A novel coconut-malt extract medium increases growth rate of morels in pure culture

Morels are gourmet wild edible mushrooms that can grow on several substrates with significant growth rate variations. Such variations have hindered the development of a standardized culture media to promote morel’s sustainable production. The aim of this study is developing a novel culture media that takes advantage of coconut water as a complementary component of culture media. Coconut water has been extensively used as a growth-promoting component for plant tissue cultures; however, its application as component of fungi cultivation medium has not been fully developed. This study confirms that coconut water can be efficiently used as culture media component for morels using a kinetic characterization. Morchella sp. kinetic growth is evaluated in different cultures: agar, malt extract agar (MEA), lactose, coconut water (15%) and combinations of them. Kinetic growth parameters (lag phase, λ and maximum specific growth rate, µmax) are estimated using primary modeling methods. Among the selected models, the best fit is achieved using Baranyi’s model. A significant increase from 15.8% to 43.4% of the µmax values was observed when culture media (agar, lactose, MEA) is supplemented with coconut water. The largest values of µmax are obtained in MEA-coconut cultures (21.13 ± 0.43–22.57 ± 0.35). Micro-sclerotia and late sclerotia are observed in all cultures containing coconut water justifying the development of a feasible and cost-effective way of culturing morels. The results demonstrate that coconut water can be used for formulation of standard media for morel cultivation leading to a cheap alternative to produce dense mycelium and promote sclerotia formation.

Development of Physics Comic 'History of Physics Series: The Development of Atom'

The quality of education can be improved by developing learning methods, curriculum development, and learning media development. One of them is learning media in the form of comics. This research aims to develop physics comics and analyze the validity of learning media of physics comics on the historical material of atomic development. The research was conducted using the R&D research model (Research and Development) with the 4-D model (Define-Design-Develop-Disseminate). Based on the stages, obtained learning media products that were declared eligible after validation by two high school physics teachers and an expert lecturer gained the average validity in the media component of 90.0%, the display of 89.2%, the material by 90.7%, and the language by 95.4%. In general, the student's responses to the use of physical comic learning media include comic physics can increase motivation in learning (88.6%), students prefer that physics learning uses comic media (88.9%), through comic media, students are introduced to atomic inventors (88.9%), and physics comics can help to understand the historical material of atomic development (83.3%). Based on the study results, learning media of physics comics on the historical material of atomic development deserves to be used in physics. The implication of this study can help other researchers as a reference related to the development of comic physics learning media.

STUDI PENGARUH MEDIA ALTERNATIF UNTUK PERBANYAKAN PISANG BARANGAN (Musa acuminata L.) SECARA IN-VITRO

The main obstacles in the commercialization of seedlings mass propagation through tissue culture techniques is the high cost of the culture media component. therefore, the production of lowcost tissue culture is required. This study aims to develop low cost in-vitro media for the production of the seedlings of Barangan banana. The research was composed following Factorial Completely Randomized Design, the first factor was Terra Novalgro liquid fertilizer with three concentrations, namely 1, 2, and 3 ml L-1, while the second factor was Gandasil with 3 concentrations namely 1, 2, and 3 mg L-1, so obtained nine treatments, each treatment was repeated 10 times, so that there were 90 experimental units. MS media was used as control. The parameter observed was number of shoots, number of leaves and number of roots. The results of this study exhibited that the treatment of 1 ml L-1 liquid fertilizer + 2 mg L-1 foliar fertilizer produced 9.30 shoots/explant and 1.90 leaves/explant, that no significantly different from MS medium (control) which produced 9.0 shoots/explant and 0.3 leaves/explants. Therefore, the using completed liquid fertilizers and foliar fertilizers as medium in vitro propagation of barangan bananas can become an alternative replace MS medium, as well as reduced the cost of culture media as 91% -93% compared to MS media.

Posidonia Natural Residues as Growing Substrate Component: An Ecofriendly Method to Improve Nutritional Profile of Brassica Microgreens

The aim of this study was to test Posidonia oceanica (L.) Delile seagrass residues (leaves and fibers) as growing media component to improve the nutritional quality of two different brassica microgreens (Mizuna and Rapini). We hypothesized that addition of posidonia residues in the substrate would result in higher concentration of certain mineral nutrients in the edible parts of plants. Substrates were obtained by mixing leaves and fibers, each material at the rate of 25, 50 and 75% (v/v), with a peat based commercial substrate, that was also used at 100% rate as a control treatment. Two experiments were carried out (Experiment 1: Mizuna microgreens production in growth chamber conditions; Experiment 2: Mizuna and Rapini microgreens production in greenhouse conditions). Plant growth measurements and chemical analysis on edible parts (mineral tissue composition and main bioactive compounds - polyphenol, chlorophylls and carotenoids contents) were performed in order to evaluate the effects of the different substrates on growth and nutritional composition of brassica microgreens. In order to evaluate the consumer safety, daily intake, percentage of recommended daily allowance for I (RDA-I) and hazard quotient (HQ) for I intake through consumption of 50 and 100 g portions of Rapini microgreens were calculated. Posidonia in the growing media mixtures increased I and B content in edible parts of microgreens. The calculated HQ underlines the safety of these products. Results confirm the possibility to improve nutritional profile of brassica microgreens by using this natural material as a growing media component, resulting in a sustainable approach.

