African Journal of
Biotechnology

  • Abbreviation: Afr. J. Biotechnol.
  • Language: English
  • ISSN: 1684-5315
  • DOI: 10.5897/AJB
  • Start Year: 2002
  • Published Articles: 12497

Table of Content: 4 September 2012; 11(71)

September 2012

Immobilization technology for enhancing bio-products industry

Immobilization is the limitation of movement of biocatalysts according to chemical or physical treatment. Immobilized molecules technique using biomaterials and nano-biotechnology is a very interesting topic that is touching almost all aspects of our life. Immobilized enzymes, molecules, and cells have been used in a variety of scientific and industrial applications. Cell immobilization biotechnology is a...

Author(s): Nadia A. Abdelmajeed, Olfat A. Khelil and Enas Nabil Danial

September 2012

Cloning and expression trait of UDP-glucose:flavonoid 3-O-glucosyltransferase gene (UF3GT) in turnip

Anthocyanin is a class of important secondary metabolites in plants. UDP-glucose:flavonoid 3-O-glucosyltransferase (UF3GT) is a committed catalytic enzyme in the late stage of anthocyanin biosynthesis. BrUF3GT1 and BrUF3GT2 genes were cloned by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) method from ‘Tsuda’ and ‘Yurugi Akamaru’ turnips. The open reading frame (ORF) of BrUF3GT1 and...

Author(s): Zhiru Xu, Jie Hou, Ling Tong, Guoxin Cui, Guanjun Liu and Yuhua Li,

September 2012

Development of expressed sequence tags-simple sequence repeats (EST-SSRs) for Musa and their applicability in authentication of a Musa breeding population

Maintaining identity of clones is essential in breeding programs. New EST-SSR markers have been developed for banana and used to screen a diploid population for clonal identity. A total of 410 primer pairs were designed from an EST database, validated using polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE) and a subset was optimized for accurate genotyping on a capillary genetic analyzer. Combining PAGE and capillary...

Author(s): Edwige Gaby Nkouaya Mbanjo, François Tchoumbougnang, Albert Sone Mouelle,Julius Enyong Oben, Moses Nyine, Carine Dochez, Morag Elizabeth Ferguson and James Lorenzen

September 2012

Role of public sector in developing agricultural biotechnology in Iran

Agricultural experts in the field of biotechnology in Iran were surveyed in order to explore their perception about factors influencing the participation of public sector in developing agricultural biotechnology in Iran. Based on the results of the study, policy making, marketing, infrastructural, educational and research factors determined about 74% of variance of factors influencing the participation of...

Author(s): Seyed Jamal F. Hosseini, Somaieh Bahram Nejad and Maryam Omidi Najafabadi

September 2012

First report of papaya meleira virus (PMeV) in Mexico

Papaya meleira virus (PMeV), causal agent of meleira or sticky disease, is a double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) virus which has been previously reported only in Brazil. A study was carried out in order to verify the presence and occurrence of PMeV in Mexico. Latex samples from symptomatic and asymptomatic papaya fruits were collected in Quintana Roo state papaya orchards, where the first symptoms of PMeV were observed, and...

Author(s): Daisy Perez-Brito, Raul Tapia-Tussell, Alberto Cortes-Velazquez, Andres Quijano-Ramayo, Angel Nexticapan-Garcez and Rodolfo Martín-Mex

September 2012

Molecular characterization of Pakistani wheat cultivars using random markers

The genetic diversity among fifteen varieties of wheat was studied by random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) analysis. By applying 20 RAPD primers, 182 fragments were amplified, out of which 118 were polymorphic (64.84%). The number of fragments amplified per primer ranged from 10 to 24 with an average of 17 fragments per primer. Primer K-17 produced the maximum number of fragments (24) and all the...

Author(s): Ahsan Iqbal, Ammar Ameen, Sehar Nawaz, Muhammad Amjad, Zulfiqar Ali, M. Ahsan Khan, Yadish Bukhari and Nisar Ahmed

September 2012

Antibacterial activity of extracts of marine algae from the Red Sea of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

In the present study, marine algae were collected from the southern coast of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia during summer and autumn 2009. The antibacterial activities of petroleum ether, diethyl ether, ethyl acetate and methanol extracts of marine algae belonging to the Chlorophyta, Phaeophyta and Rhodophyta were studied. Their crude extracts were tested against different types of Gram-positive bacteria (Bacillus...

Author(s): H. H. Omar, H. M. Shiekh, N. M. Gumgumjee, M. M. El-Kazan and A. M. El-Gendy,

September 2012

Antifungal activity of rice straw extract on some phytopathogenic fungi

The antifungal activity of allelochemicals extracted from rice straw on the radial growth rate and the activity of some hydrolyzing enzymes of Aspergillus flavus, Alternaria alternata and Botrytis cinerea were studied in vitro. Five different concentrations (2, 4, 6, 8 and 10%, w/v) of water, methanol and acetone extracts of rice straw were tested. All extracts significantly (P<0.05) inhibited...

Author(s): Ramy S. Yehia and Ahmed M. Saleh,

September 2012

Isolation and characterization of feather degrading bacteria from Mauritian soil

This study is aimed at isolating and characterizing new culturable feather degrading bacteria from soils of the University of Mauritius Farm. Bacteria that were isolated were tested for their capability to grow on feather meal agar (FMA). Proteolytic bacteria were tested for feather degradation and were further identified according to their morphological and biochemical characteristics. All of the three isolates were...

Author(s): Guvin GOVINDEN and Daneshwar PUCHOOA

September 2012

Nutrient composition and contribution of plantain (Musa paradisiacea) products to dietary diversity of Nigerian consumers

Some plantain (Musa paradisiacea) products, which serve as dietary staple in Nigeria were studied for their nutrient composition and contribution to dietary diversification of consumers. Unripe plantain was purchased from Oje market in Ibadan, Nigeria. Proximate, mineral and vitamin composition of raw, sundried, fermented, boiled and roasted samples were determined using standard methods of analyses of AOAC, atomic...

Author(s): ADEPOJU, Oladejo Thomas, SUNDAY, Barine Edwin and FOLARANMI, Olubukola Abidemi