The development biofuels from Lignocellulosic (LC) biomass, which includes a variety of plant feedstocks such as agricultural and forestry residues and dedicated energy crops, is one route to clean and renewable alternatives to petroleum-base fuel. The first step in converting plant biomass to fuels is breaking down cellulose, the most abundant plant cell wall polymer, into fermentable sugars. ...

The Caldariomyces fumago chloroperoxidase (CPO) is synthesised as a 372-aa precursor which undergoes two proteolytic processing events: removal of a 21-aa N-terminal signal peptide and of a 52-aa C-terminal propeptide. The Aspergillus niger expression system developed for CPO was used to get insight into the function of this C-terminal propeptide. A. niger transformants expressing a CPO protein...

Through partial bleaching of both visual pigment extracts and cell suspensions we show that the deep-sea stomiid Malacosteus niger, which produces far red bioluminescence, has two visual pigments within its retina which form a rhodopsin/porphyropsin pigment pair with lambda max values around 520 and 540 nm, but lacks the very longwave sensitive visual pigments (lambda max > 550 nm) observed in ...

Six fungal isolates were selected from the rhizosphere of black pepper (Piper nigrum L.) plants and were tested in vitro for their plant growth promoting (PGP) abilities in the soil. The species of Aspergillus selected were tested for the siderophore production, indole acetic acid (IAA) production, catalase enzyme activity and biological control of pathogens through antagonism. The results indi...

The transformation of ginsenoside Rb1 into a specific minor ginsenoside using Aspergillus niger KCCM 11239, as well as the identification of the transformed products and the pathway via thin layer chromatography and high performance liquid chromatography were evaluated to develop a new biologically active material. The conversion of ginsenoside Rb1 generated Rd, Rg3, Rh2, and compound K althoug...

In 2015, Niger reported the largest epidemic of Neisseria meningitidis serogroup C (NmC) meningitis in sub-Saharan Africa. The NmC epidemic coincided with serogroup W (NmW) cases during the epidemic season, resulting in a total of 9,367 meningococcal cases through June 2015. To clarify the phylogenetic association, genetic evolution, and antibiotic determinants of the meningococcal strains in N...

Invasive aspergillosis typically afflicts immunocompromised patients, whereas pulmonary aspergilloma is a recognized complication of pre-existing cavitary lung disease in immunocompetent hosts. In both cases, the most prevalent pathogens are Aspergillus fumigatus and Aspergillus flavus. We describe a case of fatal hemoptysis from invasive Aspergillus niger infection in the setting of bullous lu...

1 Centre de Recherche Médicale et Sanitaire (CERMES), BP 10887, Niamey, Niger 2 Division des Statistiques, de la Surveillance et de la Riposte aux Epidémies (DSSRE), Ministère de la Santé Publique, BP 623, Niamey, Niger 3 Unité du méningocoque, Centre Collaborateur OMS, Institut de Recherches Biomédicales des Armées, Institut de Médecine Tropicale du Service de Santé des Armées, Parc du Pharo, ...

Purpose Helleborus niger (Ranunculaceae), commonly known as Christmas rose, is used in anthroposophically extended cancer therapy in the adjuvant treatment of different entities and reduction of chemotherapy-associated side effects. Although Helleborus niger is widely used in anthroposophic medicine, there is a lack of scientific clinical and preclinical data and until now it is applied on an e...

α-Galactosidase production by the fungal strains Penicillium chrysogenum LN33 and Aspergillus niger M47 cultivated in shaking and stationary conditions using soya meal extract as nutrient medium was investigated. Submerged shake flask fermentation was preferred over stationary cultivation for P. chrysogenum LN33 as it gave a high α-galactosidase yield (4200U/l). Because of pellet formation the ...