Alaa Seufi

• Professor
• Professor at Cairo University

Saudi Arabia is part of a hot dry desert region and is characterized by stressful conditions. The main goal of this research was to identify endophytic fungal (EF) community composition, diversity and abundance in relation to their plant hosts and soil stress. The above-ground parts of six wild plants (Haloxylon salicornicum, Salsola kali, Heliotro...

Bacterial transformation has great importance in molecular biology, as it is used for introduction of foreign genes into bacterial cells either chemical or physical ways. Using calcium chloride to prepare competent cells and heat shock is the most widely used method for bacterial transformation. This method is an efficient and convenient technique...

Background Climatic changes are the most important abiotic factor affecting plant growth, crop quality and nutritional value. Plants exposed to thermal stress respond by accumulation of secondary metabolites/molecules (SMs). Tomato ( Solanum lycopersicum ) is a cosmopolitan crop, eaten by most of the world’s people because it is highly nutritious p...

S. gregaria is able to swarm and disseminate bacterial load over vast areas. Adult locusts were collected from Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), individual locust was divided into head, thorax and abdomen. External and internal cultivable bacteria were cultured, cell and colony characteristics were investigated. Pure colonies were sequenced using 16S...

Experiments were designed to isolate, characterize and study the interaction between external microbiota (bacteria and fungi) carried by adult M. domestica after dipping, then removal of the flies from distilled water, sugar solution and saline solution. M. domestica was collected from Sakaka city, Northwestern Saudi Arabia. Three groups of adult M...

Samples of Tenebrionidae and Carabidae were selected from northwestern region of KSA. 650 beetles (72.3%) from farms and (27.7%) fromhouses by trapping/ manual collection. Genus Adesmia (Fam.: Tenebrionidae) showed the most abundance (38.5%).Whilst, both gener-aAkis (Fam.: Tenebrionidae) and Camedula (Fam.: Carabidae) exhibited the least abundance...

Many have been published on therapeutic derivatives from living organisms including insects. More than 1100 therapeutic products were isolated from insects. Most people think in insects as enemies but my thought is that insects are our friends not our enemies as those see. Many beneficial insects rather than Honey Bees, Silk Worms and Shellac insec...

The present study investigates the protective efficacy of the aqueous extract of Morus nigra leaves in rats exposed to toxicity by chlorpyrifos (CPF). The hematological indices (RBCs, WBCs, and platelets' counts, Hb level, hematocrit percent, MCH, MCV and MCHC), oxidant/ antioxidant status (Malondialdehide (MDA), Total Antioxidant Capacity (TAC)),...

The mitochondrial antioxidant manganese superoxide dismutase (Mn-SOD) plays a vital role in defence against reactive oxygen species (ROS) in eukaryotic mitochondria. This study was conducted to characterise SOD as an antioxidant gene from haemolymph of third larval instar of the flesh fly, Sarcophaga argyrostoma after challenging with hydrogen pero...

Objective: Fungi are the main source of aflatoxin contamination in nature. The present study aimed to assess the role of the cosmopolitan mosquito species, Culex pipiens, in the circulation and dissemination of pathogenic fungi in nature, and to evaluate its capability to harbor these fungi. Materials and Methods: Fungi were isolated and identified...

Objective: Insect immune system has a potent arsenal of antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) that cooperate to clear microbial invasions. Here we aimed to explore the immune response of Musca domestica larvae when bacterially challenged and pick up induced antibacterial genes. These genes can be used in the production of novel antibiotics to compensate fo...

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) can be generated as by-products in all oxygenic organisms during aerobic metabolism. External or internal oxidants (superoxide, hydrogen peroxide, and hydroxyl radicals) referred to as ROS, can result in oxidative damage to proteins, lipids, and nucleic acids. This study was conducted to record the genetic differences...

Introduction: Considered as an end-stage for all cardiovascular diseases, cardiac brosis leads to the development of heart failure, thus the ultimate goal is to prevent the progression of brosis. Indeed, heart can regenerate itself but to a certain limit based upon the number of resident stem cells which is limited. us, stem cells transplantation i...

