability, correlation and path-coefficient studies for grain yield and other yield Attributes among rice blast disease resistant genotypes of rice (Oryza sativa L.)

Twenty one rice genotypes were selected and screened under artificially controlled conditions to identify the rice blast disease reaction. Sixteen genotypes which were already reported to have resistance genes reacted negatively to the blast disease. Four genotypes were found to be susceptible. Highly significant, lower mean disease reaction score and mean PDI (potential disease incidence) % was recorded for...

Author(s): Immanuel Selvaraj C, Pothiraj Nagarajan, Thiyagarajan K, Bharathi M and Rabindran R

April 2011

In vitro propagation of an endangered medicinal timber species Khaya grandifoliola C. Dc.

The over exploitation of African mahogany in tropical forest has threatened the genetic base of this useful timber and medicinal tree species and as such, an experiment was conducted on the in vitro culture of Khaya grandifoliola, an endangered tree species commonly found in the high forest zones of West Africa to explore its potential for micropropagation. Embryos excised from matured seeds were cultured...

Author(s): Okere, A. U. and Adegeye, A.

April 2011

Methylation sensitive-sequence related amplified polymorphism (MS-SRAP) marker system and its application to de novo methylation detection in Brassica napus

DNA methylation is one of the most important epigenetic processes that participates in the organization of chromatin structure and plays an important role in regulating gene expression. Sequence-related amplified polymorphism (SRAP) is a simple but an efficient gene amplification marker system for both mapping and gene tagging in plants. Combined methylation sensitive restriction enzyme digested genomic DNA with SRAP...

Author(s): Chunyu Zhang, Yong Xiao, Lingjuan Li, Yan Long and Maoteng Li

April 2011

Differential effects of aluminium on the seedling parameters of wheat

In order to determine the effect of different aluminium (Al) concentrations on the seedling parameters of wheat and the effect of malate and citrate treatments as chelates for reducing the noxious effect of Al in medium culture and seedlings of two wheat cultivars, Darab (Al sensitive) and Maroon (Al tolerant) were grown on hydroponic solution (non modified Hoagland) containing AlCl3 (0-100-200-300...

Author(s): N. Nasr, J. Carapetian, R. Heidari, S. Asri Rezaei, N. Abbaspour and R. Darvishzadeh,

April 2011

The effect of aluminium on enzyme activities in two wheat cultivars

In order to study the effect of different aluminum (Al) concentrations on the enzyme activities of wheat seedlings and the effect of malate and citrate treatments as chelates for reducing the noxious effect of Al in medium culture, the seedlings of two wheat cultivars, Darab (Al-sensitive) and Maroon (Al-tolerant) were grown on hydroponic solution (non modified Hoagland solution) containing AlCl3 (0-100-200-300...

Author(s): N. Nasr, J. Carapetian, R. Heidari, S. Asri Rezaei, N. Abbaspour, R. Darvishzadeh, and F. Ghezelbash

April 2011

Ammonia loss, ammonium and nitrate accumulation from mixing urea with zeolite and peat soil water under waterlogged condition

Ammonia loss from urea significantly hinders efficient use of urea in agriculture. In order to reduce ammonia loss and, at the same time, improve beneficial accumulation of soil exchangeable ammonium and nitrate for efficient utilization by plants, this laboratory study was conducted to determine the effect of mixing urea with zeolite and peat soil water on ammonia volatilization, soil exchangeable...

Author(s): O. Latifah, O. H. Ahmed and A. M. Nik Muhamad

April 2011

The effects of drip line depths and irrigation levels on yield, quality and water use characteristics of lettuce under greenhouse condition

This study was conducted to investigate the effects of different drip irrigation methods and different irrigation levels on yield, quality and water use characteristics of lettuce (Lactuca sativa var. longifolia cv. Lital) cultivated in a solar greenhouse from 07 October 2009 to 03 December 2009 in the Eastern Mediterranean region of Turkey. The irrigation methods were consisted of traditional surface...

Author(s): Sefer Bozkurt and Gülsüm Sayilikan MansuroÄŸlu

April 2011

Pollen quality, quantity and fruit set of some self-compatible and self-incompatible cherry cultivars with artificial pollination

The fertilization biology of eight sweet cherry cultivars (0900 Ziraat, Lambert, Sunburst, Lapins, Starks Gold, Bing, Chelan and Summit) was studied. Pollen viability was determined with triphenyl tetrazolium chloride (TTC) and fluorescein diacetate (FDA) tests. Pollen germination tests were carried out by hanging drop method on 0, 5, 10, 15 and 20% sucrose solutions. Pollen quantity and pollen morpholo-gical homogeny...

