Institute for Microbial Biotechnology & Metagenomics: Recent submissions
Now showing items 21-37 of 37
-
Purification, crystallization and preliminary X-ray diffraction analysis of thermostable nitrile hydratase: research letter
(Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf), 2004)Microbial nitrile hydratases are important industrial enzymes that catalyse the conversion of nitriles to the corresponding amides. Bacillus strain RAPc8 nitrile hydratase has recently been cloned and functionally ... -
Efficient molecular cloning of environmental DNA from geothermal sediments
(Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2002)An efficient and simple method for constructing an environmental library using mechanically sheared DNA obtained directly from geothermal sediments is presented. The method is based on blunt-end modification of DNA fragments ... -
Antarctic Dry Valley mineral soils contain unexpectedly high levels of microbial biomass
(Springer Verlag, 2002)We have applied bioluminescent ATP detection methods to microbial enumeration in Antarctic Dry Valley mineral soils, and validated our ATP data by two independent methods. We have demonstrated that ATP measurement is ... -
Characterisation of the arsenic resistance genes in Bacillus sp. UWC isolated from maturing fly ash acid mine drainage neutralised solids
(Academy of Science of South Africa, 2010)An arsenic resistant Bacillus sp. UWC was isolated from fly ash acid mine drainage (FA-AMD) neutralised solids. A genomic library was prepared and screened in an arsenic sensitive mutant Escherichia coli strain for the ... -
Biodegradation of high-concentration isopropanol by a solvent-tolerant thermophile, Bacillus pallidus
(Springer Verlag, 2002)The aerobic biodegradation of high-concentration, to 24 g l –1 , 2-propanol (IPA) by a thermophilic isolate ST3, identified as Bacillus pallidus , was successfully carried out for the first time. This solvent-tolerant B. ... -
The search for the ideal biocatalyst
(Nature Publishing Group, 2002)While the use of enzymes as biocatalysts to assist in the industrial manufacture of fine chemicals and pharmaceuticals has enormous potential, application is frequently limited by evolution-led catalyst traits. The advent ... -
PCR-based detection of non-indigenous microorganisms in ‘pristine’ environments
(Elsevier, 2003)PCR-based technologies are widely employed for the detection of specific microorganisms, and may be applied to the identification of non-indigenous microorganisms in ‘pristine’ environments. For ‘pristine’ environments ... -
High 16S rDNA bacterial diversity in glacial meltwater lake sediment, Bratina Island, Antarctica
(Springer Verlag, 2003)The microbial diversity in maritime meltwater pond sediments from Bratina Island, Ross Sea, Antarctica was investigated by 16S rDNA-dependent molecular phylogeny. Investigations of the vertical distribution, phylogenetic ... -
The upper temperature for life – where do we draw the line?
(Elsevier, 2004)The newly isolated hyperthermophilic archaeal strain 121 grows slowly at 121 8C and even survives short periods at 130 8C. This is another organism that grows best at temperatures well in excess of 100 8C! We should not ... -
Dissemination and survival of non-indigenous bacterial genomes in pristine Antarctic environments.
(Springer Verlag, 2005)Continental Antarctic is perceived as a largely pristine environment, although certain localized regions (e.g., parts of the Ross Dependency Dry Valleys) are relatively heavy impacted by human activities. The procedures ... -
16 S rDNA primers and the unbiased assessment of thermophile diversity
(Portland Press, 2004)Our understanding of thermophile diversity is based predominantly on PCR studies of community DNA. ‘Universal’ and domain-specific rRNA gene PCR primers have historically been used for the assessment of microbial diversity ... -
Non-specificity of Staphylococcus generic primers
(Society for General Microbiology, 2003)Our results allow us to conclude that there appears to be significant conservation between the tuf genes of Planococcus, Planomicrobium and Staphylococcus spp., and that although the primer set TstaG422/TStag765 has ... -
Metagenomics, gene discovery and the ideal biocatalyst
(Portland Press, 2004)With the rapid development of powerful protein evolution and enzyme-screening technologies, there is a growing belief that optimum conditions for biotransformation processes can be established without the constraints of ... -
Structure of an aliphatic amidase from Geobacillus pallidus RAPc8
(International Union of Crystallography, 2007)The amidase from Geobacillus pallidus RAPc8, a moderate thermophile, is a member of the nitrilase superfamily and catalyzes the conversion of amides to the corresponding carboxylic acids and ammonia. It shows both ... -
Sequence analysis of an Archaeal virus isolated from a hypersaline lake in Inner Mongolia, China
(BioMed Central, 2007)Background: We are profoundly ignorant about the diversity of viruses that infect the domain Archaea. Less than 100 have been identified and described and very few of these have had their genomic sequences determined. ... -
The Institute for Microbial Biotechnology and Metagenomics 2009
(UWC, 2010-01)The IMBM Brochure (2009) provides a summary of the staffing, activities and outputs of the Institute for the 2009 academic year