Production of cellulases and hemicellulases by an anaerobic mixed culture from lignocellulosic biomass

A comparison of different habitats, biogas plant, rumen fluid and sewage sludge, for cellulolytic organisms indicated sewage studge was the best source. Enrichment cultura gave a mixed culture which exhibited CMCase activity as well as extracellular Avicelase, xylanase, -glucosidase, -xylosidase activities and cell-bound -glucosidase, and -xylosidase production in a synthetic medium with eleven different cellulosic and lignocellulosic substrates. The activity of extracellular -glucosidase and -xylosidase production was significantly higher than endogenous activities. Hemicellulases were induced better than cellulases. The anzyme system was stable under aerobic conditions. Of the different lignocellulosic substrates, kallar grass was the best inducer of extracellular enzymes.

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Résumé La comparaison de différents habitats: digesteur méthanique, fluide du rumen ou boue de station d'épuration, pour leur contenu en organismes cellulolytiques, indiquent que la boue de station d'épuration est la meilleure source. Une culture par enrichissement a produit une culture mixte qui a exhibé aussi bien une activité CMCase que des activitiés extracellulaires avicelasique, xylanasique, -glucosidasique et -xylosidasique et qu'une production de -glucosidase et de -xylosidase liées à la cellule, dans un milieu synthétique et pour onze substrats cellulosiques et lignocellulosiques différents. L'activité de la -glucosidase extracellulaire et la production de -xylosidase sont significativement plus élevées que les activitiés endogènes. Les hemicellulases sont mieux induites que les cellulases. Le système enzymatique est stable dans des conditions aérobies. Parmi les divers substrats lignocellulosiques, l'herbe Kallar est le meilleur inducteur d'enzymes extracellufaires.

     

Familial porphyria cutanea tarda: hybridization analysis of the uroporphyrinogen decarboxylase locus

Familial porphyria cutanea tarda (PCT) results from a deficiency of uroporphyrinogen decarboxylase (URO-D) activity. Hybridization analysis of genomic DNA from unrelated normal individuals and PCT pedigree members failed to detect any major deletions, rearrangements or restriction fragment length polymorphisms at the URO-D locus.     

Vascularized periosteum associated with cancellous bone graft: an experimental study

The association of a vascularized periosteal flap with a cancellous bone graft was studied on a group of 20 Wistar rats. Ten rats were sacrificed at 6 weeks and seven at 12 weeks (three died prematurely). The behavior of the cancellous bone graft buried in striated muscle and the osteogenic capacity of a simple vascularized periosteal flap also were observed on the same animals. Results of the study are as follows: In 14 of 17 animals, a vascularized periosteal flap wrapped around a cancellous bone graft resulted in new cortical bone formation with little resorption of the initial cancellous graft. A vascularized musculoperiosteal flap has produced a small amount of new compact bone only in 4 of 17 animals. A cancellous bone graft buried into well-vascularized muscle tissue was resorbed (15 cases) or necrotic (2 cases) at 12 weeks. In conclusion, the association of a vascularized periosteal flap and cancellous bone is a better means to produce compact bone than a vascularized periosteal flap alone or an isolated cancellous bone graft.     

Homeotic duplication of the pelvic body segment in regenerating tadpole tails induced by retinoic acid

 Homeosis, the ectopic formation of a body part, is one of the key phenomena that prompted the identification of the essential selector genes controlling body organization. Shared elements of such homeotic genes exist in all studied animal classes, but homeotic transformations of the same order of magnitude as in insects, such as the duplication of the thorax in Drosophila mutants, have not been described in vertebrates. Here we investigate the capacity of retinoic acid to modify tail regeneration in amphibians. We show that retinoic acid causes the formation of an additional body segment in regenerating tails of Rana temporaria tadpoles. A second pelvic section, including vertebral elements, pelvic girdle elements and limb buds, forms at the mid-tail level. This is the first report of a homeotic duplication of a whole body segment in vertebrate axial regeneration. Received: 16 August 1996 / Accepted: 20 September 1996     

The use of a drug resistance cartridge for in vitro insertion and deletion mutagenesis of a cosmid clone

A drug-resistant cartridge was employed in the construction of families of insertion mutants of a cosmid clone. The cartridge contains a cml gene and has identical restriction enzyme sites, EcoRI, BamHI, SalI, and PstI, on both ends. The families of mutants were made by ligation of the cartridge to the cosmid, which was linearized or partially digested, followed by in vitro packaging and transduction. From these families we selected cosmid derivatives which either have a unique BamHI site at a predetermined site in the cosmid or have deletions covering different portions of the original clone. The extent of a large gene cluster cloned into the original cosmid was identified by confirming the gene function in some of the deletion mutants. The possibility for further and various uses of this cartridge is discussed.     

