Influence of nitrogen source and sucrose concentration on inulinase production by Kluyveromyces marxianus in fed-batch fermentation

This work studied the influence of nitrogen source and sucrose concentration in the feeding medium for biomass and inulinase production by Kluyveromyces marxianus var. bulgaricus. The results show that the best nitrogen source was a combination of 5 g/L of yeast extract and 10 g/L of peptone. Both cellular growth and enzymatic activity increased with sucrose concentration in the feeding medium (from 200 to 500 g/L). When the sucrose concentration reached 600 g/L, both cellular growth and enzymatic activity decreased.Key words: Kluyveromyces marxianus, nitrogen, sucrose, inulinase, fed-batch fermentation

Fontes e doses de adubo nitrogenado na avaliação do estado nutricional em mamão.

A adubação é um aspecto decisivo na produção de mudas sadias e bem nutridas. Um dos nutrientes quantitativamente mais importantes na adubação é o nitrogênio, que deve ser fornecido em dose apropriada e que pode variar dependendo do tipo de adubo a ser usado. Com o intuito de avaliar a fonte e a dose mais adequada de adubação nitrogenada para as mudas de mamoeiro, foram testados dois adubos (uréia e nitrato de amônio) e doses de nitrogênio. Para isso foi desenvolvido um experimento em condições de casa de vegetação, com vasos preenchidos com Latossolo Vermelho com 7 tratamentos (2 adubos x 3 doses de N + testemunha) e 4 repetições, perfazendo um total de 28 unidades experimentais. Cada unidade experimental foi composta por um vaso com 3 dm3 de solo, onde foram semeadas 4 sementes, com posterior raleamento mantendo uma planta por vaso. As doses consistiram na aplicação dos adubos equivalentes a: D1 = 150 mg; D2 = 300 mg e D3 = 450 mg dm3 de N, além da testemunha. As fontes utilizadas foram o nitrato de amônio e a uréia. A condução das mudas se deu por 90 dias, quando foram avaliados o teor de N nas folhas, massa de matéria seca nas folhas e total, além do acúmulo de N nas folhas e leitura do índice SPAD. O nitrato de amônio foi superior em relação à uréia para acúmulo foliar de N. Para N nas folhas as melhores doses foram a de 300 e 450 mg dm-3

Efeito de doses de nitrogênio em cobertura em variáveis biométricas e de produção em híbridos de milho.

Resumo: Com o objetivo de avaliar a adubação nitrogenada em cobertura em variáveis biométricas e de produção de diferentes híbridos de milho, conduziu-se ensaio em condições de campo em Jaboticabal, SP. Antes da instalação do experimento foi realizada amostragem de solo na camada 0-20 cm para verificação da fertilidade do solo e ainda realizou-se a adubação de semeadura, que consistiu em 300 kg ha-1 do formulado 4-20-20. Os tratamentos foram dois genótipos híbridos simples, AS1522 e AS1596 submetidos a quatro níveis de N em cobertura: zero, metade da padrão, padrão e duas vezes a padrão. O delineamento foi em blocos ao acaso, com três repetições. A semeadura foi realizada manualmente, e quando as plantas atingiram estágio de maturidade fisiológica foram avaliadas as variáveis altura, diâmetro do colmo, produção de grãos, número de grãos por espiga e número de fileiras de grãos por espiga. Os dados foram analisados utilizando-se o teste F e, quando significativos foi realizado teste de comparação de médias. Há diferença entre os híbridos de milho em função das doses de nitrogênio aplicadas em cobertura para produção de grãos e eficiência agronômica. O material AS1596 apresentou superioridade na produção de grãos e eficiência agronômica em relação ao genótipo AS1522. [Effect of nitrogen topdressing levels on biometric variables and on production of corn hybrids]. Abstract: Aiming to evaluate the nitrogen topdressing on biometric variables and production of different corn hybrids, an experiment was conducted under field conditions in Jaboticabal, SP. Before carrying out the experiment, soil sampling in the layer 0-20 cm was performed for soil fertility verification, also it was performed the sowing fertilization, which consisted of the 300 kg ha-1 formulated 4-20-20. The treatments consisted of two simple hybrid genotypes, AS1522 and AS1596, subjected to four nitrogen level: zero, half the standard, standard and twice the standard. The experimental was a randomized complete block design with three replications. The sowing was done manually, and when the plants reached stage of physiological maturity, parameters such as height, stem geometry, grain yield, number of grains per spike and number of grain rows per ear were evaluated. The data were analyzed through the F test, and when significant, it was carried out an average comparison. There is difference between the hybrids on the basis of nitrogen topdressing for grain yield and agronomic efficiency. The material AS1596 showed superiority in grain yield and agronomic efficiency in relation to genotype AS1522

