Cardiopulmonary exercise testing as an integrative approach to explore physiological limitations in Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

Background: Cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET) is the gold-standard for quantification of peak oxygen uptake (VO) and cardiorespiratory and muscle responses to exercise. Its application to Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) has been scarce due to the notion that muscle weakness inherent to disease restricts the cardiorespiratory system from reaching maximal capacity.

Objective: To investigate the utility of CPET in DMD by 1) establishing whether patients can perform maximal-effort exercise for valid VO peak assessment; 2) quantifying VO peak repeatability; 3) characterizing muscle and cardiorespiratory responses; 4) comparing VO peak to 6-min walk distance (6MWD).

Single cell oil of oleaginous fungi from the tropical mangrove wetlands as a potential feedstock for biodiesel.

Background: Single cell oils (SCOs) accumulated by oleaginous fungi have emerged as a potential alternative feedstock for biodiesel production. Though fungi from mangrove ecosystem have been reported for production of several lignocellulolytic enzymes, they remain unexplored for their SCO producing ability. Thus, these oleaginous fungi from the mangrove ecosystem could be suitable candidates for production of SCOs from lignocellulosic biomass.

Inactivation of polygalacturonase and pectate lyase produced by pH tolerant fungus Fusarium moniliforme NCIM 1276 in a liquid medium and in the host tissue.

Fusarium moniliforme NCIM 1276 produced pH dependent an extracellular polygalacturonase (PG) and pectate lyase (PL) at pH 5 and pH 8, respectively. In the extracellular medium about 20.3% PG and 54% of PL protein concentrations were present in the active state at pH 5 and pH 8, respectively, whereas in intracellularly, more than 86% of both protein contents remained in the active state at all pH tested.

Purification and biochemical characterization of polygalacturonase II produced in semi-solid medium by a strain of Fusarium moniliforme.

A strain of Fusarium moniliforme isolated from a tropical mangrove ecosystem near Mumbai, India and deposited in the National Collection of Industrial Microorganisms (NCIM) as F. moniliforme NCIM 1276. The organism produced a single extracellular polygalacturonase (PG I) [EC 3.

Low molecular mass pectate lyase from Fusarium moniliforme: similar modes of chemical and thermal denaturation.

A low molecular mass pectate lyase from Fusarium moniliforme was unfolded reversibly by urea and Gdn-HCl at its optimum pH of 8.5, as monitored by intrinsic fluorescence, circular dichroism, and enzymatic activity measurements. Equilibrium unfolding studies yielded a deltaG(H(2)O) of 1.

Bioprospecting the lat gene in soil samples.

Twenty soil communities from the northeastern forests (Assam) and the Western Ghats (Maharashtra) were screened for the presence of the lysine aminotransferase (lat) gene from Nocardia. Hybridization probes and primers were synthesized in accordance with the reported sequence of the Nocardia lat gene from GenBank (number: G1 49355). Seven positives were obtained from the 20 soils.

Emulsifier from a tropical marine yeast, yarrowia lipolytica NCIM 3589.

A tropical marine strain of Yarrowia lipolytica, NCIM 3589 produced emulsifier in the presence of alkanes or crude oil. The mode of alkane uptake in this organism was by attachment to large droplets. An emulsifier (lipid-carbohydrate-protein) complex was associated with the cell wall.