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It is difficult to observe plant tissue sections transformed using the agroinfiltration method under a fluorescent microscope. This is due to the softness of the post‐transformation plant. This research was conducted to optimize the sectioning of tobacco stems transformed through the agarose embedding technique. Optimization was conducted at various agarose concentrations: 2%, 4%, and 6%, followed by five minutes of incubation at various temperatures: –80 °C, 4 °C, and 25 °C. The stems were then cut using a scalpel and examined under a fluorescence microscope. The results showed that the embedding method using 6% agarose was more effective at producing a tobacco stem section than 2% or 4% agarose. Meanwhile, incubation at 25 °C was better suited to the transformed tobacco stems than at 4 °C or –80 °C. Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP) could be determined under a fluorescent microscope when using the optimum method. Thus, the optimum method for creating sections of transformed tobacco stems by embedding was to use 6% agarose followed by incubation at 25 °C for 5 min. The optimum result can be applied to obtain a slight section of tobacco stem in order to observe a recombinant protein or other anatomical structures.

Bioinformatics has developed into an application tool for basic and applied research in the biomedical and biotechnology field. Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) is a common technique in the molecular area that has always involved bioinformatics science. PCR cloning techniques such as TA cloning and PCR-mediated cloning exhibit complex processes with low success rates. One easy, effective, and practical solution is to use a mega-primer with the Overlap Extension PCR Cloning (OEPC) technique. The success of PCR cloning using the mega-primer design in the OEPC technique is strongly influenced by the characteristics of the mega-primer used. Knowledge of mega-primer characteristics is one of the important factors in the success of PCR cloning. The design process for the mega-primer str promoter was characterized based on the principle of a genetic algorithm using the web-based bioinformatics tools such as ClustalW, NetPrimer, and BLAST. The success of the mega-primer construction in producing recombinant pSB1C3 vector has been confirmed by the sequencing method and the function of the reporting protein (AmilCP). DNA analysis shows a 100 % homologous sequence on the str promoter, while E. coli colonies successfully express the purplish-blue color. Mega-primer characters can save costs and time of the research by maintaining the primer parameters that provide optimal values and increase the success value of PCR cloning via bioinformatics software. Hence, implications on biological problems, especially using DNA and amino acid sequences, could solve rapidly.

Ectoine is one of the compatible organic molecules that can protect the protein from heating, freezing, and chemicals contact. This study aims to investigate the ability of ectoine to stabilize lipase on heating and in methanol treatments as an effort to provide a stable biocatalyst for the production of biodiesel. Various ectoine concentrations were added to lipase solutions, then the mixture was heated, and the residual activity of the lipase was determined. Similar steps were also conducted for methanol treatment. The results showed that ectoine maintained and even improved the catalytic activity of lipase after treatment with either heat or methanol. The addition of ectoine to a final concentration of 110 to 150 mM could maintain lipase activity up to 80% when heating to approximately 95 °C. Additionally, more than 20% of lipase activity increased on heating to temperatures below 75 °C in the presence of ectoine at a final concentration of 25 to 120 mM. Meanwhile, after incubation in methanol at a level of around 84% (v/v), the activity of lipase containing 40–90 mM ectoine was maintained. These results demonstrated that ectoine was highly effective in protecting lipase from heat and methanol.

Purpose: The low content of artemisinin related to the biosynthetic pathway is influenced by the role of certain enzymes in the formation of artemisinin. The regulation of genes involved in artemisinin biosynthesis through genetic engineering is a choice to enhance the content. This research aims to transform ads and p19 gene as an antisilencing into Artemisia annua and to see their effects on artemisinin production. Methods: The presence of p19 and ads genes was confirmed through polymerase chain reaction (PCR) products and sequencing analysis. The plasmids, which contain ads and/or p19 genes, were transformed into Agrobacterium tumefaciens, and then inserted into leaves and hairy roots of A. annua by vacuum and syringe infiltration methods. The successful transformation was checked through the GUS histochemical test and the PCR analysis. Artemisinin levels were measured using HPLC. Results: The percentages of the blue area on leaves by using vacuum and syringe infiltration method and on hairy roots were up to 98, 92.55%, and 99.00% respectively. The ads-p19 sample contained a higher level of artemisinin (0.18%) compared to other samples. Transformed hairy root with co-transformation of ads-p19 contained 0.095% artemisinin, where no artemisinin was found in the control hairy root. The transformation of ads and p19 genes into A. annua plant has been successfully done and could enhance the artemisinin content on the transformed leaves with ads-p19 up to 2.57 folds compared to the untransformed leaves, while for p19, cotransformed and ads were up to 2.25, 1.29, and 1.14 folds respectively. Conclusion: Antisilencing p19 gene could enhance the transformation efficiency of ads and artemisinin level in A. annua.

