Electrospinning is a promising approach to fabricate desirable electropsun nanofibrous scaffold that could be applied in the medical fields. In this study, bacterial copolymer poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-68 mol% 4-hydroxybutyrate) [P(3HB-co-68mol% 4HB)] copolymer produced was fabricated into electrospun nanofibers using various combination of electrospinning parameters including the polymer solution, applied voltage and injection speed. The morphology of the fabricated scaffolds were observed using scanning electron microscope (SEM). The SEM images were analysed for the fibre diameter distribution of the scaffolds using Image Analyser. The results revealed that the 8 wt% of polymer solution, 25 kV/cm of the applied voltage and 1.5 mL/h of the injection speed was the most suitable combination. This electrospinning parameters combination fabricated nanofibrous P(3HB-co-4HB) scaffold with smooth, beadles and uniform nanofibers with small fibre diameter distribution.
Chuan Jian Chai, Yuzine Bin Esa, Muhammad Fadhil Syukri Ismail, and Mohd. Salleh Kamarudin (2017)Portunus pelagicus, distributed throughout the Indo-West Paci c region, is one of the large and edible species of blue swimmer crabs. Increasing demand for the frozen and canned crabmeat industry worldwide has now relied mainly on P. pelagicus which in turn generates splendid income for the fisherman communities. In the present study, the population genetic structure of P. pelagicus was examined using six pairs of microsatellite loci. A total of 87 crab samples were collected from five different coastal areas of Malaysia. Genomic DNA was extracted from each sample for polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification and fragment analysis. Four out of six microsatellite primers revealed polymorphic loci in P. pelagicus sampled. The number of alleles per locus in P. pelagicus ranged from 14 to 34. Microsatellites analyses indicated low levels of genetic differentiation among the P. pelagicus populations. The average observed heterozygosity (HO = 0.48) obtained was lower than the standard heterozygosity found in most marine populations (HO = 0.79). The high FIS values (mean FIS = 0.4756) and low FST values (mean FST = 0.0413) also suggested the existence of inbreeding among different populations of P. pelagicus. In conclusion, this study was able to shed light on the population structure of P. pelagicus in coastal areas of Malaysia.