Biochemical properties and biotechnological applications of cassava peels
April 2023
The peels of cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) for several decades had been highly underutilized until recent times when the potential applications of the peels in biotechnology and agricultural industries gained the attention of researchers. In this review, the biochemical/proximate composition of cassava peel alongside the effects of submerged or solid-state fermentation on its nutritional and anti-nutrient...
A review on benefits of mass spectrometry for the small molecule drug discovery
October 2021
The drug discovery is a very much time consuming as well as costly procedure. The Mass Spectrometry (MS) technology offers the aptitude for characterization, identification, as well as quantification of a target entity in a complex matrix and has settled into a leading analytical tool in the field of medicinal chemistry and drug discovery. However, by using specific MS-based techniques including personalized sample...
Major mycotoxins occurrence, prevention and control approaches
December 2018
Mycotoxins are secondary metabolites secreted by many fungal species and found in many feeds and foodstuffs of especially in plants during their pre-and post-harvest, transportation, processing and storage and are detected in cereal crops. They are capable of causing disease and death in both humans and livestock and thereby induce great economic crisis. This review aims to examine the occurrence, prevention and...
Basics of animal cell culture: Foundation for modern science
October 2016
The culture of animal cells is one of the major aspects of science which serves as a foundation for most of our recent discoveries. The major areas of application include cancer research, vaccine manufacturing, recombinant protein production, drug selection and improvement, gene therapy, stem cell biology, monoclonal antibody production, in vitro fertilization technology, cryopreservation and in vitro production of...
Resistance to Bt Crops; Influence, mechanisms and management strategies
May 2016
The genetically engineered insect-resistant crops, Bt crops, were first commercially grown in 1996 and adopted in different countries. The economic benefits of Bt crops are reducing the use of insecticides and more safe to environment, however, development of resistance by insects might reduce their efficacy. Unfortunately, the field population evolved resistance to different Bt toxins and the number of resistant...
The reoccurrence of H5N1 outbreaks necessitates the development of safe and effective influenza vaccine technologies for the prevention and control of avian influenza in Sub-Saharan Africa
July 2015
Africa is experiencing reoccurrence of avian influenza outbreaks with huge negative impact on the economy of the continent as a result of high mortality rate and extreme contagiousness of the disease. The epidemiology of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in Africa during the 2006-2008 outbreaks was complex and linked to movements of poultry commodities and wild birds. The peculiar risk factors, negative economic...
Correlating aluminium toxicity, heterosis and epigenetic mechanisms in maize yield improvement in acid soils
March 2015
Overuse of inorganic fertilizers have contributed to an increase in soil acidity in global arable land and consequently caused an increase in Aluminium ion (Al3+) toxicity and a reduction of crop yield of between 30-50% in developing countries. Studies show that Al3+ toxicity inhibits cell division in the root tip meristem in sensitive plants even at micromolar concentrations. Applications of lime, manure and...
Immunomodulatory effects of carbohydrates and advanced glycation end products
January 2015
Carbohydrates which comprise of monosaccharides, disaccharides and polysaccharides are heterogeneous complex structure in living systems and are found to bind to other organic molecules such as proteins and lipids. Advanced glycation end products (AGEs) are also heterogeneous group of molecules that accumulate in plasma and other body fluids and in cell and tissues. This review focuses on the impact of polysaccharides...
Comparative analysis of different immunological techniques for diagnosing fasciolosis in sheep: A review
July 2014
Fasciolosis is a worldwide zoonotic infection caused by liver flukes of the genus Fasciola, of which Fasciola hepatica and a larger species, Fasciola gigantica are the most common representatives. These two food-borne trematodes usually infect domestic ruminants and cause important economic losses to sheep, goats and cattle. In commercial herds, fasciolosis is of great economic significance worldwide with losses...
Co-culture: A great promising method in single cell protein production
June 2014
The term single cell protein (SCP) refers to the dried microbial cells or total protein extracted from pure microbial culture (algae, bacteria, filamentous fungi and yeasts) which serves as food or/and feed supplements. Different substrate and fermentation optimizations are being carried out to maximize SCP production. However, little attention was given to coculturing. SCPs are produced better using coculture than...
