Diet and habitat overlaps were studied for the leaf monkey (Presbytis rubicunda) and bornean white-bearded gibbons (Hylobates albibarbis) in tropical forest of Cabang Panti Research Station (CPRS), Gunung Palung National Park, West Kalimantan. Systematic data on feeding and ranging behaviour were collected from August 2009 up to February 2010 for the three groups of two sympatric primate species that shared two neighbouring patches. Our results showed that seven types of habitat in CPRS were affected to both primates, particularly in plant utilization for feed and the use of vertical space patterns. If the leaf monkeys were present in the same forest patch, the Bornean white-bearded gibbons showed a reduced within-group dispersal and significantly less foraging time in a given forest patch. This might be due to the bornean white-bearded gibbons were more selective in their diet selection. When fruits were scarce, bornean white-bearded gibbons spent most of their foraging time in many types of forest ecosystem, while leaf monkey foraged within one or two types of forest ecosystem. At this period, diet and habitat overlaps between the two species were low. When the availability of fruits increased, leaf monkeys shifted their foraging range and both species became confined to the forest habitat. Consequently, the overlaps of diets and habitats were increased while the peak was at the end of the fruit season.

Folic acid played an important role in the metabolism of the body. To measure the serum folic acid levels could use the folate binding protein (FBP) from cow’s milk with a technique analogous to ELISA. The aims of this study were to identify characteristics of FBP from cow’s milk and binding capacity of FBP to folic acid and to purify FBP from other whey protein passed through DEAE-cellulose chromatography column. Each of DEAE-cellulose peaks was passed in affinity chromatography column. FBP was released from affinity column with sodium acetate buffer pH 3.5. The purity of obtained FBP was demonstrated by a single spot in SDS-PAGE analysis and the estimated molecular weight of FBP was around 31 kDa. Our study indicated that 1 mol FBP bound 1 mol folic acid. Alkylation with iodoacetic acid decreased the binding capacity of FBP which suggested the presence of a–SH or imidazol group in its active site. The importance of disulfide bridge was proven by decreasing of folate binding capacity of FBP after -mercaptoethanol treatment. In contrary, the folate binding didn need Ca2+ ion, as indicated by EDTA test which gave the same result as control.

Microalgae concentrates (paste) can be used as an alternative feed to replace live microalgae for aquaculture due to its nutritional value and convenience. However, the clumping of cells and negative buoyancy of algae concentrate can affect bivalve culture as bivalves only capture particles in suspension and ingest a certain size range of particles. This study investigated the effect of shaking and blending treatments on the preparation of food suspensions prepared from algae concentrates (Isochrysis and Pavlova). The results indicated that the higher the shaking time (5, 10, and 15 times) or blending time (10, 30, and 60 seconds), the smaller was the diameter of the resulting algae particles. Moreover, the greater the volume of algae concentrate used in preparation, the larger the diameter of algae particles produced. Shaking may be the best option because it is cheaper and simpler. However, all the treatments provided a suitable particle size range for ingestion by bivalves.

Mercury is one of the major pollutant in the environment which is highly toxic. Bioremediation strategies using bacteria have been proposed as an attractive alternative because this is effective, less expensive and more efficient to remove mercury. Brevundimonas sp. HgP1 and Brevundimonas sp. HgP2 were two highly mercury resistant bacteria isolated from a gold mine in Pongkor village with MIC of 575 ppm. The purposes of the research were to study the effect of mercury on bacterial growth and morphological changes of bacterial colony and to measure the ability of bacterial isolates to accumulate Hg2+. The growth was monitored by measuring optical density at 600 nm, whereas accumulation of Hg2+ was measured by mercury vaporation unit. This present studies revealed that the addition of 50 and 100 ppm HgCl2 in Brevundimonas sp. HgP1 resulted in the decreasing of growth rate and the elongation of lag phase in 8 and 16 hours, respectively. The addition of HgCl2 also affected morphological appearance of the bacterial colony to black. Brevundimonas sp. HgP1 accumulated Hg2+ up to 1.09 and 2.7 mg/g dry weight of cells and removed 64.38 and 57.10% Hg2+ from the medium containing 50 and 100 ppm HgCl2, respectively.

Pheretima darnleiensis is a native earthworm of Southeast Asia, India, and Japan. Although it is commonly found in Indonesia, the earthworm has never been studied well. This study was aimed to examine the morphological characters and structure of its several organs for an identification purpose, which is important for the earthworm culture. Earthworms were collected in a plot of 55-150 x 55-150 cm width and 20 cm depth at Bogor Agricultural University in Darmaga and Baranangsiang Campuses by hand sorting method. Examinations were carried out on its external as well as internal characters. The histology of the organs was studied using paraffin method. The observed characters on P. darnleiensis were the presence of prostate gland, one pair of male pores on segment XVIII, a cylindrical body with perichaetine setae, caeca on segment XXVII, copulatory pouches without diverticula and stalked glands, bithecal spermatheca with nephridia, and the first spermathecal pore on segment 4/5. In addition, other characters found on P. darnleiensis were the presence of an annular clitellum on segment XIV-XVI, an epilobus prostomium with open base, approximately 40 single pointed setae on segment XIII, one midventral female pore on segment XIV, one pair of lateroventral male pores on segment XVIII, four pairs of lateroventral spermathecal pores on segment 4/5, 5/6, 6/7, 7/8, and the first middorsal dorsal pore on segment 12/13. The histology of P. darnleiensis showed basic structure as found in other earthworms.

