This study evaluated the effects on viral immune responses and bacterial co-infection, of different feeding frequencies of a synbiotic supplemented diet given to Pacific white shrimp (L. vannamei). A synbiotic-supplemented diet was formulated from probiotic Vibrio alginolitycus SKT-bR and prebiotics from sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas L.) oligosaccharide. Pacific white shrimp were fed with synbiotic diet at different frequencies, i.e. daily (P1), twice a week (P2), and once a week (P3) for a 30 day pre-challenge test. After the 30 day feeding period, the shrimps were challenged by intramuscular injection of Infectious Myonecrosis Virus (IMNV) and Vibrio harveyi. The results showed that shrimp treated with a synbiotic-supplemented diet showed significantly higher growth performance than control groups (P<0.05). Shrimp treated under regime P1 showed the highest values for phenoloxidase (PO) and respiratory burst (RB) parameters compared to shrimp given with other treatments. Following the challenge test, higher survival rate were seen in the P1 treatment group, in comparison to the positive control, and the P1 treatment group showed the highest values in total haemocyte count (THC), PO, and RB.

Endophytic fungi have been known to produce a broad range of biologically active secondary metabolites. One endophytic filamentous fungus, Coelomycetes AFKR-18, isolated from the young stems of a yellow moonsheed plant, Arcangelisia flava, has been found to produce pachybasin when placed in a liquid medium. The chemical structure of pachybasin was deduced from MS, 1D-, 2D-NMR spectrum analysis, and from reference data. On a micro-dilution test, pachybasin showed antimicrobial activities against E. coli, B. subtilis, M. luteus, S. cerevisiae, C. albicans, A. niger, and A. flavus, with MIC values of 64.0 μg/mL, and against S. aureus and F. oxysporum with MIC values of 32.0 and 16.0 μg/mL respectively.

Post-translational protein import into organelles is an important process to maintain cellular functions. During preprotein transport in the cytosol, chaperones, such as heat shock protein 70 (Hsp70) and heat shock protein 90 (Hsp90), are functioning to prevent aggregation and to maintain the correct protein folding of preproteins. This research was conducted in order to understand the chaperone-mediated, post-translational import of preproteins into the endoplasmic reticulum of Arabidopsis thaliana. AtTPR7 (Arabidopsis thaliana Tetratrico Peptide Repeat 7) is found in the endoplasmic reticulum and contains TPR domain, which mediates protein interaction with cytosolic Hsp70 and Hsp90. In this study, recombinant AtTPR7 was expressed in E. coli BL21 (DE3)-RIPL cells and purified using an N-terminal His-tag. In order to study the interactions of the protein with the chaperones, we used pulldown and Western blot assays. We could thereby show that the N-terminally His-tagged AtTPR7 protein interacted with Hsp70 and Hsp90.

Native Papuans are relied on hunting for subsistence purposes and significantly contributed to traditional cultures. However, in Papua information on hunting is limited and largely restricted to anthropological setting with most observations were done on the forest sites in lowland and highland landscapes. This study focuses on the contribution of hunting on food security along the coastal forests at the Bird's Head Peninsula. Do people live near coastal sites mostly rely on marine resources as protein source? We gathered data on hunting by the majority of Karon ethnic group in the Abun district of Tambrauw Regency at the Bird's Head Peninsula of Papua, Indonesia. We used information from in-depth interviews with hunters and households meal survey at four villages of Abun: Waibem, Wau, Warmandi and Saubeba. Reasons for hunting were varies among respondents but mostly conducted for trade. Six species of mammals and three birds were commonly hunted by using six different hunting techniques. Wild pig and rusa deer were the major targets in hunting to meet the demand of meat for both trading and household consumption. Meals containing wildmeat was the most consumed meal, greater than meals containing fish, animal products and vegetables, and noodles.

Endophytic fungi is a rich source of novel organic compounds with interesting biological activities and a high level of structural diversity. As a part of our systematic search for new bioactive lead structures and specific profiles from endophytic fungi, an endophytic fungus was isolated from roots of brotowali (Tinaspora crispa), an important medicinal plant. Colonial morphological trait and microscopic observation revealed that the endophytic fungus was Trichoderma sp. The pure fungal strain was cultivated on 7 L Potatos Dextose Broth (PDB) medium under room temperature (no shaking) for 8 weeks. The ethyl acetate were added to cultur medium and left overnight to stop cell growth. The culture filtrates were collected and extracted with EtOAc and then taken to evaporation. Two new lactone derivatives, 5-hydroxy-4-hydroxymethyl-2H-pyran-2-one (1) and (5-hydroxy-2-oxo-2H pyran-4-yl) methyl acetate (2) were obtained from the EtOAc extracts of Trichoderma sp. Their structures were determined on the basic of spectroscopic methods including UV, IR, 1H-NMR, 13C-NMR, HMQC, and HMBC.

Musa balbisiana Colla, known as Pisang Klutuk/Pisang Batu, is important for banana breeding program due to its B genome and often considered to be resistant to pest, disease and drought. Banana is a big and tall herb up to 7-9 m in height. The study was conducted to assess genetic diversity of 21 accessions of M. balbisiana cultivars/varieties from Indonesia based on Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphism (AFLP) markers in order to provide basic information to support banana breeding program. Analyses of similarity index of Nei and Li and clustering based on UPGMA was conducted using NTSYS program. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was conducted by MINITAB 14. Twenty two primer pairs of AFLP markers produced 485 AFLP bands varying from 51-3206 bp in size and 46.18% of the AFLP bands were polymorphic. Genetic diversity among the 21 accessions of M. balbisiana was 13.8%. The genetic diversity of wild M. balbisiana was 12.9%, higher than the genetic diversity of cultivated M. balbisiana which was 11.5%. Cluster analysis based on UPGMA suggested that wild M. balbisiana and cultivated M. balbisiana could not be separated into different clusters. Both cluster analysis and PCA produced the same three groups of the accessions. The PCA analyses showed that 17 AFLP bands were responsible for the grouping.

