Advanced Journal of Microbiology Research

ISSN 2736-1756

Table of Contents 2003

Research Article

Advanced Journal of Microbiology Research Vol. 2003

Available online at http://internationalscholarsjournals.org/journal/ajmr

© 2003 International Scholars Journals

Genetic comparisons of Egyptian date palm cultivars (Phoenix dactylifera L.) by RAPD-PCR

Said Saad Soliman1, Bahy Ahmed Ali2*, Mohamed Morsy Mohamed Ahmed2

1National Research Center (NRC) Dokki, Cairo, Egypt.

2Nucleic Acid Research Dept., Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology Research Institute (GEBRI), Mubarak City For Scientific Research & technology Applications, Alexandria, Egypt.

Accepted 25 March 2003

Abstract

Random amplified polymorphic DNA technique was used to compare genetic material from four females date palm and four unknown male trees of Egyptian date palm. The genetic similarity between the four females date palm (Zaghloul, Amhat, Samany and Siwi) ranged from 87.5 to 98.9%. The banding profiles obtained suggested that both males 3 and 4 are genetically related to the four female cultivars.

Key words: Date palm, cultivars, RAPD-PCR, genetic similarity.

Said Saad Soliman, Bahy Ahmed Ali* and Mohamed Morsy Mohamed Ahmed

Page: 1 - 10

Research Article

Advanced Journal of Microbiology Research Vol. 2003

Available online at http://internationalscholarsjournals.org/journal/ajmr

© 2003 International Scholars Journals

A capillary electrophoretic method for isolation and characterization of grape xylem proteins 

Ashok K. Jain* and Sheikh M. Basha

Plant Biotechnology Lab., Center for Viticulture and Small Fruit Research, Florida A&M University, Tallahassee, FL 32307, USA.

Accepted 10 February 2003

Abstract

European (Vitis vinifera) and American (Vitis labrusca) grape species succumb to a bacterial disease known as Pierce’s Disease (PD). In contrast, muscadine grape genotypes (Vitis rotundifolia) are tolerant/resistant to PD. This is due to the unique biochemical composition of muscadine xylem. However, because of low protein concentration, conventional methods such as low-pressure chromatography and PAGE are unsuitable for grape xylem protein characterization. In addition, these procedures are tedious, time-consuming and require large amount of sample. This study reports a procedure for isolating and separating proteins from muscadine and bunch grape xylem tissue. The procedure consists of separation of xylem from cortex and phloem, removal of pigments and other gummy substances from xylem with ethanol: ethylacetate (2:1) and subsequent Capillary Electrophoretic (CE) analysis of xylem protein extracts to achieve desired resolution. Number of peaks, peak height and areas, retention time and baseline position were used to compare resolution and study the effect of sample and separation buffer. Xylem tissue proteins extracted with 0.05% sodium borate buffer (pH 8.3) and subjected to CE using 1.2% sodium borate (pH 8.3) as a separation buffer were found to yield most satisfactory resolution of grape xylem proteins. The data obtained by CE were consistent and reproducible, and hence, is well suited to obtain excellent resolution of xylem tissue protein for identifying differences in protein composition among the grape genotypes.

Key words: Capillary electrophoresis, grape, Vitis, xylem, Pierce’s disease, protein.

Ashok K. Jain*, Sheikh M. Basha

Page: 1 - 10

Research Article

Advanced Journal of Microbiology Research Vol. 2003

Available online at http://internationalscholarsjournals.org/journal/ajmr

© 2003 International Scholars Journals

Functional and comparative analysis of expressed sequences from Diuraphis noxia infested wheat obtained utilizing the conserved Nucleotide Binding Site

Lynelle Lacock, Chantal van Niekerk, Shilo Loots, Franco du Preez and Anna-Maria Botha*

Department of Genetics, Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute (FABI), University of Pretoria, Pretoria, ZA0002 South Africa

Accepted 10 March 2003

Abstract

Russian wheat aphid (Diuraphis noxia, Morvilko; RWA) is a major pest on wheat, barley and other triticale in South Africa. Infestation by the RWA results in altered protein expression patterns, which is manifested as differential expression of gene sequences. In the present study, Russian wheat aphid resistant (Tugela DN, Tugela*5/SA2199, Tugela*5/SA463, PI 137739, PI 262660, and PI 294994) and susceptible triticale (Tugela) were infested and cDNA synthesized. A PCR based approach was utilized to amplify the nucleotide binding site conserved region to obtain expressed sequence tags (ESTs) with homology to resistance gene analogs (RGAs). The approach proved highly feasible when the isolation of RGAs is the main objective, since 18% of all obtained ESTs showed significant hits with known RGAs, when translated into their corresponding amino acid sequences and searched against the nonredundant GenBank protein database using the BLASTX algorithm.

Key words: Resistance gene analogs, degenerate PCR, nucleotide-binding site-leucine rich repeat resistance genes, Aegilops tauschii.

