Narrow Results

AUSTRALIA – Successful FDA end-of-Phase-2 for Hatchtech head lice product DeOVO^™

AUSTRALIA – Senz Oncology secures seed funding for promising cancer drug.

AUSTRALIA – Geneworks develops DNA barcodes for international security.

INDIA – Stress hormones: Good or Bad for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder risk?

SINGAPORE – New study shows fertility knowledge gaps may exacerbate Singapore's declining birth rate challenge.

SINGAPORE – World's first wearable robotic device for stroke rehabilitation comes to Singapore.

SRI LANKA – Conflicting reports highlight scientific data gaps in Sri Lanka's chronic kidney disease.

EUROPE – InDex Pharmaceuticals strengthens IP position for Kappaproct.

EUROPE – Novozymes and Terranol to market advanced biofuel yeast.

EUROPE – The world's first (official) biosimilar antibody goes to… Rheumatoid Arthritis.

USA – MRI reveals brain's response to reading.

USA – Novozymes partner Chemtex receives USDA commitment to build advanced biofuels plant in United States.

USA – Fossil fuel and renewable energy subsidies on the rise.

AUSTRALIA — Childhood CT scans slightly raise cancer risk.

AUSTRALIA — There's a very simple solution to your lack of vitamin D.

INDIA — India develops cheap rotavirus vaccine.

JAPAN — 'Tug of war' method to measure the copy number limits of all genes in budding yeast.

SINGAPORE — SG Austria co-edits just released book on living cell bioencapsulation.

SINGAPORE — Nano Today's 2013 impact factor increases from 15.355 to 17.689.

SINGAPORE — Cholesterol beats coronaviruses, Avian flu and Swine flu.

THE PHILIPPINES — Philippines maps out plan to switch to 100% renewables in 10 years.

EUROPE — Roche launches first sugar-transferase for new glyco-engineering portfolio.

EUROPE — Older liver cancer patients respond to radioembolization equally as well as younger patients.

NORTH AMERICA — Protein helps colon cancer move and invade.

NORTH AMERICA — FDA approval of VIBATIV(R) (telavancin) for the treatment of bacterial pneumonia.

NORTH AMERICA — “On Demand Medical Research” is up and running.

UNITED KINGDOM — Diabetes rises sharply among UK's young adults.

UNITED KINGDOM — 'Mental illness' isn't all about brain chemistry: it's about life.

UNITED KINGDOM — Public to see impact of medical research funding.

Moulds and yeasts are frequently referred as microbial contaminants of feed meals used in intensive animal production. Most of the sanitary risks that are present in milk, eggs and meat are related with the safety of animal feeds. In this study, 75 samples of swine feed, being 10 feed meals and 65 granulated, were tested for mycological characterisation, using conventional methods (NP-3277-2; 2002). Only two granulated feed were negative (2.7%). Out of 75 samples, 73 (97.3%) were positive. Mean count of fungi has been 6.6 × 10² cfu/g ranging from 2.7 × 10¹ to 2.7 × 10³ cfu/g; yeasts were present in 69.9% of the positive samples. Potential toxigenic moulds (Fusarium spp., Aspergillus flavus and Penicillium spp.) were present in all the positive samples with mean levels of 3.2 log₁₀ cfu/g, 2.8 log₁₀ cfu/g and 3.0 log₁₀ cfu/g, respectively. Other genera found were Phoma, Rhizopus and Paecillomyces, with low levels of contamination (32.9%, 35.6% and 47.9%, respectively). It was concluded that the levels and frequency of mycobiota contamination are decreasing judging the results obtained in the last ten years, in Portugal.

An important aspect to consider in the modulation of gene expression with biotechnological purposes is mRNA stability. The KlCYC1 gene has a long (1.2 kb) 3′-UTR region that can be used to modulate gene expression in yeast by the alternative use of its proximal or distal 3′-Untranslated Region [1, 2]. The stability of the two KlCYC1 transcripts was analysed in Saccharomyces cerevisiae puf3 and rpb1-1 mutants. When the puf3 mutant and the deletion of the UGUR element at positions (131-135) were combined, there was a two-fold increase in total KlCYC1 levels mainly due to the increase in the long transcript signal. After a cease of transcription (rpb1-1 mutant), the long transcript was stable for more than two hours while the short one for less than one. When the gene was expressed in the yeast Kluyveromyces lactis under hypoxic conditions, both transcripts were degraded faster than in the rpb1-1 mutant. These findings suggest the presence of different mRNA turnover mechanisms able to operate on KlCYC1 transcripts under different physiological conditions.

The gene HIS4 from Kluyveromyces lactis is transcriptionally activated in complete synthetic respect to rich media and in an independent mechanism related to carbon source. This regulation was not previously described for Saccharomyces cerevisiae HIS4. The EMSA assay carried out with F7 showed a specific band, Fc1, in YPG, and two bands, Fc2 and Fc3, in complete medium. The Fc2 and Fc3 bands were dependent on the carbon source present in the medium, since their intensities were higher in glycerol than in glucose. The protein or proteins causing the Fc1 band seem to be involved in the different regulation mechanisms between rich and synthetic complete media because the Fc1 band was detected in cells grown in synthetic medium. Therefore, the promoter region (-200 to -173) is responsible for two independent regulatory mechanisms.