In Search of Possible Associations between Planetary Nebulae and Open Clusters

We consider the possibility of cluster membership for 13 planetary nebulae that are located in close proximity to open clusters lying in their lines of sight. The short lifetimes and low sample size of intermediate-mass planetary nebulae with respect to nearby open clusters conspire to reduce the probability of observing a true association. Not surprisingly, line of sight coincidences almost certainly exist for 7 of the 13 cases considered. Additional studies are advocated, however, for 6 planetary nebula/open cluster coincidences in which a physical association is not excluded by the available evidence, namely M 1-80/Berkeley 57, NGC 2438/NGC 2437, NGC 2452/NGC 2453, VBRC 2 & NGC 2899/IC 2488, and HeFa 1/NGC 6067. A number of additional potential associations between planetary nebulae and open clusters is tabulated for reference purposes. It is noteworthy that the strongest cases involve planetary nebulae lying in cluster coronae, a feature also found for short-period cluster Cepheids, which are themselves potential progenitors of planetary nebulae.Comment: Accepted for publication in PASP (December 2007

An estimate of the time variation of the O/H radial gradient from planetary nebulae

Radial abundance gradients are a common feature of spiral galaxies, and in the case of the Galaxy both the magnitude of the gradients and their variations are among the most important constraints of chemical evolution models. Planetary nebulae (PN) are particularly interesting objects to study the gradients and their variations. Owing to their bright emission spectra, they can be observed even at large galactocentric distances, and the derived abundances are relatively accurate, with uncertainties of about 0.1 to 0.2 dex, particularly for the elements that are not synthesized in their progenitor stars. On the other hand, as the offspring of intermediate mass stars, with main sequence masses in the interval of 1 to 8 solar masses, they are representative of objects with a reasonable age span. In this paper, we present an estimate of the time variation of the O/H radial gradient in a sample containing over 200 nebulae with accurate abundances. Our results are consistent with a flattening of the O/H gradient roughly from -0.11 dex/kpc to -0.06 dex/kpc during the last 9 Gyr, or from -0.08 dex/kpc to -0.06 dex/kpc during the last 5 Gyr.Comment: 9 pages, 7 encapsulated postscript figures, LaTeX, uses Astronomy and Astrophysics macro aa.cls, graphicx package, to be published in Astronomy and Astrophysics (2002), Also available at: http://www.astro.iag.usp.br/~macie

Chemical evolution of the Small Magellanic Cloud based on planetary nebulae

We investigate the chemical evolution of the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) based on abundance data of planetary nebulae (PNe). The main goal is to investigate the time evolution of the oxygen abundance in this galaxy by deriving an age-metallicity relation. Such a relation is of fundamental importance as an observational constraint of chemical evolution models of the SMC. We have used high quality PNe data in order to derive the properties of the progenitor stars, so that the stellar ages could be estimated. We collected a large number of measured spectral fluxes for each nebula, and derived accurate physical parameters and nebular abundances. New spectral data for a sample of SMC PNe obtained between 1999 and 2002 are also presented. These data are used together with data available in the literature to improve the accuracy of the fluxes for each spectral line. We obtained accurate chemical abundances for PNe in the Small Magellanic Cloud, which can be useful as tools in the study of the chemical evolution of this galaxy and of Local Group galaxies. We present the resulting oxygen versus age diagram and a similar relation involving the [Fe/H] metallicity based on a correlation with stellar data. We discuss the implications of the derived age-metallicity relation for the SMC formation, in particular by suggesting a star formation burst in the last 2-3 Gyr.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysic

De novo transcriptome assembly of sugarcane leaves submitted to prolonged water-deficit stress.