Identification of marker genes in Alzheimer's disease using a machine-learning model

Alzheimer''s Disease (AD) is one of the most common causes of dementia, mostly affecting the elderly population. Currently, there is no proper diagnostic tool or method available for the detection of AD. The present study used two distinct data sets of AD genes, which could be potential biomarkers in the diagnosis. The differentially expressed genes (DEGs) curated from both datasets were used for machine learning classification, tissue expression annotation and co-expression analysis. Further, CNPY3, GPR84, HIST1H2AB, HIST1H2AE, IFNAR1, LMO3, MYO18A, N4BP2L1, PML, SLC4A4, ST8SIA4, TLE1 and N4BP2L1 were identified as highly significant DEGs and exhibited co-expression with other query genes. Moreover, a tissue expression study found that these genes are also expressed in the brain tissue. In addition to the earlier studies for marker gene identification, we have considered a different set of machine learning classifiers to improve the accuracy rate from the analysis. Amongst all the six classification algorithms, J48 emerged as the best classifier, which could be used for differentiating healthy and diseased samples. SMO/SVM and Logit Boost further followed J48 to achieve the classification accuracy.     

Overview of Strain Characterization in Relation to Serological and Molecular Detection of Citrus tristeza <i>Closterovirus</i>

Tristeza is a devastating viral disease in all the citrus growing countries throughout the world and has killed millions of citrus trees in severely affected orchards. The citrus species grafted on sour orange rootstock are affected by this disease. Predominantly, the sweet orange, grapefruit and lime trees grafted on sour orange exhibit severe symptoms like quick decline, vein clearing, pin holing, bark scaling and degeneration leading to variable symptoms. Symptomatic expression of Citrus tristeza virus (CTV) in different hosts has been attributed to virus isolates which are from severe to mild. Different serological and molecular assays have been deployed to differentiate the strains of CTV. Citrus tristeza virus is diversified towards its strains on the basis of biological, serological and molecular characterization. Phenotypic expression is due to genetic alteration and different molecular basis have now been adopted for strain differentiation. This review will give a brief idea about the different CTV isolates, their characterization based on nucleic acid and serological assays. Different methods along with salient features for strain characterization has also been reviewed. This review will also open the new aspects towards formulation of management strategies through different detection techniques.     

Sex differences in the immune response to acute COVID-19 respiratory tract infection

Determine if sex differences exist in clinical characteristics and outcomes of adults hospitalized for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in a US healthcare system. Case series study. Sequentially hospitalized adults admitted for COVID-19 at two tertiary care academic hospitals in New Orleans, LA, between 27 February and 15 July 2020. Measures included demographics, comorbidities, presenting symptoms, and laboratory results. Outcomes included intensive care unit admission (ICU), invasive mechanical ventilation (IMV), and in-hospital death. We included 776 patients (median age 60.5 years; 61.4% women, 75% non-Hispanic Black). Rates of ICU, IMV, and death were similar in both sexes. In women versus men, obesity (63.8 vs 41.6%, P < 0.0001), hypertension (77.6 vs 70.1%, P = 0.02), diabetes (38.2 vs 31.8%, P = 0.06), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD, 22.1 vs 15.1%, P = 0.015), and asthma (14.3 vs 6.9%, P = 0.001) were more prevalent. More women exhibited dyspnea (61.2 vs 53.7%, P = 0.04), fatigue (35.7 vs 28.5%, P = 0.03), and digestive symptoms (39.3 vs 32.8%, P = 0.06) than men. Obesity was associated with IMV at a lower BMI (> 35) in women, but the magnitude of the effect of morbid obesity (BMI ≥ 40) was similar in both sexes. COPD was associated with ICU (adjusted OR (aOR), 2.6; 95%CI, 1.5–4.3) and IMV (aOR, 1.8; 95%CI, 1.2–3.1) in women only. Diabetes (aOR, 2.6; 95%CI, 1.2–2.9), chronic kidney disease (aOR, 2.2; 95%CI, 1.3–5.2), elevated neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (aOR, 2.5; 95%CI, 1.4–4.3), and elevated ferritin (aOR, 3.6; 95%CI, 1.7–7.3) were independent predictors of death in women only. In contrast, elevated D-dimer was an independent predictor of ICU (aOR, 7.3; 95%CI, 2.7–19.5), IMV (aOR, 6.5; 95%CI, 2.1–20.4), and death (aOR, 4.5; 95%CI, 1.2–16.4) in men only. This study highlights sex disparities in clinical determinants of severe outcomes in COVID-19 patients that may inform management and prevention strategies to ensure gender equity.     

In silico studies of urease inhibitors to explore ligand-enzyme interactions

In continuation of our previous study on the urease inhibition by a number of chalcones, 2,3-dihydro-1,5-benzothiazepines and 2,3,4,5-tetrahydro-1,5-benzothiazepines, FlexX docking has been exploited to get a deeper insight into the mechanism of their inhibitory action. A comparison of the IC₅₀ values of the active compounds reveals that, of the three classes of compounds studied, 2,3-dihydro-1,5-benzothiazepines were the most potent urease inhibitors. An in silico examination of these compounds showed that the activity is related to the interaction of ligand with the nickel metallocentre, its interaction with two amino acid residues, Asp224 and Cys322, in addition to the orientation of rings A and B in the catalytic core of the enzyme. The most active compound 2,3-dihydro-1,5-benzothiazepine (4) anchor tightly through a network of interactions with Ni701 and Ni702. This includes a number of hydrogen bonds and hydrophobic contacts with the amino acid residues in its vicinity. For their reduced analogs, the difference in the activity of different diastereomers has been observed to be configuration-dependent. This may be ascribed mainly to the difference in the orientation of ring B of the two stereoisomers and the extent of their interaction with Asp224 and Cys322 present in the catalytic core of the enzyme.