Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology

1-12

Authors: Maskar AU

Brucellosis is one of the most common zoonotic diseases. HumanBrucellosis is primarily caused byB. melitensistransmitted by goats and sheep along with other potential routes for the spread of infection. Till date no definite therapy is available for the permanent treatment. Also vaccines, that are available, are not effective or non-specific to stop the spread of the infection. So there is a sure call for finding newer specific target molecules to design the newer specific therapeutic agent/s. After comparative metabolomic investigation inB. melitensis, we found enzyme Chorismate Synthase as the probable target molecule in Human Brucellosis. The present work includes generation of homology model of Chorismate Synthase forB. melitensisusing template fromH. pylori. The model was developed using satisfaction of spatial restraints approach implemented in Modeller 9v3 software. The model generated is a tetramer and consists of β-α-β Sandwich Fold in each monomer which is a signature fold of this enzyme family. After thorough structural evaluations, the model is found tobe quiet satisfactory and can surely be useful for further study to find out the potential therapeutic agent/s for Human Brucellosis. The model is available at Protein Model Data Base (PMDB ID PM0078183).

1-14

Authors: Mahesh Singh D anu

Typhoid fever is endemic in Asia Pacific Region, the Indian subcontinent, Africa, and South America.The protean manifestations of typhoid fever make this disease a true diagnostic challenge.Isolates from many parts of the world are now multidrug-resistant (MDR).There is a need for a quick and reliable diagnostic test for typhoid fever as an alternative to the Widal test. Collection and preservation of samples were done as per the manufacturer’s instructions. Widaltest was done by two quantitative methods i.e. slide and tube agglutination. About 80 and more than 80 titre was considered as significant titre. Typhifast test is immunochromatographic qualitative test assay performed in test device, which shows colour band when there is IgM in serum against coated antigen.Pink purplish coloured lines which confirm a positive test result. It was compared with positive control, which was also coated in respective test devices. Typhipoint is enzyme immunoassays (EIA) for the detection of IgM and IgG antibodies to the extracted protein of salmonella typhi in serum. Absence of this colored dot in the test region indicates negative test result. The results were compared with positive control, which was also coated in respectivetest devices. Total of 100 blood samples of suspected cases of typhoid fever was tested by three methods i.e. widal test, Typhifast &Typhipoit. Widal test in which, 48 samples (48%) were showed positive reaction with slide and tube agglutination method. Widal reaction was positive for TO & TH both in 62.5% of widal positive sample and 30% in suspected cases of typhoid fever&30% for TH in samples. In Widal positive reaction, maximum sample were from age group 21-40 years (58.33%).Out of 48 positive widal sample, 30 (62%) were males and 18 (38%) were females. Typhoid fever patients were outnumbered in MICU (22.2%).48 (48%) samples were positive and 52 (52%) were negative by widal. In typhifast 42 (42%) were positive and 58 (58%) were negative. In typhipoint 44 (44%) positive and 56 (56%) were negative. Out of100samples, 8 were used as positive and negative controls for typhipoint. 92 samples were used for testing. The result of the two methods i.e. Typhifast and Typhipoint were compared with the gold standard Widal test results. Typhipoint was more sensitive than both tests. It showed 7% sensitivity than typhifast. There was little difference among these three tests in positivity reaction point of view. Typhipoint was more sensitive than two tests

1-6

Authors: Ajay Kumar Kariyappa

Substituted 1,3,4-oxadiazole derivatives such as 2-(chloromethyl)-5-heptadecyl-1,3,4-oxadiazole (4a), 2-benzyl-5-heptadecyl-1,3,4-oxadiazole (4b), 2-heptadecyl-5-phenyl-1,3,4-oxadiazole (4c), 2-heptadecyl-5-styryl-1,3,4-oxadiazole (4d), 2-(5-heptadecyl-1,3,4-oxadiazol-2-yl)phenol (4e), 2-heptadecyl-5-o-tolyl-1,3,4-oxadiazole (4f), 2-heptadecyl-5-(4-nitrophenyl)-1,3,4-oxadiazole (4g) and 4-(5-heptadecyl-1,3,4-oxadiazol-2-yl)benzenamine (4h) were subjected to antibacterial and antifungal activity assay by cup diffusion and poisoned food technique against Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureusand three strains of seed borne toxigenic Fusarium verticilloidesisolated from maize (Zea maysL.) and paddy (Oryza sativaL.). F. verticilloides was confirmed by species specific primers VERT 1 and VERT 2 and fumonisin producing ability was confirmed by VERTF-1 and VERTF-2 using polymerase chain reaction. All the compounds were tested at different concentration (25 to 100 ppm). The results revealed that all eight oxadiazoles completely inhibited all the strains of toxigenic F. verticilloidesat 100 ppm indicating Minimal Inhibitory Concentration (MIC). 4b recorded highly significant antibacterial activity against E. coliwhere as it was 4f against Staph. aureus. The study is successful in reporting the antimicrobial activity of the oxadiazoles and its possible application in management of seed borne fumonisin producing fungi and also bacterial infection in human

1-12

Authors: Sanchita Chaturvedi

Fungi are known to produce proteases of different kind. The dermatphytic fungal strains were isolated from human skin tissues for extra cellular proteases efficacy.The present study deals with purification, estimation and comparison of extracellular proteases from five fungal species. (Fusarium sp., Curvularia sp. , Fumigatus Sp. , Aspergillus Sp. andMucor Sp.).All the five fungal strains showed good amount of extra cellular protease activity in terms of unit total protein content. By testing all the crude extracts for enzyme activity, Fusarium sp. was found to show the highest activity whereas Mucor sp. showed the lowest.The study supports the notion that fungi can be a good source of extracellular enzymes especially protea