Feasibility of using ISO shipping container to build low cost house in Malaysia

The idea of shipping container house is no longer a revolutionized to western country but in Asia country particularly in Malaysia it is relatively new. The idea of container house is relatively new and there is no clear sign of how far does Malaysian citizen can accept this idea. There is no indicator of what are the expectations from Malaysian citizen about the container house. This research serves as basic references for both government and private sector to the future property industry development of shipping container house as well as shipping container non-residential building in Malaysia to pursue Malaysia’s unity, economic and national integration. The purpose of this study is to test the feasibility of using ISO shipping container to build low cost house. Four set of questionnaires are prepared to assess the opinion of respondents about the acceptance of shipping container house. The result obtained is that the acceptance level of the idea to live inside a container house is only 45% but the acceptance level of using shipping container as means of storage, office, and business development is highly acceptable by Malaysian citizen

Expression profiles of putative defence-related proteins in oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) colonized by Ganoderma boninense.

Basal stem rot (BSR) is a major disease of oil palm caused by a pathogenic fungus, Ganoderma boninense. However, the interaction between the host plant and its pathogen is not well characterized. To better understand the response of oil palm to G. boninense, transcript profiles of eleven putative defence-related genes from oil palm were measured by quantitative reverse-transcription (qRT)-PCR in the roots of oil palms treated with G. boninense from 3 to 12 weeks post infection (wpi). These transcripts encode putative Bowman-Birk serine protease inhibitors (EgBBI1 and 2), defensin (EgDFS), dehydrin (EgDHN), early methionine-labeled polypeptides (EgEMLP1 and 2), glycine-rich RNA binding protein (EgGRRBP), isoflavone reductase (EgIFR), metallothionein-like protein (EgMT), pathogenesis-related-1 protein (EgPRP), and type 2 ribosome-inactivating protein (EgT2RIP). The transcript abundance of EgBBI2 increased in G. boninense-treated roots at 3 and 6. wpi compared to those of controls; while the transcript abundance of EgBBI1, EgDFS, EgEMLP1, EgMT, and EgT2RIP increased in G. boninense-treated roots at 6 or 12. wpi. Meanwhile, the gene expression of EgDHN was up-regulated at all three time points in G. boninense-treated roots. The expression profiles of the eleven transcripts were also studied in leaf samples upon inoculation of G. boninense and Trichoderma harzianum to identify potential biomarkers for early detection of BSR. Two candidate genes (EgEMLP1 and EgMT) that have different profiles in G. boninense-treated leaves compared to those infected by T. harzianum may have the potential to be developed as biomarkers for early detection of G. boninense infection

Oil palm defensin: a thermal stable peptide that restricts the mycelial growth of Ganoderma boninense

Plant defensins are plant defence peptides that have many different biological activities, including antifungal, antimicrobial, and insecticidal activities. A cDNA (EgDFS) encoding defensin was isolated from Elaeis guineensis. The open reading frame of EgDFS contained 231 nucleotides encoding a 71-amino acid protein with a predicted molecular weight at 8.69 kDa, and a potential signal peptide. The eight highly conserved cysteine sites in plant defensins were also conserved in EgDFS. The EgDFS sequence lacking 30 amino acid residues at its N-terminus (EgDFSm) was cloned into Escherichia coli BL21 (DE3) pLysS and successfully expressed as a soluble recombinant protein. The recombinant EgDFSm was found to be a thermal stable peptide which demonstrated inhibitory activity against the growth of G. boninense possibly by inhibiting starch assimilation. The role of EgDFSm in oil palm defence system against the infection of pathogen G. boninense was discussed

Cloning and expression of oil palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) type 2 ribosome inactivating protein in Escherichia coli

