BIOTECHNOLOGY

Parasporin, a novel protein with a unique cytocidal activity, was first discovered from Non-Insecticidal Bacillus thuringiensis by Mizuki et al. . The term parasporin is defined as "Bacillus thuringiensis and related bacterial parasporal proteins that are non-hemolytic but capable of preferentially killing cancer cells". The whole idea came from the view that, it has been well established that Non-insecticidal B. thuringiensis strains are more widely distributed than insecticidal ones, and which raises a question whether such non-insecticidal inclusions have any biological activity which is as yet undiscovered. And astoundingly on the road to find the answer a strong cytocidal protein has been discovered which have activities against human cancer cells. The proteins were heterogeneous in cytotoxicity spectra Source: a. http://parasporin.fitc.pref.fukuoka.jp/index.html b. Parasporin, a Human Leukemic Cell-Recognizing Parasporal Protein of Bacillus thuringiensis,  ...

Researchers from Exeter University,  UK  has  developed  a genetically modified strain of  E. coli  bacteria which can convert sugar into oil that is almost identical to conventional diesel.  The engineered  E. coli  used genetic code from the insect pathogen  Photorhabdus luminescens  and from the cyanobacterium  Nostoc punctiforme  as well as soil microbe  Bacillus subtilis  to make the fuel molecules from fatty acids, along with a gene from the camphor tree— Cinamomum camphora —to cut the resulting hydrocarbon to the right length. Professor John Love, a synthetic biologist from the University of Exeter, said: "Rather than making a replacement fuel like some  bio-fuels   we have made a substitute fossil fuel. This  research work  is published in Applied Biological Sciences, PNAS  ( http://www.pnas.org/content/110/19/7636.full.pdf+html ) Synthesis of customized petr...