Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology

1-7

Authors: Mital Patani

This research work was carried out to investigatethe antimicrobial activities of isolated fractionof Bixa orellanaand Linum usitatissimumagainst five bacterial and five fungal pathogen.Leaves Powder of bixa orellanaand seed powder of Linum usitatissimumsubjected to soxhletextraction. The separation of various fraction was carried out by column chromatography, analyzed and purified by thin layer chromatography(TLC) until homogeneity of the fraction achieved. The homogeneity and the purity of the different fractions were checked by HPLC.Antimicrobial evaluationof isolated fractions was carried out. Two fraction Fr-1 (352mg) and Fr-2(260mg) were collected from Bixa orellana had Rf was o.99 and 0.35. fraction 3 and 4 was isolated fromlinum usitatissimum with Rf 0.45 and 0.25.When compare to the standarddrug gentamycin,phenolic fraction of 1 and 2 had good antibacterial activity against all bacterial strain where as glycoside fraction 3 and 4 were poorest activity against all bacterial strain.Whencompare to standard drug tioconazolefraction-1 and 2 had very good activity against fungal strain and fraction 3 and 4 had moderate activity against fungal strain.

1-7

Authors: P rasada B abu Gundala

A new facultative alkaliphilic Bacillus speciesisolated from mica mines of Nellore district of Andhra Pradesh, India. This strain is gram positive, rod shaped, motile bacteria capable of growth in aerobic conditions up to pH 12.0 exhibiting optimum growth at pH 10.0. The strain is oxidative, catalase positive, urease positive, able to hydrolyse starch, gelatine, able to utilize lactose, D-glucose and sucrose and produce acids. It also converts nitrate into nitrite. Further, exhibited positive results for methyl red and Voges Proskauer reaction. The strain showed optimum growth at 0.5% NaCl and able to thrive even at higher concentration of sucrose. The 16S rDNA sequence showed 99% similarity with Bacillussp19(HQ433576) and closest relative is Bacillus amyloliquifaciens (JN086147).The efficiency of this strain for potassium dissolution from insoluble mica was evaluated in vitro. Modified Alexandrov’s medium supplemented with 0.1% mica powder was used to investigate the potassium solubilising activity of the Bacillus spSVUNM9strain. Final pH, total acidity, soluble K content and released organic acids were determined in culture media after 21days of incubation. The K content was increased to 2.5times greater than the control. Mineral potassium solubilisation was directly related to the pH drop by the strain. The analysis of the culture medium by high pressure liquid chromatography identified gluconic acid as the main organic acid released by Bacillus sp.SVUNM9.This study isthe first report on the isolation and characterization of native potassium solubilising bacteria from mica ore

1-5

Authors: Banshidhar Behera

Presently there is an increasing interest in the case of plant microbicides because of the necessity to finding safer microbicides and the need for preventing environmentaldegradation. The methanolic extract of bark of Holoptelea integrifolia Roxb. (Ulmaceae) in different concentration was evaluated for antimicrobial activity against various bacteria viz. Streptococcus pyogenes MTCC No.1928, Staphylococcus aureus MTCC No. 3160, Escherichia coli MTCC No. 901,Pseudomonas aeruginosa MTCC No. 424 and Salmonella typhi MTCC No. 733. For the calculation of zone of inhibition Agar well diffusion method was adopted

1-4

Authors: Chinthala Param ageetham

Pseudomonas cichoriiisolates wereobtained from forest soils in Seshachalm hills using selective medium. The isolates were screened for phosphate activity and all the isolates were gram negative and showed bright fluorescence under UV light.The cultural and biochemical characteristics confirmed that the isolates were P.cichorii. Carbohydrates utilization profiles confirmed that the isolates were able to utilize Lactose, Xylose, Fructose, Glycerol, Trehalose, Mannitol and Ribose. However, theisolates were unable to utilize glucose and sucrose. The isolates showed positive results for levan production, oxidase and HCN. However they were negative for citrate utilization, ONPG and Gelatin hydrolysis

1-6

Authors: Tebit E Kwenti

Helminth infections present one of the most common parasitic infections worldwide with a greater proportion occurring in the less developed areas of the world like Sub-Saharan Africa. Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest regional prevalence of HIV in the world. Due to the overlapping geographical distribution of these infections, coinfection between helminths and HIV are likely to be common. This study was therefore designed to determine the prevalence of helminth infection among HIV patients in Cameroon and to determine the effect on helminth infection in HIV by measuring the CD4+T cell count. Helminth infection was determined in faecal specimen by the formol ether concentration technique and quantifies with the Kato Katz technique. CD4+T cell count were determined with a BD FASCount™. Among the 241 HIV-positive patients that were enrolled into the study, 6(2.5%) were coinfected with helminths. Among those coinfected with helminths, 2(33.3%) were infected with Ascaris lumbricoides, 2(33.3%) with Trichuris trichiura, 1(16.7%) with Strongyloides stercoralisand 1(16.7%) with Schistosoma mansoni. Dual infection with more than one helminth was not observed in the study. The mean egg intensity were 1944, 420, 144 for the specimen which contained Ascaris lumbricoides, Trichuris trichiuraand Schistosoma mansoniova respectively. The mean CD4+T cell count among helminth coinfected patients was 627.93 cells/μl. no significant association between CD4+T cell count and helminth infection wasobserved (P = 0.4815), neither was there any significant association between CD4+T cell count in co-infectedpatients and patients without helminth infection (P = 0.1110). We came to the conclusion that the prevalence of helminth infection among HIV patients in study population was low and the influence of helminth infection on the outcome of HIV may be limited.

1-5

Authors: Sathish Kumar S

Bioaccumulation of zinc (II) by yeast isolate C. krusei was investigated in different growth media. The isolate showed maximum bioaccumulation of zinc (II) in the medium prepared from sugarcane bagasse extract. The growth and bioaccumulation properties of yeast were tested as a function of pH and initial metal concentration in bagasse extract. The optimum pH value for growth and metal accumulation was determined as 5.5. The combined effects of sugar extracted from bagasse and initial zinc (II) concentration on specific growth rate and bioaccumulation efficiency of yeast was investigated. At a constant zinc (II) concentration, the growth and zinc (II) bioaccumulation increased with increasing concentrations of sugar up to 20 g/L. The inhibition effect of zinc (II)ions on the specific growth rate of yeasts was studied by non competitive and uncompetitive inhibition models at various concentrations of zinc (II)ranging from 0-25 mg/L at constant sugar concentrations (5-20 g/L).