African Journal of
Biotechnology

  • Abbreviation: Afr. J. Biotechnol.
  • Language: English
  • ISSN: 1684-5315
  • DOI: 10.5897/AJB
  • Start Year: 2002
  • Published Articles: 12487

Table of Content: 6 November 2012; 11(89)

November 2012

Recent advances and application of doubled haploids in wheat breeding

  Genetic improvement to develop varieties with high yield potential and resistance/tolerance to abiotic and biotic stresses with acceptable end use qualities is the most viable and environment friendly option to increase wheat yield in a sustainable fashion. In vitro haploid production followed by chromosome doubling greatly enhances the production of complete homozygous wheat lines in a single generation...

Author(s):   W. Tadesse, M. Inagaki, S. Tawkaz, M. Baum and M. van Ginkel  

November 2012

Isolation and characterization of sixty sequences of cot-1 DNA from the Asiatic black bear, Ursus thibetanus

  The Asiatic black bear (Ursus thibetanus) is a class II protected species in China whose genome is not well characterized. All mammalian genomes have a high proportion of repetitive sequences; thus, studying the repetitive sequences of the Asiatic black bear can provide new insight into the organization of its genome. It is well known that cot-1 DNA is enriched for repetitive DNA elements with high and...

Author(s): Fang Zou and Ning Li

November 2012

Molecular marker analysis of ‘Shatangju’ and ‘Wuzishatangju’ mandarin (Citrus reticulata Blanco)

  ‘Wuzishatangju’(Citrus reticulata Blanco) is an excellent cultivar derived from a bud sport of a seedy ‘Shatangju’ cultivar found in Guangdong Province in the 1980s. In this study, six molecular markers including random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD), inter-simple sequence repeat (ISSR), simple sequence repeat (SSR), sequence-related amplified polymorphism (SRAP),...

Author(s): Huang Jianfeng, Qin Yonghua, Miao Hongxia, Zhang Chunyang, Ye Zixing,  and Hu Guibing,

November 2012

Molecular characterization of bacteria isolated from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and their uses against pathogenic fungi causing dermatological diseases

  Random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) assay and antimicrobial activities were used for the detection of genetic variations of antimicrobial isolates from the Kingdom Saudi of Arabia. Soil samples were collected from El-Madina El-Monawara, El–Taif, El-Jouf and El-Dammam for bacterial isolation. Bacterial isolates were evaluated for their antimicrobial activities against pathogenic fungi which cause...

Author(s): El-Hamshary, O. I. M., Huda Mohammed Ahmed Sheikh and Khattab, A. A.

November 2012

Barley breeding for quality improvement in Tunisia

  This study was initiated to assess the effectiveness of three selection procedures applied in the early segregating generations of barley crosses for quality traits. The selection procedures were pedigree selection (PS), bulk selection (BS) and single seed descent selection (SSD). Selection was operated in F2’s crosses. Field trials were conducted with 19 F3 crosses of barley in two different...

Author(s): Sana Medimagh, Mouldi El Felah and Mohamed El Gazzah

November 2012

Effect of medium, explants, cytokinins and node position on in vitro shoot multiplication of Caralluma lasiantha (Wight) N.E.Br., an endemic and medicinally important plant

  An efficient shoot multiplication protocol was developed for Caralluma lasiantha, an endemic medicinal plant belonging to the family Asclepiadaceae. Mature explants were cultured on Murashige and Skoog (MS), (1962) medium, Gamborg's B5 (B5) and woody plant medium (WPM) supplemented with 6-benzyladenine (BA), 8.87 mM, for shoot induction. The nodal explants exhibited maximum shoot sprouting frequency when...

Author(s): V. Aruna, C. Kiranmai, S. Karuppusamy and T. Pullaiah

November 2012

Chitinolytic activity of highly halotolerant Streptomyces tendae against Fusarium oxysporum PTK2

  Fifteen (15) highly halotolerant Streptomyces isolates were isolated from saline soil of Teachers College garden in Riyadh city. Chitin nitrate agar medium containing 20% (w/v) NaCl was used for the isolation purpose. These chitinolytic Streptomycesisolates were purified and sub-cultured on chitin nitrate broth medium containing 20% NaCl (w/v). The dry weight and absorbance (585 nm) were...

Author(s): Abdulkhair, W. M.,

November 2012

A rapid in vitro protocol for propagation of Piper aduncum and Piper hispidinervum, two species from Amazon region with multipurpose uses

  The morphogenic potential of nodal explants of Piper aduncum and Piper hispidinervum (Piperaceae) was investigated and a protocol for rapid micropropagation is described. An experiment based on the saline formulation of Murashige and Skoog (MS) and Wood Plant medium (WPM) combined with different N6-benzylaminopurine (BAP) and 1-naphthalene acetic acid (NAA) concentrations was evaluated....