DNA microarrays and their applications in medical microbiology
February 2014
Rapid diagnosis and treatment of disease is often based on the identification and characterization of causative agents derived from phenotypic characteristics. This can be laborious and time consuming, often requiring many skilled personnel and a large amount of lab space. However, the introduction of nucleic acid amplification techniques into molecular biology has transformed the laboratory detection of pathogens. The...
Molecular and biological techniques used in landfill investigations: A mini-review
October 2013
The purpose of this research paper was to review the different molecular biology techniques that are used in landfill investigations. The methods discussed include polymerase chain reaction (PCR), fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) and phospholipid fatty acid analysis (PLFA). Operation of landfills as bioreactors is now becoming a common practice, which involves the identification of different...
Genomic imprinting: A general overview
October 2013
Usually, most of the genes are biallelically expressed but imprinted gene exhibit monoallelic expression based on their parental origin. Genomic imprinting exhibit differences in control between flowering plants and mammals, for instance, imprinted gene are specifically activated by demethylation, rather than targeted for silencing in plants and imprinted gene expression in plant which occur in endosperm. It also...
Programmed cell death or apoptosis: Do animals and plants share anything in common
October 2013
Plants, animals and several unicellular eukaryotes use programmed cell death (PCD) for defense and developmental mechanisms. While cell death pathways in animals have been well characterized, relatively little is known about the molecular mechanism of such a strategy in plants. Although, very few regulatory proteins or protein domains have been identified as conserved across all eukaryotic PCD forms,...
The large-scale use of feruloyl esterases in industry
October 2013
Presently industrial enzyme companies sell enzymes for a wide variety of applications. The estimated value of world enzyme market is presently about US $ 4.3 billion and it has been forecasted to grow to almost US $ 5.1 billion by 2009. Detergents (37%), textiles (12%), starch (11%), baking (8%) and animal feed (6%) are the main industries; totally these industries use about 74% of industrially produced enzymes. Enzymes...
Alkhumra virus: A zoonotic butcher in the Middle East? Concerns and consideration
April 2013
New, emerging, and re-emerging infectious disease incidences have increased rapidly and frequently with significant human and financial costs. Most of the viral infectious diseases are of zoonotic nature, and public awareness of the human health risks of infections have grown in recent years, since viral epidemics such as severe acute respiratory syndrome, West-Nile virus, and Ebola virus diseases have...
Advancements in the diagnosis of bacterial plant pathogens: An overview
April 2013
The timely detection and appropriate identification of causal agents associated with disease of crop plants or seeds are considered to be the most important issue in formulating the management strategies for plant diseases. This is particularly important for plant diseases of a bacterial nature, where disease-free planting materials is the only effective way to restrict the disease. The detection of bacterial pathogens...
Role of proteases in cancer: A review
October 2012
Proteases in normal cells are important in carrying out biological processes. In living systems, a balance between proteases and their anti-proteases occur, and disturbance of balance leads to many diseases like cancer. Steps starting from tumor initiation, growth, metastasis and finally invasion into some other site involve all five classes of proteases: serine, cysteine, aspartate, threonine and matrix...
Archaebacterial ancestor of eukaryotes and mitochondriogenesis
October 2012
Division of the ancestral prokaryotic genome into two circular double-stranded deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) molecules by genetic recombination, is a basis for the future separate evolution of the nuclear and mitochondrial gene compartment. This suggests monophyletic origin of both mitochondrion and nucleus. Presumed organism which genome undergoes genetic recombination has to be searched among an aerobic, oxygen...
Uses of mushrooms in bioremediation: A review
September 2012
One of the major environmental problems facing the world today is the contamination of soil, water and air by toxic chemicals as a result of industrialization and extensive use of pesticides in agriculture. Incineration is currently the most effective and common remediation practice but is costly in terms of money and energy used. A rapid cost effective and ecologically responsible method of clean-up is...
Millet improvement through regeneration and transformation
June 2012
Millets, comprising the small-seeded group of the Poaceae family, represent one of the major food- and feed-crops in the semi-arid tropical regions of Africa and Asia. Compared to major crops of the world, these indigenous crops possess a number of beneficial characteristics including tolerance to extreme climatic and soil conditions; hence, adapts to poor soil fertility and moisture deficient areas. Moreover, millets...
