Antioxidant activities of ficus glomerata (moraceae) leaf gall extracts.

An excess production or decreased scavenging of reactive oxygen species (ROS) has been implicated in the pathogenesis of diverse metabolic disorders such as diabetes, cancer, atherosclerosis and neurodegeneration. Hence the antioxidant therapy has gained an utmost importance in the treatment of such diseases linked to free radicals. The medicinal properties of plants have been investigated and explored for their potent antioxidant activities to counteract metabolic disorders.

Optimization of growth conditions for xylanase production by Aspergillus niger in solid state fermentation.

The objectives of the present study were isolation, identification and characterization of xylanase producing fungi, optimization of medium composition and cultural conditions for xylanase enzyme production using cheaper sources. The fungal strains were isolated from garden soil by serial dilution technique and Aspergillus niger was identified and isolated in pure form. In conformation screening by congo red test, based on the reddish zone of enzyme activity formation in oat spelt xylan agar plates, A.

The venom gland transcriptome of the Desert Massasauga rattlesnake (Sistrurus catenatus edwardsii): towards an understanding of venom composition among advanced snakes (Superfamily Colubroidea).

Background: Snake venoms are complex mixtures of pharmacologically active proteins and peptides which belong to a small number of superfamilies. Global cataloguing of the venom transcriptome facilitates the identification of new families of toxins as well as helps in understanding the evolution of venom proteomes.

Results: We have constructed a cDNA library of the venom gland of a threatened rattlesnake (a pitviper), Sistrurus catenatus edwardsii (Desert Massasauga), and sequenced 576 ESTs.

Domain analysis of fatty acid synthase protein (NP_217040) from Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Rv--a bioinformatics study.

Different domains of fatty acid synthase (FAS) protein of Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Rv, involved in mycolic acid synthesis were analyzed using various bioinformatics tools. Based on different database searches (CDD and Pfam), FAS protein of Mycobacterium tuberculosis was grouped into eight domains, five of which showed close similarity with pdb templates (1MLA, 1IQ6A, 2BMOA, and 1J3NA). Based on the PSI blast analysis, 3D structures of only five domains were predicted using MODELLER software, and loop modeling was done for only those regions that were predicted as loops by predict protein server.