Published in Scientific Bulletin. Series F. Biotechnologies, Vol. XXII
Written by Musa DAHIRU, Hafiz SULAIMAN

Most of the reported outbreaks of gastrointestinal disease are linked to the consumption of fresh products contaminated by bacteria. In view of these problems, this research wishes to determine the presence of Vibrio cholerae, in fresh vegetables sold in some Gombe markets, by isolating and identifying the biotypes. A total of 184 vegetable samples consisting of 3 vegetable types: Cabbage (Brassica oleracea L.), Lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.) and Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum Mill.) were collected and analyzed, during the month of August, 2016. Samples were inoculated on Thiosulfate Citrate Bile-salt Sucrose Agar and subjected to biochemical tests.Of the 184 cultured samples, 73.39% had yellow colonial growth, out of which 16.25% were confirmed to be V. cholera. Further screenings demonstrated that 23.08% are of each O139 and O1 Eltor biotypes, and other Vibrios were represented by 53.85%. Isolates from cabbage were 50% of each O139 and O1 Eltor biotypes. There were different biotypes observed among the sampled vegetables, thus indicating close association of contamination source to the vegetables, and collectively possess the risk of cholera not only at sporadic cases but of epidemics capacity to consumers.

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Published in Scientific Bulletin. Series F. Biotechnologies, Vol. XXI
Written by Maria-Mihaela MICUȚI, Liliana BĂDULESCU, Florentina ISRAEL-ROMING

Soil is a dynamic, living, natural system that is vital to the function of terrestrial ecosystems. Soil health is maintained by physical, chemical and biological factors. Physical factors include bulk density and soil porosity, indicators of soil compaction. Chemical factors (soil pH, inorganic nitrogen, available minerals and organic carbon content) provide information for the balance of soil solution and exchange sites. Biological and biochemical factors like microbial biomass, soil respiration, potentially mineralised nitrogen and activity of soil enzymes indicate the soil’s ability to function or recover from disturbance such as climate change, pest infestation, pollution and human exploitation in agriculture. The enzymes play an important role in the decomposition and recycling of nutrients from dead plants and animal tissues, the fixation of nitrogen, the maintenance of soil structure and the inhibiting effects of pollutants. Therefore, the activity of soil enzymes can be used as an indicator of soil quality. This review is focused on the activity of some defining soil enzymes like β-glucosidases, cellulases, amylases, phosphatases, ureases, dehydrogenases, arylsulfatases and peroxidases, their importance in maintaining the soil health and their sources (plants, animals, organic compounds and especially microorganisms).It also offers information on a variety of methods developed to measure enzymes activity which can give relative information about the ecological status of soils.

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Published in Scientific Bulletin. Series F. Biotechnologies, Vol. XX
Written by Suleyman KIZIL, Tahsin SOGUT, Ugur SESIZ, Khalid Mahmood KHAWAR

Fritillaria aurea Schott, an Iran-Turan element, is a rare alpine geophyte with spotted brown yellow flowers. The plant is endemic to Turkey with dispersion in the South-Eastern Anatolia region. This study reports in vitro culture of Fritillaria aurea previously collected from the provinces of Adiyaman and Malatya in the South-Eastern Anatolia Region and presently cultured at the Ornamental Plants Garden Collection of Faculty of Agriculture, Dicle University, Diyarbakir, Turkey. Bulblets were cultured on MS medium containing different concentrations of TDZ, TDZ andNAA. Callus induction followed by bulb formation was noted on bulblets. The bulblets obtained these were cultured on MS medium containing 40 or80 g/l sucrose to increase bulb diameter. The in vitro regenerated bulblets were rooted on MS medium containing different concentrations of IBA (0.25, 0.50, 0.75 and 1.0 mg/l) supplemented with 30 g/l sucrose. A significant increase in number of bulblets and bulb diameter was noted on F. aurea Schott bulbs.

