Algae often reduce aesthetic values and usability of freshwater as they can grow excessively and present in high biomass concentration. A biological approach to control algae growth by using plant-derived substances has received significant attention due to its minimal undesirable effects. To date, numerous herbaceous plants species are known to have antimicrobial properties. Nevertheless, their inhibitory potential against freshwater algae remains widely unexplored. This study attempted to explore algae inhibition potential using extracts from five herbaceous plants including Melastoma malabathricum, Cosmos caudatus, Pistia stratiotes, Etlingera elatior, and Cinnamomum cassia. Potential inhibitory effect of each plant extract on algae growth was determined through the percentage of algae growth reduction as compared to the control. Our results revealed that all, except Cinnamomum cassia, gave positive inhibitory effects on algae growth. The highest algae growth inhibition wasobserved .....

5448 hits

Production of heterologous proteins in Aspergillus niger is often limited by the high levels of proteases produced by the fungus. To improve heterologous production, protease genes or a transcription factor controlling expression of extracellular protease-encoding genes has to be deactivated. The objective of this work are to deactivate a gene encoding transcription factor prtT, determine the production of extracellular proteases by the prtT mutant and determine the activity and stability of heterologous protein produced by the prt T mutant. The prt T gene was inactivated in A. niger PYll via gene replacement and the mutant produced was verified via polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and Southern blotting. Reverse transcriptasepolymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) analysis showed reduced expression levels of several protease genes, pepA, pepB and pepF in An/sprt'T as compared to A. niger PYll either in induced or non-induced conditions. A qualitative extracellular proteolytic activity assays.....

939 hits

The heterologous protein production in Aspergillus niger is often limited by the activity of the host extracellular proteases. To improve heterologous production, a transcription factor controlling expression of several extracellular protease-encoding genes, prtT, was deleted in A. niger PY11 and the mutant (AnprtT) characterised.Extracellular proteolytic activity of AnprtT was reduced as compared to the wild type, a result that was confirmed by RT-PCR analyses that showed reduced expression levels of several protease gene transcripts. To compare the efficiency of the mutant and parental (PY11) strains as hosts for heterologous protein production, the cutinase gene from Glomerella cingulate, under control of the glucoamylase A promoter, was integrated into each genome. The cutinase activity of PY11 and AnprtT harbouring the G. cingulata cutinase gene was increased 20- and 36-fold higher, respectively, than the untransformed parental strains, suggesting that the ability of the mutant to.....

611 hits

Phylogenetic inference is an important approach that allows the recovery of the evolutionary history and the origin of the Chlorellaceae species. Despite the species potential for biofuel feedstock production, their high phenotypic plasticity and similar morphological structures among the species have muddled the taxonomy and identification of the Chlorellaceae species. This study aimed to decipher Chlorellaceae DNA barcode marker heterogeneity by examining the sequence divergence and genomic properties of 18S rRNA, ITS (ITS1-5.8S rRNA-ITS2-28S rRNA), and rbcL from 655 orthologous sequences of 64 species across 31 genera in the Chlorellaceae family. The study assessed the distinct evolutionary properties of the DNA markers that may have caused the discordance between individual trees in the phylogenetic inference using the Robinson-Foulds distance and the Shimodaira-Hasegawa test. Our findings suggest that using the supermatrix approach improves the congruency between trees by reducing.....

63 hits