April 2014
Assessment of the genetic diversity and pattern of relationship of West African sorghum accessions using microsatellite markers
An understanding of the extent, distribution and patterns of genetic variation is useful for estimation of any possible loss of genetic diversity and assessment of genetic variability and its potential use in breeding programs, including establishment of heterotic groups. This study assessed patterns of genetic diversity and relationships among 30 West African sorghum accessions using 22 microsatellite markers....
April 2014
Influence of culture medium and age of zygotic embryos on in vitro germination of Elaeis guineensis Jacq.
Oil palm cultivation has acquired economic importance due to rising demand for vegetable oils used in food, pharmaceutical, cosmetic and most recently, in biofuel industries. However, the commercial production increase of oil palm is limited by plantlet production, as it primarily uses seeds that require a long germination period and have low germination rates. In this study we evaluated the effect of embryo age (time...
April 2014
Fruit, seed and embryo development of different cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) genotypes and embryo rescue
Fruit, seed and embryo developments of different cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) genotypes, as well as embryo rescue, were investigated. The fruits of three genotypes after uncontrolled open pollination presented the same progressive development with similar sizes at different stages. There are large differences in the fruit set as well as the embryo development between different genotypes. Days after pollination...
April 2014
Assessment of an oil palm population from Nigerian Institute for Oil Palm Research (NIFOR) for simple sequence repeat (SSR) marker application
Oil palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.), a monocotyledonous plant belonging to the Arecaceae family, is one of the most important oil crops in the world. In Nigeria, oil palm has benefited immensely from conventional breeding efforts resulting in high yields that have been achieved with this breeding material. However, oil palm breeding is slow and time-consuming due to a breeding cycle of about 10 years. In addition, the...
April 2014
The suitability evaluation of lignocellulosic substrate as growing media substitute
The use of peat moss (PM) as a growing media is decreasing due to high costs and environmental considerations. Therefore, diverse waste products are being used as organic amendments in certain soils before afforestation. The main objective of this work was to identify and evaluate possible substrate alternatives or amendments to peat moss. This study involves the physical and chemical characterization and growth test of...
April 2014
Acute toxicity of ammonia to blue tilapia, Oreochromis aureus in saline water
The acute toxicity of blue tilapia, Oreochromis aureus (3.28 ± 0.36 g in body weight, 61.84 ± 2.08 mm in body length) exposed to environmental un-ionized ammonia at different salinities (1, 8, 12, 16 and 20 ppt) was assessed via a series of static exposure trials. Median lethal concentrations of 24 h of exposure were calculated for each salinity. Tolerance of blue tilapia to acute un-ionized ammonia...
April 2014
Fluorene biodegradation potentials of Bacillus strains isolated from tropical hydrocarbon-contaminated soils
Two fluorene-degrading Gram-positive Bacillus strains, putatively identified as Bacillus subtilis BM1 and Bacillus amyloliquefaciens BR1 were isolated from hydrocarbon- and asphalt-contaminated soils in Lagos, Nigeria. The polluted soils have a relatively high total hydrocarbon content (16888.9 and 9923.1 mg/kg, respectively), very low concentrations of macronutrients and the total organic carbon was less than 4%. The...
April 2014
Isolation and characterization of a new Pseudomonas-related strain capable of degradation of phenol from oil contaminated soil
A novel phenol-degrading bacterium named as SKDP-1 was isolated from crude oil contaminated soil, Gudao oil field in the Northeast of Shandong Dongying, East China. The biochemical tests indicated that strain SKDP-1 was Gram-negative, and glucose and citrate could be utilized and starch not gelatin. Both Voges-Proskauer and H2O2 enzyme tests were positive. The activities of catechol 1,2-dioxygenase (C12O) and catechol...
April 2014
Production, optimization, characterization and antifungal activity of chitinase produced by Aspergillus terrus
Chitin is one of the most abundant biopolymers widely distributed in the marine and terrestrial environments. Chitinase enzyme has received increased attention due to its wide range of biotechnological applications. Aspergillus terrus was found to be a good chitinase producer among the five fungi isolated from different soil samples from Al-Jouf city, Saudi Arabia. Maximum production of chitinase was obtained when using...
April 2014
Adsorption of heavy metals by agroforestry waste derived activated carbons applied to aqueous solutions
Activated carbons prepared from macadamia nut shells, baobab shells, pigeon pea husks, rice husks, Moringa oleifera husks, and marula stones were investigated for their abilities to adsorb Pb(II), Zn(II), Cu(II), Ni(II), Fe(II), Mn(II), Hg(II), Cr(III), As(III) and Cd(II) from aqueous solutions. Batch adsorption experiments were conducted at pH values of 4, 5 and 6. Metal ion adsorption generally increased as the pH was...
April 2014
Expression, production and renaturation of a functional single-chain variable antibody fragment (scFv) against human intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1)
The single-chain variable antibody fragment (scFv) against human intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) was expressed at a high level in Escherichia coli as inclusion bodies. We attempted to refold the scFv by ion-exchange chromatography (IEC), dialysis and dilution. The results show that the column chromatography refolding by Q Sepharose high performance (Q HP) had remarkable advantages over the conventional...
April 2014
Production of Spirulina platensis by adding sodium bicarbonate and urea into chicken manure medium
In this study, dry chicken manure (DCM) was used as the source of nitrogen in the production of Spirulina platensis. Experiment was conducted in two different types of nutrition. In the type I nutrition, the highest average cell increase was recorded as 289.70 filaments mL-1 in value in the type I group (DCM+urea). In the type II nutrition, the highest average cell increase was recorded as 296.50 filament mL-1 in value...
April 2014
Efficiency of fatty acid accumulation into breast muscles of chickens fed diets with lycopene, fish oil and different chemical selenium forms
The purpose of the investigation was to determine the effect of the addition of 12 ppm lycopene (Lyc), 2% fish oil (FO) or 0.25 ppm Se as selenate (SeVI) or selenized yeast (SeY) to an isoenergetic and isonitrogenous basal diet containing sunflower oil (SO) as the source of energy on the concentrations of fatty acids (FA), especially saturated- (SFA), mono- (MUFA) and polyunsaturated (PUFA) acids, in breast muscles of...
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