Chantal van Niekerk, Shilo Loots, Lynelle Lacock, Franco du Preez and Anna-Maria Botha*

Page: 1 - 10

Research Article

Advanced Journal of Microbiology Research Vol. 2003

Available online at http://internationalscholarsjournals.org/journal/ajmr

© 2003 International Scholars Journals

Acinetobacter: Environmental and biotechnological applications

Desouky Abdel-El-Haleem

Environmental Biotechnology Department, Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology Research Institute, Mubarak City for Scientific Research and Technology Applications, New Burg-Elarab City, Alexandria, Egypt. Phone: (00203) 459-3421, fax: (00203) 459-3423, e-mail: [email protected]

Accepted 28 March 2003

Abstract

Among microbial communities involved in different ecosystems such as soil, freshwater, wastewater and solid wastes, several strains belonging to the genus of Acinetobacter have been attracting growing interest from medical, environmental and a biotechnological point of view. Bacteria of this genus are known to be involved in biodegradation, leaching and removal of several organic and inorganic man-made hazardous wastes. It is also well known that some of Acinetobacter strains produce important bioproducts. This review summarizes the usefulness and environmental applications of Acinetobacter strains.

Key words: Acinetobacter, biodegradation, xenobiotic, oil, heavy metals, bioproducts, lipases, polysaccharides.

Desouky Abdel-El-Haleem

Page: 1 - 10

Research Article

Advanced Journal of Microbiology Research Vol. 2003

Available online at http://internationalscholarsjournals.org/journal/ajmr

© 2003 International Scholars Journals

Production of alkaline protease by Teredinobacter turnirae cells immobilized in Ca-alginate beads

Usama Beshay

Bioprocess Development Dept., Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology Research Institute (GEBRI), Mubarak City for Scientific Research and Technology Applications, New Borg El-Arab, Alexandria, Egypt. Tel: +2-03-4593420, fax: +2-03-4593423, e-mail: [email protected]

Accepted 12 February 2003

Abstract

The conditions for immobilizing the new alkaline protease-producing bacteria strain Teredinobacter turnirae by entrapment in calcium alginate gel were investigated. The influence of alginate concentration (20, 25 and 30 g/l) and initial cell loading (ICL) on enzyme production were studied. The production of alkaline protease improved significantly with increasing alginate concentration and reached a maximum enzyme yield of 8000 U/ml at 25 g/l alginate concentration. This was about 176.8% higher than that obtained by free cells (2890 U/ml). The immobilized cells produced alkaline protease consistently over 5 repeated cycles and reached a maximal value of 9000 U/ml on the third cycle. This was 311.4% (3.11-fold) as compared with the control (free cells). Simple mass balance analysis was applied to describe the growth and the protease production behaviour of both fractions the cells in free form and the entrapped in Ca-alginate beads. Scanning electron microscope studies indicated the internal distribution pattern of the cells encapsulated in Ca-alginate beads. The results presented in this paper show the potential for using immobilized T. turnirae cells in Ca-alginate for the production of a novel alkaline protease.

Key words: Alkaline protease, Ca-alginate, immobilization, Teredinobacter turnirae, repeated batch.

Usama Beshay

Page: 1 - 10

Research Article

Advanced Journal of Microbiology Research Vol. 2003

Available online at http://internationalscholarsjournals.org/journal/ajmr

© 2003 International Scholars Journals

Molecular phylogeny of Fusarium species by AFLP fingerprint

Mohmed A. Abdel-Satar1, Mohmed. S. Khalil2, I. N. Mohmed1, Kamel A. Abd-Elsalam2,3*,  and Joseph A. Verreet3

1Suez Canal University, Faculty of Agriculture, Ismailia, Egypt.

2Agricultural Research Center, Plant Pathology Research Institute, Giza, Egypt.

3Christian Albrechts Universität zu Kiel, Institut für Phytopathologie, Kiel, Germany.

Accepted 11 February 2003

Abstract

The high- resolution genotyping method of amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) analysis was used to study the genetic relationships within and between natural populations of five Fusarium spp. AFLP templates were prepared by the digestion of Fusarium DNA with EcoRI and MseI restriction endonucleases and subsequent ligation of corresponding site-specific adapters. An average of 44 loci was assayed simultaneously with each primer pair and DNA markers in the range 100 to 500 bp were considered for analysis. A total of 80 AFLP polymorphic markers were obtained using four primer combinations, with an average of 20 polymorphic markers observed per primer pair. UPGMA analyses indicated 5 distinct clusters at the phenon line of 30% on the genetic similarity scale corresponding to the 5 taxa. The similarity percent of each group oscillated between 87 and 97%. The phenetic dendrogram generated by UPGMA as well as principal coordinate analysis (PCA) grouped all of the Fusarium spp. isolates into five major clusters. No clear trend was detected between clustering in the AFLP dendrogram and geographic origin, host genotype of the tested isolates with a few exceptions. The results of the present study provide evidence of the high discriminatory power of AFLP analysis, suggesting the possible applicability of this method to the molecular characterization of Fusarium.

Key Words: AFLP, Fusarium, molecular phylogeny, selective amplification.

Mohmed A. Abdel-Satar, Mohmed. S. Khalil, I. N. Mohmed, and Joseph A. Verreet, Kamel A. Abd-Elsalam*

Page: 1 - 10