scholarly journals Production, Characterization and Valuable Applications of Exopolysaccharides from Marine Bacillus subtilis SH1

2017 ◽  
Vol 66 (4) ◽  
pp. 449-461 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sahar W.M. Hassan ◽  
Hassan A.H. Ibrahim

Exopolysaccharides (EPSs) are high molecular weight polymers consisting of different sugar residues they are preferable for replacing synthetic polymers as they are degradable and nontoxic. Many microorganisms possess the ability to synthesize and excrete exopolysaccharides with novel chemical compositions, properties and structures to have potential applications in different fields. The present study attempt to optimize the production of EPS by marine Bacillus subtilis SH1 in addition to characterization and investigation of different valuable applications. Effect of medium type, incubation period and pH were studied using the one factor at a time experiments. It was shown that the highest productivity (24 gl–1) of exopolysaccharides was recorded by using yeast malt glucose medium with pH 9 at the fourth day of incubation. Experimental design using Response Surface Methodology (RSM) was applied to optimize various nutrients at different concentrations. The finalized optimized medium contained (gl–1) glucose (5), peptone (2.5), yeast extract (4.5) and malt extract (4.5) increased the production of EPS to 33.8 gl–1 with1.4 fold increase compared to the basal medium. Chemical characterization of the extracted EPS showed that, FTIR spectra exhibited bands at various regions. Moreover, HPLC chromatogram indicated that the EPS was a heteropolysaccharide consisting of maltose and rhamnose. The study was extended to evaluate the potentiality of the extracted polysaccharides in different medical applications. Results concluded that, EPS exhibited antibacterial activity against Aeromonas hydrophila, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Streptococcus faecalis and the highest antibacterial activity (7.8, 9 and 10.4 AU/ml) was against S. faecalis at 50, 100 and 200 mg/ml respectively. The EPS exhibited various degree of antitumor effect toward the tested cell lines (MCF-7, HCT-116 and HepG2). In addition, EPS exhibited antiviral activity at 500 μg/ml. The antioxidant capacity increased with increasing the concentration of the sample. Scanning electron microscopic analysis showed that EPS had compact film-like structure, which could make it a useful in the future applications as in preparing plasticized film.

1980 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 420-426 ◽  
Author(s):  
Blaine L. Beaman ◽  
Kenneth C. Burtis ◽  
Roy H. Doi ◽  
James P. Yeggy ◽  
Donald P. Stahly

An electron microscopic analysis of Bacillus subtilis cells revealed that netropsin blocked sporulation ultrastructurally at stages 0–I. These observations are consistent with previous results which indicated that cells were not committed to sporulation in the presence of the drug. Further, the addition of netropsin up to stage III of sporulation prevented the normal sharp increase in dihydrodipicolinate synthase activity which results in dipicolinic acid accumulation at stage IV. The addition of netropsin after stage III had much less effect on the synthesis of dihydrodipicolinate synthase and on sporulation. Thus, morphological events in sporulation are blocked early whereas a sporulation-associated enzyme may be affected at later stages. These data indicate that netropsin affects the expression of sporulation-associated genes in a differential manner.


Endocrinology ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 147 (10) ◽  
pp. 4843-4851 ◽  
Author(s):  
Van L. Adams ◽  
Robert L. Goodman ◽  
A. K. Salm ◽  
Lique M. Coolen ◽  
Fred J. Karsch ◽  
...  

An increase in the response of GnRH neurons to estrogen negative feedback is responsible for seasonal anestrus in the ewe, but the underlying neural mechanisms remain largely unknown. Neural plasticity may play an important role because the density of synaptic input to GnRH neurons changes with seasons. Moreover, the transition from breeding to anestrous season requires thyroid hormones, which are also required for neuronal development. In the first experiment, we examined whether the decrease in synapses on GnRH neurons is critical for the transition to anestrus by comparing synaptic input in thyroidectomized and thyroid-intact controls, using electron microscopic analysis. Thyroidectomized ewes remained in the breeding season, but the number of synaptic contacts on their GnRH cells was not different from those in thyroid-intact ewes that were anestrus. The next experiment tested whether there was a seasonal change in morphology of the A15 dopaminergic neurons that mediate estrogen negative feedback during anestrus by analyzing synapsin-positive close contacts onto A15 neurons with confocal microscopy. There was a 2-fold increase in these close contacts onto dendrites of A15 neurons in anestrus and a corresponding increase in the length of A15 dendrites at this time of year. The increase in dendritic length was blocked by thyroidectomy, but this procedure did not significantly affect synaptic input to A15 neurons. These results provide initial evidence that the seasonal change in synapses on GnRH neurons is not sufficient for the transition into anestrus but that plasticity of the A15 dopaminergic neurons mediating estrogen negative feedback may contribute to this seasonal alteration.


