• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Plant Pathology Conference
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• 1998.06a
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• pp.168-169
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• 1998

• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.6-16
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• 2015

This study established the genetic characterisation of 10 microsporidian isolates infecting non-mulberry silkworms (Antheraea assamensis and Samia cynthia ricini) collected from biogeographical forest locations in the State of Assam, India, using PCR-based markers assays: inter simple sequence repeat (ISSR) and random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD). A Nosema type species (NIK-1s_mys) was used as control for comparison. The shape of mature microsporidian spores were observed oval to elongated, measuring 3.80 to $4.90{\mu}m$ in length and 2.60 to $3.05{\mu}m$ in width. Fourteen ISSR primers generated reproducible profiles and yielded 178 fragments, of which 175 were polymorphic (98%), while 16 RAPD primers generated reproducible profiles with 198 amplified fragments displaying 95% of polymorphism. Estimation of genetic distance coefficients based on dice coefficients method and clustering with un-weighted pair group method using arithmetic average (UPGMA) analysis was done to unravel the genetic diversity of microsporidians infecting Indian muga and eri silkworm. The similarity coefficients varied from 0.385 to 0.941 in ISSR and 0.083 to 0.938 in RAPD data. UPGMA analysis generated dendrograms with two microsporidian groups, which appear to be different from each other. Based on Euclidean distance matrix method, 2-dimensional distribution also revealed considerable variability among different identified microsporidians. Clustering of these microsporidian isolates was in accordance with their host and biogeographic origin. Both techniques represent a useful and efficient tool for taxonomical grouping as well as for phylogenetic classification of different microsporidians in general and genotyping of these pathogens in particular.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.633-637
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• 2007

Genetic variation in Nilagiri sheep, the only apparel wool breed in South India was studied using 25 FAO recommended ovine-specific microsatellite markers. The number of observed alleles ranged from 3 to 8 with a mean of 5 across all loci. The size of alleles ranged from 72 to 228 bp. The frequency of alleles ranged from 0.0104 to 0.5781. In total, 125 alleles were observed at the 25 loci studied. The effective number of alleles ranged from 2.18 to 6.49. The mean number of effective alleles was 3.84 across all loci. All the 25 loci were found to be highly polymorphic. The PIC values ranged from 0.4587 to 0.8277 with a mean of 0.6485. Of 25 microsatellites studied, 17 were in Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium proportions. The observed heterozygosity ranged from 0.4222 to 1.000 with a mean value of 0.7610 whereas the expected heterozygosity ranged from 0.5415 to 0.8459 with a mean value of 0.7213. Except six loci, the other loci revealed negative within-population inbreeding estimates (FIS) indicating excess of heterozygotes in the population of Nilagiri sheep.

• Journal of Animal Reproduction and Biotechnology
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.2-11
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• 2024

Background: The small intestine plays a crucial role in animals in maintaining homeostasis as well as a series of physiological events such as nutrient uptake and immune function to improve productivity. Research on intestinal organoids has recently garnered interest, aiming to study various functions of the intestinal epithelium as a potential alternative to an in vivo system. These technologies have created new possibilities and opportunities for substituting animals for testing with an in vitro model. Methods: Here, we report the establishment and characterisation of intestinal organoids derived from jejunum tissues of adult pigs. Intestinal crypts, including intestinal stem cells from the jejunum tissue of adult pigs (10 months old), were sequentially isolated and cultivated over several passages without losing their proliferation and differentiation using the scaffold-based and three-dimensional method, which indicated the recapitulating capacity. Results: Porcine jejunum-derived intestinal organoids showed the specific expression of several genes related to intestinal stem cells and the epithelium. Furthermore, they showed high permeability when exposed to FITC-dextran 4 kDa, representing a barrier function similar to that of in vivo tissues. Collectively, these results demonstrate the efficient cultivation and characteristics of porcine jejunum-derived intestinal organoids. Conclusions: In this study, using a 3D culture system, we successfully established porcine jejunum-derived intestinal organoids. They show potential for various applications, such as for nutrient absorption as an in vitro model of the intestinal epithelium fused with organ-on-a-chip technology to improve productivity in animal biotechnology in future studies.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.17 no.10
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• pp.1366-1368
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• 2004

