March 2011
Prions and neuro degenerative diseases
Prion is a disease-causing agent that is neither bacterial nor fungal nor viral and contains no genetic material. A prion is a protein that occurs normally in a harmless form. By folding into an aberrant shape, the normal prion turns into a rogue agent. It then co-opts other normal prions to become rogue prions. Prions have been held responsible for a number of degenerative brain diseases,...
March 2011
Ehrlich ascites carcinoma
Experimental tumors have great importance in modeling, and Ehrlich ascites carcinoma (EAC) is one of the commonest tumors. EAC is referred to as an undifferentiated carcinoma and is originally hyperdiploid, has high transplantable capability, no-regression, rapid proliferation, shorter life span, 100% malignancy and also does not have tumor-specific transplantation antigen (TSTA). Frequently, tumor virulence...
March 2011
Environmental and public health implications of wastewater quality
The reuse of treated effluent (for agriculture and as supplement for drinking water needs) is currently receiving attention as a reliable water source. This paper is aimed at reviewing the environmental and health impacts of untreated or inadequately treated wastewater effluents. The quality of wastewater effluents is responsible for the degradation of the receiving water bodies. This is because...
March 2011
Trans-sialidase-like gene from the bloodstream form of Trypanosoma evansi conserves most of the active site residues and motifs found in Trypanosomal sialidases and trans-sialidases
Trans-sialidase (TS) is a unique enzyme with glycosyltransferase and sialidase (SA) activities. Although many authors reported that TS is not found in the blood stream form (BSF) of African trypanosomes, SA activity has been observed in the sera of infected animals and the BSF parasites, contributing to initial and continuous anaemia. In this study, a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) based approach was...
March 2011
Quantitative trait locus (QTL) analysis of percentage grains chalkiness using AFLP in rice (Oryza sativa L.)
Chalkiness is a major concern in rice (Oryza sativa L.) breeding because it is one of the key factors in determining quality and price, which is a complicated quantitative trait and controlled by maternal, endosperm and cytoplasmic effects. In this study, we conducted grain chalkiness percentage quantitative trait locus (QTL) analysis using amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) marker and bulked...
March 2011
Expression and purification of the central stalk subunits of Na+-translocating V-type ATPase from Enterococcus hirae
Enterococcus hirae (E. hirae) vacuolar ATPase (V-ATPase) is composed of a soluble catalytic domain (V1; NtpA3-B3-D-G) and an integral membrane domain (Vo; NtpI-K10) connected by a central and peripheral stalks. Central stalk of Na+-translocating V-type ATPase of E. hirae is composed of NtpC, NtpD and NtpG subunits. The aim of the present study was cloning and expression of these central...
March 2011
Expression of six malate-related genes in pulp during the fruit development of two loquat (Eriobotrya japonica) cultivars differing in fruit acidity
Partial cDNAs encoding phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase (PEPC), NADP-malic enzyme (NADP-ME), cytosolic NAD-malate dehydrogenase (cyNAD-MDH), mitochondrial NAD-malate dehydrogenase (mNAD-MDH), tonoplast adenosinetriphosphatase subunit A (V-ATPase A) and tonoplast pyrophosphatase (V-PPiase) were isolated from loquat (Eriobotrya japonica) pulp. Thereafter, northern analysis was performed to investigate their...
March 2011
Fungicide, antibiotic, heavy metal resistance and salt tolerance of root nodule isolates from Vicia palaestina
The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of fungicides, antibiotics, heavy metal and salt on growth of Rhizobium isolates which isolated from the Vicia palaestina from Şanlıurfa, Turkey. Twenty Rhizobium bacteria were isolated. Isolates were tested for their tolerance to mancozeb, carbendazim or mancozeb + carbendazim. The effect of the fungicides on the...
