Bioethanol production from local fruit waste and its optimization

Bioethanol has been a focus of researchers as alternate green fuel. Agro residues could be a promising resource for bioechanol production. In this study, we explored the potential of these fruit wastes to produce total reducing sugars (TRS), pentose sugars (PS) and bioethanol.. For this purpose, fruit wastes (pineapple, cashew fruit and plantain peels) were taken as a substrate with the use of microorganism Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The conversion of fruits wastes were carried out via acid hydrolysis, which yielded fermentable sugar. The results showed that the ethanol production rate through fermentation of fruit waste yields was optimal at pH 5.5, temperature 32°C, specific gravity 0.865 and a concentration of about 6.10%. For viability of producing ethanol in large quantities and reasonable costs, we did optimization of various physicochemical parameters viz. pH, temperature and specific gravity. The waste materials after fermentation serve as soil fertilizer

CIL-102 binds to tubulin at colchicine binding site and triggers apoptosis in MCF-7 cells by inducing monopolar and multinucleated cells

A plant dictamine analog, 1-[4-(furo[2,3-b]quinolin-4-ylamino)phenyl]ethanone (CIL-102) has been shown to exert potent anti-tumor activity. In this study, we examined the mode of interaction of CIL-102 with tubulin and unraveled the cellular mechanism responsible for its anti-tumor activity. CIL-102 bound to tubulin at a single site with a dissociation constant similar to 0.4 mu M. Isothermal titration calorimetry revealed that CIL-102-tubulin interaction is highly enthalpy driven and that the binding affords a large negative heat capacity change (Delta C-p = 790 cal mol(-1) K-1) with an enthalpy-entropy compensation. An analysis of the modified Dixon plot suggested that CIL-102 competitively inhibited the binding of podophyllotoxin, a colchicine-binding site agent, to tubulin. Computational modeling indicated that CIL-102 binds exclusively at the beta-subunit of tubulin and that CIL-102 and colchicine partially share their binding sites on tubulin. It bound to tubulin reversibly and the binding was estimated to be similar to 1000 times faster than that of colchicine. CIL-102 potently inhibited the proliferation of MCF-7 cells, induced monopolar spindle formation and multi-nucleation. At half-maximal inhibitory concentration, the spindle microtubules were visibly depolymerized and disorganized. CIL-102 reduced the inter-polar distances of bipolar mitotic cells indicating that it impaired microtubule-kinetochore attachments. CIL-102-treatment induced apoptosis in MCF-7 cells in association with increased nuclear accumulation of p53 and p21 suggesting that apoptosis is triggered through a p53-p21 dependent pathway. The results indicated that CIL-102 exerted anti-proliferative activity by disrupting microtubule functions through tubulin binding and provided important insights into the differential mode of tubulin binding by CIL-102 and colchicine. (c) 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved

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Not AvailableThe gene expression of the trypsinogen and pepsinogen and activity of trypsin and pepsin in Indian walking catfish (Clarias magur) were investigated during the larval period to study the development of the digestive system. To this end, cDNA encoding the partial trypsinogen and pepsinogen were cloned and sequenced. Subsequently, the mRNA expression of genes was evaluated by quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qRT- PCR) along with the estimation of the activity of trypsin and pepsin. The mRNA expression pattern of trypsin appeared on 3rd-day post-hatching (dph) with a peak at 9 dph and 22 dph, while mRNAs of pepsin although detected at 4 dph but exhibited the significantly (P < 0.05) higher expression at 19 and 22 dph. The specific activity of trypsin increased from 11 dph onwards up to 16 dph. Similarly, the specific activity of pepsin enzyme showed a sudden increase from 13 to 19 dph. Based on these results, we suggest that the weaning time for C. magur larvae could be after 16 dph, as the activities were significantly increased after this stage which marks the functional development of the exocrine pancreas and stomachNot Availabl

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Not AvailableReference genes employed for normalizing quantitative PCR data are important for the accurate analysis of gene expression. To date, no reference genes have been screened for developmental gene expression studies in Clarias magur. In the present study, three commonly used and constitutively expressed genes viz. beta actin (β-actin), glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) and elongation factor-alpha 1 (EFa1) were examined for their efficacy as internal control to avoid any variation during qRT-PCR expression analysis at different developmental stages of C. magur. All the selected housekeeping genes showed a variable level of mRNA expression during the developmental stages of C. magur. Using three independent statistical algorithms (delta-CT, BestKeeper and NormFinder), β-actin and GAPDH were identified as the suitable genes at different developmental stages. However, comprehensive gene stability evaluation denoted β-actin to be the most stable gene for carrying any gene expression studies. The present results, recommend β-actin as the optimal housekeeping gene for qRT-PCR analysis during different developmental stages of C. magur.Not Availabl

The drebrin/EB3 pathway drives invasive activity in prostate cancer

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men and the metastatic form of the disease is incurable. We show here that the drebrin/EB3 pathway, which co-ordinates dynamic microtubule/actin filament interactions underlying cell shape changes in response to guidance cues, plays a role in prostate cancer cell invasion. Drebrin expression is restricted to basal epithelial cells in benign human prostate but is upregulated in luminal epithelial cells in foci of prostatic malignancy. Drebrin is also upregulated in human prostate cancer cell lines and co-localizes with actin filaments and dynamic microtubules in filopodia of pseudopods of invading cells under a chemotactic gradient of the chemokine CXCL12. Disruption of the drebrin/EB3 pathway using BTP2, a small molecule inhibitor of drebrin binding to actin filaments, reduced the invasion of prostate cancer cell lines in 3D in vitro assays. Furthermore, gain- or loss-of-function of drebrin or EB3 by over-expression or siRNA-mediated knockdown increases or decreases invasion of prostate cancer cell lines in 3D in vitro assays, respectively. Finally, expression of a dominant-negative construct that competes with EB3 binding to drebrin, also inhibited invasion of prostate cancer cell lines in 3D in vitro assays. Our findings show that co-ordination of dynamic microtubules and actin filaments by the drebrin/EB3 pathway drives prostate cancer cell invasion and is therefore implicated in disease progression