Media component of geopolitical clashes: Black Sea Basin area

The collapse of the Soviet Empire and the dizzying development of new communication technologies, led to the geopolitical reconfiguration of the world, but also opened the way for the former Soviet republics to democracy and collaboration with European countries. As NATO and the EU advance towards Russia’s borders, it makes both military and ideological propaganda efforts to keep the territories of the past under its influence. Not without the competition of Russia in the countries of the “close neighborhood”- Ukraine, the Republic Of Moldova and Georgia were inspired conflicts, called to preserve military, political, ideological and economic control over these regions. A fierce battle is also waging by Russia for the strengthening of its positions in the Black Sea region, where geoprafically Ukraine, the Republic Of Moldova and Georgia are located. The article highlights the strategies, tactics and techniques applied by the Russian media in order to achieve geopolitical goals.

N-Amino-l-Proline Methyl Ester from an Australian Fish Gut-Derived Fungus: Challenging the Distinction between Natural Product and Artifact

Further investigation into a fish gut-derived fungus Evlachovaea sp. CMB-F563, previously reported to produce the unprecedented Schiff base prolinimines A–B (1–2), revealed a new cryptic natural product, N-amino-l-proline methyl ester (5)—only the second reported natural occurrence of an N-amino-proline, and the first from a microbial source. To enable these investigations, we developed a highly sensitive analytical derivitization methodology, using 2,4-dinitrobenzaldehyde (2,4-DNB) to cause a rapid in situ transformation of 5 to the Schiff base 9, with the latter more readily detectable by UHPLC-DAD (400 nm) and HPLC-MS analyses. Moreover, we demonstrate that during cultivation 5 is retained in fungal mycelia, and it is only when solvent extraction disrupts mycelia that 5 is released to come in contact with the furans 7–8 (which are themselves produced by thermal transformation of carbohydrates during media autoclaving prior to fungal inoculation). Significantly, on contact, 5 undergoes a spontaneous condensation with 7–8 to yield the Schiff base prolinimines 1–2, respectively. Observations made during this study prompted us to reflect on what it is to be a natural product (i.e., 5), versus an artifact (i.e., 1–2), versus a media component (i.e., 7–8).

Impact of media components from different suppliers on enterokinase productivity in Pichia pastoris

Background The aim of this study was to provide an information about the homogeneity on the level of enterokinase productivity in P. pastoris depending on different suppliers of the media components. Results In previous studies, we performed the optimisation process for the production of enterokinase by improving the fermentation process. Enterokinase is the ideal enzyme for removing fusion partners from target recombinant proteins. In this study, we focused our optimization efforts on the sources of cultivation media components. YPD media components were chosen as variables for these experiments. Several suppliers for particular components were combined and the optimisation procedure was performed in 24-well plates. Peptone had the highest impact on enterokinase production, where the difference between the best and worst results was threefold. The least effect on the production level was recorded for yeast extract with a 1.5 fold difference. The worst combination of media components had a activity of only 0.15 U/ml and the best combination had the activity of 0.88 U/ml, i.e., a 5.87 fold difference. A substantially higher impact on the production level of enterokinase was observed during fermentation in two selected media combinations, where the difference was almost 21-fold. Conclusions Results demonstrated in the present study show that the media components from different suppliers have high impact on enterokinase productivity and also provide the hypothesis that the optimization process should be multidimensional and for achieving best results it is important to perform massive process also in terms of the particular media component supplier .

Enhanced Saccharfication of Pomegranate Peel by Trichoderma Reesei and Statiscal Optimization of Medium Composition by Response Surface Methodology

In this work, pomegranate peels (PPs) otherwise considered as waste is used as substrates for producing cellulase. Pomegranate peel was employed as a carbon source to be produced of cellulase in submerged state fermentation (SmF). Statistical experimental designs were employed to screen the nutrients and optimize the media composition for cellulase production by Trichoderma reesei. Nine nutrients were selected by the preliminary screening of medium component production by plackett –burman design (PBD) technique. Four nutrients have been found to be important for cellulase production and optimized by central component design (CCD). The best media component for submerged fermentation of cellulase using pomegranate peel were avicel– 24.812 g/l, KH2PO4 – 4.626 g/l, soybean cake flour – 20.7 g/l and MnSO4.H2O-1.036 g/l. Under these optimum conditions, the production of cellulase was found to be 9.3 IU/mL. The optimum factors acquired from the statistical model were further confirmed using the experimental results.