Studies on the proteinaceous gel secretion from the skin of the catfish, Arius maculatus (Thunberg, 1792)

The Catfish Arius maculatus (Thunberg, 1792) causes injury to the fisherman while handling the fish and it was proven that the skin mucus of the fish have several properties including the toxicity. In the present study, the biochemical property of the catfish skin mucus was characterized and it was found that the protein content of the soluble and insoluble fractions were 9.34 and 12.64 ìg/g, respectively. The total lipid was 0.005 ìg/g and the total carbohydrate was 0.08 ìg/g. Of the total 17 amino acids recorded, cysteine availability was very low; 0.01 and 0.02 mole % in the soluble and insoluble fractions, respectively. Leucine was available in high quantity (9.8 mole %) in the soluble fraction and aspartic acid (9.0 mole %) was high in the insoluble fraction. On SDS-PAGE analysis, seven and six bands with a distinct band at 35 KDa in the soluble and insoluble fractions, respectively, were observed. On haemolytic activity, lysis was observed by 50 ìg/ml of insoluble fraction and 25 ìg/ml of soluble fraction. Both soluble and insoluble fractions showed maximum and minimum activities against Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aueruginosa, respectively

Enterocin from Enterococcus faecium isolated from mangrove environment

Enterococcus faecium isolated from mangrove environment produced enterocin and it showed broad inhibitory spectrum against gram positive and gram negative bacteria such as Lactobacillus plantarum, Enterococcus facealis, Listeria monocytogens and Salmonella paratyphii. The optimum production ofbacteriocin (2400 AU/ml) from E. faceium was obtained when the culture conditions were maintained at pH 6.0 and 35°C. Maximum yield was 40% in ion exchange chromatography. The molecular weight of the partially purified enterocin was estimated as 5 KDa by SDS PAGE electrophoresis

Purification and characterization of Inulinase from marine bacterium, <i>Bacillus cereus</i> MU-31

510-515Marine bacterium MU-31 strain isolated from sediment of Vellar estuary Parangipettai (Southeast coast of India) was found to secrete a large amount of inulinase into the medium. It was identified as this marine bacterium potent isolated strain was identified as Bacillus cereus by various biochemical studies. Optimum reaction conditions were as follows: temperature, 30<span style="font-family:Symbol; mso-ascii-font-family:" times="" new="" roman";mso-hansi-font-family:"times="" roman";="" mso-char-type:symbol;mso-symbol-font-family:symbol"="" lang="EN-GB">°C; pH, 7.0; NaCl, 2%; substrate concentration, 1.5%; carbon sources, inulin and nitrogen sources, yeast extract. Purified enzyme gave a single band on gel electrophoresis and its molecular weight was estimated to be 66 kDa. Among the different chemicals used, only SDS enhanced the enzyme production and 1,10-phenanthroline was strongly inhibited the inulinase production. Among metal ions, Mg2+ stimulated inulinase activity and strongly inhibited by Hg2+ and Pb2+ at 1mM concentration. All these conditions make Bacillus cereus MU-31 a potential candidate for industrial enzymatic production of high fructose syrup and in other large-scale biotechnological processes. </span

Magnetic hydroxyapatite: a promising multifunctional platform for nanomedicine application

Sudip Mondal,1 Panchanathan Manivasagan,1 Subramaniyan Bharathiraja,1 Madhappan Santha Moorthy,1 Hye Hyun Kim,1 Hansu Seo,2 Kang Dae Lee,3 Junghwan Oh1,2 1Marine-Integrated Bionics Research Center, 2Department of Biomedical Engineering and Center for Marine-Integrated Biotechnology (BK21 Plus), Pukyong National University, 3Department of Otolaryngology&nbsp;&ndash; Head and Neck Surgery, Kosin University College of Medicine, Busan, Republic of Korea Abstract: In this review, specific attention is paid to the development of nanostructured magnetic hydroxyapatite (MHAp) and its potential application in controlled drug/gene delivery, tissue engineering, magnetic hyperthermia treatment, and the development of contrast agents for magnetic resonance imaging. Both magnetite and hydroxyapatite materials have excellent prospects in nanomedicine with multifunctional therapeutic approaches. To date, many research articles have focused on biomedical applications of nanomaterials because of which it is very difficult to focus on any particular type of nanomaterial. This study is possibly the first effort to emphasize on the comprehensive assessment of MHAp nanostructures for biomedical applications supported with very recent experimental studies. From basic concepts to the real-life applications, the relevant characteristics of magnetic biomaterials are patented which are briefly discussed. The potential therapeutic and diagnostic ability of MHAp-nanostructured materials make them an ideal platform for future nanomedicine. We hope that this advanced review will provide a better understanding of MHAp and its important features to utilize it as a promising material for multifunctional biomedical applications. Keywords: hydroxyapatite, iron oxide, hyperthermia, drug delivery, tissue engineerin