Background: The microbial production of substances that have the potency to suppress the growth of other microorganisms is probably one of the prevalent defense strategy developed in nature, microorganisms produce a variable bunch of microbial defense systems, which include antibiotics, metabolic by-products, lytic agents, bacteriocins and others. Objective: The purpose of the present study was to isolate and identify Enterococcus faecium isolates then detecting its ability of carrying the gene responsible for enterocin production in this species. Materials and methods: Out of 50 samples from different sources (food and clinical sources) were collected for the Enterococcus faecium isolation, and the isolated bacteria Enterococ

In this work, chemical and thermal treatment were used to enhance silica extract on the purity of rice husk and to reduce the impurities associated with the extraction of silica. The thermal degradation of rice husk was studied. The characteristics and thermal degradation behavior of rice husk which investigated using thermogravimetric analyzer (TGA). Hydrochloric acid was used to soak the rice husk and the study of leaching influence is followed by XRF tests for samples before and after the combustion process. Acid treatment and combustion method seem to have a clear effect on silica purity. The pyrolysis processes were carried out at Laboratory temperature up to 650 oC in the presence of nitrogen gas flowing at 150 ml/min. The effect o

         The emergence of staphylococci, either coagulase negative (CNS) or coagulase positive (CPS), as important human pathogens has implied that reliable methods for their identification are of large significance in understanding the diseases caused by them. The identification and characterization of staphylococci from biopsies taken from human breast tumors is reported here. Out of 32 tissue biopsies, a total of 12 suspected staphylococci grew on mannitol salt agar (MSA) medium, including 7 fermenters and 5 non-fermenter staphylococci based on traditional laboratory methods. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) successfully identified seven isolates at the genus level as methicillin resistant St

In this work, silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) were biosynthesized from leaves of Ziziphus mauritiana Lam. jujube plant in Iraq and tested against fungal pathogens. Extract of leaves of Z. mauritiana mixed with 10-3 M AgNO3exposed to slight sunlight for 3 days. Characterization of AgNPs was done using UV-visible spectroscopy, SPM (scanning probe microscopy) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). The change of solution color from pale brown to dark brown and the exhibited maximum peak at 445 nm accepted as an indicator to biosynthesized AgNPs. Aqueous extract of Ziziphus mauritiana is considered as biological reduced and stabilized agent for Ag+ to Ag0. AFM showed the formation of irregular shapes of AgNPs. The biosynthesized silver nanoparticles ha

An experiment was conducted using pots (capacity of 4 kg soil/pot) in the glasshouse of Biology Dept. College of Education (Ibn Al-Haitham) University of Baghdad during 2008-2009 growing season, in order to determine the effect of different levels of urea fertilizer (Zero, 0.1, 0.2, 0.4 gm/4 kg soil in pot) these equal to (Zero, 100,200,400 kg/ha) and different levels of superphosphate fertilizer (Zero, 0.1, 0.2 gm/4kg soil in pot), these equal to (Zero, 100,200 kg/ha) on some morphological and physiological characteristics of fenugreek plant. This experiment was conducted using Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with three replications and the experiment included (36) pots. Results indicated clear increase in all studied characteristics wi

Production and characterization of methionine γ- lyase from Pseudomonas putida and its effect on cancer cell lines

Salmonellosis in poultry is one of the most significant bacterial infections causing mortality, reduced production, and serious economic losses. This study aimed to study the molecular diversity among Salmonella isolates and investigate the epidemiological spread of these bacteria in broiler and layer chicken flocks in five different farms in Karbala, Iraq, using random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) polymerase chain reaction (PCR). In total, 217 cloac a swabs were collected from the farms, out of which 129 and 88 swabs were taken from broiler and layer chickens. The samples were screened by PCR for S. enterica subsp. enterica using primers specific for the invA gene. Afterward, RAPD-PCR with uniplex or multiplex octamer primers was appli