Production, Purification of Exo-Polygalacturonase from Soil Isolate Paecilomyces variotii NFCCI 1769 and Its Application.

The aim of the present study was to produce exo-polygalacturonase from potent soil isolate by submerged fermentation and its application for fruit juice treatment. Pectinase producing strains were selectively isolated from pectin industry waste. A selected isolate C2 was found to produce significant amount of exo-polygalacturonase. The isolate was identified as Paecilomyces variotii on the basis of morphological characteristics and 18S rRNA gene sequence analysis. The exo-polygalacturonase produced by the isolate was purified by ammonium sulphate precipitation, size exclusion chromatography and ion exchange chromatography. The purified enzyme had MW of 39.4 kD based on SDS PAGE. Under partially optimized conditions, purified exo-polygalacturonase showed specific activity of 98.49 U/mg protein at pH 6.0 and 30°C. The enzyme was comparatively stable from 10 to 30°C and the activity decreased with increasing temperature. Purified enzyme brought about considerable reduction in viscosity of fruit juice samples.

Micropsalliota pileocystidiata (Agaricaceae), a new species from Maharashtra, India.

A new species of Micropsalliota is described from tropical region of Maharashtra, India. The species is recognized on the basis of morphological details and its phylogenetic placement is determined by using of nrITS and nrLSU sequence data analyses. Micropsalliota pileocystidiata is characterised by its robust basidiomes covered by reddish brown appressed fibrillose squamules, ellipsoid to amygdaliform basidiospores, pyriform pileocystidia and clavate, utriform to broadly utriform or sometimes ellipsoid cheilo- and pleurocystidia.

Factors influencing the gut microbiome in children: from infancy to childhood.

The human microbiota plays a crucial role in educating the immune system and influencing host health right since birth. Various maternal factors along with the vertical microbial transfer from the mother, as well as the horizontal environmental transmission and internal factors relating to the infant, play a crucial role in modulating the gut microbiota. The early life microflora is highly unstable and undergoes dynamic changes during the first few years, converging towards a more stabilized adult microbiota by co-evolving with the host by the age of 3-4 years. Microbiota studies have underlined the role of dysbiosis in developing several metabolic disorders like obesity, diabetes and immune-related disorders like asthma, to name a few. Thus, understanding early life microbial composition and various factors affecting the microbial community will provide a platform for developing strategies/techniques to maintain host health by restoring gut microbial flora. This review focuses on the factors that affect the microbial composition of the foetus in utero, during birth, infancy through childhood.

A cross-sectional comparative study of gut bacterial community of Indian and Finnish children.

The human gut microbiome plays a crucial role in the compositional development of gut microbiota. Though well documented in western pediatrics population, little is known about how various host conditions affect populations in different geographic locations such as the Indian subcontinent. Given the impact of distinct environmental conditions, our study assess the gut bacterial diversity of a small cohort of Indian and Finnish children and investigated the influence of FUT2 secretor status and birth mode on the gut microbiome of these populations. Using multiple profiling techniques, we show that the gut bacterial community structure in 13-14-year-old Indian (n = 47) and Finnish (n = 52) children differs significantly. Specifically, Finnish children possessed higher Blautia and Bifidobacterium, while genera Prevotella and Megasphaera were predominant in Indian children. Our study also demonstrates a strong influence of FUT2 and birth mode variants on specific gut bacterial taxa, influence of which was noticed to differ between the two populations under study.