Author(s): Mehmet Sutyemez

April 2011

Phenology of “Niagara Rosada” grapevines grafted on different rootstocks grown on Cerrado (Brazilian savanna) of Goiás State, Brazil

The purpose of this experiment was to study the phenological stages from pruning to harvest of the ‘Niagara Rosada’ grapevine grafted on different rootstocks grown on Cerrado conditions (Brazilian savanna) at the Goiás State, in the middle west of Brazil. The trial was carried out in Mineiros County, to evaluate phenological stages of ‘Niagara Rosada’ grapevines grafted on three rootstocks...

Author(s): Mauro Brasil Dias Tofanelli, Renato Vasconcelos Botelho, Erasmo José Paioli Pires, Laίze Aparecida Ferreira Vilela and Diego Oliveira Ribeiro

April 2011

Effect of temperature and salinity on germination of Achillea fragrantissima and Moringa peregrina from Saudi Arabia

Achillea fragrantissima and Moringa peregrina are dominant plants in the mountainous desert of Saudi Arabia. The two species suffer from intensive anthropogenic pressures as they have important medicinal uses. This paper aimed to evaluate the effect of temperature and salinity on germination of A. fragrantissimaand M. peregrina in order to provide information about germination requirements...

Author(s): Abdurahman A. Alatar

April 2011

Comparison of dye decolorization efficiencies of indigenous fungal isolates

Different physicochemical cultural conditions were optimized for azo dye removal by using Acid Red 151 as a model dye, being of high consumer demand and usage during the present study. The three fungal strains having the dye removal abilities,Aspergillus niger SA1, Aspergillus flavus SA2 and Aspergillus terreus SA3 were selected and processed for different optimization studies in shake flask...

Author(s): Shazia Erum and Safia Ahmed

April 2011

Cadmium resisting bacteria in Alexandria Eastern Harbor (Egypt) and optimization of cadmium bioaccumulation by Vibrio harveyi

Cadmium resisting bacteria (CRB) were present in all water and sediments (samples) collected from Alexandria Eastern Harbor, Egypt. The occurrences of CRB in sediments samples were higher than in water samples and reached up to 77.22% of total counts. Five isolates were selected to be the most resistant to cadmium with minimal inhibitory concentration of 60 ppm. The most potent isolate that accumulates a maximum...

Author(s): Hanan Abd-Elnaby, Gehan M. Abou-Elela and Nermeen A. El-Sersy

April 2011

Laboratory selection for spirodiclofen resistance and cross-resistance in Panonychus citri

Selection for spirodiclofen resistance was done in the laboratory with a susceptible strain of the citrus red mite, Panonychus citri (McGregor). Successive selections for spirodiclofen resistance through 42 generations resulted in a high level of resistance and the resistance ratio at LC50 was 103 compared with that of the original susceptible strain. In the selected strain, the level of resistance to...

Author(s): De-Yi Yu, Chang-Fang Wang, Yun Yu, Yu-Qing Huang, Jin-Ai Yao and Jin-Feng Hu

April 2011

Impact of enzymatic hydrolysis on the crystal structure, and thermal and textural properties of corn starch

Corn starch has been widely used in biomaterial industry as one of the raw materials. The properties of starch such as annealing and the different ratio of amylose and amylopectin in different starch limit its application in production. These properties play a vital role in establishing relationships between other starches in structures and functions. Normal corn starches were treated with isoamylase for different hours...

Author(s): Dehai Li, and Ying Ma

April 2011

Kinetic investigation on enantioselective hydrolytic resolution of epichlorohydrin by crude epoxide hydrolase from domestic duck liver

Enantiopure epichlorohydrin is a valuable epoxide intermediate for preparing optically active pharmaceuticals. In this study, a novel epoxide hydrolase prepared from domestic duck liver was used as biocatalyst for producing (S) - epichlorohydrin from its racemates. To characterize the biocatalytic profiles of crude epoxide hydrolase, some effect factors were investigated. The crude epoxide hydrolase has an apparent...

Author(s): Xiuquan Ling, Dingqiang Lu, Jun Wang, Jianhui Chen, Lei Ding, Jia Chen, Hong Chai and Pingkai Ouyang

April 2011

Efficiency and safety of percuSurge distal protection device in acute myocardial infarction during emergent percutaneous coronary intervention treatment

Acute myocardial infarction (AMI) intervention is associated with a significant incidence of slow flow or no-reflow phenomenon. PercuSurge distal protection device (DPD) has recently been approved as an effective adjunct to AMI intervention within 24 h or in the clinical settings of saphenous vein graft intervention. In this study, we evaluate the efficiency and safety of PercuSurge DPD in coronary intervention in...

