Northern peatlands are important global C reservoirs, largely because of their slow rates of microbial C mineralization. Particularly in sites that are heavily influenced by anthropogenic disturbances, there is scant information about microbial ecology and whether or not microbial community structure influences greenhouse gas production. This work characterized communities of bacteria and archa...

F420 is a microbial cofactor that mediates a wide range of physiologically important and industrially relevant redox reactions, including in methanogenesis and tetracycline biosynthesis. This deazaflavin comprises a redox-active isoalloxazine headgroup conjugated to a lactyloligoglutamyl tail. Here we studied the catalytic significance of the oligoglutamate chain, which differs in length betwee...

A new gram-negative, non-sporulating, mesophilic, amino acid fermenting bacterium, designated strain ALA-1(T) (T = type strain), was isolated from an anaerobic lagoon of a dairy wastewater treatment plant. The strain is curved (3-4 microm x 0.2-0.3 microm) and occurs singly or in pairs. Optimum growth occurs at 37 degrees C and pH 7.3. The G+C content of the DNA is 46 mol %. The strain requires...

Oil refinery waste activated sludge produced from oil wastewater biological treatment is a major industrial sludge. Two-phase anaerobic digestion of oil refinery waste activated sludge was studied for the first time. Thermal pretreatment under 170 °C is effective on sludge solubilization. At the optimum hydrolytic-acidogenic condition which was pH of 6.5, temperature of 55 °C and HRT of 2 days,...

This study investigates the effects of supplementing a control diet (CON) with chitosan (CHI) or ivy fruit saponins (IVY) as natural feed additives. Both additives had similar abilities to decrease rumen methanogenesis (-42% and -40%, respectively) using different mechanisms: due to its antimicrobial and nutritional properties CHI promoted a shift in the fermentation pattern towards propionate ...

Experiments were designed to evaluate biodegradation of plantand petroleum-based fuels and blends exposed to seawater under anaerobic conditions. The experimental set-up included natural aerobic seawater, fuel and unprotected carbon steel coupons, simulating a potential fuel storage situation. Corrosion was due to microbiologically produced sulfides reacting with carbon steel. There were few di...

One of the most critical events in the origins of cellular life was the development of lipid membranes. Archaea use isoprenoid chains linked via ether bonds to sn-glycerol 1-phosphate (G1P), whereas bacteria and eukaryotes use fatty acids attached via ester bonds to enantiomeric sn-glycerol 3-phosphate. NAD(P)H-dependent G1P dehydrogenase (G1PDH) forms G1P and has been proposed to have played a...

This study was conducted to determine the effect of lysozyme addition on in vitro rumen fermentation and to identify the lysozyme inclusion rate for abating methane (CH4) production. An in vitro ruminal fermentation technique was done using a commercial concentrate to rice straw ratio of 8:2 as substrate. The following treatments were applied wherein lysozyme was added into 1 mg dry matter subs...

Thermophilic bacteria have gained increased attention as candidates for bioethanol production from lignocellulosic biomass. This study investigated ethanol production by Thermoanaerobacter strain J1 from hydrolysates made from lignocellulosic biomass in batch cultures. The effect of increased initial glucose concentration and the partial pressure of hydrogen on end product formation were examin...

Zoige wetland of Tibetan plateau is characterized by being located at a low latitude (33 degrees 56'N, 102 degrees 52'E) region and under the annual temperature around 1 degrees C. Previous studies indicated that Zoige wetland was one of the CH(4) emission centres in Qinghai-Tibetan plateau; in this study, the methanogen community in this low-latitude wetland was analysed based on the homology ...