Search

Petrochemical plastics have become a basic requisite in today's world. Their production has increased dramatically since the last few decades owing to the increase in their demand. Sustainable green plastics produced from polylactic acid have proven to be an alternative to conventional plastics pertaining to their tendency of biodegradability; they are disintegrated by microorganisms and are utilized as carbon sources by plants and other primitive organisms. Rhizopus species is appropriate for the biosynthesis of lactic acid, which is the basic raw material of polylactic acid could be obtained from lignocellulosic biomass since the fungus has the ability to grow on and ferment various carbon sources like cellulose, starch and so on. This research paper deals with the effective biosynthesis of lactic acid from Paper Sludge (PS) through the method of simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (SSF), along with the optimization of various parameters like temperature, pH and initial substrate concentration. An economical and an alternative methodology was opted to prepare cellulase enzyme necessary for the fermentation process, considering the fact that commercially available cellulase are exorbitant. Various combinations of the above enzymes were tested to determine the optimal cellulase cocktail suitable for these conditions. Finally, lactic acid productivity of 27 g/L was achieved when using a blended cellulase cocktail at 50:50 proportion of commercial and fabricate cellulase using a feed concentration of 75 g/L at 40 °C and 6 pH after144 hr by SSF. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Background High salinity (1–10% w/v) of tannery wastewater makes it difficult to be treated by conventional biological treatment. Salt tolerant microbes can adapt to these saline conditions and degrade the organics in saline wastewater. Results Four salt tolerant bacterial strains isolated from marine and tannery saline wastewater samples were identified as Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Bacillus flexus, Exiguobacterium homiense and Staphylococcus aureus. Growth factors of the identified strains were optimized. Tannery saline wastewater obtained from a Common Effluent Treatment Plant (CETP) near Chennai (southern India) was treated with pure and mixed consortia of four salt tolerant bacterial strains. Experiments with optimized conditions and varying salt content (between 2 and 10% (w/v) were conducted. Salt inhibition effects on COD removal rate were noted. Comparative analysis was made by treating the tannery saline wastewater with activated sludge obtained from CETP and with natural habitat microbes present in raw tannery saline wastewater. Conclusion Salt tolerant bacterial mixed consortia showed appreciable biodegradation at all saline concentrations (2%, 4%, 6%, 8% and 10% w/v) with 80% COD reduction in particular at 8% salinity level the consortia could be used as suitable working cultures for tannery saline wastewater treatment.

