An AFLP based method for the detection and identification of indigenous yeast in complex must samples without a microbiological culture.

Ribera de Duero Spanish wines are appreciated worldwide for their organoleptic characteristics; however, the wine market is very competitive, and the demand for high quality natural wines has been increasing in recent years. The microbiology of the process, specifically the yeasts involved in the alcoholic fermentation, constitutes an essential element directly related to the complexity and quality of the wine. Our work has focused on the development of a procedure to identify the indigenous wine yeasts present in complex samples of must and wine, without requiring colony isolation or a microbiological culture.

Determination of enzymatic activities and metabolites in microliter sample size.

A new generation of spectrophotometers able to measure a wide range of absorbance in microliter aliquots is currently used for the determination of DNA, RNA, and proteins. The object of this article is to show that these instruments could be easily adapted for routine evaluation of enzymes and metabolites in 1-2-microl volumes of biological samples.

1H HR-MAS and genomic analysis of human tumor biopsies discriminate between high and low grade astrocytomas.

We investigate the profile of choline metabolites and the expression of the genes of the Kennedy pathway in biopsies of human gliomas (n = 23) using (1)H High Resolution Magic Angle Spinning (HR-MAS, 11.7 Tesla, 277 K, 4000 Hz) and individual genetic assays. (1)H HR-MAS spectra allowed the resolution and relative quantification by the LCModel of the resonances from choline (Cho), phosphocholine (PC) and glycerophosphorylcholine (GPC), the three main components of the combined tCho peak observed in gliomas by in vivo (1)H NMR spectroscopy.