Effects of Mg2+, Fe3+, Mn2+ and Cu2+ Ions on lipid accumulation by cunninghamella bainieri 2A1

Cunninghamella bainieri 2A1 is an oleaginous fungus whose lipid accumulation profile is significantly influenced by metal ion concentrations in growth medium. Mg2+, Fe3+, Mn2+ and Cu2+ were found to be the important elements affecting lipid accumulation in this fungus. This study employs a statistical method (Response Surface Methodology – RSM) to study the combined effects of Mg2+, Fe3+, Mn2+ and Cu2+ on lipid accumulation of C. baineri 2A1. Cultivation was carried out in 250 mL Erlenmeyer flasks containing 100 mL nitrogen limited medium at 30ºC and 250 rpm agitation for 120 h. A thirty-run central composite design experiment was employed to identify and optimize the significant factors. In addition to Mg2+ and Fe3+ which were shown to have significant effects on lipid accumulation, the interactions between Mg2+ and Cu2+, as well as the effect of Cu2+ in quadratic terms were also found to have significant effect on the process (p<0.05). The highest amount of lipid obtained in this study was 39% g/g biomass with optimal levels of Mg2+, Fe3+ and Cu2+ at 5.00, 0.017 and 0.0005 g/L, respectively, while Mn2+ was omitted. A 32% increment in lipid yield was recorded, where the lipid content increased to 38%, compared to initial yield of 29% g/g biomass prior to optimization. In conclusion, Mg2+ and Fe3+ have significant positive effect on the lipid accumulation of this fungus, whereas Mn2+ and Cu2+ exert negative effects in combination

Optimisation of ammonium tartrate and glucose concentration for gamma linolenic acid production by Cunninghamella sp. 2A1.

The effects of ammonium tartrate and glucose concentration on biomass, lipid and GLA accumulation in Cunninghamella sp. 2A1 were investigated using Response Surface Methodology (RSM). Cultivation was carried out in 250 mL shake flask containing 100 mL of nitrogen limiting medium (with various combinations of concentration of ammonium tartrate (1-3 g/L) and glucose (30-60 g/L) at 30°C and 250 rpm agitation for 120 h. The concentration of both compounds significantly affected the biomass, lipid and GLA yield (p<0.05), with the production of each of them being represented by quadratic models. Higher concentration of ammonium tartrate and glucose (2.99 and 59.33 g/L, respectively) was required for enhanced biomass production whereas low nitrogen content with excess glucose was otherwise favoured for lipid and GLA production. Ammonium tartrate and glucose concentration at 1 and 43 g/L, respectively were estimated by the model and proven to give the highest lipid production and GLA yield of 31.06 % (g/g biomass) and 4.15 ×10-2 (g/g lipid less biomass), respectively

Production and quality of chitosan extracted from local fungal isolates

Chitosan is a non-toxic, biodegradable, biocompatible and highly polycationic biopolymer comprising of (1,4)-linked aminodeoxy- β-D-glucan. It is rarely found in nature and is found primarily as the main component of the fungal cell wall, especially in Zygomycetes (Arcidiacono & Kaplan 1992)

Chronic Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation: A Case Report

In health there is a balance between the coagulation and anti-coagulation systems, but in disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC) the coagulation mechanism is activated inappropriately and in a diffuse way. This may lead to thrombosis, but more often haemorrhage occurs when the clotting factors are exhausted. DIC may present as acute, subacute, and rarely chronic form. Here we present a case of chronic DIC following pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) as a consequence of repeated menstruation regulation (MR). We treated her with fresh frozen plasma, fresh blood, doxycycline with significant clinical improvement.DOI: 10.3329/bsmmuj.v1i1.3696 BSMMU J 2008; 1(1): 33-3

Study on anti-quorum sensing potentials and phytochemical constituents of Euphorbia hirta

Euphorbia hirta is an annual broad-leaved herb and widely used as traditional medicine to treat various ailments. This herb was tested on the anti quorum sensing (anti-QS) potentials in fresh (edible or macerated) forms and acetone extracts via biomonitor strain Chromabacterium violaceum (ATCC 12472). The biomonitor strain has an ability to produce purple pigment (violacein) under QS-control. The different parts of E. hirta extracts were then subjected to preliminary phytochemical screening using standard procedures and finally analyzed by Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS). Preliminary screening on fresh parts of this herb revealed that leaves exhibited the highest anti-QS activities towards C. violaceum. The results also exhibited the wide variation in the anti-QS activities on whole plants, flowers, stems, leaves and roots of E. hirta from acetone extraction. The highest anti-QS activities were recorded by leaves and flowers extracts as the lowest of minimum QS inhibition concentration values (1.8906 mg/ml) were indicated by both extracts respectively. Phytochemical screening of E. hirta extracts revealed the presence of carbohydrates, lipids, protein, flavonoids, alkaloids, saponins, resins, steroids, acidic compounds, tannins, glycosides, phenols and terpenoids. The quantitave phytochemical assays via GC-MS indicated that this herb rich with fatty acids, terpenoids and phenolic compounds. Keywords: Euphorbia hirta, Chromabacterium violaceum, anti-quorum sensing, phytochemical assays

