Browsing Research Articles (IMBM) by Issue Date
Now showing items 1-20 of 35
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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 ... -
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 ... -
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 ... -
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. ... -
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 ... -
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 ... -
Review and re-analysis of domain-specific 16S primers
(Elsevier, 2003)The Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) has facilitated the detection of unculturable microorganisms in virtually any environmental source and has thus been used extensively in the assessment of environmental microbial diversity. ... -
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 ... -
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 ... -
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 ... -
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 ... -
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 ... -
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 ... -
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. ... -
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 ... -
Molecular characterization of the 16S rRNA Gene of helicobacter fennelliae isolated from stools and blood cultures from paediatric patients in South Africa
(Hindawi, 2011)Forty strains of H. fennelliae collected from paediatric blood and stool samples over an 18 year period at a children's hospital in Cape Town, South Africa, were amplified by PCR of the 16S rRNA. Two distinct genotypes ... -
Multilocus sequence typing methods for the emerging Campylobacter species C. hyointestinalis, C. lanienae, C. sputorum, C. concisus, and C. curvus
(Frontiers Media, 2012)Multilocus sequence typing (MLST) systems have been reported previously for multiple food - and food animal-associated Campylobacter species (e.g., C. jejuni, C. coli, C. lari, and C. fetus) to both differentiate strains ... -
Selection of Clostridium spp. in biological sand filters neutralizing synthetic acid mine drainage
(Wiley, 2013)In this study, three biological sand filter (BSF) were contaminated with a synthetic iron- [1500 mg L-1 Fe(II), 500 mg L-1 Fe(III)] and sulphate-rich (6000 mg L-1 SO2/4-) acid mine drainage (AMD) (pH = 2), for 24 days, to ... -
Characterisation of campylobacter concisus strains from South Africa using amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) profiling and a genomospecies-specific polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay: Identification of novel genomospecies and correlation with clinical data
(Academic Journals, 2013)Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphism (AFLP) profiling was used to evaluate the distribution of phenotypically indistinguishable, but genetically distinct, among Campylobacter concisus strains from South Africa. A Polymerase ...