Black soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] produces isoflavones as secondary metabolites, which have many benefits for human health and plant defense system. Expression profiling can guide potential work in functional genomics of the isoflavone biosynthesis pathway. Previous studies showed the vital role of the CHS8, CHI1A, and IFS2 genes in isoflavone biosynthesis. However, expression profiling of these genes in the local black soybean varieties is still limited. This study investigated the gene expression levels of the CHS8, CHI1A, IFS2, and CHR genes in local varieties, namely, UP106 (high isoflavone) and UP122 (low isoflavone) and its progenies, i.e., UP106xUP122 and UP122xUP106. Relative gene expression profiling was conducted on the basis of Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT‐PCR) with ACT2/7 as a housekeeping gene. As a result, the expression level of CHS8 in UP122 is lower than that in UP106. No significant difference in the expression level of CHI1A was observed in all samples. The expression levels of CHS8 and CHI1A in both progenies were higher than that in the parental line, whereas the expression levels of IFS2 in both progenies were lower than that in the parental line. CHS8 and IFS2 expression from UP106xUP122 was higher than that from UP122xUP106, whereas CHI1A expression from UP122xUP106 was higher than that from UP106xUP122. CHR showed a high expression in the reciprocal cross; however, this expression did not exceed from UP106. In conclusion, the crossing between parental lines did not affect the gene expression level in the isoflavone biosynthesis pathway.

Abstract Rhamnolipid is a potent biodegradable surfactant, which frequently used in pharmaceutical and environmental industries, such as enhanced oil recovery and bioremediation. This study aims to engineer Escherichia coli for the heterologous host production of rhamnolipid, to characterize the rhamnolipid product, and to optimize the production using autoinduction medium and POME (palm oil mill effluent). The construction of genes involved in rhamnolipid biosynthesis was designed in two plasmids, pPM RHLAB (mono-rhamnolipid production plasmid) and pPM RHLABC (di-rhamnolipid production plasmid). The characterization of rhamnolipid congeners and activity using high-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) and critical micelle concentration (CMC). In order to estimate rhamnolipid yield, an oil spreading test was performed. HRMS and CMC result show E. coli pPM RHLAB mainly produced mono-rhamnolipid (Rha-C14:2) with 900 mg/L and 35.4 mN/m of CMC and surface tension value, whereas E. coli pPM RHLABC mainly produced di-rhamnolipid (Rha-Rha-C10) with 300 mg/L and 34.3 mN/m of CMC and surface tension value, respectively. The optimum condition to produce rhamnolipid was at 20 h cultivation time, 37 oC, and pH 7. In this condition, the maximum rhamnolipid yield of 1245.68 mg/L using autoinduction medium and 318.42 mg/L using 20% (v/v) of POME. In conclusion, the characteristics of the rhamnolipid by recombinant E. coli is very promising to be used in industries as the most economical way of producing rhamnolipid.

Reducing oxidative species to non- or less-reactive matter is the principal function of an antioxidant. Plant-based food is the main external source of antioxidants that helps protect our cells from oxidative damage. During postharvest storage and distribution, fruits and vegetables often increase ROS production that is quenched by depleting their antioxidant pools to protect their cells, which may leave none for humans. ROS are molecules produced from oxygen metabolism; some of the most widely analyzed ROS in plants are singlet oxygen, superoxide, hydrogen peroxide, and hydroxyl radicals. ROS concentration and lifetime are determined by the availability and composition of the antioxidant system that includes enzymatic components such as SOD, CAT, and APX and nonenzymatic components such as vitamins, polyphenols, and carotenoid. Depending on its concentration in the cell, ROS can either be harmful or beneficial. At high concentrations, ROS can damage various kinds of biomolecules such as lipids, proteins, DNA, and RNA, whereas at low or moderate concentrations, ROS can act as second messengers in the intracellular signaling cascade that mediates various plant responses. Novel postharvest methods are sought to maintain fruit and vegetable quality, including minimizing ROS while preserving their antioxidant content.