Author(s):  
Marcio M Arouche ◽  
Sandip Budhe ◽  
Mariana D Banea ◽  
Sofia Teixeira de Freitas ◽  
Silvio de Barros

The aim of this study is to assess the interlaminar adhesion of carbon-epoxy laminates under salt water condition. Carbon-epoxy laminate specimens were immersed in a salt water tank for 60 days. Some specimens were then dried at room temperature for 280 days, until recovering their initial weight. Specimens were tested using the composite peel test, an adaptation of the floating roller peel tests for composite materials. The results showed a degradation of peel strength in some areas due to the ageing process. The drying process did not affect the test results. A scanning electron microscopic analysis carried out on the fracture surface of the specimens revealed a typical mode I failure microstructure. A mixture of matrix failure and fibre/matrix interfacial failure was observed in non-aged specimens. Finally, a chemical characterization of the fracture surfaces with energy-dispersive spectroscopy confirmed the penetration of salt water in regions near the edge of the specimens. A degradation of the fibre/matrix interface adhesion was observed in affected areas. Floating roller peel tests proved to be a fast and effective method to access the interlaminar adhesion performance of composite laminates.


2008 ◽  
Vol 410 (1) ◽  
pp. 147-155 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dipti Rai ◽  
Jay Kumar Singh ◽  
Nilanjan Roy ◽  
Dulal Panda

The assembly and stability of FtsZ protofilaments have been shown to play critical roles in bacterial cytokinesis. Recent evidence suggests that FtsZ may be considered as an important antibacterial drug target. Curcumin, a dietary polyphenolic compound, has been shown to have a potent antibacterial activity against a number of pathogenic bacteria including Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus epidermidis and Enterococcus. We found that curcumin induced filamentation in the Bacillus subtilis 168, suggesting that it inhibits bacterial cytokinesis. Further, curcumin strongly inhibited the formation of the cytokinetic Z-ring in B. subtilis 168 without detectably affecting the segregation and organization of the nucleoids. Since the assembly dynamics of FtsZ protofilaments plays a major role in the formation and functioning of the Z-ring, we analysed the effects of curcumin on the assembly of FtsZ protofilaments. Curcumin inhibited the assembly of FtsZ protofilaments and also increased the GTPase activity of FtsZ. Electron microscopic analysis showed that curcumin reduced the bundling of FtsZ protofilaments in vitro. Further, curcumin was found to bind to FtsZ in vitro with a dissociation constant of 7.3±1.8 μM and the agent also perturbed the secondary structure of FtsZ. The results indicate that the perturbation of the GTPase activity of FtsZ assembly is lethal to bacteria and suggest that curcumin inhibits bacterial cell proliferation by inhibiting the assembly dynamics of FtsZ in the Z-ring.


Author(s):  
F.J. Sjostrand

In the 1940's and 1950's electron microscopy conferences were attended with everybody interested in learning about the latest technical developments for one very obvious reason. There was the electron microscope with its outstanding performance but nobody could make very much use of it because we were lacking proper techniques to prepare biological specimens. The development of the thin sectioning technique with its perfectioning in 1952 changed the situation and systematic analysis of the structure of cells could now be pursued. Since then electron microscopists have in general become satisfied with the level of resolution at which cellular structures can be analyzed when applying this technique. There has been little interest in trying to push the limit of resolution closer to that determined by the resolving power of the electron microscope.


Author(s):  
Charlotte L. Ownby ◽  
David Cameron ◽  
Anthony T. Tu

In the United States the major health problem resulting from snakebite poisoning is local tissue damage, i.e. hemorrhage and myonecrosis. Since commercial antivenin does not usually prevent such damage to tissue, a more effective treatment of snakebite-induced myonecrosis is needed. To aid in the development of such a treatment the pathogenesis of myonecrosis induced by a pure component of rattlesnake venom was studied at the electron microscopic level.The pure component, a small (4,300 mol. wt.), basic (isoelectric point of 9.6) protein, was isolated from crude prairie rattlesnake (Crotalus viridis viridis) venom by gel filtration (Sephadex G-50) followed by cation exchange chromatography (Sephadex C-25), and shown to be pure by electrophoresis. Selection of the myotoxic component was based on light microscopic observations of injected mouse muscle.


