The effect of various macronutrients, micronutrients and sucrose on growth and canthinone alkaloid production in cell suspension cultures of Pasak Bumi (Eurycoma longifolia Jack) was investigated. The optimum macronutrients and micronutrients content for the high alkaloid production of E. longifolia Jack was different to that found in the Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium. The highest amount of alkaloids, 9-hydroxycanthin-6-one and 9-methoxycanthin-6-one, could be obtained from E. longifolia Jack cells cultured in modified MS liquid medium that containing macronutrients: 21.50 mM NH4NO3, 14.25 mM KNO3, 7.50 mM CaCl2·2H2O, 2.50 mM MgSO4·7H2O, 1.45 mM KH2PO4, while content of micronutrients was 0.233 mM FeNa-EDTA, 0.215 mM MnSO4·4H2O and without CuSO4·5H2O. Increased sucrose concentration to 4.00% (w/v) in modified MS liquid medium could increase total of two-alkaloid. The modification of macronutrients and micronutrients concentration based the optimum production of biomass was obtained MSBs medium that producing high biomass but also increasing the production of 9-hydroxycanthin-6-one. The modification of macronutrients or macronutrients and micronutrients based the optimum total of two-alkaloid was obtained MSC and MSD medium that producing low fresh weight but producing the high 9-hydroxycanthin-6-one.

Water contamination with heavy metals, mainly mercury and cyanide (CN) due to small scale of public mines and large scale of industrial mines have been in concern to residents around the area. Surveys of heavy metal contamination in aquatic environments, such as rivers and paddy fields over two gold mine areas in West Jawa were conducted and possible solution of using indigenous plants for phytoremediation was studied. The results showed that most of the rivers and other aquatic environments were affected by gold mine activities. Rivers, ponds, and paddy fields around illegal public mines were mostly contaminated by mercury in considerably high levels, such as paddy fields in two locations (Nunggul and Leuwijamang, Pongkor) were contaminated up to 22.68 and 7.73 ppm of Hg, respectively. Whereas rivers located around large scale industrial mines were contaminated by CN. Possible solution of cleaning up by using green technology of phytoremediation was examined. Some plant species grew in the contaminated sites showed high tolerance and potentially effective in accumulating cyanide or mercury in their roots and above ground portions. Lindernia crustacea (L.) F.M., Digitaria radicosa (Presl) Miq, Paspalum conjugatum, Cyperus kyllingia accumulated 89.13, 50.93, 1.78, and 0.77 ppm of Hg, respectively. Whereas, Paspalum conjugatum, Cyperus kyllingia accumulated 16.52 and 33. 16 ppm of CN respectively.

The flower characteristics of a plant is one of the important traits correlated to its productivity. Study on flower characteristics is useful to understand how to increase the crop productivity. The research was conducted at Agro Techno Park Center, Indonesian State Ministry of Research and Technology, Bakung Village, Ogan Ilir Distric South Sumatra from April 2007 to August 2008. The objective of this research was to evaluate the flower characteristics and the yield of jatropha (Jatropha curcas L.) accessions. The research was arranged in a randomized block design, consisted of fifteen accessions of jatropha, with three replicates. The Jatropha accessions were collected from different agro ecosystems located in Sumatra, Java, and Borneo. The results indicated that the evaluated accessions have significant differences in the flower characteristic and the yields. The ratio male–female flower is the most important character for J. curcas L. because it has a significant correlation to the yield.

Leucadendron (Proteaceae) is a South African genus, the flowers of which have become a popular item in the Australian cut-flower industry. All species are dioecious. In general the female flowers are the more desirable as cut flowers. The availability of a molecular marker linked to sex determination is therefore needed both to maximize the efficiency of breeding programs and to supply markets with flowers from the preferred sex. The polymerase chain reaction-based method of suppression subtractive hybridization (SSH) combined with mirror orientation selection (MOS) were applied in an attempt to identify genome differences between male and female plants of Leucadendron discolor. Screening of 416 clones from a male-subtracted genomic DNA library and 282 clones from a female-subtracted library identified 13 candidates for male-specific genomic fragments. Sequence analyses of the 13 candidate DNA fragments showed that they were fragments of the chloroplast DNA, raising the possibility that chloroplast DNA copy number is linked to sex determination in Leucadendron.

