This study was aimed to compare the ability of some yeast strains to consume sugars (sucrose, glucoseand fructose) and to convert them into ethanol during fermentation. The results of this comparison will be thebasis of considerations in choosing the right strain to be used as a mixed culture to increase the productionof ethanol from substrate containing a mixture of sucrose, glucose and fructose, such as juice of cane andsweet sorghum. The study was conducted using fermentation in substrate consisting of glucose, fructose,and sucrose separately, glucose-fructose mixture, and glucose-fructose-sucrose mixture using some yeaststrains: FNCC3012, OUT7009, OUT7027, OUT7055, OUT7080, OUT7096, OUT7903, OUT7913, and OUT7921.Following the fermentation, analysis of the produced ethanol and the remaining sugar was conducted. Theresults of study indicated that the strains with the highest substrate consumption were OUT7921, OUT7096,OUT7055, OUT7027, and OUT7913 for glucose, fructose, glucose-fructose mixture, sucrose, and glucosefructose-sucrose mixture, respectively. Strains that produced highest concentration ethanol were OUT7096 inglucose and sucrose substrates, OUT7921 in substrate of glucose-fructose mixture and sucrose, OUT7913 insubstrate of glucose-fructose-sucrose mixture. Upon consideration of each strain capacity, both in consumingsugar and producing ethanol, the recommended strains for use in mixed culture in bioethanol fermentationusing mixed substrate of glucose, fructose and sucrose are OUT7096, OUT7913, and OUT7921.

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Coffee productions should have environmental value such as providing high soil microbial diversity while producing high yield. To examine that purposes, two experimental plots were constucted at benchmark site of Conservation and Sustainable Management of Below-Ground Biodiversity (CSM-BGBD), in Sumberjaya Subdistrict, West Lampung, Indonesia, during 2007-2010. Types of coffee agro-ecosystem to be examined were Coffea canephora with shade trees of Gliricidia sepium, Erythrina sububrams, Michelia champaca, and no shade. Two plots were constructed at 5-years-coffee and 15-years-coffee. Diversity of soil bacteria was determined based on DNA finger printing of total soil bacteria using Ribosomal Intergenic Spacer Analysis (RISA) method. The results showed that: (1) For mature coffee (15 years old), shade-grown coffee agro-ecosystems had higher soil bacterial diversity than those of no shade coffee agro-ecosystem, (2) Shaded coffee agro-ecosystems were able to conserve soil bacterial diversity better than no-shade coffee agro-ecosystem. Soil organic C and total litter biomass had positive effect on soil bacterial diversity, (3) Types of agro-ecosystem significantly affect the bean yield of 15 years coffee. Coffee agro-ecosystems shaded by legume trees had higher yield than those of non-legume shade and no shade coffee agro-ecosystem, (4) Shannon-Weaver indices of soil bacterial diversity together with weed biomass and N content of coffee leaf had positive effect on coffee bean yield.

Legume nodulating bacteria (LNB), known also as rhizobia, are soil bacteria, which are able to form root nodules and fi x nitrogen in the leguminous plants. The LNB availability in the soil depends on the type of agroecosystem, where plant grows. In this study, we isolated LNB from the shrub agroecosystem in Sumatera, Indonesia, and obtained four selected bacterial strains. Among them, the isolate UGM48a formed root nodule in Macroptilium atropurpureum and showed highest number of nitrogenase activity. UGM48a also contains nifH and nodA genes. An analysis of the PCR-amplifi ed 16S rDNA and BLASTn analysis showed that UGM48a displayed 96% similarity with Achromobacter xylosoxidans. In addition, UGM48a were successfully nodulated Glycine max (L.) merr var. wilis. This is the fi rst report detecting A. xylosoxidans as nodule-forming species for Glycine max possesing the positive copy of nodA gene.