In plants and many other organisms, phytochelatin synthase (PCS) catalyzes the synthesis of phytochelatins from glutathione in the presence of certain metals and metalloids. We have used budding yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) as a heterologous system to characterize two PCS proteins, LjPCS1 and LjPCS3, of the model legume Lotus japonicus. Initial experiments revealed that the metal tolerance ...

background and objectives: numerous procedures in biology and medicine require the counting of cells. direct enumer- ation of colony forming units (cfus) is time-consuming and dreary accurate cell counting on plates with high numbers of cfus is error prone. in this study we report a new indirect cell counting method that was developed based on the use of redsafe fluorometric assay. the usefulne...

Survival of photosynthetic cyanobacteria is challenged by environmental contaminations like heavy metals. Among them, deciphering the regulatory mechanisms for cadmium (Cd) in cyanobacteria would facilitate the construction of Cd-resistant strains. In this study, the DNA-Affinity-Purified-chromatin immunoprecipitation assay was employed to identify the direct targets of Sll0649, which was a Cd2...

A novel method of extraction has been developed to avoid the presence of heavy metals during the measurement of pesticides based on acetylcholinesterase (AchE) inhibition. Heavy metals have been in fact demonstrated in this article to interfere when the assay is performed by using the classic spectrophotometric Ellman’s method. We present the results obtained with an assay system using two diff...

Two incinerators in Taiwan have recently attempted to reuse the fly and bottom ash that they produce, but the mutagenicity of these types of ash has not yet been assessed. Therefore, we evaluated the mutagenicity of the ash with the Ames mutagenicity assay using the TA98, TA100, and TA1535 bacterial strains. We obtained three leachates from three leachants of varying pH values using the toxicit...

Heavy metals are ubiquitous contaminants of the marine environment and can accumulate and persist in sediments. The toxicity of metal contaminants in sediments to organisms is dependent on the bioavailability of the metals in both the water and sediment phases and the sensitivity of the organism to the metal exposure. This study investigated the effects of two metal contaminants of concern (CdC...

Ductile: Substances that can be drawn into thin wires are called ductile. For example, most of the metals are ductile. Question 2: Why is sodium kept immersed in kerosene oil? Answer: Sodium and potassium are very reactive metals and and combine explosively with air as well as water. Hence, they catch fire if kept in open. Therefore, to prevent accidental fires and accidents, sodium is stored i...

Higher plants were used as a bioindicator of environmental toxicity to estimate the severe problems related health living organisms and environment. Allium cepa plant was evaluate DNA damage caused by heavy metal exposure, roots A.cepa plant. They treated with four concentrations (5, 10, 20 25 ppm) for each metals Cadmium, zinc, copper lead. At same time, (50, 100, 200 500 preservative (sodium ...

The aim of this study was to compare the relative respiratory toxicity of CFA samples obtained from three Chinese coal-burning power stations to CFA obtained from a UK coal-burning power station; both bulk and respirable PM10 samples were tested. In order to elucidate CFA toxicity, a multi-disciplinary approach was taken, thereby considering geochemical aspects of the fly ash as well as biochem...