ABSTRACT. Sugarcane production is strongly influenced by drought, which is a limiting factor for agricultural productivity in the world. In this study, the gene expression profiles obtained by de novo assembly of the leaf transcriptome of two sugarcane cultivars that differ in their physiological response to water deficit were evaluated by the RNA-Seq method: drought-tolerant cultivar (SP81-3250) and drought-sensitive cultivar (RB855453). For this purpose, plants were grown in a greenhouse for 60 days and were then submitted to three treatments: control (-0.01 to -0.015 MPa), moderate water deficit (-0.05 to -0.055 MPa), and severe water deficit (-0.075 to -0.08 MPa). The plants were evaluated 30, 60, and 90 days after the beginning of treatment. Sequencing on an Illumina platform (RNA-Seq) generated more than one billion sequences, resulting in 177,509 and 185,153 transcripts for the tolerant and sensitive cultivar, respectively. These transcripts were aligned with sequences from Saccharum spp, Sorghum bicolor, Miscanthus giganteus, and Arabidopsis thaliana available in public databases. The differentially expressed genes detected during the prolonged period of water deficit permit to increase our understanding of the molecular patterns involved in the physiological response of the two cultivars. The tolerant cultivar differentially expressed a larger number of genes at 90 days, while in the sensitive cultivar the number of differentially expressed genes was higher in 30 days. Both cultivars perceived the lack of water, but the tolerant cultivar responded more slowly than the sensitive cultivar. The latter requires rapid activation of different water-deficit stress response mechanisms for its survival. This rapid activation of metabolic pathways in response to water stress does not appear to be the key mechanism of drought tolerance in sugarcane. There is still much to clarify on the molecular and physiological pattern of plants in response to drought.Article gmr16028845

de novo assembly and transcriptome analysis of sugarcane leaves from contrasting varieties submited to prolonged water stress.

Sugarcane is an important crop, major source of sugar and alcohol, accounting for two-thirds of the world's sugar production. In Brazil, the sugarcane culture has expanded to areas with prolonged drought seasons, which is constraining its production. In order to identify genes and molecular process related to sugarcane drought tolerance, we performed de novo assembly and transcriptome analysis of two sugarcane genotypes, one tolerant and other sensitive to water stress, submitted to three water deficit condition (30, 60 and 90 days). The de novo assembly of leaves transcriptome was performed using short reads from Illumina RNA-Seq platform, which produced more than 1 billion reads, which were assembled into 177,509 and 185,153 transcripts sequences for the tolerant and sensitive cultivars, respectively. These transcripts were aligned with Sorghum bicolor, Miscanthus giganteus, Arabidopsis thaliana sequences and sugarcane sequences available in public databases. This analysis allowed the identification of a set of sugarcane genes shared with other species, as well as led to the identification of novel transcripts not cataloged yet. Differential expression analysis between genotypes and among days of water deficit were performed with EdgeR and DESeq. The differentially expressed genes were annotated and categorized using Blast2GO. The terms "enzyme regulator" and "transcription regulator" were highlighted within the differentially expressed genes between the contrasting cultivars, suggesting the importance of gene regulation during water deficit. This study found new molecular patterns, which provided hypotheses on plant response to drought and provided important information about genes involved in drought tolerance response.PAG 2016. Pôster P0792

Respostas fisiológicas e enzimáticas no milho sob diferentes concentrações de nitrogênio.

O estudo de aspectos químicos e bioquímicos associados ao desenvolvimento das diferentes partes das plantas permite a observação e o entendimento de uma série de reações que levam à produção de fitomassa e grãos pela cultura de milho. Assim, objetivou-se estudar a diferença na eficiência de uso do nitrogênio nas raízes e parte aérea em dois genótipos de milho, na fase inicial de crescimento das plantas e avaliar as respostas bioquímico-fisiológicas desses órgãos quando as plantas são submetidas a distintas doses de N em condições hidropônicas