The main objective of this research was to diversify the utilization of corn as commercial commodity by a corn-based new product development in the form of yoghurt. The first step was carried out to make corn yoghurt with the addition of fresh milk into heated corn extract using mixture starter of Lactobacillus delbruekii, Streptococcus salivarus, and Lactobacillus casei and the best formulation was determined through hedonic evaluation along with weighing method. The selected formulation from this step was corn extract with the addition of 50% fresh milk. The corn extract was produced from corn kernels that were blended and mixed with water in ratio of 3:1, the mixture was further heated and concentrated until the total volume remained 2/3. Afterwards, this selected formulation was added with sugar and full cream milk powder. The hedonic evaluation results showed that the mixture with 10% sugar and 5% full cream milk powder addition possessed the highest score. Lastly, the selected formulation was observed for physical, microbiological, and chemical assay during 4 weeks period. The ultimate observation concluded that the product could be classified as probiotics with total lactic acid bacteria reached 1.5 × 109 CFU/ml with medium fat content (1.8%).

Captive breeding of endangered species is often difficult, and may be hampered by many factors. Sexual monomorphism, in which males and females are not easily distinguishable, is one such factor and is a common problem in captive breeding of many avian and reptile species. Species-specific nuclear DNA markers, recently developed to identify portions of sex chromosomes, were employed in this study for sex determination of Komodo dragons (Varanus Komodoensis). Each animal was uniquely tagged using a passive integrated micro-transponder (TROVAN 100A type transponders of 13 mm in length and 2 mm in diameter). The sex of a total of 81 individual Komodo dragons (44 samples from Ragunan zoo, 26 samples from Surabaya zoo, and 11 samples from Gembira Loka zoo) were determined using primers Ksex 1for and Ksex 3rev. A series of preliminary PCR amplifications were conducted using DNA from individuals of known sex. During these preliminary tests, researchers varied the annealing temperatures, number of cycles, and concentrations of reagents, in order to identify the best protocol for sex determination using our sample set. We thus developed our own PCR protocol for this study, which resulted in the amplification of band A in females and band C in males. Results from band B, however, turned out to be non-determinative in our study because, for females, band B was not always visible, and for males sometimes a similar, but lighter band was also amplified, making interpretation difficult. In this study, sex determination was based mainly on the difference in size between the female-specific 812 bp fragment and the homologous, longer fragment amplified for males.

Endophytic fungi is a rich source of novel organic compounds with interesting biological activities and a high level of structural diversity. As a part of our systematic search for new bioactive lead structures and specific profiles from endophytic fungi, an endophytic fungus was isolated from roots of brotowali (Tinaspora crispa), an important medicinal plant. Colonial morphological trait and microscopic observation revealed that the endophytic fungus was Trichoderma sp. The pure fungal strain was cultivated on 7 L Potatos Dextose Broth (PDB) medium under room temperature (no shaking) for 8 weeks. The ethyl acetate were added to cultur medium and left overnight to stop cell growth. The culture filtrates were collected and extracted with EtOAc and then taken to evaporation. Two new lactone derivatives, 5-hydroxy-4-hydroxymethyl-2H-pyran-2-one (1) and (5-hydroxy-2-oxo-2H pyran-4-yl) methyl acetate (2) were obtained from the EtOAc extracts of Trichoderma sp. Their structures were determined on the basic of spectroscopic methods including UV, IR, 1H-NMR, 13C-NMR, HMQC, and HMBC.

Natural cavities in polyculture plantations are important for the conservation of honeybees. This study was aimed to determine the diversity, nest sizes, and fluctuations in the use of sites for nesting by Apis cerana Fabr. in polyculture plantations in two altitudes in West Sumatra. A census method was used to obtain the data variables in 10 plantations (five locations for each altitute). Polyculture plantations used as the study sites were dominated by coconut in lowland areas and coffee in highland areas. The results showed that nesting sites of Apis cerana were found amongst 18 species of plants belonging to 15 families (12 species in lowlands and seven species in highlands). Most of the nests were placed on Cocos nucifera (coconut) trees in lowland sites, and on Erythria variegata (dadap) in highland sites. Nests were also found to be located mostly in the cavities of trees with diameter 21-60 cm. Nest entrances were located at 228.31 cm above ground surface (ags) in highland and at 116.04 cm ags in lowlands. The nest entrances in highlands measured 12.21 by 3.73 cm (height and width), and in the lowlands 14.93 by 7.36 cm. The percentage of tree cavities used for nesting was statically higher in lowland (40.73%) compared to high land (17.86%), but it fluctuated very slightly in both high or lowland areas during observation. The percentage of trees with nests decreased in December and January but increased in February, with the same patterns found in both high and lowlands. Our research suggests that higher tree diversity in polyculture plantations promotes increased use by honeybees for nesting. Thus, the more tree diversity in polyculture plantations the better it could conserve natural honey bees populations.