When cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) root was cut into blocks and incubated under laboratory conditions, the blocks showed more widespread and more even symptoms of physiological deterioration than those under natural conditions. Thus, the tissue block system has potential for biochemical studies of natural deterioration of cassava root. The changes in cyanide content and linamarase (linamar...

Rutin and quercitrin are hydrolysed to quercetin, and robinin is hydrolysed to kaempferol, by faecal flora from healthy subjects. The enzymes required for these hydrolyses, namely alpha-rhamnosidase and beta-galactosidase, were produced by some strains of Bacteroides distasonis; other strains, however, synthesized beta-glucosidase. The last-named enzyme was also elaborated by Bacteroides unifor...

A 5.9-kb fragment of chromosomal DNA coding for beta-glucosidase activity of the thermophilic anaerobe Thermoanaerobacter brockii was sequenced. Two genes, cglT and xglS, encoding a cellodextrin-cleaving beta-glucosidase and a xylodextrin-degrading xylo-beta-glucosidase, respectively, were located directly adjacent to each other. The 5' region contained two additional genes, cglF and cglG, whos...

We previously described the effects of intake of dairy products on plasmid dissemination in the digestive tract of gnotobiotic mice associated with human faecal flora (HFF) and found that yoghurt, heat-treated yoghurt (HTY) and milk reduced population levels of transconjugants compared with findings in mice fed a standard mouse diet. In the case of lactose intake, transconjugants were not detec...

When Escherichia coli was incubated at the growth-refractory temperatures of 48 and 54 degrees C, expression of the cel operon was demonstrated by phospho-beta-glucosidase activity. This enzyme activity was also detected at the growth-refractory temperatures in Salmonella typhimurium and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Thermotolerant and mesothermophilic mutants of E. coli, S. typhimurium, and P. aerug...

The interactive effects of three non-fodder Indian arid plant species, Tephrosia purpurea, Aerva persica, and Calotropis procera, four Aspergillus fungal species on soil enzymes (acid alkaline phosphatase, -glucosidase, dehydrogenase, urease, amidase activities) were temporally assessed (15 30 days withdrawals). results statistically analysed using ANOVA, Principal Component Analysis (PCA), Can...

The reducing sugar content of sugar beet (Beta vulgaris L.) roots increased during 30 days of storage at 21 C and 160 days at 5 C as a result of an increase in acid invertase activity. Sucrose synthetase and neutral invertase activities were high at harvest but declined during storage, thus showing no relationship with postharvest reducing sugar accumulation in sugar beet roots. Acid alpha-gluc...

1. The activities of beta-galactosidase, beta-glucosidase, beta-glucuronidase and N-acetyl, beta-glucosaminidase were estimated in normal and pathological rat urine, with 4-methylumbelliferyl glycosides as substrates. 2. Kidney damage induced by injections of uranium nitrate, mercuric chloride, potassium dichromate or 4-nitrophenylarsonic acid causes a marked increase in the urinary excretion o...

Gaucher's disease is the most common group of lysosomal storage disorders caused by defective activity of an enzyme beta-glucosidase leading to accumulation of glucocerebroside in cells of macrophage lineage. Accumulation of glucosylceramide in tissues leads to multisystem organ involvement viz. liver, spleen, bone marrow, lungs and central nervous system. Serum beta=glucosidase levels <15% of ...