Starch phosphorylase: Biochemical and biotechnological perspectives
June 2012
A dynamic mediatory role between starch synthesis and degradation has been ascribed to starch phosphorylase. However, plant starch phosphorylase is largely considered to be involved in phosphorolytic degradation of starch. It reversibly catalyzes the transfer of glucosyl units from glucose-1-phosphate to the non-reducing end of glucan chain with the release of inorganic phosphate. It is widely distributed in...
The role, isolation and identification of Vibrio species on the quality and safety of seafood
June 2012
Seafoods in their natural environments are associated with a variety of microorganisms. Fish shelf life reduction results from microbial metabolism, mainly by Gram negative bacteria that produce chemical compounds responsible for bad odour, texture and taste. Shelflife is estimated by performing total viable bacterial counts at ambient and refrigeration temperatures. The type and number of bacteria present on seafood...
Therapeutic potential of antimicrobial peptides from insects
April 2012
The first antimicrobial peptides were isolated from the cecropia moth Hyalophora cecropia in 1980. Since then a plethora of antimicrobial peptides have been isolated from other arthropods, invertebrates and chordates. With the emergence of antibiotic resistant bacterial pathogens and the promising activity of these peptides, attempts are being made to use these peptides as new antimicrobial agents. Other...
Key aspects of the mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) in tissue engineering for in vitro skeletal muscle regeneration
March 2012
Tissue engineering, directly associated with Biotechnology and Biomedical Sciences, is an emerging field of research and development. The main issue of tissue engineering is to precisely and safely regenerate or reconstruct injured tissues of skeletal muscle, bone, teeth, neural, cardiac, cartilage etc. One of the primary requirements for tissue engineering development is a constant source of supplementary stem cells...
Homocysteine-A potent modulator
March 2012
Homocysteine is an amino acid and is an intermediate metabolite of methionine metabolism. It is metabolized by two pathways, the trans-methylation and trans-sulphuration. These processes rely on an adequate supply of vitamin B12 and B6 and folic acid. Deficiency of vitamin B12, B6 and folic acid can build up homocysteine level in blood stream. High homocysteine levels has been implicated in a variety of...
Status of biotechnology in Eastern and Central Africa
December 2011
This work examines trends of both conventional and modern biotechnologies in selected Eastern and Central African countries namely Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Burundi and Democratic Republic of Congo, with the aim of giving an up-to-date assessment of their national policies, institutional capacities, and the activities being carried out. Agricultural biotechnology seems to take the lead while...
Future challenges in environmental risk assessment of transgenic plants with abiotic stress tolerance
December 2011
Environmental risk assessment of transgenic plants is a prerequisite to their release into the target environment for commercial use. Risk assessment of the first generation transgenic plants with simple monogenic traits has been carried out with principles and guidelines enlisted in the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety. For more complex traits such as abiotic stress tolerance, there is a growing need to examine for...
A new approach of abnormal apoptosis as a cause of autoimmunity and malignancy
November 2011
Auto-reactive cells which escape from natural apoptosis represent a continuous threat of potential autoimmune response. Abnormal apoptosis can play a role in negative selection of B and T lymphocytes that escaped the self-reactive nature, and so, apoptosis could represent an additional source of auto-antibody. Increased activity of T cells (CD3+, CD4+, or Th1 helper)) will, at a high serum level, cause a high expression...
Lignocellulosic ethanol production: Current practices and recent developments
November 2011
Production of renewable fuels, especially bio-ethanol from lignocellulosic biomass, holds remarkable potential to meet the current energy demand as well as to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions for a sustainable environment. Present technologies to produce bioethanol largely depend on sugarcane and/or starch based grains and tubers (mainly corn, potatoes). This is partly due to ease of substrate handling and processing....
Integrating molecular tools with conventional breeding strategies for improving phosphorus acquisition by legume crops in acid soils of Sub-Saharan Africa
September 2011
Leguminous crops are key components of low input agricultural cropping systems, and play an important role in ensuring food security in many societies in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). However, legume crop productivity in SSA is frequently limited by mineral nutrient deficiencies (particularly phosphorus, P). A common remedy for P deficiency is the application of P-fertilizers or in the case of low input cropping systems the...
