Vol. 16 No. 4 (2009): December 2009

The flower characteristics of a plant is one of the important traits correlated to its productivity. Study on flower characteristics is useful to understand how to increase the crop productivity. The research was conducted at Agro Techno Park Center, Indonesian State Ministry of Research and Technology, Bakung Village, Ogan Ilir Distric South Sumatra from April 2007 to August 2008.  The objective of this research was to evaluate the flower characteristics and the yield of jatropha (Jatropha curcas L.) accessions. The research was arranged in a randomized block design, consisted of fifteen accessions of jatropha, with three replicates. The Jatropha accessions were collected from different agro ecosystems located in Sumatra, Java, and Borneo. The results indicated that the evaluated accessions have significant differences in the flower characteristic and the yields. The ratio male–female flower is the most important character for J. curcas L. because it has a significant correlation to the yield.

      Key words: flower, yield, Jatropha curcas

Study of morphological and physiological characteristics of the tolerant and sensitive mungbean genotypes to shading was carried out in the Station Research of the Indonesian Legume and Tuber Crops Research Institute (ILETRI) from September to December 2004. Nine tolerant genotypes (MMC 87 D-KP-2, MLG 369, MLG 310, MLG 424, MLG 336, MLG 428, MLG 237, MLG 429, and VC2768B) and three sensitive genotypes to shading (Nuri, MLG 460, and MLG 330) were tested in two shading levels, that were without shading and shading of 52%. The randomized complete block design with three replications analysis. The results showed that leaf characters of shading tolerant and sensitive genotypes were different. The shading tolerant mungbean genotypes had good response to light stress so that the growth and development of the leaves were better than that of sensitive genotypes. The shading tolerant mungbean genotypes had bigger and thicker leaves than that of sensitive genotypes. The shading treatments caused reducing rate of PAR absorption, transpiration, photosynthesis, and CO2 stomata conductance. The reduction of all parameters in tolerant genotype was smaller than that of sensitive genotype. The specific leaf area at  four weeks after planting could be used as shading tolerant indicator of mungbeans.

      Key words: mungbean, characteristics, morphology, physiology, leaves, tolerant, sensitive, shading

Eriborus argenteopilosus is the most important parasitoid attacking cabbage pest Crocidolomia pavonana in Indonesia.  Previous studies proved that parasitoid encapsulation was found to be an important factor limiting the effectiveness of the parasitoid in controlling pest population in the field. Since 1998, we have conducted series studies to investigate encapsulation mechanism developed by hosts against parasitoid, responses of parasitoid toward encapsulation ability and to determine factors that may help parasitoid avoid encapsulation. Parasitoid responses were examined on two different hosts C. pavonana and Spodoptera litura. Our findings showed that parasitization level was found to be high both on C. pavonana and S. litura. Encapsulation occurred to be high in all larva stages of C. pavonana, in contrast encapsulation was recorded very low in all larvae stages of S. litura. We recorded that encapsulation in the larval body of C. pavonana was completed in 72 hours and mostly occurred in higher larval stage. Melanization was only recorded in encapsulated parasitoid inside larva body of C. pavonana, not in S. litura. We recorded that encapsulation increased blood cell number of both larvae C. pavonana and S. litura. Encapsulation may affect development of immature parasitoid. Weight of S. litura’s pupae containing encapsulated parasitoid was found to be lower in S. litura, but not in C. pavonana. Our investigation also proved that superparasitism may help parasitoid avoid encapsulation.

Two random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) markers linked to CMV-B2 resistance gene (Creb-2) in melon cultivar Yamatouri were cloned and sequenced to design sequence characterized amplified region (SCAR) markers for detection of CMV-B2 resistance gene (Creb-2) in melon. SCOPE14 derived from OPE-14 yielded a single DNA band at 541 bp, while SCAPB05 derived from APB-05, yielded a single DNA band at 1,046 bp, respectively. Segregation of SCOPE14 and SCAPB05 markers in bulk of F2 plants demonstrated that they were co-segregated with RAPD markers from which the SCAR markers were originated. Furthermore, results of SCAR analysis in diverse melons showed SCAPB05 primers obtained a single 1,046 bp linked to Creb-2 in resistant cultivars Sanuki-shirouri and Kohimeuri. However, SCOPE14 failed to detect Creb-2 in diverse melons. Results of this study revealed that SCAR analysis not only confirmed melons that had been clearly scored for resistance to CMV-B2 by RAPD markers, but also clarified the ambiguous resistance results obtained by the RAPD markers.