Nowadays,the development of molecular biology techniques has enabled to engineer drought tolerant sugarcane to accelerate thebreeding program. Dehydrin(DHN)that belong to the group II late embryogenesis abundant (LEA) family is known to havean important role in plant response and adaptation to abiotic stresses (drought, high salinity, cold, heat, etc.). Literature study and bioinformatics analysis reported that DHN1gene on sugarcane showed high homology sequences with sorghum DHN. The expression of DHN1gene on sugarcane var. PSJT 941 treated with various periodof drought stress had been conducted using semi-quantitative reverse transcriptase (RT)-PCR method. The results showed that the expressionlevel of DHN1 geneincreased along withthe increased period of the treatment. The highest expression level of DHN1 gene was resulted from plants that had been subjected to drought for 25 days. Amplification of DHN1gene from plants withthe highest gene expression, resulted an amplicon with a size of 465 bp which representsa full length coding sequence (CDS) of DHN1. Identification using Blast analysis showed that DHN1sequences from sugarcane var. PSJT 941 shared high homology with DHN gene on sugarcane and sorghum. The alignment results also revealed a conserved motif that characterized DHN genes.

The main aim of this research is to obtain endophytic fungi from graminiae which has the ability to promote the growth of rice plant. The research was conducted in laboratory of Mycology Research Center for BioSciences and Biotechnology Institut Teknologi Bandung. Isolation of endophytic fungi was done by direct plating of root samples on the potatoe dextrose agar media after surface sterilization steps. Identification was based on morphology characteristics and DNA marker. At least 124 isolates were obtained from elephant grass (Pennisetum purpureum) (27 isolates), alang-alang (Imperata cylindrica) (25 isolates), sugar cane (Saccharum officinarum) (14 isolates), maize (Zea mays) (9 isolates), rice plant (Oryza sativa) (23 isolates) and cyperus (Cyperus rotundus) (26 isolates). Among them, 12 isolates demosntrated the capability to promote the growth of rice seedlings in term of seed germination, plant height, root length and degree of root colonization. Isolate I-11 identified as Phialemonium dimorphosphorum was the best to promote rice plant growth in glass house trial.

The microbiota of fish intestine is the most complex of all organs that interact closely with the immune system. This can be used as biological control agents that can control the disease caused by pathogenic bacteria. Thirty isolates were identified based on 16s rRNA gene sequencing. These bacteria were then tested for their pathogenicity and antagonistic activity. The bioassay was conducted by administering selected bacteria into the fish and inoculating with Aeromonas. Total 30 bacterial isolates were successfully isolated from the carp intestine. Morphology and DNA marker analysis shows wide diversity of bacterial consortium within the fish intestine. These bacterial community are dominated by Proteobacteria and Firmicutes. The pathogenicity test showed that 20 isolates were non-pathogenic at a density of 106 cfu/mL, while the rest were pathogenic to the fish. The antagonistic test showed that some isolates strongly or mildly inhibit Aeromonas and Vibrio and the rest weakly or do not inhibit the assayed bacteria. Two isolates (CgM8=Bacillus sp. and CgM37=Bacillus subtilis) are significantly better than control to protect the fish from Aeromonas infection. Two species of commensal bacteria originated from fish intestine are potential to be used as biological control agents against Aeromonas for common carp.