Author(s): Xu-Yang Feng, Hai-Tao Liu, Yan Gao, Xuan Guo, Rui-fen Xu, Hai-Chang Wang, Cheng-Xiang Li

April 2011

Anticancer activity of ethyl acetate and n-butanol extracts from rhizomes of Agapetes megacarpa W.W. Smith

Agapetes megacarpa W.W. Smith, also known as Pratat Doi, is one of the commonly used medicinal herbs in northern Thailand.  The water extract of the herb has been used for lactation and body shape-up by gestation women. Toxicity and antitumor activities of this herb have never been reported. The objective of this study was to examine the cytotoxic and antitumor activities of ethyl acetate and n-butanol...

Author(s): Jariya Alongkornsopit, Jiraprapa Wipasa, Suwaporn Luangkamin and Weerah Wongkham

April 2011

Histological study of hepatopancreas in Hi Fin Pangasius (Pangasius sanitwongsei)

This study was undertaken to determine the histological structures of the hepatopancreas in Hi Fin Pangasius (Pangasius sanitwongsei). Microscopic results showed that exocrine pancreatic tissue was located in liver and consists of serous acini that had one or more centroacinar cells each. Thin septa of connective tissue separated parenchyma of liver from exocrine pancreatic cells. Endocrine parts of pancreas were...

Author(s): Reza Sayrafi, Gholamreza Najafi, Hooman Rahmati-holasoo, Aref hooshyari, Ramin akbari, Sara shokrpoor and Masoomeh Ghadam

April 2011

Bioremediation of acid fast red dye by Streptomyces globosus under static and shake conditions

Two different azo dyes known as acid fast red (AFR) and Congo red (CR) were examined for their decolorization by five strains of actinomycetes (Streptomyces globosus, Streptomyces alanosinicus, Streptomyces ruber, Streptomyces gancidicus, and Nocardiopsis aegyptia) under shake and static conditions.Streptomyces globosus decolorized AFR by 81.6% under static condition while 70.2% dye removal...

Author(s): Nermeen A. El-Sersy, Gehan M. Abou-Elela,  Sahar  W. Hassan and Hanan Abd-Elnaby

April 2011

Effects of different doses of melamine in the diet on melamine concentrations in milk, plasma, rumen fluid, urine and feces in lactating dairy cows

The objectives of this paper were to evaluate the effects of feeding diets containing different levels of melamine on melamine concentrations in milk, plasma, rumen fluid, urine and feces in Holstein dairy cows. Sixteen Chinese Holstein dairy cows fixed with permanent ruminal cannulas were assigned to 1 of 4 treatments within a completely randomized design for 10 days. Cows were fed different amounts of melamine {20...

Author(s): B. W. Zheng, S. L. Li, P. L. He, X. Jin and Y. J. Wang

April 2011

Sinomenine induces apoptosis of prostate cancer cells by blocking activation of NF-kappa B

Sinomenine (SN) is an alkaloid that has previously been shown to have a role in such varied processes as inflammation, angiogenesis, arthritis and immunosuppression. Therefore, in this study, possible anti-tumor effects of SN on the human prostate cancer cell lines, PC-3 and DU-145, was investigated. After treatment with varying doses of SN, apoptosis was measured by flow cytometry. Prostaglandin E2...

Author(s): Jian Fan, Jian-Chao Wang, Yu Chen, Han Fang, Bin Lou, Jun-Jun Xie, Li-Fen Zhu and Xiang-Min Tong

April 2011

Genotyping of African swine fever virus (ASFV) isolates associated with disease outbreaks in Uganda in 2007

Samples from infected domestic pigs associated with an outbreak of African swine fever (ASF) in three districts of central Uganda in 2007 were confirmed as being infected with African swine fever virus (ASFV) using a P72 gene-based polymerase chain reaction amplification (PCR) assay combined with restriction analysis. None of the sera collected from pigs with clinical symptoms were positive...

Author(s): Carmina Gallardo, Anna R. Ademun, Raquel Nieto,  Noelina Nantima, Marisa Arias, Elena Martín, Virginia Pelayo and Richard P. Bishop

April 2011

Schwann cells promote neuronal differentiation of bone marrow stromal cells

Bone marrow stromal cells (BMSCs), a type of multipotent stem cell, can differentiate into various types of cells. It has been suggested that the BMSCs have the capacity to differentiate into neurons under specific experimental conditions, using chemical factors. In this study, we showed that BMSCs can be induced to differentiate into neuron-like cells when they are co-cultured with Schwann cells...

Author(s): Xiao dong Zhi, and Gang Lv