Watching the watchman from Ghana: The case of agenda 2063

The Agenda 2063 framework document is the basis for Africa’s long term socio-economic and integrative transformation. It has a list of 12 flagship projects and programs that have to be implemented within the first ten year period of 2014 - 2023. The paper explores the correlation between the awareness of Ghanaians and the monitoring of the African Union Commission Agenda 2063 first ten-year flagship programs and projects and established a negative product-moment linear correlation coefficient which statistically established that Ghanaians are not aware of and do not monitor the Agenda2063 first ten-year flagship programs and projects.

Cloning of cDNA glucoamylase Aspergillus awamori into yeast integrative expression vector

We constructed pKLAC2-based integrative expression plasmid pKGLA-1 with glaA gene from Aspergillus awamori 466. The PCR amplification of the target gene glaA and restriction analysis proved pKGLA-1 construction. Linearised plasmid was used for the integrative transformation of chemically competent Kluyveromyces lactis GG799 cells. Colonies of cells transformed with pKGLA-1 plasmid were selected by growth on agar plates containing 5 mmol/L acetamide. Expression of the heterologous gene in K. lactis cells was visually assessed using medium containing 2 % starch. K. lactis cells containing integrated pKGLA-1 DNA secreted recombinant protein glucoamylase with a native N-terminus.

Premethylation of Foreign DNA Improves Integrative Transformation Efficiency in Synechocystis sp. Strain PCC 6803

ABSTRACTRestriction digestion of foreign DNA is one of the key biological barriers against genetic transformation in microorganisms. To establish a high-efficiency transformation protocol in the model cyanobacterium,Synechocystissp. strain PCC 6803 (Synechocystis6803), we investigated the effects of premethylation of foreign DNA on the integrative transformation of this strain. In this study, two type II methyltransferase-encoding genes, i.e.,sll0729(geneM) andslr0214(geneC), were cloned from the chromosome ofSynechocystis6803 and expressed inEscherichia coliharboring an integration plasmid. After premethylation treatment inE. coli, the integration plasmid was extracted and used for transformation ofSynechocystis6803. The results showed that although expression of methyltransferase M had little impact on the transformation ofSynechocystis6803, expression of methyltransferase C resulted in 11- to 161-fold-higher efficiency in the subsequent integrative transformation ofSynechocystis6803. Effective expression of methyltransferase C, which could be achieved by optimizing the 5′ untranslated region, was critical to efficient premethylation of the donor DNA and thus high transformation efficiency inSynechocystis6803. Since premethylating foreign DNA prior to transformingSynechocystisavoids changing the host genetic background, the study thus provides an improved method for high-efficiency integrative transformation ofSynechocystis6803.