Developmental competence of in vivo and in vitro matured oocytes: A review
September 2011
The study of follicular dynamics has been particularly rapid in the last two decades. However,in vitro maturation and fertilization of oocytes results in reduced embryo production, which suggests that not all oocytes have the capacity to mature and to fertilize properly. The efficiency of bovine embryo production in vitro, measured as the blastocyst rate, obtained from oocytes matured and fertilized in...
Telomerase: Roles in aging, cancer and hereditary disease
July 2011
Telomerase is an enzyme that adds DNA sequence repeats ("TTAGGG" in all vertebrates) to the 3' end of DNA strands in the telomere regions, which are found at the ends of eukaryotic chromosomes. This region of repeated nucleotide repeats called telomeres contain condensed DNA material and prevents constant loss of important DNA from chromosome ends. As a result, every time the chromosome is copied only a...
Application of genomic technologies to the improvement of meat quality in farm animals
July 2011
Meat quality is one of the most important economic traits in farm animals. The goal of genomics technologies is to provide genetic map and other resources to identify loci responsible for genetic variation in quantitative traits such as meat quality. Candidate gene and genome scanning are two main techniques for this purpose. In the past decade, advances in molecular genetics led to identify these genes and markers...
Investigating the potential role of platelet derived growth factor (PDGF)
July 2011
PDGF is a growth factor and is extensively involved in multi-dimensional cellular dynamics. It switches on a plethora of molecules other than its classical pathway. It is engaged in various transitions of development however if the unleashed potentials lead astray it brings forth tumorigenesis. Conventionally, it has been assumed that the components of this signaling pathway show fidelity and act with a high degree of...
The role of biotechnology towards attainment of a sustainable and safe global agriculture and environment – A review
May 2011
Biotechnology is producing great opportunities for the increase in global agricultural production and for protecting the environment through the reduced use of agro-chemicals like pesticides, fertilizers and rodenticides. Biotechnology has played an important role towards the attainment of environmental sustainability by using environment-friendly crops such as insect-resistant, herbicide-tolerant species and crops that...
In silico modeling in conjunction with natural products: Paving the way for rational drug-design
April 2011
Genome sequencing projects has produced a vast wealth of data describing the protein coding regions of the genome under study. However, only a minority of the protein sequences identified has a clear sequence homology to a known protein. In such cases valuable three-dimensional models of the protein coding sequence can be constructed by homology modeling methods. Threading methods uses specialized schemes to relate...
Toxigenic Escherichia coli and Vibrio cholerae: Classification, pathogenesis and virulence determinants
April 2011
Escherichia coli and Vibrio cholerae are pathogenic bacteria commonly found in various contaminated sources and pose a major health risk, causing a range of human enteric infections and pandemics, especially among infants in Africa. Virulence and pathogenesis of these organisms is specifically based on the expression of certain virulence determinants, distinctive mucosal interactions as well as the...
Pancratistatin, an apoptic inducer: New horizon for targeted therapy in cancer
March 2011
Cancer is a major public health problem worldwide and considered as the most dangerous disease and deaths are countable. Current cancer therapy does not target the specific target that causes the cancer and this leads to serious side effects which can be fatal. Targeted therapy is a new horizon for treating cancer at the specified sites with least side effects and more effective than the chemotherapy and other...
Department of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology, S. K. Patel College of Pharmaceutical Education and Research, Ganpat University, Kherva-382711, Gujarat, India.
March 2011
Phytases belong to the class of phosphatases, which catalyze the hydrolysis of phytic acid to inorganic phosphate and myo-inositol phosphate derivatives. The enzyme has potential applications in food and feed industries for ameliorating digestibility and assimilation of nutrients of foods and feeds by mitigating the anti-nutritional effects of phytic acid. Phytases have been shown to be useful in improving growth...
Emerging infections and bioterrorism emergencies: Where do we go from here?
