November 2004
Putting GM technologies to work: public research pipelines in selected African countries
Can public policies and research institutions in African countries provide safe and useful genetically modified (GM) food crops? This is an urgent question, recognizing that advancing GM food crops can be difficult, affected by global debate, and various regulatory protocols. Reaching farmers has been achieved in several countries only for GM cotton for insect resistant while approvals for food and feed crops lag...
November 2004
Studies on improved agrobacterium - mediated transformation in two indica rice (Oryza Sativa L.)
Agrobacterium tumefaciens strain EHA 105 carrying binary vector pCAMBIA 1301 was used for transformation in two economically important highly recalcitrant indica rice cultivars HKR-46 and HKR-126. High concentrations of acetosyringone in theagrobacterium culture and co-cultivation medium proved to be indispensable for successful transformation. Embryogenic scutellar calli were used for transformation studies....
November 2004
In vitro regeneration of lychee (Litchi chinensis Sonn.)
In vitro plantlet regeneration in the main commercial variety of lychee (Litchi chinensisSonn. cv Tai So) in Mauritius was achieved from callus cultures derived from young, tender leaf explants on Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium. Callogenesis was obtained in all media supplemented with auxin, but was most prominent in media supplemented with 2,4 – D ( 1.5 mgL-1) with or without benzylamino purine and...
November 2004
Electrophoretic characterization of crude leaf proteins in Lycopersicon and Trichosanthes cultivars
Young leaves of three cultivars of Lycopersicon esculentum (Mill) and a cultivar ofTrichosanthes cucumerina var. anguina (Haines) were freshly collected at 50% flowering. Crude leaf proteins were extracted from them and characterized using polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Intercultivar qualitative as well as quantitative protein bands depict some degree of relationship among...
November 2004
Expression of chimeric HCV peptide in transgenic tobacco plants infected with recombinant alfalfa mosaic virus for development of a plant-derived vaccine against HCV
Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is the major etiologic agent of blood transfusion–associated and sporadic non-A non-B hepatitis affecting more than 180 million worldwide. Vaccine development for HCV has been difficult and there is no vaccine or effective therapy against this virus. In this paper, we describe the development of an experimental plant-derived subunit vaccine against HCV. Our subunit vaccine originates from a...
November 2004
Detection of mesocarp oleoyl-thioesterase gene of the South American oil palm Elaeis oleifera by reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction
The thioesterase enzyme functions in lipid synthesis by cleaving the acyl-ACP bond and liberating the fatty acid. Thioesterases have been isolated from a number of plant sources. The gene for this enzyme was detected in Elaeis oleifera by reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), cloned and sequenced and found to have considerable sequence similarity with other previously cloned thioesterases....
November 2004
Scale-up of processes to isolate the misstargeted rBm86 protein from Pichia pastoris
Negative effects of the tick Boophilus microplus on cattle vaccinated with the natural protein, Bm86, isolated from the tick gut epithelial cells, have been progressively reduced. Gene coding for the protein Bm86 has been cloned and expressed in the yeastPichia pastoris and a technology has been developed to obtain the vaccine Gavac™ for the control of cattle tick. An unexpected misstargeting of the...
November 2004
Effect of cultivation conditions on growth and antifungal activity of Mycena leptocephala
Growth and production of antifungal agent by Mycena leptocephala was investigated in different culture media composition at various initial pH and temperatures. Maximum growth and activity was observed at the initial pH of 5.5 and 25oC. No detectable growth and activity was observed at pH of 3.5 and 7.5. Growth of the fungus and antifungal activity were also very low at 37oC and 20oC. The organism grew better...
November 2004
Microbial conversion of Cr (VI) in to Cr (III) in industrial effluent
Bacterial strains (CrT-11, CrT-12, Bravibacterium sp. CrT-13, CrT-14) were isolated from the effluents of tanneries. All strains could resist very high concentration of K2CrO4 that is up to 40 mg ml-1 on nutrient agar and 25 mg ml-1 in nutrient broth. They have wide pH (5 to 9) and temperature (24 to 42ËšC) growth range. They exhibited multiple metals (Ni, Zn, Mn, Cu, Co, Pb) and antibiotics...
November 2004
Mutation induced enhanced biosynthesis of lipase
The purpose of the present investigation is to enhance production of biomedically important enzyme lipase by subjecting the indigenous lipase producing strain Rhizopussp. BTS-24 to improvement by natural selection and random mutagenesis (UV and N-methyl-N’-nitro-N-nitroso guanidine, NTG). The isolation of mutants and the lipolytic activity of selected mutants were described. The best natural selectant...
November 2004
Characterization of Bacillus thuringiensis strains from Jordan and their toxicity to the Lepidoptera, Ephestia kuehniella Zeller
Bacillus thuringiensis was investigated in four different habitats (grain dust, olive-cultivated soils, waste and industrial-byproducts contaminated soils, and animal byproducts-contaminated soils). The bacterium was highly abundant in soils contaminated with animal byproducts. Eight serotypes with Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis being the most common. Out of the twenty-six isolated strains, five...
November 2004
Toxicity of Parkia biglobosa and Raphia vinifera extracts on Clarias gariepinus juveniles
Acute toxicity tests were carried out with aqueous and ethanolic extracts of two botanicals on Clarias gariepinus juveniles. 96-h LC50 values for Parkia biglobosaaqueous (AEPB) and ethanolic extracts (EEPB) were 2.8 and 2.4 ppm, respectively. While for Raphia vinifera aqueous (AERV) and ethanolic extracts (EERV), the values were 3.4 and 3.2 ppm, respectively. The resulting 96-h LC50 values...
Advertisement
Advertisement
