Day 2 :
Keynote Forum
Jan Szopa
Linum Foundation, Poland
Keynote: Optimizing flax fibers for tomorrow’s therapeutics
Time : 09:00-9:30
Biography:
Jan Szopa is currently working as a Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Genetic at the University of Wrocław, Poland. His international experience includes various programs, contributions and participation in different countries for diverse fields of study. His research interests reflect wide range of publications in various national and international journals.
Abstract:
Flax fiber served as a major source to manufacture textiles, whereas seeds were pressed to extract edible oil. In the last decades devaluation of flax fiber in the world has been observed. Recently, the renewed interest in flax products has been noticed due to better understanding of the genes involved in flax productivity and fiber quality. All these provide targets for fiber improvement by the novel genetic/epigenetic methods leading to more diverse products based on flax fibers. For example manipulation of gene expression significantly increases antioxidant potential, affected lignin and pectin synthesis and cell wall arrangement. Up-regulation of b-glucanase gene protects plant against pathogenic infection, and thus increases fiber productivity and quality. Unique flax fiber was obtained, by genetic engineering, with novel constituent that strongly affects fiber properties and application, for example the production of a polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) which was accomplished by simultaneous expression of three bacterial genes under vascular bundles specific promoter. The unique application of PHB-fibers has been shown in chronic wound healing. Pre-clinical study revealed healing improvement of chronic ulcers upon treatment with wound dressing based on new fibers. The healing effect was potentiated by supplementation of PHB-fibers with two activators derived from seeds and seedcake of flax accumulating antioxidant compounds. Up-regulation of antioxidants was achieved by simultaneous expression of three genes from flavonoid pathway. The PHB-fiber embedded in polylactide may serve as a scaffold for tissue engineering and has been shown to be useful as biodegradable implant. Micronization process can introduce structural changes in fibers constituents to exhibit more functional groups, and thus might potentiate fiber functionality. Indeed, highly reactive micronized flax fibers might serve as a carrier for biologically active compounds.
Keynote Forum
Shree Kumar Apte
Homi Bhabha National Institute, India
Keynote: Uranium bio-precipitation and recovery from high radiation environments: New approaches
Biography:
Shree Kumar Apte is the Former Director, Bio-Science Group, BARC and currently serves as a Professor at the Homi Bhabha National Institute. He is a JC Bose National and Raja Ramanna Fellow at BARC, Mumbai, India. His laboratory has unraveled stress and adaptive responses of several bacteria and developed many biotechnologies for metal bioremediation from high radiation environments. He is a fellow of all National Science Academies and Agriculture Academy in India.
Abstract:
Removal of traces of uranium from nuclear waste poses a big challenge for its disposal. Our laboratory has genetically engineered the extremely radio-resistant bacterium Deinococcus radiodurans to over-express either an acid phosphatase PhoN, or an alkaline phosphatase PhoK, to achieve impressive uranium bio-precipitation (up to 7-10g U/g dry biomass) over a wide pH (5-9) and uranium concentration (0.2-10 mM) range. Successful preservation of bioprecipitation-active dry biomass for up to 2 years at ambient temperature has been achieved. Conditions have been optimized to accomplish easy and complete recovery of precipitated uranium. Further augmentation of uranium bioremediation has been accomplished by: pyramiding phoN and phoK genes in a single strain, employing radiation-responsive Deinococcus gene promoters, and by surface display of bioremediation-active enzymes.
- Biotechnology Applications | Environmental Biotechnology | Agriculture Biotechnology
Location: Olimpica 1
Chair
Shree Kumar Apte
Homi Bhabha National Institute, India
Session Introduction
Tuba Sevgi
Uludag University, Turkey
Title: Screening of petroleum degrading Bacillus spp. strains isolated from different non-contaminated soil samples
Biography:
Tuba Sevgi has completed her MSc from Technical University of Kaiserslautern in Molecular Biotechnology and Systems Biology, Germany. Currently, she is doing her PhD in the Department of Biology, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Uludag University. She is a Research Assistant in the Department of Biology, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Uludag University
Abstract:
Oil spill has become a global problem in industrialized and developing countries. Oil spills that occur during discharge from the refineries, accidents of ships/tankers, their grounding, rupture on seabed and on shore pipelines, offshore oil production and exploration platforms do affect these habitats causing irreversible damage to the biodiversity. The toxic effects of crude oil and refined petroleum oils on plants, animals, humans and the environment are devastating. The aim of this study was to evaluate the potential of petroleum hydrocarbon (PHC)-degrading 105 Bacillus spp. strains isolated from different non-contaminated soil samples. These Bacillus spp. strains were screened for bacterial oil degradation using 3.5% petrol and 7 % diesel as sole carbon sources in Bushnell-Haas agar medium. The plates were incubated at 37ºC for 7-17 days. After the incubation, only petroleum degrading bacteria remained on the surface of the plates. Among the 105 Bacillus spp. strains, 22 Bacillus spp. strains were determined as potential petroleum degrading strains. Most of these strains showed more degradation in diesel medium than petrol medium. Out of the preselected 22 isolates, 18 isolates showed relatively high growth, while 4 others showed moderate to low cell counts after 7 or 17 days of incubation period. This is the first study on Bacillus sp. strains isolated from Turkish soils. These isolates seemed to have potential for bioremediation of oil contaminated soil and water.
