Sake, a traditional alcoholic beverage in Japan, is brewed with sake yeasts, which are classified as Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Almost all sake yeasts form a thick foam layer on sake mash during the fermentation process because of their cell surface hydrophobicity, which increases the cells' affinity for bubbles. To reduce the amount of foam, nonfoaming mutants were bred from foaming sake yeasts. Nonfoaming mutants have hydrophilic cell surfaces and no affinity for bubbles. We have cloned a gene from a foam-forming sake yeast that confers foaming ability to a nonfoaming mutant. This gene was named AWA1 and structures of the gene and its product were analyzed. The N-and C-terminal regions of Awa1p have the characteristic sequences of a glycosylphosphatidylinositol anchor protein. The entire protein is rich in serine and threonine residues and has a lot of repetitive sequences. These results suggest that Awa1p is localized in the cell wall. This was confirmed by immunofluorescence microscopy and Western blotting analysis using hemagglutinin-tagged Awa1p. Moreover, an awa1 disruptant of sake yeast was hydrophilic and showed a nonfoaming phenotype in sake mash. We conclude that Awa1p is a cell wall protein and is required for the foam-forming phenotype and the cell surface hydrophobicity of sake yeast.Sake is a Japanese traditional alcoholic beverage made from steamed rice by parallel fermentation with Aspergillus oryzae, which is a source of saccharification enzymes, and sake yeasts, which produce ethanol from glucose. Sake yeasts are classified as Saccharomyces cerevisiae and are known to produce more than 18% (vol/vol) ethanol in sake mash (16). Almost all sake yeasts form a thick foam layer on sake mash during vigorous fermentation. This foam formation has been used as an indicator of fermentation progress: the foam rises when fermentation becomes strong and it disappears when fermentation becomes weak. However, this characteristic sometimes reduces the efficiency of sake fermentation because a large part of the fermentation tank is occupied by a thick foam layer. Thus, an absence of foam formation during fermentation is a preferable property.Ouchi and Akiyama (23) developed a method to screen nonfoaming mutants from foaming sake yeast using cell affinity for bubbles, and using this method they isolated a nonfoaming mutant from an industrial sake yeast. This mutant had almost the same characteristics as the parental strain except for its nonfoaming property in fermentation. Thus, this method of screening for nonfoaming mutants was applied to various strains of sake yeasts and the resultant nonfoaming yeasts are now widely used in commercial sake brewing. Comparison of the nonfoaming mutant with its parent revealed that the cell surface of the former is less hydrophobic than that of the latter, suggesting that cell surface hydrophobicity is related to foaming ability (25). However, the detailed molecular mechanism of foaming ability of sake yeast is still unknown. In this study, we have cloned a gene from a foamin...

In this study, Pasteurella multocida-loaded alginate microparticles (MPs) for subcutaneous vaccination was developed by emulsification-cross-linking technique. Formulation parameter was varied as a ratio of polymer and bacterin. Optical microscopy revealed spherical particles with uniformly distribution. A mean particle size of approximately 6 µm has been successfully constructed using simple mixer and ultrasonic probe. The zeta potential of the MPs showed negatively charge of approximately -23 mV determined by Zeta Pals® analyzer. The entrapment efficiency and the in vitro bacterin released profile could be controlled by varying the amount of alginate. The high entrapment efficiency up to 69% was achieved with low concentration of alginate. The MPs possessed a slow bacterin release profile, up to 30 days. In vivo safety and potency tests were proved that the alginate MPs were safe and induced protective immunity in mice. In addition, after storage for 6 months at either 4 °C or room temperature, the protective immunity in mice was maintained.

The objectives of this study were to investigate variations in the milk composition and somatic cell count (SCC) from dairy cooperatives in Northern Thailand from January 2017 to December 2021. Milk composition among dairy cooperatives was also compared. The dataset included monthly milk composition (total solid (TS)%, fat%, protein%, lactose%, solid not fat (SNF)% and SCC) data from 15 dairy cooperatives, 2 private organizations, and their milk collection centers (1,800 records) collected in five provinces, including Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Lampang, Lamphun, and Phrae. The seasons were cold season (November to February), hot season (March to June), and rainy season (July to October). The dataset was compared among dairy cooperatives using a general linear mixed model. To detect a correlation, spearman correlation coefficients were calculated between SCC and milk composition. Results showed that the season significantly affected milk composition. The hot season appeared as the most critical season for all the parameters examined, showing the significantly lowest values (P < 0.001) of TS (12.33±0.3%), fat (3.79±0.27%) and protein (3.02±0.07%) whereas, a significantly highest SCC was obtained in the rainy season (321.21±3.93 x 1,000 cell/ml). Milk collecting centers of dairy cooperatives located in many districts had significantly different milk composition and SCC values. Lactose is the milk component that undergoes the greatest variation in response to the increase in SCC. This study highlighted the variations influencing milk composition and provided information for stakeholders and their roles in the dairy sector at the farm, dairy cooperative, and provincial levels.