The Journal of General and Applied Microbiology
Online ISSN : 1349-8037
Print ISSN : 0022-1260
ISSN-L : 0022-1260
Volume 57, Issue 3
Displaying 1-6 of 6 articles from this issue
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  • Sheikh Shreaz, Rimple Bhatia, Neelofar Khan, Sumathi Muralidhar, Seemi ...
    2011 Volume 57 Issue 3 Pages 129-136
    Published: 2011
    Released on J-STAGE: July 22, 2011
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    p-Anisaldehyde (4-methoxybenzaldehyde), an extract from Pimpinella anisum seeds, is a very common digestive herb of north India. Antifungal activity of p-anisaldehyde was investigated on 10 fluconazole-resistant and 5 fluconazole-sensitive Candida strains. Minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC90) ranged from 250 μg/ml to 600 μg/ml for both sensitive and resistant strains. Ergosterol content was drastically reduced by p-anisaldehyde—62% in sensitive and 66% in resistant strains—but did not corelate well with MIC90 values. It appears that p-anisaldehyde exerts its antifungal effect by decreasing NADPH routed through up-regulation of putative aryl-alcohol dehydrogenases. Cellular toxicity of p-anisaldehyde against H9c2 rat cardiac myoblasts was less than 20% at the highest MIC value. These findings encourage further development of p-anisaldehyde.
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  • Mio Ohnuma, Tsuneyoshi Kuroiwa, Kan Tanaka
    2011 Volume 57 Issue 3 Pages 137-143
    Published: 2011
    Released on J-STAGE: July 22, 2011
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    Cryopreservation is essential for maintaining stable stocks of organisms. We report the development of a method for cryopreservation of the unicellular red alga Cyanidioschyzon merolae, a model organism for the investigation of the basic architecture of photosynthetic eukaryotes. Glycerol, dimethyl sulfoxide and methanol were examined for their ability to protect the cell from cryoinjury and/or cytotoxicity. It was found that methanol was the most effective as a cryoprotectant for C. merolae. After the optimized setting of parameters such as working concentration of cryoprotectant and the period of slow cooling, cultures were supplemented with 5% (v/v) methanol and frozen by slow cooling using a passive-freezing unit, followed by plunging into liquid nitrogen. We found C. merolae cells retained greater than 80% viability for at least 83 days in storage.
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  • Khandavalli Venkata Naga Satya Lakshmi, Chintalapati Sasikala, Vemulur ...
    2011 Volume 57 Issue 3 Pages 145-151
    Published: 2011
    Released on J-STAGE: July 22, 2011
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    Two strains of oval-rod shaped, Gram-negative, phototrophic, purple non-sulfur bacteria designated JA580T and JA595 were isolated from a sediment sample collected from a brown pond. Strain JA580T was designated as the type strain, while strain JA595 as an additional strain has similar characteristics to the type strain. Strain JA580T was non-motile and grew photoheterotrophically with a number of organic compounds serving as carbon source/electron donor. Intracellular photosynthetic membranes were of the vesicular type. Bacteriochlorophyll a and carotenoids of the spheroidene series were present as the major photosynthetic pigments. Strain JA580T requires yeast extract for growth. Strain JA580T has an obligate requirement for sulfide or thiosulfate for growth. C18:1ω7c, C18:0, C18:1ω9c were the predominant components of cellular fatty acids. Phylogenetic analysis on the basis of 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that strain JA580T clustered with species of the genus Rhodovulum of the family Rhodobacteraceae and is most closely related to the type strains of Rhodovulum adriaticum, Rhodovulum iodosum (96.5%), Rhodovulum robiginosum (96%), Rhodovulum imhoffii (95.6%) and other members of the genus Rhodovulum (<95%). On the basis of phenotypic and molecular genetic evidence, it is proposed that strain JA580T should be classified as a novel species of the genus Rhodovulum of the family Rhodobacteraceae, with the species name Rhodovulum phaeolacus sp. nov. The type strain of the species is JA580T (=NBRC 107612T =KCTC 5963T).
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