February 2011
Emerging infectious disease outbreaks and bioterrorism attacks warrant urgent public health and medical responses. Response plans for these events may include use of medications and vaccines for which the effects on pregnant women and fetuses are unknown. Recent experiences with outbreaks of severe acute respiratory syndrome, monkey pox and anthrax, as well as response planning for bioterrorism and pandemic influenza,...
Recent molecular advances to combat abiotic stress tolerance in crop plants
February 2011
Abiotic stress negatively influences survival, biomass production and crop yield. Being multigenic as well as a quantitative trait, it is a challenge to understand the molecular basis of abiotic stress tolerance and to manipulate it as compared to biotic stresses. Abiotic stresses including drought are serious threats to the sustainability of crop yields accounting for more crop productivity losses than any other factor...
A review of the pharmacological aspects of Solanum nigrum Linn.
January 2011
This article reviews, bridges the gap between the folkloric use of Solanum nigrumlinn. (Sn) and the results of evidence based experiments. Although Sn is a rich source of one of plants most dreaded toxins solanine, it has appreciably demonstrated its potential as a reservoir of antioxidants having hepatoprotective, anti-tumor, cytostatic, anti-convulsant, anti-ulcerogenic and anti-inflammatory effects. The review...
Bioconversion of pentose sugars into ethanol: A review and future directions
January 2011
Hemicelluloses, the second most abundant polysaccharide in nature, are well suited for ethanol production due to their enormous availability, low cost and environmental benign process. The major fraction in hemeicelluloses is pentosans and the conversion of pentosans to ethanol is problematic. To get the process economized, the conversion of hemicellulose to ethanol with a satisfactory yield is necessary. In recent...
Homocysteine and cardiovascular disease
January 2011
Based on prospective and experimental data, mild to moderate elevation of homocysteine is a stabilized and independent risk factor for cardiovascular disease. The hyperhomocystenemia is a consequence of inhibition of transsulphuration pathway or inhibition of remethylation pathway of homocysteine metabolism, transsulphuration is mediated by CBS and remethylation is mediated directly by MS and indirectly by MTHFR. The...
Cancer investigation: A genome perspective
December 2010
The completion of human genome project has evolved many techniques used to locate the human genes. The focus is mainly on the genome, transcriptome or proteome to recognise distinctive characteristics that may explain the basis of human disease and potentially envisage prospect outcomes. Cancer is one of the recent deadliest diseases. Various cancer types root problems in the generalised dealing. The objective of these...
Engineered pathogenesis related and antimicrobial proteins weaponry against Phytopthora infestans in potato plant: A review
October 2010
Phytopthora infestans (Mont.) de Bary, causal organism of late blight disease is referred to as the most destructive specific pathogen of potato (Solanum tuberosum L.). Casualties usually go beyond mere plant destruction, due to its flaring ability to also demolish scientific concerted efforts in establishing novel combat techniques. With high capacity to overcome control measures, it stands at par, and...
Probing yeast for insights into neurodegenerative disease: ORFeome-wide screens for genetic modifiers of α-synuclein cytotoxicity
October 2010
Several of the most devastating neurodegenerative disorders, including Parkinson’s disease and dementia with Lewy bodies, belong to the synucleinopathy class of common neural disorders. A synucleinopathy is characterized by brain tissue plaques formed by the aggregation of misfolded protein―mainly misfolded α-synuclein. α-Synuclein has been extensively studied as the primary protein aggregate in...
High fructose corn syrup: Production, uses and public health concerns
September 2010
High fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is a liquid alternative sweetener to sucrose that is made from corn, the “king of crops” using chemicals (caustic soda, hydrochloric acid) and enzymes (α-amylase and glucoamylase) to hydrolyze corn starch to corn syrup containing mostly glucose and a third enzyme (glucose isomerase) to isomerize glucose in corn syrup to fructose to yield HFCS products classified...
Gene pyramiding-A broad spectrum technique for developing durable stress resistance in crops
August 2010
The development of molecular genetics and associated technology like MAS has led to the emergence of a new field in plant breeding-Gene pyramiding. Pyramiding entails stacking multiple genes leading to the simultaneous expression of more than one gene in a variety to develop durable resistance expression. Gene pyramiding is gaining considerable importance as it would improve the efficiency of plant breeding leading to...
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