BioTechnologia最新文献

Thaumatococcus daniellii (Benth) is a member of a diverse family of plants known as Marantaceae. Native to the tropical forest zones of West Africa, the plant is globally famous for its low calorie, nondiabetic natural sweetener called thaumatin found in its aril. T. daniellii thrives in deep shade, and it is used locally as a taste modifier and for preparing fish traps, ornamental bags, and mats. Organs of the plant are used in folkloric medicine as a laxative and in treating ailments such as mental disorders, high blood sugar, and lung diseases. The seeds and leaf sap are potent as an antidote against snake venom and bee stings and for preventing dystocia and prolonged child labor. Proximate analysis, phytochemical screening, and gas chromatography-mass spectrophotometry revealed that the plant contains proteins, important macro- and microelements (calcium, magnesium, zinc, sodium, phosphorus, potassium, iron, and manganese), and abundant active principles and compounds such as squalene tannin, alkaloids, saponins, epicatechin, steroids, phlobatannins, anthraquinones, terpenoids, spartein, ribalinidine, rutin, phytic acid, and kaempferol. Biological activities include hypolipidemic, antihyperglycemic, antioxidant, insecticidal, bioremediative, and antimicrobial activities. T. daniellii could be used in the formulation of food supplements and drug development.

Obesity is a global health problem associated with many comorbidities such as type 2 diabetes and cancer. The number of individuals with overweight and obesity have increased dramatically within the past few years. Given the worldwide cost of an obesity pandemic, it is crucial to understand molecular pathways and identify novel factors that regulate fat storage in humans. In recent years, Caenorhabditis elegans has been widely used to investigate metabolic and neuroendocrine mechanisms involved in the regulation of energy metabolism. In this review, we describe similarities in fundamental signalling pathways regulating fat accumulation between nematodes and mammals. Like in humans, fat storage in C. elegans depends on the interaction of genetic and environmental factors such as diet, microbiota and ambient temperature. Despite many challenges, the simplicity of use, relatively short lifespan, genetic conservation and availability of many valuable experimental techniques make C. elegans an attractive and useful model organism in obesity research.

Abiotic stress responses are regulated critically at the transcriptional level. Clarifying the intricate mechanisms that regulate gene expression in response to abiotic stress is crucial and challenging. For this purpose, the factors that regulate gene expression and their binding sites in DNA should be determined. By using bioinformatics tools, the differentially expressed probe sets were studied. A meta-analysis of transcriptomic responses to several abiotic stresses in barley was performed. Motif enrichments revealed that AP2/ERF (APETALA2/Ethylene-Responsive Factor) has the most frequent binding sites. We found that the bHLH transcription factor family has the highest number of transcription factor members. Moreover, network construction revealed that AP2 has the highest number of connections with other genes, which indicates its critical role in abiotic stress responses. The present research further predicted 49 miRNAs belonging to 23 miRNA families. This study identified the probable conserved and enriched motifs, which might have a role in the regulation of differentially expressed genes under abiotic stresses. In addition to shedding light on gene expression regulation, a toolbox of available promoters for genetic engineering of crop plants under such abiotic stresses was developed.

Background: Melanin finds enormous applications in different industries for its unique photoprotective and anti-oxidant properties. Due to its emerging demand, scientific researchers are putting efforts to unravel more microorganisms with a potential of producing melanin on large scale. Hence, the present study was aimed at the isolation of extracellular melanin producing microorganisms from lime quarries of Karnataka, India. Besides this, the tyrosinase gene governing melanin synthesis in different organisms were compared in silico to understand its evolutionary aspects.

Material and methods: Melanin producing microorganisms were screened on tyrosine gelatin beef extract agar medium. Potential isolate was explored for submerged production of melanin in broth containing L-tyrosine. Melanin was characterized by UV-Vis spectroscopy, thin layer and high performance liquid chromatographic techniques. Antibacterial activity of melanin was performed by agar well assay. Comparative tyrosinase gene sequence analysis was performed by using Geneious 2021.1 trial version software.

Results: Pseudomonas otitidis DDB2 was found to be potential for melanin production. No antibacterial activity was exerted by the melanin against tested pathogens. The in silico studies showed that the common central domain of tyrosinase protein sequence of selected Pseudomonas sps. exhibited 100% identity with the common central domain of Homo sapiens tyrosinase (NP_000363.1).

Conclusions: Our study shows the production of melanin in good quantities by the isolate Pseudomonas otitidis DDB2 which can be explored for scale-up process. Since the melanin formed is of eumelanin type and the tyrosinase gene sequence of several Pseudomonas sp. showed relatedness to humans, this molecule may be further developed for sunscreen formulations.