The Mafriwal dairy cattle was developed to meet the demands of the Malaysian dairy Industry. Although there are reports on its production and reproductive performance, there has been no work on its molecular characterization. This study was conducted to characterize the Mafriwal dairy cattle using microsatellite markers. Fifty two microsatellite loci were analysed for forty Mafriwal dairy cows kept at Institut Haiwan Kluang, Malaysia. The study showed two microsatellite loci to be monomorphic. Allele frequencies for the polymorphic loci ranged from 0.01 to 0.31. Genotype frequencies ranged from 0.03 to 0.33. The mean overall heterozygosity was 0.79. All polymorphic microsatellite loci deviated significantly (p<0.01) from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. The Mafriwal dairy cattle showed high genetic variability despite being a nucleus herd and artificial insemination being practiced.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.30 no.5
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• pp.603-621
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• 2017

The current review focuses on characterization and conservation efforts vital for the development of breeding programmes for indigenous beef cattle genetic resources in Southern Africa. Indigenous African cattle breeds were identified and characterized using information from refereed journals, conference papers and research reports. Results of this current review reviewed that smallholder beef cattle production in Southern Africa is extensive and dominated by indigenous beef cattle strains adaptable to the local environment. The breeds include Nguni, Mashona, Tuli, Malawi Zebu, Bovino de Tete, Angoni, Landim, Barotse, Twsana and Ankole. These breeds have important functions ranging from provision of food and income to socio-economic, cultural and ecological roles. They also have adaptive traits ranging from drought tolerant, resistance to ticks and tick borne diseases, heat tolerance and resistance to trypanosomosis. Stakeholders in the conservation of beef cattle were also identified and they included farmers, national government, research institutes and universities as well as breeding companies and societies in Southern Africa. Research efforts made to evaluate threats and opportunities of indigenous beef cattle production systems, assess the contribution of indigenous cattle to household food security and income, genetically and phenotypically characterize and conserve indigenous breeds, and develop breeding programs for smallholder beef production are highlighted. Although smallholder beef cattle production in the smallholder farming systems contributes substantially to household food security and income, their productivity is hindered by several constraints that include high prevalence of diseases and parasites, limited feed availability and poor marketing. The majority of the African cattle populations remain largely uncharacterized although most of the indigenous cattle breeds have been identified.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.58 no.4
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• pp.14.1-14.9
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• 2016

Background: Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARG), CCAAT/enhancer binding protein alpha (CEBPA) and retinoid X receptor alpha (RXRA) are nuclear transcription factors that play important roles in regulation of adipogenesis and fat deposition. The objectives of this study were to characterise the variability of these three candidate genes in a mixed sample panel composed of several cattle breeds with different meat quality, validate single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in a local crossbred population (Angus - Hereford - Limousin) and evaluate their effects on meat quality traits (backfat thickness, intramuscular fat content and fatty acid composition), supporting the association tests with bioinformatic predictive studies. Results: Globally, nine SNPs were detected in the PPARG and CEBPA genes within our mixed panel, including a novel SNP in the latter. Three of these nine, along with seven other SNPs selected from the Single Nucleotide Polymorphism database (SNPdb), including SNPs in the RXRA gene, were validated in the crossbred population (N = 260). After validation, five of these SNPs were evaluated for genotype effects on fatty acid content and composition. Significant effects were observed on backfat thickness and different fatty acid contents (P < 0.05). Some of these SNPs caused slight differences in mRNA structure stability and/or putative binding sites for proteins. Conclusions: PPARG and CEBPA showed low to moderate variability in our sample panel. Variations in these genes, along with RXRA, may explain part of the genetic variation in fat content and composition. Our results may contribute to knowledge about genetic variation in meat quality traits in cattle and should be evaluated in larger independent populations.