Shafaq Rasool
Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University, India
Title: Identification and characterization of a novel thermo stable and oxidant stable protease from Chumathang hot spring using functional metagenomics
Biography:
Abstract:
Metagenomics is the genomic analysis of microorganisms by direct extraction and cloning of DNA from an assemblage of microorganism. The common strategies for metagenomics analysis include functional and sequence based approaches. Functional metagenomics is a promising strategy for the exploration of the bio-catalytic potential of micro biomes in order to uncover novel enzymes for industrial processes. However, such methods suffer from low hit rates of positive clones and hence, the discovery of novel enzymatic activities from metagenomes is highly challenging. In the present study, functional metagenomics as a promising approach was applied for exploring the potential of hot springs for various industrial enzymes. Hot spring metagenomics offers the possibility of exploiting the potential of unique niches in order to unravel the functional aspects of the hidden micro biomes. Hot spring metagenomic library of Chumathang-a hot spring of Ladakh region was constructed in E. coli using pUC 18 as cloning vector. Functional screening of approximately 10,000 clones was done for protease activity on protease substrate plates. Screening of the metagenomic library led to the identification of one clone with potent protease activity. The clone was designated as pCHpro1. The protease positive clone (pCHpro1) derived from the Chumathang sediment metagenomic library showed 41% identity with subtilase family (sediment metagenome) and 35% structural similarity with crystal structure of Pro-Tk SP from Thermococcus kodakaraensis. MEROPS peptidase database analysis showed that it belonged to peptidase S8-S53 superfamily. The enzyme was purified to a final specific activity of 84.51 IUmg-1 proteins with a yield of 15.4%. The purified enzyme had a molecular mass of about ~38 kDa as revealed by SDS-PAGE. The present study indicates that metagenomics without doubt offers the possibility of exploring novel genes/ORF’s which can be characterized and applied in various industrial processes
Arfan Ali
University of Lahore, Pakistan
Title: Salt tolerance of potato: Genetically engineered with Atriplex canescens BADH gene driven by 3 copies of CAMV35s promoter
Biography:
Arfan Ali has completed his PhD from the University of the Punjab, Pakistan and Post-doctoral studies from the Centre of Excellence in Molecular Biology. Currently, he is serving as an Assistant Professor at the University of Lahore, Pakistan. He has published more than 32 papers in reputed journals
Abstract:
Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) is ranked among the top leading staple food in the world. Salinity adversely affects potato crop yield and quality. Therefore, increased level of salt tolerance is a key factor to ensure high yield. The present study focused on the agrobacterium-mediated transformation of Atriplex canescens betaine aldehyde dehydrogenase (BADH) gene, using single, double and triple CAMV35s promoter to improve salt tolerance in potato. Detection of seven potato lines harboring BADH gene, followed by identification of T-DNA insertions, determination of transgenes copy no through Southern hybridization and quantification of BADH protein through ELISA were considered in this study. The results clearly depicted that the salt tolerance of potato was found to be promoter-dependent, as the potato transgenic lines with triple promoter showed 4.4 times more glycine betaine production which consequently leads towards high resistance to salt stress as compared to transgenic potato lines with single and double promoters having least production of glycine betaine. Moreover, triple promoter transgenic potato lines have also shown lower levels of H2O2, malondialdehyde (MDA), relative electrical conductivity, high proline and chlorophyll content as compared to other two lines having a single and double promoter. In silico analysis also confirmed that Atriplex canescens BADH has the tendency to interact with sodium ions and water molecules. Taken together these facts, it can be concluded that over-expression of BADH under triple CAMV35s promoter with more glycine betaine, chlorophyll and MDA contents, high relative quantities of other metabolites resulted in an enhanced level of salt tolerance in potato.