The study aims to investigate zinc biosorption by strains of lactobacilli and bifidobacteria with a view to exploit them as organic matrixes for zinc dietary supplementation. Sixteen human strains of Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium were assayed for zinc uptake. The minimum inhibitory concentration of zinc salts differed among the strains, but was never below 15 mmol L(-1). When cultured in MR...

Zinc is a vital micronutrient to all organisms and a potential toxicant to aquatic animals. It is therefore of importance to understand the mechanism of zinc regulation. In the present study, we molecularly cloned and functionally characterized a zinc transporter of the SLC39A family [commonly referred to as the ZIP (Zrt- and Irt-related protein) family] from the gill of zebrafish (Danio rerio)...

MATERIALS AND METHODS Some biochemical and morphologicaleffects of host zinc deficiency upon Ehrlich cells have been observed and investi gated. The incorporation of [3H]thymidine into DNA of cells from normal and zinc-deficient hosts correlates with the zinc concentration in the ascitic fluid, with incorporation into DNA of zinc-deficient cells considerably depressed compared to cells from ani...

zink deficiency in calcareous soils of arid and semi-arid regions is a limiting factor for crop yield. bean is considered as one of sensitive plants to zinc (zn) deficiency. to study the responses of various bean genotypes to soil zinc deficiency, a greenhouse experiment was carried out. a factorial completely randomized design with three replications was conducted. the first factor was two lev...

BACKGROUND Wheat is the staple food for most of the world's population; however, it is a poor source of zinc. Foliar fertilization of zinc via zinc loaded chitosan nanocarriers (Zn-CNP) post-anthesis has proved to be a promising approach for grain zinc enhancement in durum wheat as evidenced in our earlier study. However, the molecular mechanism of uptake of zinc via Zn-CNP remains unclear. M...

It has been well documented that bioavailability of iron is influenced by other food constituents. We carried out a kinetic study to look at the effect of zinc on ferric iron uptake in human epithelial Caco-2 TC7 cell-line. Zinc reduced iron uptake in a concentration-dependent manner. Iron uptake was significantly increased in the presence of ascorbic acid in the medium. We also found that zinc...

ABSTRACT Zinc is employed as a supplement; however, zinc-related nephropathy is not generally known. In this study, we investigatecl zinc-induced renal cell iajury using a pig kidney-derived cultured renal epithelial cell line, LLC-PKI, with proximal kidney tubule-like features, and examined the involvement of free radicals and extracellular signal-regu]ated kinase (ERK) in the cell injury. The...

28 Metal uptake is vital for all living organisms. In metal scarce conditions, a common bacterial 29 strategy consists in the biosynthesis of metallophores, their export in the extracellular medium 30 and the recovery of a metal-metallophore complex through dedicated membrane transporters. 31 Staphylopine is a recently described metallophore distantly related to plant nicotianamine that 32 cont...

Zinc is released into the synaptic cleft upon exocytotic stimuli, although the mechanism for its reuptake into neurons is unresolved. Here we show that the cellular prion protein enhances the uptake of zinc into neuronal cells. This prion-protein-mediated zinc influx requires the octapeptide repeats and amino-terminal polybasic region in the prion protein, but not its endocytosis. Selective ant...

The present study was conducted on removal of zinc in a continuous flow system by Aspergillus sp. during its growth. The fungal strain was isolated from industrial wastewater. The experiments under continuous culture conditions were performed in two reactors of working volume 650ml and 3 litres respectively. The experiments were conducted using sugar concentrations of 10, 15 and 20g/l and at di...