Sewunet Abera

Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research | EIAR · National Microbial Biotechnology Program

Sorghum is a major staple crop in sub-Saharan Africa with yields severely impacted by biotic and abiotic factors. Here, we analysed the taxonomic diversity and biogeographical distribution of bacterial taxa of forty-eight agricultural fields along a transect of approximately 2 000 km across the Ethiopian sorghum belt, the centre of origin of sorghu...

Lactic acid bacteria are predominant microorganisms that play important roles during cassava fermentation. Most efforts to develop cyanide tolerant isolates for cassava fermented products have been unsuccessful because of cyanide toxicity in cassava tubers. The objectives of this study were identifying cyanide tolerating bacteria and study their to...

Fermented foods were most prepared products for their benefits of health such as medicinal, therapeutic and probiotic effects. These effects were due to potential probiotic microorganisms such as lactic acid bacteria and yeasts. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the probiotic characteristics of yeasts isolated from Ethiopian traditionally f...

Conventional mutagenesis and mutant library screening has long been used to generate mutant strains of Lactic Acid Bacteria with improved physiological and genetic characteristics. This approach was proved to be successful in the fermentation industry by supplying isolates capable of tolerating operational conditions. Acid development and persisten...

Mutagenesis has been used to generate highly productive and stress tolerant variants of microbes. In this study a random mutagenesis using a chemical mutagen, ethidium bromide, was carried out on Lactic Acid Bacteria (LAB) isolated from Ethiopian traditionally fermented cow milk. Twenty colonies of LAB were isolated and out of which two isolates (B...