March 2011
Enhancement of α-tocopherol content in transgenic Perilla frutescens containing the g-TMT gene
We report an efficient procedure for transformation of young leaf disc explants ofPerilla frutescens using Agrobacterium tumefaciens strain 4404 harboring the binary vector pYB1130, which contains T-DNA incorporating the g-TMT gene driven by the CaMV 35S promoter and the neomycin-phosphotransferase (npt II) gene for kanamycin selection. Explants were cultured on modified MS medium...
March 2011
Comparative analysis of the essential oils from normal and hairy roots of Panax japonicas C.A. Meyer
The essential oils were extracted with steam distillation from normal and hairy roots of Panax japonicus C.A. Meyer. The constituents of essential oils were analyzed by gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The results showed that 40 and 46 kinds of compounds were identified from the essential oils of normal and hairy roots; they amount to 93.3 and 95.89% of the total detected constituents,...
March 2011
Effect of benzylaminopurine (BAP) pulsing on in vitro shoot multiplication of Musa acuminata (banana) cv. Berangan
MS (Murashige and Skoog) media supplemented with benzylaminopurine (BAP) showed that the number of bud formation in shoot cultures of Musa acuminatacv.Berangan during the initiation stage increased proportionately with the concentrations used (11, 22 and 33 µM). However, the highest concentration of BAP (33 µM) simultaneously increased the formation of abnormal shoots. After the...
March 2011
Host induced changes in plasmid profile of Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. malvacearum races
We investigated host-induced changes of plasmid profile in two laboratory subcultured races of Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. malvacearum (Xam). Laboratory subcultured isolates contained fewer plasmids (i.e. two plasmids of size 60 and 40 kb) presumably due to loss or undetectable low copy number during subculturing. When these isolates were grown in the presence of leaf extract and...
March 2011
Assessment of procurement systems for unutilized logging residues for Brutian pine forest of Turkey
This study examined the possibilities and feasibility of increasing the procurement of logging residues intended for bioenergy from forests in Turkey. The state of the art of potential procurement technology of logging residues was investigated to examine the purposes of configuring a supply system to harvest residues. The costs of wood chip production generated from logging residues were calculated applying...
March 2011
Production and partial characterization of pectinases from forage palm by Aspergillus niger URM4645
The activity of endo-polygalacturonase (endo-PG), exo-polygalacturonase (exo-PG), pectin lyase (PL) and pectinesterase (PE) produced by Aspergillus niger URM4645 was studied in solid-state fermentation (SSF) using forage palm as the substrate. The effect of variable substrate amount, inoculum concentration and temperature on the pectinase production was studied using a full factorial design...
March 2011
Purification and characterization of a novel extracellular chitinase from thermophilic Bacillus sp. Hu1
The purification and characterization of a new thermophilic chitinase from thermophilic Bacillus sp. HU1, originally isolated from a soil sample collected from hot spring of XinJiang Province, China, is presented in this paper. The purification steps included ammonium sulfate precipitation, with columns of DEAE-Sepharose anion exchange chromatography and Sephacryl S-400 high resolution gel...
March 2011
Chryseobacterium indologenes improves survival of the Chromobacterium violaceum and violacein production
Chromobacterium violaceum is a human opportunistic pathogen which appears in soil and water environments. It produces a purple-colored bactericide named violacein. The aim of this study was to investigate the correlation between violacein production and the competitive ability of C. violaceum in co-culture with other soil bacteria. The C. violaceum (3), Chryseobacterium...
March 2011
Applied orthogonal design for filtrating conditions of ultrasonic-assisted extraction from plant-chicory
The objective of the current study is to achieve global optimization of ultrasound-assisted extraction from chicory roots using a mixed orthogonal array design. Eight conditional factors were examined in the mixed orthogonal array (L16 (43×26)). The results showed that the importance of the eight factors, in decreasing order, wasethanol content, impregnation repetitions, ultrasonic input power,...