Because of side effects and increasing resistance to antibiotics, considerable attention hasbeen given to extract sand biologically active compounds isolated from medicinal plants. In the present study, phytochemical screening and antibacterial activities of different concentrations of various extracts of Onosma chlorotricum were evaluated and compared with those of vancomycin and amikacin. Total phenolic and flavonoid contents and the antibacterial activity of methanol, n-hexane, and aqueous extracts (5 mg/ml to 0.156 mg/ml final concentration) of O. chlorotricum against Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Escherichia coli were evaluated using disc diffusion and microdilution methods. Total phenolic and flavonoid contents were determined according to the Folin-Ciocalteu and aluminum chloride colorimetric assays, respectively. The results showed that the total phenolic and flavonoid contents of these extracts ranged from 56.10 ± 0.13 to 74.12 ± 0.05 mg GAE/g dry extract and from 19.3 ± 0.6 to 23.20 ± 0.41 mg QE/g dry extract, respectively. The methanol extract with the highest phenolic and flavonoid content showed the highest antibacterial activity against all the tested bacterial strains, with the highest inhibition zone of 21 ± 0.7 mm and the lowest MIC and MBC values of 78.12 μg/ml for S. aureus. The antibacterial effects and the total phenolic content of O. chlorotricum were remarkable. The results suggest that the effects of methanol extract on wound healing could be tested in an animal model.

Mung bean or moong or green gram, an important grain legume, is cultivated mainly in Asian countries and other parts of the world as a food crop. It is a highly nutritious grain legume with a high content of easily digestible proteins (20-32%), carbohydrates (53.3-67.1%), lipids (0.71-1.85%), vitamins, minerals, and fiber. It also contains some antinutrients such as tannins, phytic acid, hemagglutinin, polyphenols, and trypsin inhibitors in low concentrations. The sprouting of seeds leads to dynamic changes in metabolites with a decrease in antinutrient content and an increase in the nutritional value. In addition to these nutrients and antinutrients, the plant also contains various other phytochemicals such as alkaloids, flavonoids, saponins, phenols, glycosides, and bioactive peptides, which exhibit an array of pharmaceutically important properties such as anti-inflammatory, antinociceptive, antimicrobial, antioxidant, antidiabetic, lipid metabolism regulation, antihypertensive, antiallergic, and antitumor. Being rich in nutritional value and other phytochemical components, the plant can be explored further for its pharmaceutical properties and used as an efficient food additive in the preparation of different types of dietary supplements or food-derived drugs.

Currently, globalization, urbanization and industrialization have led to several environmental issues. In many industries, particularly in textile industries, the extensive use of synthetic dyes has increased. Dye is an integral element used to impart color to textile materials. Wastes generated during the processing and treatment of the dye contain inorganic and organic compounds that are hazardous, thereby posing a serious threat to the ecosystem. It is therefore important to implement cost-efficient and successful measures against these emissions in order to preserve habitats and natural resources. In this context, biodegradation by fungi or mycoremediation of dyes using potential fungi is a fairly inexpensive and environmental friendly method for decomposing or mineralizing barely or less decaying dye compounds. Fungi play a crucial role in degrading and decolorizing organic dyes by enzymes and processes such as absorption, adsorption and aggregation of effluent colorants. The factors affecting the decolorization and biodegradation of dye compounds through fungal bioremediation, such as pH, temperature, dye concentration, agitation, effects of carbon and nitrogen sources, dye structure, enzymes, electron donor and redox mediators are discussed in this review. The review also includes a summary on the mechanism and kinetics of dye degradation as well as recent advances and future perspectives in mycoremediation of dyes.

Depression is a mental illness and is considered to be a global threat. It is designated as burden of disease. There is therefore an intense need to improve the therapeutic response of antidepressants. India beholds a wide fraction (Agaricus bisporus and Pleurotus ostreatus ) as a vital source of non-hallucinogenic indole compounds. The amino acids L-tryptophan and 5-hydroxytryptophan (5-HTP) are precursors of serotonin. 5-HTP is a potential antidepressant that can cross the blood-brain barrier (BBB) at a high rate and is converted into serotonin more efficiently. Drug delivery across this blockade remains a challenge due to the stimulation of efflux pump receptors called permeability glycoprotein (P-gp). This work reports a comparative phytochemical assay and profiling of non-hallucinogenic tryptophan metabolites using HPLC from two organic extracts of edible mushrooms. The efficacy of the eluted compounds was authenticated as P-gp inhibitors with in vitro and in silico studies. The following four derivatives were obtained from the methanol and ethanol extracts of the mushrooms: 5-hydroxy-L-tryptophan (5HTR), 5-hydroxy tryptamine (5-HT), L-tryptophan (L-Trp), and tryptamine (TA). In vitro and molecular docking studies targeting P-gp (minimum energy: -64.38 and -83.93 kcal/mol, respectively) substantiated the ability of mushroom-derived metabolites to facilitate drug delivery in the brain. This study verified that mushrooms containing non-hallucinogenic metabolites can act as psychoactive nutraceuticals that are significant for enhancing mental health. The high therapeutic efficacy, these mushrooms can serve as ideal neurological drug leads to fortify treatment for mental illness.

Nanotechnology plays a pivotal role in all areas of science, and the synthesis and surface modification of nanoparticles are crucial in this field. Metal nanoparticles synthesized using plant extracts or phytocompounds are highly significant in the development of various therapeutics and diagnostics. In the present study, we report the one-pot and rapid synthesis of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) by quercetin, a flavonoid found in various edible plants. The nanoparticles were then characterized using UV-VIS spectrophotometry, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The role of quercetin in the synthesis of silver nanoparticles was demonstrated. The nanomaterial was 20-30 nm in size and spherical in shape. The silver nanoparticles were also confirmed to show antioxidant activity at 80 μg/ml concentration in vitro by DPPH, FRAP, and power reduction methods.