Author(s): Tatiane Loureiro da Silva, Talita Aparecida Balzon and Jonny Everson Scherwinski-Pereira

November 2012

Molecular cloning, expression and computational analysis of a water stress inducible copper-containing amine oxidase gene (CuAO) from tea plant [Camellia sinensis (L.) O. Kuntze]

  Copper-containing amine oxidase (CuAO) is the enzyme known to play diversity of function in plant responses to environmental stresses through its reaction products. Here, for the first time we report full length cDNA encoding CuAO protein from a drought tolerant tea cultivar. It was found to be 785 bp long with a 70 bp 5ʹ-UTR, 193 bp 3ʹ-UTR, 522 bp mORF and a polyA adenylational signal. It codes for a...

Author(s): Raju Bharalee, Sushmita Gupta, Tirthankar Bandyopadhyay, Bornali Gohain, Niraj Agarwala, Mohan C. Kalita and Sudripta Das

November 2012

Antimicrobial activity of Psidium guajava Linn. stem extracts against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus

  The antimicrobial activities of the water and methanolic extracts of Psidium guajavaLinn. stem bark were evaluated against eight methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) isolates. The plant material was extracted and phytochemical analyses were performed by standard procedures. The agar diffusion method was employed for the assessment of the sensitivity of the extracts, while the...

Author(s): Charles Okechukwu Esimone, Anthony Amaechi Attama, Kwaliafon Salamatou Mundi, Nneka Nwamaka Ibekwe and Kennedy F. Chah

November 2012

Comparison of growth performance, carcass characteristics and meat quality of Benin indigenous chickens and Label Rouge (T55×SA51)

  A study on growth performance, carcass traits and meat quality was carried out on Savannah and Forest ecotype chicken of Benin, using Label Rouge (T55 X SA51) as a control genotype. All the animals were fed ad libitum with three diets (starter, growerand layer feed). They were individually weighed at hatching and during the growingstage, and the daily feed intake was...

Author(s): I. A. K. Youssao,  I. T. Alkoiret, M. Dahouda, M. N. Assogba, N-D. Idrissou, B. B. Kayang, V. Yapi-Gnaoré, H. M. Assogba, A. S. Houinsou, S. G. Ahounou, U. P. Tougan, X. Rognon and M. Tixier-Boichard

November 2012

Effect of corn silage particle size and level of soybean oil on ruminal mat composition, distribution and consistency in Zel sheep

  To determine the effects of two corn silage particle size (coarse particle with geometric mean of 5.83 ± 2.47 mm and fine particle with geometric mean of 4.74 ± 2.74 mm) and two levels of soybean oil (0 and 4% of DM) on ruminal matcomposition, distribution and consistency, four two years fistulated ruminant Zel ewes (BW = 34 ± 1.4 kg), fed with 50:50 roughage-concentrate diet, were...

Author(s): Sharifi Mahdi, Torbati Nejad Normohamad, Teimouri Yansari Asadollah, Hasani Saeed and Ghorchi Taghi

November 2012

Species specific polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay for identification of pig (Sus domesticus) meat

  A highly specific single step polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is described for the detection of pig (Sus domesticus) meat. A PCR assay was successfully optimized for amplification of 629 and 322-bp DNA fragment extracted from pig meat using designed species-specific primer pairs based on mitochondrial D-loop and 12Sribosomal ribonucleic acid (rRNA) gene, respectively. The optimized PCR assay...

Author(s): Arun Kumar, Rajiv Ranjan Kumar, Brahma Deo Sharma, Sanjod Kumar Mendiratta, Deepak Sharma and Palanisamy Gokulakrishnan

November 2012

Impact of bee pollen as feed supplements on the body weight of broiler Ross 308

  This study was aimed at investigating the meat performance of broiler Ross 308 after the application of bee pollen extract in their diet. The experiment group was fed with bee pollen (400 mg.kg-1) added in the feed. After analysis, it was found that the female chicken group’s average live body weight were higher in control group (2246.60 g) than that of experimental group (2194.40 g)....

Author(s): Peter HašÄík, Ibrahim Elimam, Jozef Garlík, Miroslava Kačániová, Juraj ÄŒuboň, Marek Bobko and Hasan Abdulla

November 2012

Antimicrobial activities of essential oils from Southern Africa against selected bacterial and fungal organisms

      In the present study, essential oils from four plants including Melissa officinalis, Mentha piperita, Pelargonium  graveolens and Leucosidea sericea, traditionally used to treat infectious diseases were tested for antimicrobial activity against seven Gram-positive bacteria, eight Gram-negative bacteria and six yeast species (Candida spp. and Cryptococcus neoformans) using the agar diffusion...

Author(s): Samie A., Nefefe T., Gundidza M., Mmbengwa V. and Magwa M.