March 2011
Toxicity evaluation of the aqueous leaf extract of Gunnera perpensa L. (Gunneraceae)
The objective of the study was to determine the potential toxicity of Gunnera perpensa through acute, sub-acute and chronic toxicity tests. For each test, 25 rats distributed in 5 groups of 5 rats per group were used. Group 1, the negative control, were orally administered with distilled water and groups 2 to 5 G. perpensa extract at 50, 100, 200 and 400 mg/kg doses, respectively. Change...
March 2011
Screening of Zizyphus jujuba for antibacterial, phytotoxic and haemagglutination activities
Plants are very useful, self-generating machines, producing a variety of useful bioactive products. Keeping in view this idea, the crude methanolic extract and various fractions of Zizyphus jujuba were screened for antibacterial, phytotoxic and haemagglutination activities. The n-hexane and aqueous fractions showed significant activity of 60 and 66.66% against Bacillus...
March 2011
Antidiabetic properties of the methanolic extract of Bridelia grandis (Euphorbiacae) in ob/ob and db/db mice
Bridelia grandis is used in most parts of tropical Africa for the treatment of diabetes. The anti-diabetic properties of the methanolic stem bark extract of this plant was studied in ob/ob and db/db mice. The plant extract induced hypoglycaemic effects of long duration in the ob/ob mice, while its effects were less pronounced in the db/db mice. Twenty four hours after the cessation of drug...
March 2011
The content and ratio of type I and III collagen in skin differ with age and injury
The aim of this study is to examine type I and III collagen content and distribution in skin within the contexts of patient age and injury, as well as to elucidate possible mechanisms of hypertrophic scar formation. Normal human skin and hypertrophic scar specimens were obtained from spontaneously aborted fetuses and burn patients of different ages (adolescent group, ≤18 years; adult group, >19 and...
March 2011
Antioxidant activity of the medicinal plant Coleus forskohlii Briq.
Antioxidant status of different parts of Coleus forskohlii including roots, stem, leaves and tubers was analyzed. For the enzymatic antioxidant properties, the activities of superoxide dismutase, peroxidase, polyphenol oxidase and catalase were significantly higher (P < 0.05) in tubers than in the leaves, roots and stem. Among the non-enzymatic antioxidants, except for the chlorophyll and...
March 2011
Effects of fistular onion stalk extract on the level of NO and expression of endothelial NO synthase (eNOS) in human umbilical vein endothelium cells
The stalk of Allium schoenoprasum L (fistular onion stalk) has been used in traditional Chinese medicine. In this study, we investigated the effects of fistular onion stalk extracts on nitric oxide (NO) production and endothelial NO synthase (eNOS) expression in cultured human umbilical vein endothelium cells (HUVECs). We found that the extracts of fistular onion...
March 2011
Bioaccumulation of some heavy metals in tilapia fish relevant to their concentration in water and sediment of Wadi Hanifah, Saudi Arabia
Concentrations of some heavy metals (Pb, Cd, Hg, Cu and Cr) were determined in water, sediment and tissues of tilapia fish collected from Wadi Hanifah during summer 2010. The concentrations of the heavy metal in water were within the international permissible level. Cu had the highest accumulating level in fish whilst Hg had the lowest. The transfer factors of all metals in fish from water were greater than...
March 2011
In vitro organic matter digestibility and gas production of fish-meal coated with fat
In this study, an in vitro rumen gas production technique was utilized to evaluate fish-meal coated with different types and levels of fats for total gas production, Metabolizable energy (ME) and organic matter digestibility (OMD) contents. Approximately 200 mg of sample was weighed and inserted in glass syringes, then mixed with the inoculum and artificial saliva, incubated at 39 °C in a...
March 2011
Mitochondrial genome of Taiwan pig (Sus Scrofa)
The purpose of this study is to investigate the complete nucleotide sequence of the mitochondrial genome of the Taiwan Lanyu pig (Sus scrofa) and its phylogenetic relationships with other pig breeds. Thirty-four forward and reverse primers were designed. Sequencing was performed in both directions. The results showed that, the complete sequence of the mitochondrial genome of the Taiwan...
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