The Journal of General and Applied Microbiology
Online ISSN : 1349-8037
Print ISSN : 0022-1260
ISSN-L : 0022-1260
Volume 47, Issue 2
Displaying 1-6 of 6 articles from this issue
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  • Crispinus A. Omumasaba, Naoto Yoshida, Kihachiro Ogawa
    2001 Volume 47 Issue 2 Pages 53-61
    Published: 2001
    Released on J-STAGE: December 19, 2005
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    Usukizyme, a commercial enzyme preparation from Trichoderma viride, showed multiple chitin- degrading activities. One of these was purified to homogeneity by sequential DEAE Sepharose CL-6B, Q-Sepharose FF, and Sephacryl S-100 HR column chromatographies. The purified enzyme showed optimum activity at pH 3.5 and 50°–55°C and was stable in the pH range of 3.5–6.0 and up to 45°C. It showed higher activity toward chitosan-7B, a 62% deacetylated chitosan, as opposed to highly deacetylated chitosan substrates. Products of degradation of a 1% (w/v) solution of partially deacetylated chitin (PC-100) were purified on CM-Sephadex C-25 and analyzed by HPLC, exo-glycosidase digestion, and nitrous acid deamination. The enzyme was unable to split the GlcN-GlcN linkages in the substrate. It produced mainly (GlcNAc)2 and (GlcNAc)3 along with mixed oligosaccharides. When subjected to nitrous acid degradation, some of the mixed oligosaccharides produced mainly 2-deoxyglucitol, implying the presence of GlcN at the reducing end of the oligosaccharides.
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  • Moustafa Y. M. El-Naggar, Mohamed A. Akeila, Helmi A. Turk, Ali A. El- ...
    2001 Volume 47 Issue 2 Pages 63-73
    Published: 2001
    Released on J-STAGE: December 19, 2005
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    Three disinfectants commonly used in poultry farms (formalin, TH4+, and Virkon-S) were chosen for the present study. The effect of disinfectant concentration and the duration of exposure to these disinfectants on the survival of Escherichia coli serotypes (O114:K−, O86, O55:K39, and O86:K60) were investigated. Formalin (0.6%), TH4+ (0.06%), and Virkon (0.5%) all killed the four serotypes within 5 min of exposure. As the disinfectant concentration decreases, the length of exposure time to kill serotype increases. At 0.03%, 0.007%, and 0.03% of formalin, TH4+ and Virkon-S concentrations failed to kill the four E. coli serotypes within 360 min, respectively. An improvement of the inhibitory effect of these disinfectants occurred when added together with the inoculum instead of an established population. The influence of formalin, TH4+, and Virkon-S on the cell morphology of E. coli O55:K39 was investigated by using transmission electron microscopy. Formalin-treated cells exhibited normal cell morphology, with the exception that the treated cell was less fimbriated, and more destruction of pili increased when formalin concentrations were doubled. Cells treated with TH4+ (0.03%) showed destruction of the cell wall and cell surface membrane after 5 min. Cell filamentation occurred at 0.015% and increased with the increase of exposure time to this drug. Spheroplasts were observed only when cells were treated with 0.125% Virkon-S for 60 min, and cell lysis started to occur when 0.25% Virkon-S was applied for 15 min. Scanning electron microscope study revealed that Virkon-S at 0.03% and TH4+ at 0.007% completely prevented the adherence of E. coli O55:K39 serotype to chicken tracheal organ, whereas formalin (0.03%) disinfection minimized the adherence of E. coli cells to tracheal explants after 360 min of incubation.
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  • Masako Takashima, Tibor Deak, Takashi Nakase
    2001 Volume 47 Issue 2 Pages 75-84
    Published: 2001
    Released on J-STAGE: December 19, 2005
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    During phylogenetic analyses of hymenomycetous yeasts based on 18S rDNA sequences, we found that Bullera armeniaca showed an extremely close phylogenetic relationship to Cryptococcus hungaricus. The analyses of internal transcribed spacer (ITS) regions of the two yeasts and the phylogenetically related species, Bullera aurantiaca and Bullera crocea, showed that B. armeniaca and C. hungaricus had identical sequences, indicating that these were conspecific. B. aurantiaca and B. crocea also showed high sequence similarity, 97.1% for ITS1, 100% for ITS2, and 98.7% for overall ITS regions. A DNA-DNA reassociation experiment revealed that B. armeniaca and C. hungaricus were conspecific and B. aurantiaca and B. crocea were two distinct species. These species occurred at a phylogenetically different lineage from that of Bulleromyces albus (anamorph: Bullera alba, type species of Bullera) and Filobasidiella neoformans (anamorph: Cryptococcus neoformans, neotype species of Cryptococcus). Based on these results, we emend the genus Dioszegia to include both ballistoconidium-forming and non-ballistoconidium-forming yeasts and redescribe the species Dioszegia hungarica. B. aurantiaca and B. crocea are also transferred to Dioszegia as Dioszegia aurantiaca comb. nov. and Dioszegia crocea comb. nov.
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  • Naoto Tanaka, Tai Uchimura, Kazuo Komagata
    2001 Volume 47 Issue 2 Pages 85-97
    Published: 2001
    Released on J-STAGE: December 19, 2005
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    The cystite formation of Arthrobacter ureafaciens NRIC 0157T was induced by some antibiotics, and the addition of tetracycline at a lag phase was effective for cystite formation in YPM liquid medium. Cystites differed from vegetative cells in the cell wall structure, protein content, and water content. Furthermore, the characteristics and structures of cystites induced by tetracycline were similar to those of cystites produced by nutritional imbalance in CT medium. Consequently, various triggers would induce cystite formation. It is interesting that cystite formation was found in part of the Arthrobacter strains and seemed to correlate with the type of peptidoglycan.
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