Proper diagnosis of the misdiagnosed: Mucormycosis showing you periodontitis.

The subgroup analyses of studies based on the continents revealed that psoriasis patients from Middle East are prone to higher risk factors of CVD including increased levels of triglyceride, cholesterol, DBP, SBP, fasting blood sugar, body mass index and decreased HDL levels, whereas psoriasis patients from European population reported increased LDL-C and waist circumference. The present study supports a significant association between psoriasis and incidence of major adverse cardiovascular events. Contrary to the previous literature, our finding suggests that hypertension is a highly associative condition in psoriasis. The findings of this study could be validated amongst well-defined cohorts of patients with psoriasis individually in different regions to confirm the implication of the study. © King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology 2020.Tree species in the Aquilarieae tribe of the Thymelaeaceae family produce agarwood, a natural product highly valued for its fragrance, but the species are under threat due to indiscriminate harvesting. For conservation of these species, molecular techniques such as DNA profiling have been used. In this study, we assessed cross-amplification of microsatellite markers, initially developed for three Aquilaria species (A. crassna, A. malaccensis, and A. sinensis), on ten other agarwood-producing species, including members of Aquilaria (A. beccariana, A. hirta, A. microcarpa, A. rostrata, A. rugosa, A. subintegra, and A. yunnanensis) and Gyrinops (G. caudata, G. versteegii, and G. walla), both from the Aquilarieae tribe. Primers for 18 out of the 30 microsatellite markers successfully amplified bands of expected sizes in 1 sample each of at least 10 species. These were further used to genotype 74 individuals representing all the 13 studied species, yielding 13 cross-amplifiable markers, of which only 1 being polymorphic across all species. At each locus, the number of alleles ranged from 7 to 23, indicating a rather high variability. CH7233163 Four markers had relatively high species discrimination power. Our results demonstrated that genetic fingerprinting can be an effective tool in helping to manage agarwood genetic resources by potentially supporting the chain-of-custody of agarwood and its products in the market. © King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology 2020.The biocontrol efficacy of a cyanobacterium Calothrix elenkinii (Ce), silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) and their augmented complex (AgNPs-Ce) was evaluated. Foliar application of AgNPs-Ce reduced the disease severity by 47-58%, along with significant increases of 44-45%, 40-46% and 23-33% in leaf chlorophyll, carotenoid content, and polyphenol oxidase activity in the A. alternata infected tomato plants. A significant reduction in the pathogen load was recorded, both by plate counts and microscopic observations in the AgNPs, Ce and AgNPs-Ce treatments, while AgNPs-Ce also effectively reduced ergosterol content by 63-79%. Amplification using PCR-ITS primers revealed very faint bands or none in the AgNPs-Ce treated leaves, illustrating the inhibition of fungal growth. Significantly higher yield was recorded in the pathogen challenged plants receiving AgNPs-Ce, AgNPs, and Ce treatments. Higher expression of elicited antioxidant enzymes, along with enhanced plant growth attributes and lowered fungal load highlight the biocontrol potential of AgNPs-Ce treatment in A. alternata infected plants. This synergistic association can be explored as a promising biocontrol option against A. alternata challenged tomato plants under various agroclimatic conditions. © King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology 2020.A novel lactate dehydrogenase gene, named lrldh, was cloned from Lactobacillus rossiae and heterologously expressed in Escherichia coli. The lactate dehydrogenase LrLDH is NADH-dependent with a molecular weight of approximately 39 kDa. It is active at 40 °C and pH 6.5 and stable in a neutral to alkaline environment below 35 °C. The kinetic constants, including maximal reaction rate (V max), apparent Michaelis-Menten constant (K m), turnover number (K cat) and catalytic efficiency (K cat/K m) for phenylpyruvic acid were 1.95 U mg-1, 2.83 mM, 12.29 s-1, and 4.34 mM-1 s-1, respectively. Using whole cells of recombinant E. coli/pET28a-lrldh, without coexpression of a cofactor regeneration system, 20.5 g l-1 d-phenyllactic acid with ee above 99% was produced from phenylpyruvic acid in a fed-batch biotransformation process, with a productivity of 49.2 g l-1 d-1. Moreover, LrLDH has broad substrate specificity to a range of ketones, keto acids and ketonic esters. Taken together, LrLDH is a promising biocatalyst for the efficient synthesis of d-phenyllactic acid and other fine chemicals. © King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology 2020.Glycyrrhetinic acid monoglucuronide (GAMG) is a novel and low-calorie sweetener that is widely applied in the food industry. This study aimed to enhance the production of fungal β-d-glucuronidase (GUS) via a novel fermentation technique by evaluating the effects of the various microparticles on Chaetomium globosum DX-THS3 GUS production. Results showed that the silica microparticle greatly affected the morphology of DX-THS3 strain relative to the other microparticles. Microbial structure imaging results showed that the smallest average diameter of fungal pellets was achieved (0.7 ± 0.1 mm) by adding 10 g/L (600 mesh) of silica. The diameter of the control was 3.0 ± 0.5 mm in shake flask fermentation. The GUS activity and biomass of DX-THS3 reached 680 U/mL and 4.2 g/L, respectively, with the use of 10 g/L of silica microparticles, whereas those of the control were 210 U/mL and 2.8 g/L via shake flask fermentation. The findings in this study may provide a potential strategy for designing the morphology of filamentous fungi using microparticles in the industrial production of GAMG. © King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology 2020.An efficient in vitro regeneration system using epicotyl segments was developed and then used for optimizing genetic transformation of the Tunisian 'Maltese half-blood' (Citrus sinensis) variety using phosphinothricin (PPT) resistance as a selectable marker. The maximum regeneration efficiency was achieved after incubating epicotyl explants (excised in an oblique manner) in MT culture media containing BAP (4 mg/l) and IAA (0.3 mg/l) hormonal combination in the dark for 3 weeks before their transfer to light. Data from the genetic transformation assays indicated that the highest number of regenerated-transformants was reached when the selection phase was conducted in MT culture media containing PPT (0.25 mg/l) and Carbenicillin (500 mg/l) for 3 weeks in the dark followed by 8 weeks of light. After that, transformed buds were maintained for eight additional weeks in the same culture media but with reduced PPT concentration (0.125 mg/l) before decreasing Carbenicillin dose (250 mg/l) at the second half of this last incubation period which allowed both a good shoot proliferation and an optimal rooting efficiency.CH7233163