Photosynthetic microbial mats are sources of microbial diversity and physiological strategies that reflect the physical and metabolic interactions between their resident species. This study focused on the diversity and activity of polyhydroxyalkanoate-producing and -degrading bacteria and their close partnership with cyanobacteria in an estuarine and a hypersaline microbial mat. The aerobic het...

One hundred and five samples of bottled drinking water belonging to 30 different brands, collected from six different states of India have been analysed for total heterotrophic bacterial (THB) load and coliforms. Almost all bottlers used multiple treatment procedures such as microfiltration, reverse osmosis and ozonization to treat the water. Around 40% of the samples exceeded the limit of 100 ...

Due to the importance of heterotrophic bacteria in biogeochemical cycles and their influence on water quality, many studies have assessed the composition of the bacterial community. Most of these were made in temperate freshwaters. Eighteen heterotrophic bacteria communities distributed over time and space in the water column of Carioca Lake, not exposed to anthropogenic activities, were analyz...

Heterotrophic bacteria are thought to be important components of aquatic ecosystems in several ways. These bacteria remineralize organic materials and convert some organic material into bacterial biomass. We examined data from 70 studies in which estimates of production of heterotrophic bacterial biomass (bacterial production) were reported for freshand saltwater ecosystems. In sediments, bacte...

Mixotrophs combine photosynthesis with phagotrophy to cover their demands in energy and essential nutrients. This gives them a competitive advantage under oligotropihc conditions, where nutrients and bacteria concentrations are low. As the advantage for the mixotroph depends on light, the competition between mixo- and heterotrophic bacterivores should be regulated by light. To test this hypothe...

It has been shown that spoilage of emulsion cutting oils is the result of the combined activities of two distinct types of microorganisms. The organisms involved were found to be anaerobic sulfate-reducing bacteria and a variety of heterotrophic aerobic bacteria the majority of which belong to the genus Pseudomonas. It was also shown that certain inorganic salts were essential for deterioration.