Current Biotechnology - Volume 2, Issue 1, 2013

Inadequacy of rainfall is one of the negative impacts of climate change globally. Productivity of crops grown in drought or water deficit conditions is greatly reduced which resulted in decline in food production. Conventional breeding has contributed to our knowledge on responses of plants to drought condition. However, limited progress was achieved because response to water-deficit stress by plants is complex and under the Read More

Collagen is one of the extremely hard to degrade structural matrix proteins. Collagenases are the enzymes which bring about the degradation of collagen into small peptides. The contribution of collagenases in several human diseases includes hyper production of collagenase while some diseases are originated due to inadequate amounts of collagenase in the body. The management of these diseases includes understandi Read More

Isolation and screening of collagen degrading non-pathogenic microorganisms from insects and annelids samples was intended. Production of a novel highly active extracellular collagenase by a non-pathogenic Bacillus tequilensis isolated from earthworm has been reported. The culture was grown on medium containing (g/L) meat extract 10.0, peptone 10.0 and gelatin 1.0 and 2.1-fold increase in enzyme activity was attaine Read More

The optimized production of extracellular protease by Kluyveromyces marxianus IF0 0288 is investigated in yeast medium containing glucose as the carbon source in fully aerobic batch fermentation (150 rpm). Four parameters - type of nitrogen source, initial culture pH, temperature and length of fermentation- influencing the growth and protease production, were considered using both the “one variable at a time” approa Read More

Aspartase (L-aspartate ammonia-lyase; EC 4.3.1.1) catalyzes the reversible amination of fumaric acid to produce L-aspartic acid. L-aspartic acid is an essential ingredient of artificial sweetner aspartame widely used in nutraceuticals and pharmaceuticals. The optimum production of aspartase by Aeromonas media NFB-5 at shake-flask level has been investigated using response surface methodology (RSM). Six central composit Read More

Dextrans are a class of polysaccharides of varying structure with contiguous α(1-6) glycosidic linkages in the main chain and varying percentage of α(1-2), α(1-3), and α(1-4) linkages. Recently Weissella sp. has drawn attention for its high dextran production capacity and linearity in its dextran. In our earlier report Weissella confusa Cab3, isolated from fermented cabbage, was explored for its dextransucrase and dextran productio Read More

Miniaturized reactors and enzyme immobilization are tools that can contribute significantly for the implementation of efficient and cost effective bioprocesses. The present work fits within such scope, and focuses on the development of a continuous flow, low-cost mini reactor, aimed to provide a suitable platform for enzymatic bioconversion systems. In this particular case, inulin hydrolysis to fructose promoted by inulina Read More

A bioflocculant - producing bacterium was isolated from water samples collected from the Vaigai river and was identified as Klebsiella sp. by morphological and biochemical characteristics. Chemical analysis of the purified bioflocculant indicated that it was a sugar-protein derivative, composed of sugar (76.83%, w/w) and protein (23.17%, w/w). Infrared spectrophotometry revealed that the bioflocculant contains carb Read More

The poor match between continuous combustion and algal farming that has diurnal discontinuities and seasonal variations poses almost impossible problems for joining them for efficient and economical removal of carbon dioxide from waste gas. Nevertheless, the waste heat and high concentrations of carbon dioxide can benefit a factory that makes products such as biodiesel using algae. Keys to low initial investment, Read More

There has been a quantum increase in the use of nanoparticles (NPs) in all spheres of life. Their increased presence in the environment necessitates a basic understanding about their potential impact on the environment and interactions with biological systems. Toxic effects of NPs, dubbed as “nanotoxicity” are being increasingly evidenced. Studies on animals and cell culture have amply demonstrated loss of cell via Read More

Bacillus amyloliquefaciens PFB-01 produced extracellular alkaline protease (385.25 U/ml) under shake flask conditions. Effects of process parameters such as cultivation period, pH, temperature, carbon and nitrogen sources on protease production were investigated for optimization. Production of protease was optimized with 5.0% inoculum size in culture medium (pH 8.0) incubated for 48 h at 37°C and 200 rpm. A co Read More

Pseudomonas aeruginosa MTCC 7925, a sludge isolate, was found to synthesize a novel short-chain-lengthlong- chain-length (SCL-LCL) co-polymer with 3-hydroxybutyric acid (3HB), 3-hydroxyvaleric acid (3HV), 3- hydroxyhexadecanoic acid (3HHD) and 3-hydroxyoctadecanoic acid (3HOD) as constituents. Under batch mode study, cells harvested at the stationary phase of growth depicted maximum PHAs accumulation, i.e. 24 Read More