Author(s):  
Ralph M. Albrecht ◽  
Scott R. Simmons ◽  
Marek Malecki

The development of video-enhanced light microscopy (LM) as well as associated image processing and analysis have significantly broadened the scope of investigations which can be undertaken using (LM). Interference/polarization based microscopies can provide high resolution and higher levels of “detectability” especially in unstained living systems. Confocal light microscopy also holds the promise of further improvements in resolution, fluorescence studies, and 3 dimensional reconstruction. Video technology now provides, among other things, a means to detect differences in contrast difficult to detect with the human eye; furthermore, computerized image capture, processing, and analysis can be used to enhance features of interest, average images, subtract background, and provide a quantitative basis to studies of cells, cell features, cell labelling, and so forth. Improvements in video technology, image capture, and cost-effective computer image analysis/processing have contributed to the utility and potential of the various interference and confocal microscopic instrumentation.Electron microscopic technology has made advances as well. Microprocessor control and improved design have contributed to high resolution SEMs which have imaging capability at the molecular level and can operate at a range of accelerating voltages starting at 1KV. Improvements have also been seen in the HVEM and IVEM transmission instruments. As a whole, these advances in LM and EM microscopic technology provide the biologist with an array of information on structure, composition, and function which can be obtained from a single specimen. Corrrelative light microscopic analysis permits examination of living specimens and is critical where the “history” of a cell, cellular components, or labels needs to be known up to the time of chemical or physical fixation. Features such as cytoskeletal elements or gold label as small as 0.01 μm, well below the 0.2 μm limits of LM resolution, can be “detected” and their movement followed by VDIC-LM. Appropriate identification and preparation can then lead to the examination of surface detail and surface label with stereo LV-HR-SEM. Increasing the KV in the HR-SEM while viewing uncoated or thinly coated specimens can provide information from beneath the surface as well as increasing Z contrast so that positive identification of surface and subsurface colloidal gold or other heavy metal labelled/stained material is possible. Further examination of the same cells using stereo HVEM or IVEM provides information on internal ultrastructure and on the relationship of labelled material to cytoskeletal or organellar distribution, A wide variety of investigations can benefit from this correlative approach and a number of instrumentational configurations and preparative pathways can be tailored for the particular study. For a surprisingly small investment in time and technique, it is often possible to clear ambiguities or questions that arise when a finding is presented in the context of only one modality.


Planta Medica ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 74 (09) ◽  
Author(s):  
N Padilla-Montaño ◽  
IL Bazzocchi ◽  
L Moujir

2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (5) ◽  
pp. 438-450
Author(s):  
Ramya Ramchandran ◽  
Swetha Ramesh ◽  
Anviksha A ◽  
RamLal Thakur ◽  
Arunaloke Chakrabarti ◽  
...  

Background:: Antifungal cyclic lipopeptides, bioactive metabolites produced by many species of the genus Bacillus, are promising alternatives to synthetic fungicides and antibiotics for the biocontrol of human pathogenic fungi. In a previous study, the co- production of five antifungal lipopeptides homologues (designated as AF1, AF2, AF3, AF4 and AF5) by the producer strain Bacillus subtilis RLID 12.1 using unoptimized medium was reported; though the two homologues AF3 and AF5 differed by 14 Da and in fatty acid chain length were found effective in antifungal action, the production/ yield rate of these two lipopeptides determined by High-Performance Liquid Chromatography was less in the unoptimized media. Methods:: In this study, the production/yield enhancement of the two compounds AF3 and AF5 was specifically targeted. Following the statistical optimization (Plackett-Burman and Box-Behnken designs) of media formulation, temperature and growth conditions, the production of AF3 and AF5 was improved by about 25.8- and 7.4-folds, respectively under static conditions. Results:: To boost the production of these two homologous lipopeptides in the optimized media, heat-inactivated Candida albicans cells were used as a supplement resulting in 34- and 14-fold increase of AF3 and AF5, respectively. Four clinical Candida auris isolates had AF3 and AF5 MICs (100 % inhibition) ranging between 4 and 16 μg/ml indicating the lipopeptide’s clinical potential. To determine the in vitro pharmacodynamic potential of AF3 and AF5, time-kill assays were conducted which showed that AF3 (at 4X and 8X concentrations) at 48h exhibited mean log reductions of 2.31 and 3.14 CFU/ml of C. albicans SC 5314, respectively whereas AF5 at 8X concentration showed a mean log reduction of 2.14 CFU/ml. Conclusion:: With the increasing threat of multidrug-resistant yeasts and fungi, these antifungal lipopeptides produced by optimized method promise to aid in the development of novel antifungal that targets disease-causing fungi with improved efficacy.


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