The present invention relates to methods for enhancing at least one growth parameter of a leguminous plant via co-inoculation of a leguminous plant with at least one rhizobial microorganism together with at least one actinobacterial microorganism. In further aspects, the present invention also relates to leguminous plants co-inoculated with at least one rhizobial microorganism together with at least one actinobacterial microorganism, as well as specific actinobacterial strains and inoculant compositions which are useful in accordance with the present invention.

The present application relates to plant growth promoting microbes (PGPMs), compositions comprising these PGPMs and methods of using these PGPMs and a plant or plant seed, wherein the plant or plant seed comprises at least one grain yield enhancing trait, for enhancing plant health, plant growth and/or plant yield, and/or for preventing, inhibiting, or treating the development of plant pathogens or the development of phytopathogenic diseases.

The present invention relates to a DoxA protein mutant having an amino acid sequence set forth in SEQ ID NO: 16, and coding gene thereof. The protein mutant or the coding gene thereof can be used for producing epirubicin. The present invention further relates to a Streptomyces capable of efficiently expressing epirubicin, which is constructed by replacing the dnmV gene of a starting Streptomyces in situ with the avrE gene and mutating the doxA gene of the starting Streptomyces into a gene encoding the protein set forth in SEQ ID NO: 16. The fermentation broth of this Streptomyces has an epirubicin potency of up to 102.0 μg/ml.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a novel compound having an antioxidant effect and a technique of using the novel compound. The above object is achieved by providing a compound represented by the following formula (1):

##STR00001##

wherein any one of R.sup.1 to R.sup.3 is hydrogen, an acetyl group, a 2-butenoyl group, or a 2-methyl-2-pentenoyl group, each of the other two of R.sup.1 to R.sup.3 is hydrogen, any one of R.sup.4 to R.sup.6 is a 2-methyl-2-butenoyl group, and each of the other two of R.sup.4 to R.sup.6 is hydrogen.

A novel PSL family prenyltransferase has relaxed substrate specificity, which can use a variety of cyclic dipeptides and prenyl donors as substrates to produce various terpenylated diketopiperazines. An amino acid sequence of the prenyltransferase is SEQ ID NO: 1. An application of the prenyltransferase is transferring different prenyl groups to Trp-containing cyclic dipeptides. The prenyltransferase catalyzes the formation of terpenylated diketopiperazines by assembling prenyl groups onto cyclic dipeptides, which provides a new strategy for drug development of diketopiperazines.

The present invention has revealed that an antiviral agent containing a serine protease such as subtilisin, nattokinase, and trypsin has an effect of inactivating non-envelope type viruses, and that combining such an antiviral agent containing a serine protease with a cationic polymer enhances the inactivation effect of the antiviral agent against non-envelope type viruses. As a result, an antiviral agent that is highly safe, that has a high virus inactivation ability, and that contains a component that is inexpensive in terms the manufacturing cost and a cationic polymer, was discovered.

The present invention relates to isolated plant growth promoting microbes (PGPMs), isolated cultures of these PGPMs and compositions comprising same, including compositions comprising plants or parts thereof, particularly seeds. The present invention further relates to methods of using these isolated PGPMs, isolated cultures and compositions comprising same for enhancing plant health, plant growth and/or plant yield.

The present disclosure is directed to composition and methods for use in drug screening methods. The identification of microbial strains producing antibiotics effective against multi-drug resistant bacterial pathogens using microfluidics and co-encapsulation of predator and prey strains permits rapid and multiplexed assessment of new antibiotics for emerging bacterial pathogens including those resistant to multiple existing antibiotics.

A fermentation process is provided for the synthesis of Nigericin from Streptomyces sp. having accession number MCC 0151 and its isolation with high yield. A microbial inoculant composition is provided, comprising a biologically pure culture of Streptomyces sp. MCC 0151 for the exclusive production of Nigericin with high yield.

The present invention provides a Streptomyces sp. SNC087 strain (KCCM12505P) that is isolated from seawater and produces staurosporine, a method for producing staurosporine using the same, a method for culturing the same, and a pure culture medium of the same.