Pliek u obtained by traditionally fermentation of coconut meat is a potential source of antimicrobial compounds. This research was aimed to detect of their active compounds by bioautographic method and to analyze their chemical composition by GC-MS. For this purposes, pliek u was extracted with ethanol 96% to get crude ethanol extract of pliek u (EEP) and to get ethanol extract of residual pliek u (EERP) which was previously extracted by hexane. Crude EEP was separated into four bioautographic spots with different Rfs (0.93, 0.71, 0.19, and 0.10) which were all shown to be active against Staphyloccoccus aureus. Similar result was shown by EERP, but only resulted three bioautographic spots (Rfs 0.77, 0.63, and 0.4). Crude EEP consisted of 22 components representing 99.98% with fatty acids, ester, alcohol as major constituents and aliphatic hydrocarbon. EERP consisted of 9 components representing 99.80% with alcohol as major constituents and fatty acids, ester, 4-Dibenzofuramine and amine as minor constituents. The present of many active compounds in pliek u supports the use of pliek u as spice to improve the quality of food and encourages further studies to determine those active compounds.

Intrageneric diversity of 556 streptomycetes isolated from the rhizosphere of tropical legume was determined by using molecular taxonomic method based on 16S rDNA. A total of 46 isolates were taken to represent 37 colour groups of the isolates. 16S rDNA were amplified and subsequently sequenced and the sequences data were aligned with streptomycete sequences retrieved from the ribosomal data base project (RDP) data. Phylogenetic trees were generated by using the PHYLIP software package and the matrix of nucleotide similarity and nucleotide difference were generated by using PHYDIT software. The results confirmed and extended the value of 16S rDNA sequencing in streptomycete systematic. The 16S rDNA sequence data showed that most of the tested colour group representatives formed new centers of taxonomic variation within the genus Streptomyces. The generic assignment of these organisms was underpinned by 16S rDNA sequence data which also suggested that most of the strains represented new centers of taxonomic variation. The taxonomic data indicate that diverse populations of streptomycetes are associated with the roots of tropical legume (P. falcataria). Therefore, the combination of selective isolation and molecular taxonomic procedures used in this study provide a powerful way of uncovering new centers of taxonomic variation within the genus Streptomyces.

Land with low pH soil spread widely in Indonesia can be used for soybean (Glycine max) cultivation, although the production is low. The use of acid tolerant soybean and acid-Al tolerant nitrogen-fixing bacteria was an alternative way to increase soybean productivity on acid soils. This research was conducted to study the influence of acid-Al tolerant Bradyrhizobium japonicum on growth of Slamet cultivar soybean planted on acid soils in greenhouse. Three strains of acid-Al tolerant B. japonicum, i.e. BJ 11 (19), BJ 11 (5), and BJ 11 (wt), were used in this experiment. The result showed that inoculation of all acid-Al tolerant B. japonicum strains could increase plant height, shoot and root weight, number of flowers, pods, seeds, seeds dry weight, and shoot and seed nitrogen content.

Koi herpesvirus (KHV) caused significant morbidity and mortality in koi and common carp. KHV which showed strong antigenic property implied that KHV virion or proteins may be used as antigen to raise antibody or vaccine to increase the resistance. The objectives of this research were to (i) clone KHV membrane protein ORF2, (ii) analysis on immunogenicity, and (iii) genetic tracing. Based on genbank data, one pair of primers was designed to amplify KHV ORF2. The KHV ORF2 can be amplified using infected fish DNA which originally from Toba Lake, Sumatera, Indonesia. The KHV ORF2 composed of 699 nucleotides encoded for 292 amino acids. BLAST analysis showed that KHV ORF2 had 100% homology with KHV-J and KHV0301 strains from Japan; 98 and 91% homology on nucleotides and amino acids respectively with both KHV-U strain from Unites State and KHV-I strain from Israel. KHV in Indonesia was most likely to have originated from Japan via spreading directly or not directly to China or Hongkong. Based on T- and B-cell epitopes prediction, membrane protein ORF2 was proposed has a potency to be used in development vaccine and immunodetection.

The yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae HIS6 gene has been shown to be functional as a selectable marker for selecting and maintaining a yeast vector in yeast S. cerevisiae host cells. The yeast HIS6 gene encodes an enzyme involved in the yeast histidine biosynthesis. The yeast HIS6 gene was cloned into a yeast expression vector. The resultant recombinant plasmid was introduced into yeast host cells defective in endogenous HIS6 gene. The functionality of the HIS6 gene as a selectable marker was tested by growing transformed cells on selective minimum medium lacking histidine supplementation.