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Published in Scientific Bulletin. Series F. Biotechnologies, Vol. XXI
Written by Ancuţa CRÎNGAŞU (BĂRBIERU)

The development of the winter pea crop represents a major challenge to expand plant protein production in temperate areas. Breeding winter cultivars requires the combination of freezing tolerance as well as high seed productivity and quality. In this paper we present data obtained from the F3 and F4 lines of winter peas from the four hybrid combinations (Specter/F95-927; F98-492/Windham; F95-927/CHECO; Specter/CHECO) obtained in theNARDIFundulea. A number of 121 lines (81 F3 lines and 40 F4 lines descendants from F3) selected from winter/winter and winter/spring crosses pea genotypes, have been tested in two years 2015 and 2016 in the field of NARDI Fundulea. At these lines were determined winter hardiness, earliness, yield and plant height comparing with the winter peas control (Specter, Checo and Windham). The results of this preliminary study suggested that it is possible in the breeding of winter peas to realize, in the same time, a genetic progress for high yield, good level of winter hardiness, plant height and earliness.

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Published in Scientific Bulletin. Series F. Biotechnologies, Vol. XX
Written by Vojislava BURSIĆ, Gorica VUKOVIĆ, Tijana ZEREMSKI, Dušan MARINKOVIĆ, Sonja GVOZDENAC, Aleksandra POPOVIĆ, Aleksandra PETROVIĆ

QuEChERS is an analytical method which simplifies the the sample preparation for pesticide residues. It is the result of the necessity to save the time for sample preparation, to reduce the amount of toxic organic solvents and thereby to contribute to the preservation of the environment. In order to obtain a higher recovery, thus making the analysis results more precise and representative, it is necessary during the extraction to pay particular attention to matrix components which can significantly affect the investigation results. In order to decrease the effect of the present components it is necessary to use the adequate substances – sorbents and to examine how their presence affects the validation parameter. The sour cherry extract, as an exceptionally pigmented matrix, needs the use of a sorbent with a strong affinity towards planar molecules thus causing its discoloration by removing the pigments from the extract. The most frequently used sorbents in QuEChERS method of extract purification are primary secondary amine (PSA), graphitized black carbon sorbent (GCB), C18 and Z-Sep sorbent (silicon dioxide coated by zirconium). The paper deals with a possibility of using active carbon (AC) as a possible sorbent which presents a form of carbon obtained in controlled oxidation processes having a porous structure with spacious active surface which enables it to adsorb a wide range of compounds and pollutants from the extract. By use of AC and QuChERS methods an exceptionally purified colorless extract is obtained. The obtained validation parameters point at a very low recovery of the studied pesticides which is a serious disadvantage of this sorbent while high correlation coefficients (R2>0.99) are obtained with irrelevant matrix effect in the linearity investigation process.

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Published in Scientific Bulletin. Series F. Biotechnologies, Vol. XX
Written by Osman Kadir TOPUZ

Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) a polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) that belongs to the omega-3 fatty acids group. In recent years, omega-3 fatty acids rich oil has attracted much attention because of its recognized beneficial effect on human health. At present, fish oil is the major source of omega-3 fatty acids, but omega-3 fatty acids rich oils can be produced by microalgae with additional commercial benefits. Consumption of omega-3 rich fish oil has been steadily increasing for decades due to their health benefits. Microalgal oil might be the most promising alternative to fish oil, since they are the primary producers of omega-3 fatty acids. Recent advances regarding production of omega-3 fatty acid rich oil from microalgae have been reviewed with an emphasis on the scientific data. At first, description of the omega-3 fatty acids, biosynthesis pathways and their role in the human health is presented. Microalgae are the initial source of omega-3 fatty acids. Microalgae species intensively used in omega-3 fatty acids rich algal oil production and their culturing conditions were reviewed in this paper. The algal oil extraction and refining process are also presented. We present here a review of the most recent advances regarding the production of omega-3 fatty acid rich algal oil from the marine origin microalgae.

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Published in Scientific Bulletin. Series F. Biotechnologies, Vol. XXII
Written by Cătălina STAN (TUDORA), Adriana MUSCALU, Valentin Nicolae VLĂDUȚ, Florentina ISRAEL-ROMING

Using the chemical substances in weed control, diseases and pests, without discernment, has been responsible for environmental damage and human health. For these reasons, in the last years research has intensified its efforts to find alternative agriculture strategies. One of these is represented by the Integrated Weed Management System (IWMS), so that the capacity to combat by natural ways could have a wider and more valuable application. From the multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary point of view approach, some species of agricultural interest are already known for their allelopathic effects and can be used as instruments for weed management, disease and pests. A feasible alternative is represented by the identification of natural substances with allelopathic effects for the production of natural bio pesticides. Research done so far has highlighted the possibility of using volatile / essential oils and hydrosols extracted from medicinal and aromatic plants disproof in controlled environment, such as horticulture (in greenhouses and solariums). The advantage of using such natural compounds is the fast decomposing process in the environment and thus is less harmful and can be applied in organic farming.

