Ethanol fermentation by a cellulolytic fungus Aspergillus terreus

The cellulolytic fungus Aspergillus terreus showed an additional property of fermenting glucose to ethanol. In addition to glucose, A. terreus also fermented other hexoses, pentoses and disaccharides to ethanol. Of the soluble carbon sources tested, glucose yielded maximum (2.46% (w/v)) ethanol.     

Occurrence of a procellulase in the culture filtrates of Penicillium janthinellum

The endo-1,4-β-d-glucanase [cellulase, 1,4-(1,3:1,4)-β-d-glucan 4-glucanohydrolase, EC 3.2.1.4] activity of two-day old culture filtrates of Penicillium janthinellum has been enhanced four-fold by incubating with a 10-day old culture filtrate of Penicillium funiculosum grown on the same medium. An inactive protein isolated by fractionation of two-day old culture filtrate of P. janthinellum using preparative isoelectric focusing, showed 30- to 50-fold enhancement of endo-1,4-β-d-glucanase activity. This fraction has been designated the ‘procellulase’ in the present paper. The purity of the procellulase was confirmed by analytical isoelectric focusing and sodium dodecyl sulphate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. It had a molecular weight of 68 000 and an isoelectric point of pH 3.7.     

Studies on the conformations of sialyloligosaccharides and implications

Theoretical investigations, using semi-empirical potential functions have been carried out to predict the favoured conformations of the terminal dissaccharide fragments of various sialyloligosaccharides. The proposed conformational similarity for these fragments has been correlated to the binding specificity of neuraminidases. These calculations predict that bacterial neuraminidases have a binding site which can accommodate only two sugar residues and virus neuraminidases have a binding site which can accommodate more than two sugar residues.     

Effect of soil acidity and saturating cation on adsorption of urea in soil

Summary Elevating the pH of two extremely acid tropical soils from an initial pH of 4 to 5 with Ca(OH)₂ and NaOH solutions resulted in a sharp decrease in urea adsorption. Further increases in pH to 9 caused only slight further decrease in urea adsorption. Ca treatment resulted in slightly higher adsorption than Na treatment over the full range of pH values studied for a clay soil with high smectite content, and for a loam with kaolinite mineralogy below pH 7. Above pH 7 a kaolinitic loamy soil gave slightly higher adsorption with Na treatment than with Ca.     

Transmission Studies with Cucumber Green Mottle Mosaic Virus

Cucumber green mottle mosaic virus may spread in bottlegourd under field conditions through soil contaminated with infected plant debris followed by contact. No seed transmission was noticed in bottlegourd (Lagenaria siceraria) or vegetable marrow (Cucurbita pepo) although pollen grains and cotyledons from infected bottlegourd flowers or seeds, respectively, contained negliginle amounts of virus. Cucumber leaf beerles (Raphidopalpa fevicollis) are probable vectors since their regurgitated fluid and excretes contained infective virus particles. No vector fungi were found in the soil around infected bottlegourd plants.     

An ecological study of three freshwater ponds of hyderabad-India IV. the phytoplankton (diatoms,euglenineae and myxophyceae)

Data on the ecology of Diatoms, Euglenineae and Myxophyceae in three freshwater ponds, differing in chemical composition and algal flora, situated in the vicinity of Hyderabad-India are presented. An attempt has been made to isolate various genera into groups, as their multiplication depended on particular ranges of a single chemical factor or set of factors. Several species could be separated into seasonal forms as they occur in particular periods of the year. Others could be grouped under indifferent forms as these are neither influenced by fluctuations in chemical factors nor by seasonal changes.     

Factor analysis in clusterbean (Cyamopsis tetragonoloba (L.) Taub)

Summary The pattern of diversity in forty genotypes of clusterbean (Cyamopsis tetragonoloba (L.) Taub) was analysed using the centroid method of factor analysis based on nine characters. Three factors were found to adequately account for most of the intercorrelations in the four environments. Branches, clusters, pods and seed yield/plant could be grouped as productivity factors; days to flowering, maturity and plant height as growth factors; seeds/pod and gum content as economic factor. Interestingly, the constitution of the factors were the same in all the environments. The loadings on the economic factors were relatively unstable, whereas the loadings on productivity and growth factors were stable. It is concluded that productivity and growth factors play a pivotal role towards diversity in clusterbean. The results of factor analysis provides confirmatory evidence of diversity in clusterbean, which was earlier studied by using generalized distance, and thus proves the adequacy of the centroid method in biological investigations.     

Biological and cultural determinants of immunoglobulin levels in a Brazilian population with Chagas' disease

Summary Under a general model the genetic heritability is 0.33 for IgA, 0.34 for IgG and 0.12 for IgM, in a Brazilian population with Chagas' disease. Cultural heritability is much smaller. The analyses suggest that, with respect to family resemblance for immunoglobulins, there is no discrepancy between this sample and those from healthy populations reanalyzed recently (Barbosa et al. 1981).This work was supported by Grants 79/0482 FAPESP (Brazil), 77/2222.1392 CNPq (Brazil) and GM 17173 (Hawaii) with collaboration of the Fundação Instituto Osvaldo Cruz (Bambui, MG). Partly supported by NIH Grants GM 24941 and GM 28719.     

Relation of angiographically defined coronary artery disease to plasma lipoprotein subfractions and apolipoproteins.

The relation of coronary artery disease to plasma lipoproteins was examined in 104 men aged 35-65 years undergoing coronary angiography for suspected myocardial ischaemia. A score reflecting the number, degree, and length of stenoses in seven major coronary arteries was assigned to each angiogram. Lipid concentrations in lipoprotein subfractions were measured after preparative ultracentrifugation; plasma apolipoprotein concentrations were measured by electroimmunoassay. Men with high coronary scores tended to have lower plasma high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol concentrations and higher low-density lipoprotein (density 1.019-1.063 g/ml) cholesterol concentrations than subjects of similar age with low coronary scores (p approximately equal to 0.1). The strongest relation, however, was with the cholesterol concentration in the HDL2 subfraction (density 1.063-1.125 g/ml) of HDL, which averaged 44% lower in the severely affected patients (p less than 0.005). No associations were found between the coronary score and HDL3 cholesterol, the cholesterol content of lipoproteins of density less than 1.019 g/ml, plasma triglyceride, or the concentrations of apolipoproteins AI, AII, and E. The high coronary scores associated with low HDL2 concentrations reflected an increase in the number of both partial and complete stenoses distributed throughout the coronary tree. In contrast the sizes of the lesions and the proportion producing complete occlusion were unrelated to HDL2.     

Immobilization of hydrogenases for biophotolytic hydrogen production; stability and kinetics

Summary Hydrogenases from Clostridium pasteurianum and Desulfovibrio desulfuricans were immobilized on solid supports with retention of 50% activity. The immobilized enzymes were more stable than the free enzymes and were active in the biophotolytic hydrogen production from water.