Protein produced by Bacillus subtilis ATCC21332 in the presence of Cymbopogon flexuosus essential oil

Proteins levels produced by bacteria may be increased in stressful surroundings, such as in the presence of antibiotics. It appears that many antimicrobial agents or antibiotics, when used at low concentrations, have in common the ability to activate or repress gene transcription, which is distinct from their inhibitory effect. There have been comparatively few studies on the potential of antibiotics or natural compounds in nature as a specific chemical signal that can trigger a variety of biological functions. Therefore, this study was focusing on the effect of essential oil from Cymbopogon flexuosus in regulating proteins production by Bacillus subtilis ATCC21332. The Minimum Inhibition Concentration (MIC) of the C. flexuosus essential oil on B. subtilis was determined by using microdilution assay, resulting 1.76mg/ml. The bacteria cells were further exposed to the C. flexuosus essential oil at concentration of 0.01 MIC for 72 h. The proteins were then isolated and analyzed by sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE). Proteins profile showed that a band with approximate size of 30 kDa was appeared for the treated bacteria with C. flexuosus essential oil. Thus, B. subtilis ATCC21332 in stressful condition with the presence of C. flexuosus essential oils at low concentration could induce the protein production. The isolated protein also showed antimicrobial activity against selected Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria

Force Control for One Degree of Freedom Haptic Device using PID Controller

Haptics has been used as an additional feedback to increase human experience to the environment over years and its application has been widening into education, manufacturing and medical. The most developed haptic devices are for rehabilitation purpose. The rehabilitation process usually depends on the physiotherapist. But, it requires repetitive movements for long-term rehabilitation, thus haptic devices are needed. Most of the rehabilitation devices are included with haptic feedback to enhance therapy exercise during the rehabilitation process. However, the devices come with multiple degrees of freedom (DOF), complex design and costly. Rehabilitation for hand movement such as grasping, squeezing, holding and pinching usually does not need an expensive and complex device. Therefore, the goal of this study is to make an enhancement to One DOF Haptic Device for grasping rehabilitation exercise. It is improved to perform a force control mechanism with few types of conventional controller which are Proportional (P) controller, Proportional-Integral (PI) controller, Proportional-Derivative (PD) controller and Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID) controller. The performance of the haptic device is tested with different conventional controller to obtain the best proposed controller based on the lowest value of Mean Square Error (MSE). The results show that PID Controller (MSE = 0.0028) is the most suitable for the haptic device with Proportional gain (Kp), Integral gain (Ki) and Derivative gain (Kd) are 1.3, 0.01 and 0.2 respectively. The force control mechanism can imitate the training motion of grasping movement for the patient

THE &quot;INVISIBLE&quot; NATIONALISTS OF MALAYA: AN EVALUATION OF IBRAHIM YAACOB, AHMAD BOESTAMAM AND BURHANUDDIN AL-HELMI FROM A SECURITY PERSPECTIVE

Ph.DDOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (FASS

Inoculum development for lipid and gamma linoenic asid production by Cunninghamella bainieri2A1)

Inoculum for a local isolate of oleaginus fungi, Cunninghamella bainieri 2A1 was developed by establishing the inoculum types, age and size for growth, lipid and gamma linolenic acid (GLA) production. Cultivation was carried out in 500 mL shake flask containing 200 mL of nitrogen limiting medium at 30°C and 250 rpm agitation. Direct inoculation of spores into the production cultures gave higher productivity of lipid production 0.71 (g/L/day) than using 24 and 48 vegetative cells cultures which gave only 0.51 and 0.45 (g/L/day), respectively. Besides, production of GLA (5.3 × 10-2 g/g lipid less biomass) in the cultures which directly inoculated with spores (1 × 105 spores/mL) was 23% higher than those produced in the cultures started with vegetative cells. Spore concentration of 1 × 103 spores/mL produced pelletal growth in size of 1.04 mm which contain 40% (g/g biomass) lipid and 8.34 × 10-2 (g/g lipid less biomass)

Isolation and molecular analysis of cDNA encoding a partial endoglucanase gene from aspergillus terreus SUK-l

We report here the isolation and sequence analysis of a cDNA fragment for an endoglucanase gene from Aspergillus terreus SUK-I. A pair of primers was designed based on conserved regions of endoglucanase gene. Amplification of A. terreus SUK-I cDNA using the primers produced a DNA band of 642 bp. The cDNA fragment was purified and cloned into pCR®ll-TOPO plasmid vector. The cDNA insert was designated as SA2 and sequenced. Analysis of the SA2 sequence showed a high degree of identity towards endoglucanase gene sequences from A. aculeatus, A kawachii and Talaromyces emersonii. While, the putative amino acid sequence of SA2 showed 74 % identity towards endoglucanase protein from Thermoascus aurantiacus and 69 % identity towards endoglucanase protein from A. kawachii, A. niger, A. aculeatus and A. nidulans. A 66 % identity between SA2 putative amino acid sequence and A. oryzae endoglucanase protein sequence was also observed. Therefore, we concluded that SA2 codes for a putative endoglucanase gene of A. terreus SUK-I