Biotechnology Journal International

Aims: The aim of this study was to identify the different methods of preparing the traditional cassava starters used for attiéké production in Côte d'Ivoire, allowed the recounting of five different production methods.

Study Design: Sampling of cassava starters were collected from attiéké producers de four areas of south of Côte d’Ivoire. The cassava starters obtained with the braised cassava were collected from attiéké women producers of Grand-Lahou, those obtained directly from fresh cassava were collected from attiéké producers in the region of Bonoua, and those obtained with the cassava cooked at water were collected from attiéké women producers of Abidjan and Jacqueville. Place and Duration of Study: University of Nangui Abrogoua, Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire (between March 2018 and June 2019).

Methodology: Traditional cassava starters are produced with the bitter or sweet variety of cassava, either freshly preserved without cooking until fermented, boiled in boiling water or braised over a wood fire.

Conclusion:  This study highlighted five methods of preparing traditional cassava starters used in Côte d'Ivoire for the preparation of attiéké, a food derived from cassava. This is the starters from fresh preserved uncooked cassava that derived from fresh braised cassava and those (three) from fresh cassava cooked with boiling water either with the casing or without the casing after cooking and without the shell during cooking.

Bio-plastics are either bio-based polymers or capable of degradation into simple compounds. The rising development in the production and use of bio-plastics has globally revolutionized the dependency on traditional plastics. The conventional plastics prepared from petroleum, coal and natural gas have been extensively used by humans since antiquity as a prime component of almost all the materials used in day to day life. Since, these plastics are non-biodegradable; they cause serious impact on the environment. Recent years have witnessed the introduction of a wide variety of bio-plastics derived from natural polymers such as starch, cellulose, chitin etc. These bio-plastics are now being utilised in packaging materials, electronics, medical devices; holding immense potential for utility in future. This mini-review confers about types of bio-plastics, their utility in different sectors and their future prospective.

In this study, spores of inulinase-producing thermophilic Aspergillus tamarii were subjected to UV mutagenesis, and colonies obtained were screened for inulinase production on inulin-glucose agar. The thermal stability of the inulinase was also investigated. A mutant strain U4 was found to produce 2.8 times inulinase titre (62.1U/mL) as against the wild strain (22.2U/mL). Inulinase production by this U4 strain was also found not to be significantly (P≤0.05) affected by the presence of glucose. The inulinase produced retained 64% of its activity after incubation at 65ºC for three hours. Solid-state fermentation for inulinase production by the strain U4 showed that wheat bran supported the highest inulinase titre 218.3U/gds while banana peels supported the lowest inulinase production titre of 80.5U/gds. Further optimization of cultural parameters revealed that incubation time of 5 days, 60% initial moisture content of the substrate, 2% inoculum density 2%, temperature 55ºC and pH 4.5 were optimal for inulinase production. Under optimized conditions, inulinase titre of 426.6 U/gds was observed. The pattern of inulin hydrolysis by the inulinase revealed the presence of monosaccharide as the main product of hydrolysis. Inulinase production at elevated temperatures by the mutant Aspergillus tamarii-U4 and its catabolite resistant properties showed that the organism is a potential industrial candidate for the production of exo-acting inulinases.

An experiment was conducted for standardization of in vitro propagation technique of Bacopa monnieri (L.), a medicinal herb of India. Healthy leaf segments of the herb were used as explants with basic Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium containing various combinations of different growth regulators for callus, shoot and root initiation. The best callus induction percentage (95.47%) was observed on MS + 0.5 mg/L NAA and 2.0 mg/L BAP (T₃). The maximum number of shoots (8), shoot length (9.30 cm) and shoot induction percentage (90.48%) was achieved on MS + 3.0 mg/L BAP and 1.0 mg/L Kn (ST₄). The maximum number of roots (8) and root length (7) was observed on MS + 1.5 mg/L IAA (RT₅). The rooted micro shoots were successfully hardened and acclimatized in green house and subsequently established in soil with survival rate of 90%.

The current study investigates the polymorphic patterns of keratin-associated protein (KAP) 3.2 gene in Sandyno breed of sheep. Genomic DNA was isolated from blood samples of 51 numbers of Sandyno breed. Ovine specific primer associated PCR amplification of KAP 3.2 gene revealed product at 393 bp and genotyped by PCR-SSCP (Single Strand Conformation Polymorphism) method and visualized under silver staining technique. KAP 3.2 gene locus revealed 3 genotypes, viz. AA, AB and BB with a frequency of 0.84, 0.16 and 0 in Sandyno breed with allele frequencies of A(0.92) and B(0.08). Regarding population genetic indices, the effective number of alleles (N_e) for KAP 3.2 in Sandyno breed of sheep was found to be 1.1716. The PIC values was 0.1356 and F_IS values was negative (– 0.0864) in this breed. The result revealed that the selected population of Sandyno breed of sheep was in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium without any significant deviation from the population mean and was monomorphic for KAP 3.2 gene.