EgT2RIP is a type 2 ribosome-inactivating protein isolated from oil palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.). Its transcript abundance was reported to be up-regulated in oil palm roots upon inoculation of pathogenic fungus Ganoderma boninense in a recent study. This study aims to produce an active recombinant EgT2RIP protein for biological studies. The DNA fragments encoding Chain A (CA) and Chain B (CB) of EgT2RIP were cloned individually in an expression vector. Soluble CA and partially soluble CB were expressed in Escherichia coli Rosetta-gami 2 (DE3). Purified recombinant CA and CB were associated in a cysteine/cystine reduced/oxidized system, yielding a heterodimer protein (AB). The AB protein showed growth inhibitory activity against breast cancer cell lines (MCF-7) as well as non-tumorigenic breast epithelial cell line (MCF-10A) at IC50 = 1.4 and 10.9 μg mL−1, respectively. The active protein produced from this study may have the potential to be used for treatment in medical and agricultural fields

CHARACTERISATION OF HORDEUM VULGARE CELLULOSE SYNTHASE-LIKE F6 PROMOTER VIA TRANSGENE EXPRESSION IN RICE

Beta-glucan in cereal crops is known as a functional food, which can reduce cardiovascular diseases by lowering blood cholesterol levels. However, beta-glucan content is relatively low in rice grains, despite being relatively abundant in barley and oat grains. Taking advantage of rice as the staple food for Asians, increasing beta-glucan content in rice for their consumption may help to reduce cardiovascular-related diseases among them. Previous attempts in increasing beta-glucan content in rice via transgene expression of betaglucan synthase genes from barley into rice were unsuccessful due to the use of non-tissue specific as well as constitutively expressing promoter. The current transgenic expression study was performed to characterise the promoter of beta-glucan synthase gene in barley using betaglucuronidase (GUS) reporter gene. Two fragments of HvCslF6 promoter (2771 bp and 1257 bp) were successfully fused with GUS reporter gene and integrated into rice plants, demonstrated that the promoter was functional in the heterologous plant system. The presence of blue GUS staining was observed on the leaf, root, stem, and grain of the transgenic rice regardless of the promoter length used and stayed functional up to the next generation. GUS qualitative analysis confirmed that the shorter promoter length generated a stronger GUS activity in comparison to the longer one. This indicated that the presence of repressor elements in between the -2771 bp and -1257 bp regions. The preliminary results shed light on the strong promoter activity in the rice endosperm tissue. It can become an alternative to the collection of plant promoters that can be used for grain quality improvement and biofortification

Morphological study and lignin degradation of pathogenic ganoderma species of basal stem rot in oil palm

Basal stem rot (BSR) is one of the most serious diseases causing major losses in the oil palm industry in Southeast Asia, especially in Malaysia and Indonesia. Several species of Ganoderma have been reported to be pathogenic to oil palm, however, the diversity and differentiation of the Ganoderma species were not widely studied and the identity of these species are still unclear leading to inaccurate and inefficient decision-making in disease management. In this study, several isolates of Ganoderma were collected in Sarawak, Malaysia and Multiplex Polymerase Chain Reaction was carried out to differentiate the isolates into species level. This was followed by macromorphological, micromorphological and compatibility studies of the Ganoderma isolates. Lignin degradation study on the isolates was also carried out. Multiplex PCR-DNA analysis demonstrated positive results for G. boninense, G. zonatum and G. miniatocinctum, indicating that these three Ganoderma species were associated with the basal stem rot disease in Sarawak. Compatibility study had shown that isolates from different palms were not compatible. Morphological studies of the Ganoderma isolates showed that hyphae characteristics and spore length can be used to distinguish among the Ganoderma species. Therefore an identification key was developed as a guideline on species differentiation of the pathogenic Ganoderma species. Isolates of G. zonatum G46 and G. miniatocinctum G30, demonstrated similar lignin degrading ability as G. boninense G25 and G47 whereby G. zonatum G46 was capable of degrading the most amount of lignin after a week of infection. From week 1 to week 5, G. zonatum G46 was able to degrade more lignin compared to G. boninense G25 and G47, indicating that G. zonatum could cause more damage to oil palms for long term. Therefore, more researches should emphasize on G. zonatum instead of focusing on G. boninense alone in order to formulate suitable solutions to control or eliminate BSR caused by the different Ganoderma species