Aspects of penicillin production in Aspergillus hybrids

Hybrids have been obtained by protoplast fusion of penicillin-producing strains of Aspergillus nidulans with strains of A. rugulosus which do not produce the antibiotic at detectable levels. Induced haploidization of the hybrids allowed the recovery of stable segregants, which were screened for penicillin production. Approximately half of the segregants from each cross produced penicillin, indicating segregation of one or several linked genes which are essential for penicillin biosynthesis. These essential genes were found to be located on linkage-group VI of A. nidulans by observing segregation in multi-marked strains. The penicillin-producing segregants showed a wide range of titres. Some segregants, which had recombinant phenotypes, produced significantly more penicillin than the A. nidulans parent.     

The development and demise of a Medieval forest-meadow system at Linnaeus' birthplace in southern Sweden: implications for conservation and forest history

The rapid industrialisation of agriculture and forestry during the last century has contributed to a transformation of the forested landscape in southern Sweden. Palaeoecological investigation revealed how the Medieval forest-meadow system was created about 900 years ago from a deciduous forest type that had been rather stable for the previous 3000 years. The study site was a forest hollow close to where Linnaeus was born and brought up. The species-rich forest-meadow system suffered from over-grazing during the human-population peak of the nineteenth century, and was abandoned about one hundred years ago. The recent forest succession in southern Sweden has led to reduced floristic biodiversity and created conservation problems related to disappearance of open landscape, even though the remnant vegetation is moving towards the near-natural forest type. Spatially detailed palaeoecology permits documentation of baseline conditions, and places conservation debates in a valuable temporal perspective.     

Characteristics of delta 1-pyrroline-5-carboxylate reductase from Drosophila melanogaster.

1. Biochemical properties of delta 1-pyrroline-5-carboxylate reductase from d. melanogaster have been investigated. 2. The enzyme is stable below 4 degrees C. 3. the pH optimum of the enzyme is 5.7. It is rapidly inactivated below pH 5.4. 4. The Km values for NADPH and delta 1-pyrroline-5-carboxylate are 1.6 x 10-5 and 2.5 x 10-6 M, respectively. 5. the estimated molecular weight of the enzyme is 225,000. 6. the enzyme is weakly inhibited by L-proline (Ki = 0.12 M).     

The isolation of xanthan gum from fermentations of Xanthomonas campestris by complexation with quaternary ammonium salts

A comparison of the use of the quaternary ammonium salts, cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) and the commercial mixture Cetavlon, for the isolation of xanthan gum from fermentations of Xanthomonas campestris indicated that the former was the more efficient complexating agent. Although in both cases more than the stoichiometric requirement was necessary to achieve quantitative recovery of the polysaccharide, CTAB left only 1·7% material in the supernatant from the precipitation of xanthan gum compared to 15% left by Cetavlon. This is congruent with the view that the efficiency of quaternary ammonium salts increases with increased paraffin chain length.An assessment of the use of Cetavlon for the isolation of xanthan gum in a recycle procedure showed that an 11·5% loss of precipitant per cycle occurred. In the procedure, the xanthan gum was precipitated as the purified K⁺ salt from a dispersion of its quaternary ammonium complex in 2-propanol. Concentration of the 2-propanol wash permitted recovery of the quaternary ammonium salt.