Acknowledgments I am grateful for the supervision of Dr. Vijaya Ramachandran during my undergraduate research. I have learned from her the fundamentals of theoretical Computer Science and the joy of doing research. Her tireless passion and motivation enlightens my way through many difficult problems. It is my honor to work with Dr. Ganeshkumar Ganapathy and Rezaul Chowdhury, with generous help ...

ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I dedicate my work to my parents Mr. Nageswara Rao and Mrs. Vijaya Lakshmi, my brother and sister-in law Mr. Sapta Nag and Mrs. Parimala and my grandparents Mr. Gandhi and Mrs. Sambrajam for their constant support and encouragement throughout my life. I am very grateful to my advisor Dr. A. Srivastava for his guidance, patience and understanding throughout this work. His sugg...

BACKGROUND As a green alternative for the production of transportation fuels, the enzymatic hydrolysis of lignocellulose and subsequent fermentation to ethanol are being intensively researched. To be economically feasible, the hydrolysis of lignocellulose must be conducted at a high concentration of solids, which results in high concentrations of hydrolysis end-products, cellobiose and glucose,...

Thailand is one of the largest citrus producers in Southeast Asia. Pathogenic infection by Phytophthora, however, has become one of major impediments to production. This study identified a pathogenic oomycete isolated from rotted roots of pomelo (Citrus maxima) in Thailand as Phytophthora nicotianae by the internal transcribed spacer ribosomal DNA sequence analysis. Then, we examined the in vit...

Characteristic ultrastructural changes were observed when protoscoleces of hydatid cysts Echinococcus granulosus was treated with extract of endophytic fungi Eupenicillium and Chaetomium sp. isolated from Azadirachta indica and Piper longum plants respectively. A sharp decrease in viability of protoscoleces was observed after 6 h of incubation with fungal extracts. The ultrastructural changes i...

Control of fungal pathogens is mainly addressed by chemically synthesized fungicides which, after a prolonged use, produce environment pollution and develop resistance. In this context, endophytes have been recognized as potential biocontrolers and also potential source of antifungal metabolites. Therefore, as part of our research on phytopathogen controllers, 355 fungal endophytes were isolate...