In the Sub-Saharan African region of the River Niger Basin, where none of the major rivers is fully contained within the borders of a single nation, riverine ecosystem health monitoring is essential for survival. Even the globally proclaimed goals of sustainability and environmental security in the region are unattainable without using geospatial technologies of remote sensing and Geographic In...

Chitinous material was extracted from mycelia of Aspergillus niger and Mucor rouxii grown in yeast peptone dextrose broth for 15 and 21 days, respectively. The extracted material was characterized for purity, degree of acetylation, and crystallinity and tested for antibacterial and eliciting properties. The maximum glucosamine level determined in the mycelium of A. niger was 11.10% dw and in th...

Celiac disease is a T cell-driven intolerance to wheat gluten. The gluten-derived T cell epitopes are proline-rich and thereby highly resistant to proteolytic degradation within the gastrointestinal tract. Oral supplementation with prolyl oligopeptidases has therefore been proposed as a potential therapeutic approach. The enzymes studied, however, have limitations as they are irreversibly inact...

poverty is the most serious threat to natural resources and the environment and most of the poor are rural-based who engage in various agricultural activities. land is a critical asset for the rural poor and lacking means to appropriately intensify agriculture which compels the poor to either overuse or misuse this natural resource base to meet basic needs. this study presents empirical relatio...

background otomycosis is a superficial fungal infection often involves the pinna and external auditory canal. it is a pathologic condition, with candida and aspergillus, the most common fungal species. it is common worldwide but more prevalent in tropical and subtropical countries results otomycosis was diagnosed in 129 cases (92%, 76 male, 53 female) with the highest prevalence of cases occurr...

In Niger, the epidemiological situation regarding foot-and-mouth disease is unclear as many outbreaks are unreported. This study aimed (i) to identify Foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) strains currently circulating in cattle herds, and (ii) to identify risk factors associated with Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD)-seropositive animals in clinical outbreaks. Epithelial tissues (n = 25) and sera (n ...

Transcription of two unfolded protein response genes, hacA and bipA, was examined in Aspergillus niger strains overproducing membrane proteins. Despite elevated bipA mRNA levels, no 5'-truncated hacA transcript was detected, raising the possibility of a hacA-independent induction of bipA mRNA under the stress of membrane protein overproduction in A. niger.

Aspergillus niger secretes three glycosylated glycosyl hydrolases which are involved in degradation of the plant cell wall polysaccharide L-arabinan: alpha-L-arabinofuranosidases (ABF) A and B, and endo-1,5-alpha-L-arabinase (ABN) A. The nucleotide sequence of the previously cloned gene encoding ABF A (abfA) from A. niger was determined. The coding region contains seven introns. Mature ABF A co...

The faeB gene encoding a second feruloyl esterase from Aspergillus niger has been cloned and characterized. It consists of an open reading frame of 1644 bp containing one intron. The gene encodes a protein of 521 amino acids that has sequence similarity to that of an Aspergillus oryzae tannase. However, the encoded enzyme, feruloyl esterase B (FAEB), does not have tannase activity. Comparison o...