• Mycobiology
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• v.51 no.6
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• pp.452-462
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• 2023

Opportunistic infections due to Cryptococcus neoformans and C. gattii species complexes continue to rise unabated among HIV/AIDS patients, despite improved antifungal therapies. Here, we collected a total of 20 environmental and 25 presumptive clinical cryptococcal isolates from cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) samples of 175 patients enrolled in an ongoing clinical trial Ambition 1 Project (Botswana-Harvard Partnership). Identity confirmation of the isolates was done using MALDI-TOF MS and PCR. We describe the diversity of the isolates by PCR fingerprinting and sequencing (Oxford Nanopore Technology) of the intergenic spacer region. Mating types of the isolates were determined by amplification of the MAT locus. We report an unusual prevalence of 42.1% of C. neoformans × C. deneoformans hybrids Serotype AD (n = 16), followed by 39.5% of C. neoformans Serotype A (n = 15), 5.3% of C. deneoformans, Serotype D (n = 2), 7.9% of C. gattii (n = 3), and 5.3% of C. tetragattii (n = 2) in 38 representative isolates that have been characterized. Mating type-specific PCR performed on 38 representative environmental and clinical isolates revealed that 16 (42.1%) were MATa/MAT𝛼 hybrids, 17 (44.7%) were MAT𝛼, and five (13.2%) possessed MATa mating type. We used conventional and NGS platforms to demonstrate a potential link between environmental and clinical isolates and lay a foundation to further describe mating patterns/history in Botswana.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Applied Microbiology Conference
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• 2004.06a
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• pp.60-61
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• 2004

Metabolic engineering is now a well established discipline, used extensively to determine and execute rational strategies of strain development to improve the performance of micro-organisms employed in industrial fermentations. The basic principle of this approach is that performance of the microbial catalyst should be adequately characterised metabolically so as to clearlyidentify the metabolic network constraints, thereby identifying the most probable targets for genetic engineering and the extent to which improvements can be realistically achieved. In order to harness correctly this potential, it is clear that the physiological analysis of each strain studied needs to be undertaken under conditions as close as possible to the physico-chemical environment in which the strain evolves within the full-scale process. Furthermore, this analysis needs to be undertaken throughoutthe entire fermentation so as to take into account the changing environment in an essentially dynamic situation in which metabolic stress is accentuated by the microbial activity itself, leading to increasingly important stress response at a metabolic level. All too often these industrial fermentation constraints are overlooked, leading to identification of targets whose validity within the industrial context is at best limited. Thus the conceptual error is linked to experimental design rather than inadequate methodology. New tools are becoming available which open up new possibilities in metabolic engineering and the characterisation of complex metabolic networks. Traditionally metabolic analysis was targeted towards pre-identified genes and their corresponding enzymatic activities within pre-selected metabolic pathways. Those pathways not included at the onset were intrinsically removed from the network giving a fundamentally localised vision of pathway functionality. New tools from genome research extend this reductive approach so as to include the global characteristics of a given biological model which can now be seen as an integrated functional unit rather than a specific sub-group of biochemical reactions, thereby facilitating the resolution of complexnetworks whose exact composition cannot be estimated at the onset. This global overview of whole cell physiology enables new targets to be identified which would classically not have been suspected previously. Of course, as with all powerful analytical tools, post-genomic technology must be used carefully so as to avoid expensive errors. This is not always the case and the data obtained need to be examined carefully to avoid embarking on the study of artefacts due to poor understanding of cell biology. These basic developments and the underlying concepts will be illustrated with examples from the author's laboratory concerning the industrial production of commodity chemicals using a number of industrially important bacteria. The different levels of possibleinvestigation and the extent to which the data can be extrapolated will be highlighted together with the extent to which realistic yield targets can be attained. Genetic engineering strategies and the performance of the resulting strains will be examined within the context of the prevailing experimental conditions encountered in the industrial fermentor. Examples used will include the production of amino acids, vitamins and polysaccharides. In each case metabolic constraints can be identified and the extent to which performance can be enhanced predicted