Cellulose is the primary component of the plant cell wall and an important source of energy for the ruminant and microbial protein synthesis in the rumen. Cell wall content is digested by anaerobic fermentation activity mainly of bacteria belonging to species Fibrobacter succinogenes, Ruminicoccus albus, Ruminococcus flavefaciens, and Butyrivibrio fibrisolvens. Bacteria belonging to the species Ruminococcus albus contain cellulosomes that enable it to adhere to and digest cellulose, and its genome encodes cellulases and hemicellulases. This study aimed to perform an in silico comparative characterization and functional analysis of cellulase from Ruminococcus albus to explore physicochemical properties and to estimate primary, secondary, and tertiary structure using various bio-computational tools. The protein sequences of cellulases belonging to 6 different Ruminococcus albus strains were retrieved using UniProt. In in silico composition of amino acids, basic physicochemical characteristics were analyzed using ProtParam and Protscale. Multiple sequence alignment of retrieved sequences was performed using Clustal Omega and the phylogenetic tree was constructed using Mega X software. Bioinformatics tools are used to better understand and determine the 3D structure of cellulase. The predicted model was refined by ModRefiner. Structure alignment between the best-predicted model and the template is applied to evaluate the similarity between structures. In this study are demonstrated several physicochemical characteristics of the cellulase enzyme. The instability index values indicate that the proteins are highly stable. Proteins are dominated by random coils and alpha helixes. The aliphatic index was higher than 71 providing information that the proteins are highly thermostable. No transmembrane domain was found in the protein, and the enzyme is extracellular and moderately acidic. The best tertiary structure model of the enzyme was obtained by the use of Raptor X, which was refined by ModRefiner. Raptor X suggested the 6Q1I_A as one of the best homologous templates for the predicted 3D protein structure. Ramachandran plot analysis showed that 90.1% of amino acid residues are within the most favored regions. This study provides for the first time insights about the physicochemical properties, structure, and function of cellulase, from Ruminococcus albus, that will help for detection and identification of such enzyme in vivo or in silico.

Albania underwent significant changes in the three decades following the regime change in 1990. These changes affected not only the political, economic, and social fields but also the higher education (HE) system. Until 1990, HE in this country was politically tightly controlled. Reforms were implemented to transform it into a free and democratic system, with reforms in the areas of academic freedom and autonomy of universities, access of young people to HE, structure and curricula of study programs, governance of HE institutions, integration of teaching and research, cooperation with labor market actors, and financing of HE and their internationalization. Albania has almost 20 years of experience in implementing the Bologna Process, the most profound reform in HE. Currently, Albanian higher education is facing new challenges to become a vanguard of the country’s overall economic and social development on the way to Albania’s integration into the EU.

Subclinical mastitis (SCM) reduces both milk production and milk quality. In this study, the prevalence of SCM, as determined by the California Mastitis Test (CMT), was analyzed in relation to lactation year, milk density, lactose content, electrical conductivity, and fat content at both the individual cow level and the farm level. The focus was on the overall prevalence of CMT-positive cases within the farms and the mean values of physicochemical changes in milk for each farm. A total of 711 udder quarters from 178 Holstein cows across nine dairy farms were sampled at three intervals during lactation (i.e., in three lactation periods). The number of cows per farm ranged from 21 to 140, covering various lactation stages. A CMT score of 1+ in any quarter was considered SCM-positive. The significance and correlation of SCM’s impact on changes in physicochemical milk parameters were analyzed using a robust compound regression. Prevalence of SCM was found to be between 0.14 and 0.63. High prevalence of SCM showed a significant increase in milk conductivity and a significant decrease in milk lactose, protein, solid non-fat (SNF) content, and density. The prevalence of mild and severe SCM varied across different seasons and lactation stages (p<0.05). Significant correlations (p<0.05) between lactation year, lactose content, electrical conductivity, SNF content, and protein were measured at the farm level using a milk analyzer and compared with SCM (R2=0.28; R2=0.41; R2=0.26; R2=0.36; R2=0.39). These findings suggest that physicochemical milk parameters, which are routinely measured in Albanian dairies, can serve as an effective early-warning indicator for dairy farms to detect potential cases of SCM.