No abstract

No abstract

An experiment using a standard strain of Lactobacillus amylovorus TISTR1110 to test for the capability of carbohydrate utilisation of nine cultivars of rice found that L. amylovorus TISTR1110 could utilise carbohydrate from all cultivars and also exhibit nonhaemolytic properties. After testing the viability of the strain under simulated gastrointestinal tract conditions by enumeration after 5 h, the results showed that the amount of L. amylovorus TISTR1110 present was 4.0 9 10 5 CFU/mL or a 73.78% survival rate. From the evaluation of Thai rice cultivars as carriers in probiotic products, the highest amount of probiotic bacteria was found in baked and encapsulated glutinous Luem Pua Thai sticky rice up to 4.9 9 10 6 CFU/g or a survival rate of 69.39 AE 0.06%. The second highest rate (4.8 9 10 5 CFU/g) was found in heat-moisture steamed rice of Riceberry rice cultivar or a survival rate of 59.74 AE 0.11%. After testing the capability of adherence using SEM, the results showed that glutinous Luem Pua sticky rice resulted in considerably high survival rate of probiotic bacteria compared with other rice. Additionally, the microbiological safety test reported that the amounts of contaminants were acceptable.

The 5'-upstream regions of the plant active defense genes in pea (PSPAL2 and PSCHS1) exhibit significant nucleotide sequence identity to part of a copia-type retrotransposon. To characterize the retrotransposon in pea putative reverse transcriptase sequences (Psr) were amplified by PCR from cDNA prepared from protoplasts derived from pea suspension cultured cells. Psr genes can be classified into at least eight subgroups (A-H) according to their nucleotide sequence similarities. A subgroup PsrC was induced by the treatment of etiolated pea epicotyls with fungal elicitor within 30 min but was hardly induced by protoplasting of pea suspension cultured cells, whereas subgroups of PsrA and PsrB were highly induced by protoplasting. Interestingly, the retrotransposon sequence present at the 5'-upstream region of PSCHS1 which was induced by the treatment with fungal elicitor belonged to subgroup PsrC. The retrotransposon might play an important role in reorganization of the genes and optimization of the gene expression in response to various environmental stimuli such as an attack by phytopathogens or protoplasting.

The 5•OE-upstream