Exploring bacterial diversity from contaminated soil samples from river Yamuna

The Yamuna is the source of key water supply in the national capital region of India. Due to its immense importance, the pollution of Yamuna has become an imperative issue of study. Various initiatives have been taken by the Indian Government to decontaminate this river, but so far no possible outcome has been obtained. Therefore bioremediation may seem to be a promising approach. To assess the bioremediation potential of the microbes at river Yamuna, study of microbial diversity was carried out. Escherichia, Pseudomonas, Bacillus, Thermomicrobium, Azoarcus, Nitrosomonas and Shigella were the dominant genera present at the contaminated river coastal zone. The presence of Escherichia and Shigella indicated the sewage contamination in the river. On the other hand, the presence of Pseudomonas and Bacillus indicated the existence of indigenous bacterial communities capable of de-polluting the river, thus providing a promising approach to decontaminate Yamuna by natural means.     

Bioprocess development for extracellular production of recombinant human interleukin-3 (hIL-3) in <Emphasis Type="Italic">Pichia pastoris</Emphasis>

Human interleukin-3 (hIL-3) is a therapeutically important cytokine involved in the maturation and differentiation of various cells of the immune system. The codon-optimized hIL-3 gene was cloned in fusion with the N-terminus α-mating factor signal peptide of Saccharomyces cerevisiae under an inducible alcohol oxidase 1 (AOX1) and constitutive glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAP) promoter. A Zeocin concentration up to 2000 mg/L was used to select hyper-producers. The shake flask cultivation studies in the Pichia pastoris GS115 host resulted a maximum recombinant hIL-3 expression level of 145 mg/L in the extracellular medium under the control of AOX1 promoter. The batch fermentation strategy allowed us to attain a fairly pure glycosylated hIL-3 protein in the culture supernatant at a final concentration of 475 mg/L with a high volumetric productivity of 4.39 mg/L/h. The volumetric product concentration achieved at bioreactor level was 3.28 folds greater than the shake flask results. The 6x His-tagged protein was purified using Ni–NTA affinity chromatography and confirmed further by western blot analysis using anti-6x His tag antibody. The glycosylation of recombinant hIL-3 protein was confirmed in a PNGase F deglycosylation reaction where it showed a molecular weight band pattern similar to E. coli produced non-glycosylated hIL-3 protein. The structural properties of recombinant hIL-3 protein were confirmed by CD and fluorescence spectroscopy where protein showed 40 % α-helix, 12 % β-sheets with an emission maxima at 343 nm. MALDI-TOF-TOF analysis was used to establish the protein identity. The biological activity of purified protein was confirmed by the human erythroleukemia TF-1 cell proliferation assay.     

Detection and quantification of poly-ADP-ribosylated cellular proteins of spleen and liver tissues of mice in vivo by slot and Western blot immunoprobing using polyclonal antibody against mouse ADP-ribose polymer

Poly-ADP-ribosylation (PAR) of cellular proteins has been shown to have decisive roles in diverse cellular functions including carcinogenesis. There are indications that metabolic level of poly-ADP-ribosylated cellular proteins might indicate carcinogenesis and, therefore, could be potentially used in cancer screening program. Keeping in mind the limitations of currently available assays of cellular PAR, a new assay is being reported that measures the metabolic level of poly-ADP-ribosylated cellular proteins. The ELISA based slot and Western blot immunoassay used polyclonal antibody against natural, heterogeneous ADP-ribose polymers. It could be successfully employed to qualitatively and quantitatively assay metabolic levels of poly-ADP-ribosylated proteins of spleen and liver tissues of normal mice or mice exposed to dimethylnitrosamine for up to 8 weeks; potentially PAR of cellular proteins could be assayed in any tissue or biopsy. Implications of the results in cancer screening program have been discussed. (Mol Cell Biochem 278: 213–221, 2005)     

Glycosaminoglycan (GAG) level and activities of certain enzymes of GAG metabolism in Culex quinquefasciatus and Setaria digitata

Significant differences were observed in GAG metabolism of S. digitata and one of its intermediate vectors, C. quinquefasciatus. Distribution of different components such as hyaluronic acid, heparin-sulphate, chondroitin-4-sulphate, chondroitin-6-sulphate, dermatan sulphate and heparin was comparable in both. However, there were quantitative differences; the difference was marked in the activity of enzymes of GAG metabolism in presence and absence of diethylcarbamazine (DEC) a known antifilarial drug. While the activities of beta-galactosidase and beta-N-acetyl glucosaminidase of S. digitata systems showed an inhibition of 96.5 and 92.6% respectively, in the Culex systems they showed an inhibition of 93.3% and an activation of 18% respectively. The differences clearly indicate the existence of basic differences in GAG metabolism of vector and parasite.     

Human Endogenous Retrovirus Expression Is Inversely Associated with Chronic Immune Activation in HIV-1 Infection

Human endogenous retroviruses (HERV) are remnants of ancestral retroviral infections integrated into the germ line, and constitute approximately 8% of the genome. Several autoimmune disorders, malignancies, and infectious diseases such as HIV-1 are associated with higher HERV expression. The degree to which HERV expression in vivo results in persistent inflammation is not known. We studied the association of immune activation and HERV-K expression in 20 subjects with chronic, untreated progressive HIV-1 infection and 10 HIV-1 negative controls. The mean HERV-K gag and env RNA expression level in the HIV-1 infected cohort was higher than in the control group (p = 0.0003), and was negatively correlated with the frequency of activated CD38+HLA-DR+CD4+ T cells (Rho = −0.61; p = 0.01) and activated CD38+HLA-DR+CD8+ T cells (Rho  = −0.51; p = 0.03). Although HIV-infected persons had higher levels of HERV-K RNA expression (as expected), the level of RNA expression was negatively associated with level of T cell activation. The mechanism for this unexpected association remains to be defined.     

Bench scale production of butyramide using free and immobilized cells of Bacillus sp. APB-6

Bioprocess and Biosystems Engineering - Butyramide is a commodity chemical having wide range of applications from material science to biological sciences including synthesis of therapeutic drugs,...