Background: Immediate and accurate diagnosis of malaria is essential for effective control of this disease. Immunochromatographic based rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) are economical, simple to perform, and provide results in a relative short time, can be useful to assist effective management of malaria. The commercially available malaria RDT in Indonesia is still imported. Therefore, an effort to produce malaria RDT independently is necessary. One of the biomarkers used in RDTs is Plasmodium lactate dehydrogenase pLDH. The production and accumulation of pLDH during asexual stage or blood-stage in all human infected malaria parasites can be used to indicate parasites viability, which is correlated with the number of parasites present in the plasma of infected patients. Objective: The aim of this research is to produce recombinant PfLDH in Escherichia coli BL21(DE3). Methods: PfLDH gene was cloned into pET30a expression vector to obtain a 6.2 kbp recombinant plasmid pET30a-PfLDH. E. coli BL21(DE3) was transformed with pET30a-PfLDH using the heat shock method. Then, E. coli BL21(DE3)- pET30a-PfLDH was cultured in LB broth containing 50 mg/mL kanamycin and was induced by 1mM IPTG at 37oC. Results: SDS-PAGE and Western Blot analysis showed that recombinant PfLDH was expressed with molecular mass ~30 kDa. Conclusion: Recombinant PfLDH is expressed in E. coli BL21(DE3) and can be used in further research for producing rPfLDH as a biomarker for malaria RDT development.

Introduction. A halophilic bacterium of the Halomonas elongata BK-AG25 has successfully produced ectoine with high productivity. To overcome the drawbacks of high levels of salt in the production process, a nonhalophilic bacteria of Escherichia coli (E. coli) was used to express the ectoine gene cluster of the halophilic bacteria, and the production of ectoine by the recombinant cell was optimized. Methods. The ectoine gene cluster from the halophilic bacterium was isolated and inserted into an expression plasmid of pET30(a) and subsequently transformed into E. coli BL21 (DE3). Production of ectoine from the recombinant E. coli was investigated and then maximized by optimizing the level of nutrients in the medium, as well as the bioprocess conditions using response surface methodology. The experimental designs were performed using a central composite design. Results. The recombinant E. coli successfully expressed the ectoine gene cluster of Halomonas elongata BK-AG25 under the control of the T7 promoter. The recombinant cell was able to produce ectoine, of which most were excreted into the medium. The optimization of ectoine production with the response surface methodology showed that the level of salt in the medium, the incubation temperature, the optical density of the bacteria before induction, and the final concentration of the inducer gave a significant effect on ectoine production by the recombinant E. coli. Interestingly, the level of salt in the medium and the incubation temperature showed an inverse effect on the production of intracellular and extracellular ectoine by the recombinant cell. At the optimum conditions, the production yield was about 418 mg ectoine/g cdw (cell dry weight) after 12 hours of incubation. Conclusion. This study is the first report on the expression of an ectoine gene cluster of Halomonas elongata BK-AG25 in E. coli BL21, under the control of the T7 promoter. Optimization of the level of nutrients in the medium, as well as the bioprocess condition using response surface methodology, has successfully increased the production of ectoine by the recombinant bacteria.

Global demand of antimalarial drug artemisinin has a gap with production capacity from existing sources since the low content of this compound from Artemia annua L. Genetic engineering-based strategy for A. annua plant on key enzymes in artemisinin biosynthetic pathway is needed. Artemisinic aldehyde ∆ 11 (13) double bond reductase (dbr2) is one of the key enzyme on artemisinin biosynthesis which was studied in this research. Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated transformation of A. annua using dbr2 was carried out. Synthetic dbr2 was ligated into pCAMBIA1303 and transformed into Escherichia coli DH5α. pCAMBIA1303-dbr2 plasmid was transformed to A. tumefaciens AGL1. Leaves of A. annua were infected by positive transformant of recombinant A. tumefaciens (OD600 ≈ 1) supplemented with acetosyringone 50 ppm, and Silwet S-408 0.02%. Samples were incubated in desiccators connected with vacuum pump, this method is called infiltration vacuum. Leaves were covered in dark for 45 min, and co-cultivated on MS co-cultivation media for 3 days. All leaves were washed in 300 ppm cefotaxime and divided into 2 parts; 3 leaves for GUS histochemical assay and 300 mg of leaves for HPLC analysis. Transient transformation was done in triplicate. In GUS histochemical assay, pCAMBIA1303 and pCAMBIA-dbr2 showed positive blue spot where coefficient of variance was less than 5%. PCR analysis for genomic DNA of transformed A. annua showed a positive result of inserted dbr2 recombinant indicated by migration profile and direct sequencing analysis. It could be concluded that pCAMBIA-dbr2 construct and transformation into A. annua have been successfully performed.

