Seed treatments with Bacillus cereus UW85 increased nodulation of soybeans in three field seasons and in three different sterilized soils in the growth chamber. In the field, 28 and 35 days after planting, UW85-treated plants had 31 to 133% more nodules than untreated plants. From 49 days after planting until seed harvest, there were no significant differences between nodulation of UW85-treated...

AIMS A major challenge in metagenome studies is to estimate the true size of all combined genomes. Here, we present a novel approach to estimate the size of all combined genomes for low coverage next-generation sequencing (NGS) data through empirically determined copy numbers of random DNA fragments. METHODS AND RESULTS Size estimates were made based on analyses of two experimental soil micro...

Soil fertility improvement is an important area which needs attention since most of the hazardous inputs added into the agricultural system are in the form of chemicals. Since crop production and soil normal flora are affected by input of chemical fertilizer. Biofertilizer microorganisms make the nutrients available to plants. The present study was concerning to isolate of some Pseudomonas fluo...

F ollowing the serendipitous discovery of penicillin in 1928 and streptomycin in 1943, the pharmaceutical industry has been screening thousands of soil samples for antimicrobial agents produced by inhabitant microbes. Chloramphenicol, clavulanic acid, erythromycin, gentamicin, rifampin, teicho-planin, tetracycline, and vancomycin represent only a few products of this spectacularly successful ef...

This paper is on the biological impact of arsenic and antimony on the flora and microflora on a former Sbmining site in Schlaining (Stadtschlaining, Burgenland, Austria). Several habitats were investigated with respect to biodiversity and metalloid contamination in soil. Although the overburden of the mining activity had been remediated less than ten years ago, metalloid concentrations occurred...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the effect of soil abatement on children's blood lead concentrations and on environmental levels of lead and arsenic. METHODS Two cross-sectional surveys were conducted. The first (1989) was of a random sample of 6- to 72-month-old children (n=112). The second (1998) included all 6- to 72-month-old children whose parents agreed to participate in the survey (n=215). From ...