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Published in Scientific Bulletin. Series F. Biotechnologies, Vol. XX
Written by Desareda MERO, Ariola BACU

Phytoplasma spread in apple trees in a systemic manner or in certain tissues. The unpredictable spreading complicates the definition of a single detection method and requires the use of alternative ones. In this paper are compared the results obtained in three plantations (Turan, Korce and Bitincke), regarding the amount of DNA extract from apples with results obtained from the use of the DAPI staining method for the detection of the infection from the leaves of the same trees. Sampling pool was 10 out of 100 trees which material from roots, stalks and wood were preserved in dark and cold conditions for 24 hours prior to DNA extraction. DNA was isolated from materials mentioned above and leaves were also analyzed by DAPI staining. The data about the amount of extracted DNA from each sample were used to compare the level of infection from different tissues categories and were related to the intensity of staining with DAPI. Results have indicated that the tissues with the highest presence of Phytoplasma spp. in springtime, based on the amount of detected DNA are stalks; and the collection of Korce has the higher level of infection from all analysed collections. At this collection all sampled categories of tissue are infected, meaning that there is a systemic spreading of the disease, compared to the other collections where infection is located only in certain tissues.

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Published in Scientific Bulletin. Series F. Biotechnologies, Vol. XXII
Written by Ovidiu IORDACHE, Iuliana DUMITRESCU, Elena PERDUM, Elena-Cornelia MITRAN, Ana-Maria Andreea CHIVU

Petrochemical-based packaging materials represent a billion dollar industry that makes possible modern innovations in sustainable packaging design, but with severe footprint on the environment. Currently, polystyrene products take over 30% of worldwide landfill space which represents a real issue as sustainable disposal methods must be pursued, given the fact that polystyrene products are incredibly hard to recycle and biodegrade (approximately 500 years for styrofoam to organically degrade). The paper presents main biotechnological advances regarding mycelium based biomaterials used as sources of renewable protective packaging materials, structural bio-composites, thermal insulation materials, packaging materials, decorative objects etc. Biotechnological processes successfully explore the great potential of Basidiomycetes strains (E.g.: Pleurotus djamor, Pleurotus eryngii, Pleurotus ostreatus,Grifola frondosa, Ganoderma lucidum, Ganoderma oregonense, Lentinula edodes, Agrocybe aegerita, Coprinus comatus etc.) in obtaining mycelium-based novel bio-materials.

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Published in Scientific Bulletin. Series F. Biotechnologies, Vol. XXI
Written by Alina Ioana NICU, Lucia PÎRVU, Adrian VAMANU

Given the growing concern regarding bacterial resistance to antibiotics, it is important to investigate alternative antibacterial compounds, such as phenols and flavones from natural sources. In this context, the aim of the present study was to evaluate the antibacterial activity of two indigenous medicinal plants from Romania against some Gram positive and Gram negative bacteria. Ethanolic extracts (70% v/v) from the aerial parts of Agrimonia eupatoria L. and Epilobium hirsutum L. were obtained, their total phenols content was determined using Folic-Ciocalteau assay as it is described by the Romanian Pharmacopoeia. The qualitative assay of the two ethanolic extracts was done by high performance thin layer chromatography (HPTLC) and their antibacterial activity was assessed using the agar diffusion method and minimum inhibitory concentration determination against four pathogenic bacteria: Escherichia coli ATCC 8739, Pseudomonas aeruginosa ATCC 9027, Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 6538 and Staphylococcus epidermidis ATCC 12228. Our results showed that both extract contain caffeic acid and some of its derivatives, however the flavones content differs: while A. eupatoria contains several quercetin and luteolin derivatives, E. hirsutum is rich in myricetin derivatives. The antibacterial activity tests showed better results against the Gram positive bacteria such as Staphylococcus epidermidis, especially in the case of great willowherb (Epilobium hirsutum L.).

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