Interactions between plants and endophytic bacteria are mutualistic. Plant provides nutrient for bacteria, and bacteria will protect the plant from pathogen, help the phytohormone synthesis and nitrogen fixation, and also increase absorption of minerals. These bacteria called plant growth-promoting bacteria. The aim for this study is to identify endophytic bacteria on rambutan (Nephelium lappaceum L.) cultivar Binjai with 16S rRNA. Sequencing results showed that the bacteria is derived from genus Corynebacterium, Bacillus, Chryseobacterium, Staphylococcus and Curtobacterium, which suspected play a role as plant growth-promoting bacteria.

Surfactant is generally synthetic chemical, which is effective and reliable. However, the chemicals usually did not degraded easily in the environment and could cause damage to the environment. The other possible alternative to produce surfactant is using genetic engineering in order to produce peptide based surfactant. In this research, peptide surfactant was produced using a gene construct which was created using overlapped polymerase chain reaction method (OE-PCR). PAGE analysis shows that single surfactant peptide construction can be expressed by induction of IPTG 1 mM and after at least twice sonication. This research proves that both two constructions have been successfully expressed by producing peptide in expected size (approximately 15 kDa).

Cervical cancer is strongly associated with chronic human papillomavirus (HPV) infection. HPV-16 is the most prevalent genotype infecting cervical epithelium. The major coat protein of viral particle (L1) plays a key role in the infection process. Our study aimed to isolate the HPV-16 L1 gene and analyze its sequence. Samples used were samples collected from the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Dr. Hasan Sadikin General Hospital, Bandung during the period of June to October 2010. In this study, the HPV-16 L1 sequence was analyzed from the viral deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) extracted from biopsy sample of cervical cancer patient biopsy samples.The HPV-16 L1 amplification was performed using the polymerase chain reaction with specific primer. The HPV infection in the cervical tissue was confirmed by commercial HPV genotyping test. The L1 fragment was cloned into plasmid and the insert of the recombinant clone pJET1.2/L1-16 was digested using BamHI and BgIII. The amplicon result showed HPV-16 L1 gene with a length of 1.595 base pairs. The sequence analysis of two samples using software BIOEDIT dan Basic Local Alignment Search Tool revealed a high level of sequence similarity to L1 HPV-16 from Thailand (99% and 97%) as registered in GenBank. In conclusion, the L1 HPV-16 gene from Bandung isolates revealed variations from published sequence. Knowledge on L1 gene sequence may give additional information to the development of vaccine. Further study on vaccine development is currently ongoing using this HPV-16 clone that may be specific to Indonesian population.

Luwak coffee is a highly-priced coffee produced exclusively by the palm civet or luwak (Paradoxurus hermaphrodites ssp.). The purpose of this study was to determine the diversity of culturable bacteria in the gastro intestinal tract of luwak. The bacterial isolates were phenotypically characterized by their morphology and molecularly by analysis of their1,500bp 16s rDNA sequence. The results showed that Enterobacter cloacae and Lactobacillus brevis were found all over luwak’s digestive tract. Enterobacter cloacae was the most common species. The most diverse bacterial population was found in small intestine. Seven bacterial generawere successfully identified from the small intestine and colon, compared to only five genera found in the stomach.