The deamination of L-asparagine to L-aspartic acid and ammonia is catalyzed by L-asparaginases (L-asparagine amino hydrolase). The enzyme L-asparaginase is widely distributed in nature from different living organisms, starting from bacteria till mammals and plants. It has been recently thought to be a therapeutic agent in treatment of various lymph...

Various proteins that display carbohydrate-binding activity in a Ca(2+)-dependent manner are classified into the C-type lectin family. They have one or two C-type carbohydrate-recognition domains (CRDs) composed of 110-130 amino acid residues in common. C-type lectins mediate cell adhesion, non-self recognition, and immuno-protection processes in i...

Representative 1.5% agarose gels of the DD-PCR patterns generated from control and S. aureus, E. coli and S. sanguinis-challenged haemolymph samples using 8 primers corresponding to well known lectin genes. Lane M: DNA marker 100 bp Ladder, lanes 1, 4, 8 and 10: controls of different treatments, lanes 9 and 11: 24 h post-infection with S. aureus, l...

Key table for the primers used in this study providing their names, origin and sequences. (DOC)

Agarose gel electrophoresis showing positive PCR representing the full length SpliLec (1150 bp), clone PCR-SpliLec, clone PCR-SpliLec after insert release with EcoRI, and PCR confirmation. Lanes 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 show SpliLec PCR product (1150 bp), E. coli harbouring PCR-SpliLec, PCR-SpliLec after digestion with EcoRI, positive control (SpliLec ampl...

MIQE checklist for authors, reviewers and editors. All essential information (E) must be submitted with the manuscript. Desirable information (D) should be submitted if available. If using primers obtained from RTPrimerDB, information on qPCR target, oligonucleotides, protocols and validation is available from that source.

Defensins are a well known family of cationic antibacterial peptides (AMPs) isolated from fungi, plants, insects, mussels, birds, and various mammals. They are predominantly active against gram (+) bacteria, and a few of them are also active against gram (-) bacteria and fungi. All insect defensins belonging to the invertebrate class have a consens...

Rift Valley fever (RVF) is an acute febrile arthropod-borne viral disease of man and animals caused by a member of the Phlebovirus genus, one of the five genera in the family Bunyaviridae. RVF virus (RVFV) is transmitted between animals and human by mosquitoes, particularly those belonging to the Culex, Anopheles and Aedes genera. Experiments were...

The toxicity of three different isolates of Egyptian baculovirus namely NPVGiza, NPVCairo and NPVAlex to Spodoptera littoralis larvae and their effects on some biological aspects of adults were studied. The second and fourth larval instars were highly susceptible to NPVCairo than to the other isolates. The second larval instar was highly susceptibl...

The incidence of hepatocellular carcinoma is increasing in many countries. The estimated number of new cases annually is over 500,000, and the yearly incidence comprises between 2.5 and 7% of patients with liver cirrhosis. The incidence varies between different geographic areas, being higher in developing areas; males are predominantly affected, wi...

An Egyptian isolate of Spodoptera littoralis nucleopolyhedrovirus (SpliNPV) was tested for its potential as biocontrol agent in comparison to Autographa californica multiple nucleopolyhedrovirus (AcMNPV). Comparative assays of SpliNPV and AcMNPV against 2nd instar larvae of Spodoptera littoralis revealed 4-fold greater susceptibility of S. littoral...

Purpose: An Egyptian isolate of Spodoptera littoralis nucleopolyhedrovirus (SpliNPV) was tested for its potential as biocontrol agent in comparison to Autographa californica multiple nucleopolyhedrovirus (AcMNPV).Material and Methods: Comparative assays of SpliNPV and AcMNPV against 2nd instar larvae of Spodoptera littoralis revealed 4-fold greater...

Differential display technique was applied to study the effect of a discontinuous radio frequency (RF) signal produced by a GSM multiband mobile phone (about 900/1900 MHz and power approximately 0.03 mW/ cm) on the genome of desert locust, Schistocerca gregaria, especially on some defense genes. 2 2 Two chitinase-based (CHI 15, CHI 25) and A primer...