      Key words: Cucumis melo L., Creb-2, RAPD, SCAR

High carbohydrate as obese diet is not yet available commercially for monkeys. Therefore, this preliminary study was to carry out nutrient intake and digestibility of cynomolgus monkeys (Macaca fascicularis) fed with high soluble carbohydrate diet compared to monkey chow. Five adult female macaques (average body weight 2.67 kg) were made to consume freshly  diet. Commercial monkey chows (contains 3500 cal/g energy and 35% starch) were fed to three adult females (average body weight 3.62 kg). Nutrient intakes and digestibility parameters were measured using modified metabolic cages. Result showed that  average of protein, fat, starch, and energy intakes in treatment diet were higher than control diet (T-test). Fat intake in the treatment diet was three times higher, while starch and energy intakes were almost two times higher than monkey chow. Digestibility percentage of all nutrients were the same in both diets except for the protein. The study concludes that the freshly prepared high sugar diet was palatable and digestible for the cynomolgus monkeys. Further studies are in progress to develop obese diet high in energy content based on fat and source of starch treatments.

      Key words: Macaca fascicularis, obese, metabolic cages, intake, digestibility

Since the primary storage nutrients in diatoms consist of lipid, they are potential for the industrial fatty acid production. High value fatty acids include arachidonic acid, eicosapentaenoic acid and docosahexaenoic acid. This study aimed to analyze fatty acid synthesis by Chaetoceros gracilis diatom during growth. There was a large increase in lipid yield from 4pg cell-1 mass of lipid per cell at the exponential phase to 283pg cell-1 at stationary phase. The lipid concentrations also increased significantly from the stationary phase to the death phase, but not significantly from the end exponential phase to the stationary phase. The relative percentage of saturated fatty acid (SAFA) of the total fatty acid was higher than that of monounsaturated fatty acid (MUFA) and polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) at all of growth phase. The highest PUFA was found at stationary phase at the same time when SAFA was being the lowest. The majority of SAFA was palmitic acid (24.03-40.35%). MUFA contained significant proportion of oleic acid (19.6-20.9%). Oleic acid, linoleic acid and α-linolenic acid were found at every stage growth. These fatty acids are considered as precursor for production of long chain PUFA-Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA/22:6ω3) through series of desaturation and elongation step with all of desaturase enzyme (Δ8-D, Δ9-D, Δ12-D, Δ15-D, Δ17-D, Δ6-D, Δ5-D, and Δ4-D) and elongase enzyme (E).

      Key words: Chaetoceros gracilis, fatty acid, synthesis, saturated fatty acid (SAFA), monounsaturated fatty acid (MUFA), polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA)

Land with low pH soil spread widely in Indonesia can be used for soybean (Glycine max) cultivation, although the production is low. The use of acid tolerant soybean and acid-Al tolerant nitrogen-fixing bacteria was an alternative way to increase soybean productivity on acid soils. This research was conducted to study the influence of acid-Al tolerant Bradyrhizobium  japonicum  on growth of Slamet cultivar soybean planted on acid soils in greenhouse. Three strains of acid-Al tolerant B. japonicum, i.e. BJ 11 (19), BJ 11 (5), and BJ 11 (wt), were used in this experiment. The result showed that inoculation of all acid-Al tolerant B. japonicum strains could increase plant height, shoot and root weight, number of flowers, pods, seeds, seeds dry weight, and shoot and seed nitrogen content.

The research was carried out to isolate and characterize of bioactive proteins from plant parts of Benincasa hispida (Thunb.) Cogn and to analyse of the toxicity and cytotoxicity of the proteins. The proteins were extracted with phosphate buffer saline, then they were precipitated using 80% saturated ammonium sulphate, continued with the dialysis  using pH 7 phosphate buffer. The dialysate was fractionated through gel filtration chromatography and characterized using SDS-PAGE. The toxicity of the proteins was analyzed through brine shrimp lethality test (BSLT), followed with cytotoxicity test using HeLa and K-562 cancer cell lines. Three bioactive protein fractions were isolated from the fruits, the seeds and roots. The lowest yield of proteins was 0.021% from the fruit, then 0.051% from the seed, while the highest was 0.54% from the root. All proteins were toxic on BSLT with LC50 within the range of 24-39 µg. Characterization of proteins using SDS-PAGE indicated the molecular mass of those proteins were approximately 17-29 kDa. The cytotoxicity test of the root protein showed that the protein could inhibit proliferation of HeLa cell up to 28.50% and K-562 cell up to 36.60% compared to that  of non treated cell.