Traditional utilization of bamboo in the Central Siwalik region, Nepal.

Bamboo are the fastest growing perennial woody grasses that have versatile applications. Most of the local people inhabiting the riverine area of the Siwalik region of Nepal rely on bamboo products for economic benefits and medicinal uses. Our objective was to identify the diversity of bamboo species, their ethnomedicinal practices, and economic and ecological importance.

Draft Genome Analysis of Antimicrobial Isolated from Himalayan Lichen.

There have been several studies regarding lichen-associated bacteria obtained from diverse environments. Our screening process identified 49 bacterial species in two lichens from the Himalayas: 17 species of , 19 species of , and 13 species of . We discovered five types of strong antimicrobial agent-producing bacteria.

Heterologous production of spectinomycin in Streptomyces venezuelae by exploiting the dTDP-D-desosamine pathway.

Spectinomycin is an aminoglycoside antibiotic composed of actinamine and actinospectose, which are fused together by a putative glycosyltransferase, SpcG, during spectinomycin biosynthesis. Although previous studies have revealed the involvement of SpcA (myo-inositol monophosphatase), SpcB (dehydrogenase), SpcS2 (aminotransferase), and SpcM (methyltransferase) in the biosynthesis of actinamine, heterologous biosynthesis of spectinomycin via actinospectose has not been clearly elucidated. In this study, Streptomyces venezuelae was utilized as a source of dTDP-actinospectose from the pikromycin biosynthetic desosamine sugar pathway, and a recombinant vector, pSM5, carrying spcA, spcB, spcS2, spcM, and spcG was inserted into S.

Enhancement of herboxidiene production in Streptomyces chromofuscus ATCC 49982.

Structurally, herboxidiene contains the tetrahydropyran acetic acid moiety and a side chain including a conjugated diene, and has been isolated from Streptomyces chromofuscus ATCC 49982. Its production was significantly elevated nearly 13.5-fold (0.

Biosynthesis of the nargenicin A1 pyrrole moiety from Nocardia sp. CS682.

A number of structurally diverse natural products harboring pyrrole moieties possess a wide range of biological activities. Studies on biosynthesis of pyrrole ring have shown that pyrrole moieties are derived from L-proline. Nargenicin A(1), a saturated alicyclic polyketide from Nocardia sp.

Biosynthesis of rubradirin as an ansamycin antibiotic from Streptomyces achromogenes var. rubradiris NRRL3061.

The four overlapping cosmids from the rubradirin producer, Streptomyces achromogenes var rubradiris NRRL 3061, have 58 ORFs within a 105.6 kb fragment. These ORFs harbored essential genes responsible for the formation and attachment of four distinct moieties, along with the genes associated with regulatory, resistance, and transport functions.

Functional characterization of ketoreductase (rubN6) and aminotransferase (rubN4) genes in the gene cluster of Streptomyces achromogenes var. rubradiris.

ORF's for rubN6 and rubN4 have been annotated as thymidine diphosphate glucose 4-ketoreductase and thymidine diphosphate glucose 3-aminotransferase by sequence analysis of the rubradirin biosynthetic gene cluster cloned from Streptomyces achromogenes var. rubradiris NRRL 3061. Both ORFs were heterologously expressed in Escherichia coli as His-tagged fusion proteins.