Three alkaline protease producing gram positive, spore forming Streptomyces (J1, J2 and J3) were isolated from alkaline soil (pH range: 9-10) samples collected from Central Soil Salinity Research Institute (C.S.S.R.I), Lucknow. On the basis of halo zone, morphology, texture and microscopic characteristics they were identified as Streptomyces. Further characterization both genetically and phenot...

An alkaline agent, namely food additive grade calcium hydroxide (FdCa (OH)2) in the powder form, was evaluated for its bactericidal efficacies in chicken feces at pH 13. The point for this evaluation was neutralization of the alkaline agent's pH at the time of bacterial recovery, since otherwise the results are substantially misleading. Without neutralization of the FdCa (OH)2 pH, the spiked ba...

Apoptosis was monitored in polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMNs) cultured under mildly acidic, neutral, and alkaline conditions. Within 3 h, 9.0% of the PMNs underwent apoptosis at pH 6.7, as did 12% at pH 7.2, 38% at pH 7.7, and 60% at pH 8.2. Inhibitors of serine proteases, caspase-1, or caspase-3 significantly inhibited PMN apoptosis at pH 8.2, suggesting an involvement by these enzymes.

The ingestion of corrosive agents frequently produces adverse effect on the esophagus and the stomach or on both. Agents of alkaline pH usually result in esophageal injury, and agents of acid pH often cause gastric damage. Squamous epithelium lining the esophagus is sensitive to alkaline agents; however, alkaline agents upon reaching the stomach are rapidly neutralized by the gastric acidity of...

Air quality in Setapak district of Kuala Lumpur was studied by analysing the rainwater chemical composition using ion chromatography method. Twelve sampling sites were selected and 120 rainwater samples were collected in the period of 10 weeks. The results of this study were compared to the earlier published data and the evaluation showed that the NO3 ion concentration increased from 0.41 to 3....

In this study, we have shown the microbial alkaline protease production by using isolated Bacillus subtilis. Bacillus subtilis which produces an extracellular alkaline protease was isolated from meet surface purchased from local Egyptian markets. Maximum enzyme activity was achieved when the bacterium was grown on corn steep liquor (2.0 %, w/v) instead of soybean meal (2 %) followed by casein h...

Compared to studies of water extracts of plants, those utilising alkaline extracts are limited. Both water and alkaline extracts from licorice root were compared regarding their biological activities. Licorice root was successively extracted first with water or alkaline solution (pH 9 or 12), and the alkaline (pH 12.0) extract was further separated into 50% ethanol-soluble and -insoluble fracti...

Bacterial sugar symporters in the Major Facilitator Superfamily (MFS) use the H+ (and in a few cases Na+) electrochemical gradients to achieve active transport of sugar into the cell. Because a number of structures of MFS sugar symporters have been solved recently, molecular insight into the transport mechanism is possible from detailed functional analysis. We present here a comparative electro...

External pH constitutes one of the most important environmental factors that control growth, metabolism and differentiation in microorganisms, including fungi. We have analyzed the effect of external pH on sterigmatocystin biosynthesis in Aspergillus nidulans. It was observed in repeated experiments that alkaline pH, in opposition to acid pH, increased sterigmatocystin production and the transc...

Intracellular pH (pHi) is an important physiologic variable that both reflects and influences cell function. Glial cells are known to alter their functional state in response to a variety of stimuli and accordingly may be expected to display corresponding shifts in pHi. We used fine-tipped, double-barreled, pH-sensitive microelectrodes to continuously monitor pHi in glial cells in vivo from rat...