Sugarcane is the principle plant for producing sugar in Indonesia. Water supply is one key element in the agronomy of sugarcane. Sugarcane is a high biomass crop which requires large amounts of water. Low yields of sugar observed in water stressed plants indicate that sugarcane is very sensititive to drought. A number of genes that respond to drought, salt, and cold stress at the trasnscriptional level have been reported. dip22 (drought inducible protein) protein isolated from drought resistance variety M 442-51 was predicted to be a protein regulator to water stress in sugarcane. Increasing of tolerance to water stress by over expression of dip22 genes in high yield sugarcane variety hopefully will maintain sugar production. The goal of this research was to construct a binary vector for dip22 gene expression in plant. dip22 gene from mutated PCR was cloned to pGEM ® €“T Easy and transformed to Escherichia coli strain DH5a. And then, these gene was isolated again from pGEM ® €“T Easy-dip22 (pGdip) plasmid using restriction enzymes NcoI and PmlI. pCAMBIA 1303 plasmid is an expression vector which has the constitutive promoter CaMV35S. Recombinant plasmid was transformed to Escherichia coli strain DH5a for plasmid propagation through DNA replication. Recombinant plasmid was isolated, and digested with NcoI and PmlI to examine the presence of dip22 gene in the pCAMBIA 1303 plasmid. The recombinant plasmid was transformed to A. tumefaciens strain LBA 4404. Plasmid isolated from A. tumefaciens was digested with Bst XI and Bst EII to examine the similarity between pCAMBIA 1303-dip22 (pCdip) from Escherichia coli and A. tumefaciens. The result by electrophoresis showed that both plasmids had the same size after digested. It was concluded that the transformed A. tumefaciens strain LBA 4404 bacteria has pCAMBIA 1303-dip22 (pCdip) plasmid indeed. Therefore, this construct of dip22 gene in binary vector can be used for improving drought tolerance in plant.

Musa acuminata cultivar pisang ambon lumut is a native climacteric fruit from Indonesia. Climacteric fruit ripening process is triggered by the gaseous plant hormone ethylene. The rate limiting enzyme involved in ethylene biosynthesis is ACC synthase (ACS) which is encoded by ACS gene family. The objective of this study is to identify MA-ACS gene family in M. acuminata cultivar pisang ambon lumut and to study the MA-ACS1 gene expression. The result showed that there were nine M. acuminata ACS gene family members called MA-ACS1–9. Two of them (MA-ACS1 and MA-ACS2) were assessed using reverse transcriptase PCR (RT-PCR) for gene expression study and it was only MA-ACS1 correlated with fruit ripening. The MA-ACS1 gene fragment has been successfully isolated and characterized and it has three introns, four exons, and one stop codon. It also shows highest homology with MACS1 gene from M. acuminata cultivar Hsian Jien Chiao (GenBank accession number AF056164). Expression analysis of MA-ACS1 using quantitative PCR (qPCR) showed that MA-ACS1 gene expression increased significantly in the third day, reached maximum at the fifth day, and then decreased in the seventh day after harvesting. The qPCR expression analysis result correlated with the result of physical analysis during fruit ripening.

Human papillomavirus (HPV) type 52 is the most prevalent type for causing cervical cancer in Indonesian population. Cervical cancer becomes the most common cancer suffered by Indonesian women. Prevention of HPV infection can be achieved using HPV virus-like particle (VLP) vaccine derived from L1 major capsid protein. This study aimed to clone and analyze HPV-52 L1 gene. DNA obtained from biopsy of a cervical cancer patient was amplified using specific primers designed from Asian originated HPV-52 L1 gene available in the GenBank. The isolated HPV-52 L1 gene sequence was submitted to GenBank with accession number [KF225497]. Expression of HPV-52 L1 gene was performed using pRSET/EmGFPEscherichia coli expression vector. We analyzed and compared the HPV-52 L1 gene expressions from recombinant E.coli BL21 (DE3) that had been induced for 3 hours with 1 mM IPTG and without induction. The protein was expressed in insoluble form. We performed the following bioinformatic analyses: construction of phlyogenetic tree, T-cell epitopes prediction and 3D proteins structure modelling. We utilized the following softwares: MEGA5 for phylogenetic tree, IEDBann for MHC prediction, CLC DNA Workbench 6.5 for hydrophobicity analysis and PDB-Viewer Deep for 3D protein structure analysis. The phylogenetic tree which was developed based on [KF225497] sequence showed that it shared a branch with Asian countries (Philippines and Thailand). The deduced amino acid sequences of the predicted epitopes that were consistent in all of the programs were 259GTLGDPVPGDLYIQGS274 and 345KKESTYKNE353. This information may be useful to design diagnostic strategies and vaccine suitable for Indonesian population.

