Anupama Halmillawewa

Anupama Halmillawewa
University of Kelaniya · Department of Microbiology

Ph.D. (Molecular Microbiology/ Genetics), University of Calgary, Canada

About

33
Publications
3,176
Reads
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94
Citations
Additional affiliations
January 2010 - August 2014
University of Calgary
Position
  • PhD
Education
March 2003 - August 2007
University of Kelaniya
Field of study
  • Microbiology

Publications

Publications (33)
Article
Full-text available
Pectobacterium carotovorum is an economically important phytopathogen and has been identified as the major causative agent of bacterial soft rot in carrots. Control of this phytopathogen is vital to minimizing carrot harvest losses. As fully efficient control measures to successfully avoid the disease are unavailable, the phage-mediated biocontrol...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
Prodigiosin, a bright red-coloured pigment of the alkaloid family, mainly produced by Serratia spp., is known to harbour antibacterial, antimalarial, and antitumor properties. The main goal of the present study was to characterize and identify bioactive potentials of the intracellular, red-coloured pigment extracted from the soil bacterium KEGS1_1...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
Mangrove ecosystems provide habitats for diverse bacterial populations with extensive abilities to produce various secondary metabolites and extracellular enzymes such as amylases, proteases, cellulases, and lipases. These secondary metabolites and extracellular enzymes are known to harbour great biotechnological potential making them good candidat...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
Melanins are widespread pigments present in all kingdoms with multidimensional bioactive and biotechnological applications. Fungal melanin serves as a strategy to protect itself from harsh environmental conditions like ultraviolet (UV) light, ionization radiation, and oxidizing agents. Hypoxylon spp. is one of the strongest melanin producers in the...
Article
Full-text available
Exploring untapped microbial potentials in previously uncharted environments has become crucial in discovering novel secondary metabolites and enzymes for biotechnological applications. Among prokaryotes, actinomycetes are well recognized for producing a vast range of secondary metabolites and extracellular enzymes. In the present study, we have us...
Article
Full-text available
White-rot fungi have a unique and strong ability to degrade lignin, the most abundant and the strongest natural polymer on earth. The ligninolytic enzymes of these fungi comprise of three groups of oxidative extracellular enzymes mainly, lignin peroxidase (LiP), manganese dependent peroxidase (MnP) and laccase. Fungal laccases are considered to be...
Article
Carrot production in Sri Lanka faces severe post-harvest losses due to bacterial soft rot. The quality deterioration of vegetables owing to typical bacterial soft rot can greatly affect the market value and consumer preference. Although the carrot soft rot causing bacteria occur all over the world, and are well-studied and characterized, the scarci...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
Polyethylene accumulation has become a serious global environmental concern. However, polyethylene is susceptible to hydrolytic cleavage by several lignolytic enzymes and laccase is one of them. Objectives of this study are to evaluate the ability to degrade low-density polyethylene (LDPE) by hardwood decay fungi originated from a dry-zone forest r...
Article
Full-text available
King coconut water (KCW) is a sweet relish product that is more prone to rapid quality deterioration, and several safety concerns are emerging due to its inappropriate thermal processing. Therefore, the objective of this study was to identify the potential spoilage/pathogenic microorganisms associated with the processing of KCW, with the assessment...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
White-rot fungi have a unique and strong ability to degrade lignin, the most abundant and the strongest natural polymer on earth. The ligninolytic enzymes of these fungi comprise of three groups of oxidative extracellular enzymes mainly, lignin peroxidase (LiP), manganese dependent peroxidase (MnP) and laccase. Fungal laccases are considered to be...
Article
Full-text available
Listeria monocytogenes is a food-borne pathogen that can cause severe invasive infection called ‘listerosis’ in humans. Development of antibiotic resistance is a major setback in the management of conditions caused by Listeria in both human and veterinary medicine. In this study, antibiotic resistance of fifty L. monocytogenes strains isolated from...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
King Coconut Water (KCW) is thermally processed as acidified foods‖ targeting an extended shelf life. This study investigated the physico-chemical and microbial quality along processing steps in selected KCW processing facilities in the aim of evaluating existing processing conditions. KCW samples (n= 90; triplicated trials) were collected from thr...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
Mangroves are composed of a broad range of well-adapted vegetations associated with macro and microorganisms. As a tropical country, Sri Lankan mangroves provide habitats to a microbial population rich in compositional and functional diversity. The present study aimed at exploring the functional diversity of the bacterial isolates associated wi...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
Thermally processed king coconut (Cocos nucifera var. aurantiaca) water is one of the fastest growing export commodities in the food and beverage sector in Sri Lanka. Microbial safety of thermally processed king coconut water is demanded by Food and Drug Administration to ensure safe consumption. This study aimed to identify potential spoilage and...
Conference Paper
Soft rot in carrots caused by Pectobacterium spp., is one of the most widespread and economically important diseases in carrots. As available methods to control bacterial phytopathogens are unsatisfactory, phage�mediated biocontrol is considered as an attractive, environmental friendly, relatively cheap and safe alternative for the control of ba...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
Microorganisms that inhabit mangrove ecosystems have very characteristic functions as mangrove ecosystems bear harsh environmental settings. Thus, they can perform important functions, such as solubilization of phosphate and biodegradation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), under extreme environmental conditions. Phosphate solubilizing...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
Mangroves are highly dynamic ecosystems that are rich in biodiversity. Bacteria play significant roles in these environments contributing in maintaining the productivity of the ecosystems through various biochemical processes. Mangrove ecosystems in Sri Lanka are interspersed along the coastline covering an approximate area of 12000 ha. As per ou...
Article
Full-text available
Mesorhizobium phage vB_MloS_Cp1R7A-A1 was isolated from soil planted with chickpea in Saskatchewan. It is dissimilar in sequence and morphology to previously described rhizobiophages. It is a B3 morphotype virus with a distinct prolate capsid and belongs to the tailed phage family Siphoviridae. Its genome has a GC content of 60.3% and 238 predicted...
Article
Full-text available
Bacteriophages may play an important role in regulating population size and diversity of the root nodule symbiont Rhizobium leguminosarum, as well as participating in horizontal gene transfer. Although phages that infect this species have been isolated in the past, our knowledge of their molecular biology, and especially of genome composition, is e...
Article
The phage P106B (vB_RglS_P106B) is a Siphoviridae phage with a narrow spectrum of infectivity, which has been isolated from soils with a history of pea cultivation. The trapping host of P106B is an indigenous strain of Rhizobium gallicum (SO14B-4) isolated from soils associated with Vicia cracca. Phenotypic characterization of the phage revealed th...
Article
Full-text available
Plants are known to secrete chemical compounds that can change the behavior of rhizosphere-inhabiting bacteria. We investigated the effects of extracts from legume host plants on the swarming behavior of Rhizobium leguminosarum bv. viciae. We also investigated the effects on swarming when Rhizobium is exposed to extracts from an ancestor to vascula...
Conference Paper
The phage P106B (vB_RglS_P106B) is a Siphoviridae phage with a narrow spectrum of infectivity, which has been isolated from soils with a history of pea cultivation. The trapping host of P106B is an indigenous strain of Rhizobium gallicum (SO14B-4) isolated from soils associated with Vicia cracca. The phenotypic characterization of the phage reveale...

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