A new strategy for improvement of tamarind seed based chicken diet after microbial detannification and assessment of its safety aspects

Tamarind seed, an abundant agricultural waste, contains a large amount of naturally occurring anti-nutrient, tannin. This study aimed at evaluating the detannification efficiency of tannase producing Bacillus subtilis PAB2 in comparison with enzymatic and conventional physical techniques, and assessment of its health promoting effect in chicken model. Microbial fermentation resulted in lowering of 80.8% tannin, whereas enzymatic and physical treatment removed only 48 and 28.6%, respectively. To assess the health beneficial effects, experimental schedule for poultry chicken model was designed viz., (T1) commercial food, (T2) T1+tamarind seeds, (T3) T1+enzymatic detannified seeds and (T4) T1+ fermented seeds. It was found that physiological indices of chicken in T4 group improved more than T2, but those were comparable with T1 and T3. The level of total plasma protein, albumin and other haematological parameters also significantly (P<0.05) improved in T4 more than T2. The quantities of small intestinal indicator microbes like Escherichia coli, Clostridium perfringens and Yeast sp. in T4 group increased more than T2. Thus, fermentation led to quality improvement of raw tamarind seed which suggested its employment as an alternative feedstock for poultry chicken

Thermodynamic and kinetic characteristics of an a-amylase from Bacillus licheniformis SKB4

An amylolytic bacterial strain, Bacillus licheniformis SKB4 produced maximum amylase at pH 6.5 at 42 °C, and at late stationary phase (24 h) of growth. Starch and peptone were found the best supporting carbon and nitrogen source with C:N ratio of 1:2 for amylase production. The purified enzyme was non-responsive to most of the metal ions except K+ and Mg++ (1.0 mM). The enzyme was stable and active at pH 6.5. The enzyme showed optimum temperature at 90 °C with 10 min of half life (t½) at 100 °C. The Q10 of the enzyme was 1.0. The thermodynamic principles like activation energy, free energy for substrate binding and transition state of the enzyme were found 31.53, 5.53 and -17.4 KJ/Mol of starch, respectively. The kinetic constant like Vmax, Km, K catand catalytic efficiency (Kcat/Km)for starch were found to be 1.04 μmol mg-1 min-1, 6.2 mg ml-1,2 × 103 S-1 and 3.22 × 102 ml mg-1 S-1,respectively. All these findings suggested that this amylase has unique characteristics for starch hydrolysis in respect to thermostability and kinetic properties

Valorization of wheat bran for cost-effective production of cellulolytic enzymes by Aspergillus fumigatus SKH2 and utilization of the enzyme cocktail for saccharification of lignocellulosic biomass

Production of cellulolytic enzymes like CMCase (endoglucanase), FPase, and xylanase by Aspergillus fumigatus SKH2 under solid state fermentation was carried out employing wheat bran as low cost substrate. Fermentation time, medium pH and incubation temperature were optimized at 48 h, pH 5.0 and 35 °C, respectively. At optimized state, CMCase (endoglucanase), FPase and xylanase of 826, 102 and 1130 U/gds yield was noticed, respectively. Crude enzyme cocktail was assayed at varied pH and temperature, and pH 5.0 and 35 °C were proved to be optimal for the studied enzyme activities. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopic FTIR analysis attested that NaOH was a good delignifying agent for sugarcane bagasse and grass Aristida sp., which enhanced subsequent saccharification efficiency of cellulolytic enzyme cocktail. By correlating FTIR analysis with saccharification profile it was found that highest saccharification was achieved after 16 h and 48 h after treating with 1M and 3M NaOH for sugarcane bagasse and Aristida sp., respectively. The present investigation validates eco-friendly and cost effective production of A. fumigatus SKH2 cellulolytic enzyme cocktail using agricultural waste materials, and subsequent application of this cellulase mixture for saccharification of lignocellulosic biomass, which collectively endorse the employment of the bioprocess to produce biofuel in future

Screening of antimicrobial peptides from hemolymph extract of tasar silkworm Antheraea mylitta against urinary tract and wound infecting multidrug-resistant bacteria

Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are an evolutionarily conserved component of the innate immune response and they were found among all classes of life forms. In the present study AMPs were extracted from the hemolymph of Antheraea mylitta and fractionated by High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC). Antimicrobial activity was tested against three clinically isolated multidrug-resistant (MDR) bacteria, such as urinary tract infecting Escherichia coli, wound infecting Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Bacillus pumilus. Fraction I (comprised of three different peptides of varying mass) did not inhibit the growth of any of these clinical isolates, whereas, fraction III inhibited the growth of B. pumilus without affecting the growth of gram-negative isolates. Fraction II exhibited bactericidal effects against P. aeruginosa and E. coli, whereas, B. pumilus was not susceptible. Scanning electron microscopic study revealed that serious structural alterations of cell morphology and disruption of the outer membrane, that facilitates the release of cytoplasmic content through holes and channels in E. coli, treated with this isolated peptide. Our results indicate that the peptide from the isolated fraction could be used as potent alternative antimicrobial compounds for the treatment of MDR E. coli andP. aeruginosa infections

Inclusive photon production at forward rapidities in pp and p–Pb collisions at sNN=5.02\sqrt{{{s}}_{\textrm{NN}}}={5.02} TeV

International audienceA study of multiplicity and pseudorapidity distributions of inclusive photons measured in pp and p–Pb collisions at a center-of-mass energy per nucleon–nucleon collision of $\sqrt{s_{\textrm{NN}}}~=~5.02$ TeV using the ALICE detector in the forward pseudorapidity region 2.3 $<~\eta _\textrm{lab} ~<$ 3.9 is presented. Measurements in p–Pb collisions are reported for two beam configurations in which the directions of the proton and lead ion beam were reversed. The pseudorapidity distributions in p–Pb collisions are obtained for seven centrality classes which are defined based on different event activity estimators, i.e., the charged-particle multiplicity measured at midrapidity as well as the energy deposited in a calorimeter at beam rapidity. The inclusive photon multiplicity distributions for both pp and p–Pb collisions are described by double negative binomial distributions. The pseudorapidity distributions of inclusive photons are compared to those of charged particles at midrapidity in pp collisions and for different centrality classes in p–Pb collisions. The results are compared to predictions from various Monte Carlo event generators. None of the generators considered in this paper reproduces the inclusive photon multiplicity distributions in the reported multiplicity range. The pseudorapidity distributions are, however, better described by the same generators

Pseudorapidity densities of charged particles with transverse momentum thresholds in pp collisions at √ s = 5.02 and 13 TeV

The pseudorapidity density of charged particles with minimum transverse momentum (pT) thresholds of 0.15, 0.5, 1, and 2 GeV/c is measured in pp collisions at the center of mass energies of √s=5.02 and 13 TeV with the ALICE detector. The study is carried out for inelastic collisions with at least one primary charged particle having a pseudorapidity (η) within 0.8pT larger than the corresponding threshold. In addition, measurements without pT-thresholds are performed for inelastic and nonsingle-diffractive events as well as for inelastic events with at least one charged particle having |η|2GeV/c), highlighting the importance of such measurements for tuning event generators. The new measurements agree within uncertainties with results from the ATLAS and CMS experiments obtained at √s=13TeV.

Measurement of inclusive J/ψ\psi pair production cross section in pp collisions at s=13\sqrt{s} = 13 TeV

International audienceThe production cross section of inclusive J/$\psi$ pairs in pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy $\sqrt{s} = 13$ TeV is measured with ALICE. The measurement is performed for J/$\psi$ in the rapidity interval $2.5 0$. The production cross section of inclusive J/$\psi$ pairs is reported to be $10.3 \pm 2.3 {\rm (stat.)} \pm 1.3 {\rm (syst.)}$ nb in this kinematic interval. The contribution from non-prompt J/$\psi$ (i.e. originated from beauty-hadron decays) to the inclusive sample is evaluated. The results are discussed and compared with data