Isotomurus maculatus (Collembola, Isotomidae) is a springtail with a large distribution. This species has been introduced to the sub-Antarctic Prince Edward Islands. In this study, the mitogenome of I. maculatus was reconstructed. The total length of the mitochondrial genome is 15,263 bp and comprises 13 protein-coding genes, 22 tRNAs, and two rRNAs. The nucleotide composition is 34.4% adenine, 29.2% thymine, 15.1% guanine, and 21.3% cytosine. A Bayesian phylogenetic tree indicates that I. maculatus clusters as the sister taxon to the genus Cryptopygus, with high statistical support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tullbergia bisetosa is a springtail (Collembola) native to the sub-Antarctic Prince Edward Islands. Unlike most other springtails, it has acquired a euedaphic (living within the soil) life form. In the present study, the complete mitogenome of T. bisetosa was sequenced. It has a length of 15,204 bp and comprises 13 protein-coding genes, 22 tRNAs, and two rRNAs. The mitogenome has the following base composition: A = 35.5%, T = 32.3%, G = 10.6%, and C = 21.1%. A Bayesian phylogenetic tree shows that T. bisetosa is grouped with springtails that possess similar morphological features and similar life histories. Our results suggest a mitogenomic signal towards morphological traits that conforms to a euedaphic lifestyle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Leucas aspera is a high value medicinal plant in India, Java, Mauritius and Philippines. The effects of plant growth regulators effects on in vitro callus biomass accumulation and root enhancement were assessed using leaf and stem explants. Leaf and stem explants were cultured on Murashige and Skoog basal medium supplemented with different concentrations of auxins and cytokinins. The highest amount of callus biomass accumulation was observed on leaf explants. Comparisons between stem and leaf explants indicated that leaf explants showed the greatest callus formation. Greatest callus formation was observed on NAA (2 mg L−1) (79.22%), followed by 2,4-D (2.0 mg L−1) (70.11%) and IBA (2.0 mg L−1) showed the least formation (36.42%). Maximum callus formation was observed on stem explants; these showed 60.70% from 2,4-D (2 mg L−1), NAA (2 mg L−1) showed 40.16%, and far less was obtained on IBA (31.60%). The greatest root formation (75.32%) was obtained on IBA (2 mg L−1) and the number of roots per shoot obtained was 26.55%; IAA (2 mg L−1) showed 66.82% root formation and the number of roots obtained was 21.22%; NAA (2 mg L−1) showed 54.33% root formation. In conclusion, root enhancement increased best under dark conditions, the conditions most suitable for regeneration of large numbers of high value clonal plants for commercial production and isolation of bioactive compounds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A metagenomic approach was applied using 454-pyrosequencing data analysis for the profiling of bacterial communities in the brine samples of the water reclamation plant. Some physicochemical characteristics of brine samples were also determined using standard methods. Samples ranged from being lightly alkaline to highly alkaline (pH 7.40-10.91) throughout the various treatment stages, with the salinity ranging from 1.62 to 4.53 g L−1 and dissolved oxygen concentrations ranging from 7.47 to 9.12 mg L−1. Phenotypic switching was found to occur due to these physicochemical parameters. Microbial diversities increased from those present in Stage I reactor (six taxonomic groups) to those in Reverse Osmosis (RO) stage I (17 taxonomic groups), whereas in the second phase of the treatment, it increased in Stage II clarifier (14 taxonomic groups) followed by a decrease in RO stage II (seven taxonomic groups). Overall, seven phyla were detected, apart from many bacterial sequences that were unclassified at the phylum level. The most dominant phylum found was Proteobacteria accounting for 59% of the total sequences. A blastn sequence similarity search showed that the majority of the sequences (56%) were homologous to the uncultured bacterial species, underlining the vast untapped bacterial diversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Industrial wastewaters such as tannery and textile processing effluents are often characterized by a high content of dissolved organic dyes, resulting in large values of chemical and biological oxygen demand (COD and BOD) in the aquatic systems into which they are discharged. Such wastewater streams are of rapidly growing concern as a major environmental issue in developing countries. Hence there is a need to mitigate this challenge by effective approaches to degrade dye-contaminated wastewater. In this study, several choline-based salts originally developed for use as biocompatible hydrated ionic liquids (i.e., choline sacchrinate (CS), choline dihydrogen phosphate (CDP), choline lactate (CL), and choline tartarate (CT)) have been successfully employed as the cosubstrate with S. lentus in the biodegradation of an azo dye in aqueous solution. We also demonstrate that the azo dye has been degraded to less toxic components coupled with low biomass formation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: High salinity (1-10% w/v) of tannery wastewater makes it difficult to be treated by conventional biological treatment. Salt tolerant microbes can adapt to these saline conditions and degrade the organics in saline wastewater. Results: Four salt tolerant bacterial strains isolated from marine and tannery saline wastewater samples were identified as Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Bacillus flexus, Exiguobacterium homiense and Staphylococcus aureus. Growth factors of the identified strains were optimized. Tannery saline wastewater obtained from a Common Effluent Treatment Plant (CETP) near Chennai (southern India) was treated with pure and mixed consortia of four salt tolerant bacterial strains. Experiments with optimized conditions and varying salt content (between 2 and 10% (w/v) were conducted. Salt inhibition effects on COD removal rate were noted. Comparative analysis was made by treating the tannery saline wastewater with activated sludge obtained from CETP and with natural habitat microbes present in raw tannery saline wastewater. Conclusion: Salt tolerant bacterial mixed consortia showed appreciable biodegradation at all saline concentrations (2%, 4%, 6%, 8% and 10% w/v) with 80% COD reduction in particular at 8% salinity level the consortia could be used as suitable working cultures for tannery saline wastewater treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A correction to the article "The Metabolic Advantage of Choline Lactate in Growth Media: An Experimental Analysis with Staphylococcus lentus," by Sudharshan Sekar and colleagues, published in a previous issue of "Applied Biochemistry & Biotechnology" journal, is presented.

The actual extent of fungal diversity in different environmental media is still a subject of ongoing research. Little is currently known about the diversity of fungal populations in industrial streams. This study characterized the fungal diversity of different industrial effluents using a high-throughput sequencing approach. A total of 234617 quality filtered reads were obtained from the collected wastewater samples. Phylogenetic taxonomy revealed that resident fungal communities were classified as 6 phyla, 31 classes, 79 orders, 144 families, and 192 genera. Ascomycota and Basidiomycota were the most dominant phyla whose relative abundance ranged from 23.29% to 38.31%, and 17.34% to 33.51%, respectively. Recovered operational taxonomic units (OTUs) ranged from 292 (Dixon) to 427 (Capegate). The existence of some fungal genera identifed in the industrial wastewaters correlated to physicochemical variables and had the potential to play important roles in organic decomposition, pollutant degradation, and xenobiotic transformation. Meanwhile, the occurrence of unclassified fungal sequences (22.5% to 33.09%) suggests that these effluents are a potential reservoir of as-yet uncharacterized fungal species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]