We have isolated 12 yeast isolates from five different rotten fruits by using a yeast glucose chloramphenicol agar (YGCA) medium supplemented with tetracycline. From pre-screening assay, four isolates exhibited higher substrate (glucose-xylose) consumption efficiency in the reaction tube fermentation compared to Saccharomyces cerevisiae dan Saccharomyces ellipsoids as the reference strains. Based on the fermentation process in gooseneck flasks, we observed that two isolates (K and SB) showed high fermentation efficiency both in sole glucose and mixed glucose-xylose substrate. Moreover, isolates K and SB produced relatively identical level of ethanol concentration compared to the reference strains. Isolates H and MP could only produce high levels of ethanol in glucose fermentation, while only half of that amount of ethanol was detected in glucose-xylose fermentation. Isolate K and SB were identified as Pichia kudriavzeevii (100%) based on large sub unit (LSU) ribosomal DNA D1/D2 region.

Two clones of N1 gene derived from isolate A/Dk/Tangerang/Bbalitvet-ACIAR-TE11/2007 (H5N1) exhibit single mismatch of amino acid sequence at position 242 that is threonine and methionine for the clone #3 and #5, respectively. In order to evaluate the effect of the amino acid substitution, these clones were inserted into two different expression vectors that are pEGFP-C1 and pcDNA-3.3 TOPO® TA cloning. Subsequently, the respective recombinant clones were transfected into eukaryotic cells, including CEF, RK13 and VERO using Lipofectamine ‘plus’ reagent. As a result, the clone #3 retaining atypical sequence showed lower expression level rather than the clone #15 in both vectors and all type of cells. The 3D conformational modelling revealed that the mutation occurs in the inner part of glycoprotein embedded within envelope or matrix. Therefore, the missense mutation seems has no effect on the antigenic properties of neuraminidase but this substitution by any means causes lethal mutagenesis in the individual gene expression by reducing level of protein transcript.

Nepenthes spp. (Nepenthaceae) is one of the most popular ornamental plants in Southeast Asia. There are 97 species of Nepenthes to which 64 are found in Indonesia with the center of its diversity located in Borneo. N. x hookeriana was hypothesised to be a natural hybrid between N. ampullaria and N. rafflesiana on the basis of morphological characters. Several variants of each species were also known. This present study aimed to detect the occurrence of hybrid within N. x hookeriana ‘spotted’ and ‘green’ variant using random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) and inter-simple sequence repeats (ISSR). Five RAPD primers and three ISSR primers were used to amplify total DNA genome and produced 83 polymorphic bands ranging in size from 300-1700 bp. Clustering analysis was performed based on RAPD and ISSR profiles using the UPGMA method. The genetic similarity of the combined markers range between 0.30-0.75 indicating a narrow range of genetic similarity among the accessions. Results from cluster analyses suggested that N. x hookeriana was indeed a hybrid between N. ampullaria and N. Rafflesiana, however it was genetically more similar to N. raflessiana.

The aim of this research was to determine the effect of soy germ protein on lipid profile of metabolic syndrome (MetS) patients. Respondents were 30 women with criteria, i.e. blood glucose level > normal, body mass index > 25 kg/m2, hypertriglyceridemia, low cholesterol-HDL level, 40-65 years old, living in Purwokerto, and signed the informed consent. The project was approved by the ethics committee of the Medical Faculty from Gadjah Mada University-Yogyakarta. Respondents were divided into three randomly chosen groups consisting of ten women each. The first, second, and third groups were treated, respectively, with milk enriched soy germ protein plus Zn, milk enriched soy germ protein (without Zn), and placebo for two months. Blood samples were taken at baseline, one and two months after observation. Two months after observation the groups consuming milk enriched with soy germ protein, both with or without Zn, had their level of cholesterol-total decrease from 215.8 to 180.2 mg/dl (P = 0.03), triglyceride from 240.2 to 162.5 mg/dl (P = 0.02), and LDL from 154.01 to 93.85 mg/dl (P = 0.03). In contrast, HDL increased from 38.91 to 49.49 mg/dl (P = 0.0008). In conclusion, soy germ protein can improve lipid profile, thus it can inhibit atherosclerosis incident.

Tempe fermentation involved complex microbial communities which are only revealed partially through culture dependent methods. Culture-independent methods would be potential to unravel this complex microbial fermentation. Appropriate DNA extraction is an essential tool to obtain reliable data from culture independent method. In this study, we employed two commercial DNA extraction methods to find the best one for microbial community characterization employing amplified ribosomal intergenic spacer analysis (ARISA). Our result showed that PowerFood Microbial DNA Isolation Kit-MOBIO (PFMDIK) is an excellent method for microbial DNA extraction from tempe. It gave high quantity and quality of DNA suitable for PCR amplification of 16S-23S rRNA intergenic spacer to yield a diverse and reproducible ARISA profile.