Increasing world sugar demand might be fulfilled with land extensification which include the use of dry area. Development of drought tolerance and high productivity sugarcane variety could be achieved by plant genetic engineering. Under drought condition, proline will be accumulated and functioned as an osmoregulator in plant cells. ∆1-pyrroline-5-carboxylate synthase (P5CS) is one of the important enzymes in proline biosynthesis. This enzyme is encoded by P5CS gene family. We cloned two homologous P5CS genes from sugarcane, SoP5CS1 (Accession Number : KF178299) and SoP5CS2 (Accession Number : KF178300), which encode 729 and 716 amino acid polypeptides. The identity between these two genes was 74% based on nucleotide sequences. The SoP5CS1 gene had 98% identity with SbP5CS1 (Accession Number : GQ377719.1) and SoP5CS2 had 99% identity with SaP5CS (Accession Number : EF113257.1). In this experiment, sugarcane plantlets were exposed to medium containing PEG 6000 (40%) for 12, 24, 48, and 72 hours. Proline concentration was measured after treatment and genes expression were analyzed by real time-qPCR. The results showed that the proline concentration was increased 12 folds (9.8 umol.g-1) after 48-hours stress treatment. The highest expression of SoP5CS1 occured at 24-hours treatment with approximately 16 times from plant without PEG (control plant) and decreased gradually at 48 and 72 hours treatment. The highest expression of SoP5CS2 occured at 24-hours drought stress with approximately 3.6 folds compared to control. In drought treatment, the expression level SoP5CS1 was higher than SoP5CS2 and has increased significantly at 12-hours treatment. It is suggested that the SoP5CS1 gene contributes more significantly to the production of proline during drought stress than SoP5CS2. Hence, SoP5CS1 could potentialy be used as a marker to screen sugarcane variety for drought tolerance and for the development of transgenic plant tolerant to drought. Keywords: cloning, drought, expression, P5CS, sugarcane

In plant genetic engineering, the identification of gene promoters leading to particular expression patterns is crucial for the development of new genetically modified plant generations. This research was conducted in order to isolate and characterize several new promoters from cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) elongation factor 1 alpha (EF1A) gene family.Three promoters MeEF1A3, MeEF1A5 and MeEF1A6 were successfully isolated [corrected]. Sequence analyses showed that all of the promoters contain three conserved putative cis-acting elements which are located upstream of the transcription start site. These elements are included a TEF1, a TELO and TATA boxes. In addition, all of the promoters also have the 5'UTR intron but with a different lengths. These promoters were constructed translationally with gusA reporter gene (promoter::gusA fusion) in pBI-121 binary vector to build a new binary vector using Overlap Extension PCR Cloning (OEPC) technique. Transient expression assay that was done by using agroinfiltration method was used to show functionality of these promoters. Qualitative and quantitative analysis from GUS assay showed that these promoters were functional and conferred a specific activity in tobacco seedlings (Nicotiana tabacum), tomato fruits (Solanum lycopersicum) and banana fruits (Musa acuminata). We hypothesized that MeEF1A6 could be categorized as a constitutive promoter because it was able to drive the gene expression in all transformed tissue described in here and also comparable to CaMV35S. On the other hand, MeEF1A3 drove specific expression in the aerial parts of seedlings such as hypocotyl and cotyledon thus MeEF1A5 drove specific expression in fruit tissue. The results obtained from transient analysis showed that these promoters had a distinct activity although they came from same gene family. The DNA sequences identified here are new promoters potentially use for genetic engineering in cassava or other plants.

Amplification of putative potBCD genes from Serratia rubidae was conducted by PCR using a pair of primers FERC and RERC. A fragment with ~1800 bp size was ligated to pGEM-T Easy vector then cloned to competent Escherichia coli DH5α. The recombinant plasmid was sequenced using SP6, T7 and two internal primers, FPC and RPC. A sequence similarity search and analysis was performed with the BLASTN program. The sequence was found to have 83% similarity to potABCD genes from E. coli. Those genes encoded a spermidine-preferential uptake system that consists of four kinds of protein: PotA is a membrane-associated ATPase, PotB and PotC are transmembrane proteins that form channels, and PotD is a periplasmic substrate-binding protein. Alignment analysis showed that the isolated clone consisted of potB (partial), potC (full length) and potD (partial). The sequences for potBCD genes from S. rubidae are not available in the NCBI database. Furthermore, we have submitted this sequence, potBCD from S. rubidae, on GeneBank with Acc. number FJ447342.