Ariola Bacu
University of Tirana, Albania
Title: One-step RT-PCR detection of APMV, ASGV, ACLSV and ASPV at in vivo and in vitro apple plant material from Albania
Submitted Date: 7/15/2015
Biography
Prof.Dr. Ariola Bacu was graduated in Biology from the University of Tirana, Albania in 2003 after having received the MSc in Molecular Biology in 2000 at CIHEAM, Greece. She is the Head of Department of Biotechnology at the Faculty of Natural Sciences, University of Tirana, Albania, since 2008 and former Head of Section of Molecular Biology at the Institute of Biological Research of the Academy of Sciences of Albania. During a 18 years carrier in research and education she has participated in 25 RD projects, at 9 of them as coordinator, and is the author of more than 49 presentations of scientific research, 27 original research papers; Coauthor in 4 monographies; Author of two text-books for students, and supervisor of a number of PhD students. She is the National Representative of Albania at FESPB (Federation of European Societies of Plant Biology) since 2006.
Abstract
Previous preliminary accounts of the presence of stone and pome fruit viruses in Albania based in bioindicators and serological method ELISA have shown a very high infection rate at apple and pear. Considering that four main apple viruses ApMV, ASPV, ACLSV and ASGV can not be distinguished easily based on field symptoms that they are mainly latent, coexist in most of the cases and that many reports classify ELISA as a non-reliable method for their detection we decided to use RT-PCR for the early detection of above mentioned viruses at apple from two important areas of cultivation in Albania respectively from Kukës and Devoll. Fresh leaf material from apple cultivars Golden delicious and Starking were collected from parcels located in Devoll area (collections in Bitincke, Hocisht, Cangonj) and from Kukes during spring 2013 and 2014. Total RNA was extracted according to Lolic, 2007 and was used as template for One-step RT-PCR performed according to HS-RT-PCR Kit of SIGMA using virus specific primers and cycling conditions according to Menzel et al., 2002. Meanwhile, aiming to detect the presence of viruses in bud and seed material of the same origine, the last were used to produce “in vitro†plantlets which were further analysed for the presence of viruses. Results showed that both apple cultivars collected in Kukes and Devoll were infected respectively the first contigent by the four viruses and the second by ApMV and ASGV only. In vitro produced plantlets of seed and bud origine were also infected. The amplicons from apples of Kukes area were of more than one close dimension for each virus suggesting the possible infection by multiple strains at the same time. The viral amplicons from Devolli area were of single dimensions. The amplicon’s concentrations varied from collection to collection and between cultivars; leaf material from both apple cultivars from the station of Bitincke gave major amplicons compared to amplicons from stations of Cangonj and Bitincke; Plantlets grown from either seeds or buds gave amplicons of significantly higher concentration from cultivar Starking compared to Golden delicious; Plantlets grown from seeds had a more concentrated amplicon than those originated from buds. Considering that the reaction conditions and template concentrations were equal, we believe that the concentration of amplicons is proportionate to the infection rate and could be used to monitor the situation in collections even in the absence or unclear situations of mixed field symptoms.
Ching Piao Liu
China University of Science and Technology, Taiwan
Title: Using Pennisetum alopecoider as fermentation substrate for cellulosic-ethanol production
Submitted Date: 7/20/2015
Biography
Ching Piao Liu has completed his PhD from Taiwan University. He is the Chairman of Department of Food Science, China University of Science and Technology. He has published more than 38 papers in reputed journals and has been serving as an Editorial Board Member of repute.
Abstract
This study is done to investigate the bioethanol production from Pennisetum alopecoider powder by using two-stage fermentation co-culturing systems of cellulolytic strain and ethanolic strain. Firstly, we used ethanolic strain WLP041 and the cellulolytic strain Bacillus subtilis for the feasibility of co-culturing two-stage and period. In the two-stage of co-culturing, we found that the maximum ethanol production concentration was 244.7 mg/L. In the period of co-culturing, the maximum ethanol production concentration was 257.9 mg/L. It was proved that the feasibility of period of co-culturing have higher ethanol yield. Secondly, Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Trichoderma sp. were co-cultured with ethanol production and use the immobilized technique. The optimal hardening time of gel beads was 15 min, which has the ability to protect yeast to produce ethanol. The initial culture condition was pH 5~5.6, at 30 ºC and 150 rpm, and got higher ethanol yield. The result showed that in order to increase the ethanol production, the ethanol content was 652.3 mg/L under 10 g/L P. alopecoider powder. The experimental results show that the immobilized yeast for ethanol production, after the third day found the maximum ethanol content is 1,106.9 mg/L. In the other method, the P. alopecoider powder is used in 0.2 M HCl aqueous solution, the shaking time was kept for 60 min, at 100 ºC, which can be hydrolyzed to higher reduce sugar content of the hydrolyzate. The hydrolyzate and acid-treated powder with the period of co-culturing systems produced ethanol, after the third day found that the maximum ethanol production concentration was 1,266 mg/L, which was the highest in this experiment.
