Over 200 strains of actinomycetes, representing nine distinct genera, were screened directly for the ability to release reducing sugar from ball-milled wheat straw, using a microtitre plate assay system. Xylanase activity was detected in nearly all of the strains examined while activities against purified cellulosic substrates were less widespread and relatively low. Straw saccharification resu...

Most of the successes in the development of antivirals active against herpes viruses have been achieved with synthetic nucleoside analogues. It is well known that a synthetic chemotherapeutic agent, acyclovir, studied by Elion et al.1, 2), (awarded the Nobel Prize in the field of Physiology or Medicine, 1988), is the best medicine for herpes virus infections. Acyclovir has virus-specific activa...

Frankia strain CcI3 grown in culture produced a hemoglobin which had optical absorption bands typical of a hemoglobin and a molecular mass of 14.1 kDa. Its equilibrium oxygen binding constant was 274 nM, the oxygen dissociation rate constant was 56 s(-1), and the oxygen association rate constant was 206 microM(-1) s(-1).

Background: Hypersaline solar salterns are extreme environments in many tropical and subtropical regions throughout the world. In India, there are several coastal solar salterns along with the coastal line of the Bay of Bengal and Arabian Sea and inland solar salterns around Sambhar saltlake, from which sodium chloride is obtained for human consumption and industrial needs. Studies on character...

BACKGROUND Amino acid adenylation domains (A domains) are critical enzymes that dictate the identity of the amino acid building blocks to be incorporated during nonribosomal peptide (NRP) biosynthesis. NRPs represent a large group of valuable natural products that are widely applied in medicine, agriculture, and biochemical research. Salinispora arenicola CNS-205 is a representative strain of t...

A novel actinomycete, strain W6(T), was isolated from a soil sample of Yunnan Province, China. The bacterium was aerobic, non-motile, non-spore-forming and Gram-stain-positive. Genetic, phenotypic and chemical properties of the isolate were studied. 16S rRNA gene sequence data suggested that the novel isolate belonged to the genus Friedmanniella and shared 98.6% sequence similarity with Friedma...

Streptomyces coelicolor is an obligate aerobic, filamentous soil-dwelling bacterium. Remarkably, the genome of S. coelicolor has three copies of the narGHJI operon that encodes respiratory nitrate reductase. This review summarizes our current views on the requirements for multiple nitrate reductases in S. coelicolor.