ABSTRACT
Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) are biopolymers that are produced within the microbial cells in the presence of excess carbon and nutrient limitation. Different strategies have been studied to increase the quality and quantity of this biopolymer which in turn can be utilized as biodegradable polymers replacing conventional petrochemical plastics. In the present study, Bacillus endophyticus, a gram-positive PHA-producing bacterium, was cultivated in the presence of fatty acids along with beta-oxidation inhibitor acrylic acid. A novel approach for incorporating different hydroxyacyl groups provided using fatty acids as co-substrate and beta-oxidation inhibitors to direct the intermediates to co-polymer synthesis was experimented. It was observed that higher fatty acids and inhibitors had a greater influence on PHA production. The addition of acrylic acid along with propionic acid had a positive impact, giving 56.49% of PHA along with sucrose which was 1.2-fold more than the control devoid of fatty acids and inhibitors. Along with the copolymer production, the possible PHA pathway functional leading to the copolymer biosynthesis was hypothetically interpreted in this study. The obtained PHA was analyzed by FTIR and 1H NMR to confirm the copolymer production, which indicated the presence of poly3hydroxybutyrate-co-hydroxyvalerate (PHB-co-PHV), poly3hydroxybutyrate-co-hydroxyhexanoate (PHB-co-PHx).
ABSTRACT
The life cycle of the Herpes simplex virus starts with attachment to the host cell, injection of the nucleocapsid into the cytoplasm, replication, transcription and viral protein production, and finally, the assembly of the mature virion nucleopcapsid. The assembled nucleocapsid exits the host nucleus and gains a tegument layer bound within a bilayer of membrane phospholipid. The packaged virion particle then exits the host cell. The interaction of the (Deoxyribonucleic acid) DNA packaging complex- terminase, present on the mature viral nucleocapsid, with other proteins involved in nuclear egress and cytoplasmic tegumentation has led to the proposal of the model by which the terminase complex may be involved in these two events. The role of terminase complex in Herpes Simplex Virus (HSV) genomic DNA encapsidation into the capsid is previously established, but the role of the terminase subunits post DNA packaging remains unclear. The current review provides a model by which the terminase complex may have a role to play in the events of nuclear egress and secondary envelopment.
