One hundred forty-four microorganisms previously isolated from coffee fruit (Coffea arabica) were grown on casein agar to evaluate their proteolytic activities. Fifty percent of filamentous fungi, 52.5% of bacteria and 2.6% of yeasts were able to secrete proteases. Positive isolates were further examined in liquid culture for their protease activities by hydrolysis of casein at different pH val...

BACKGROUND A completely new approach to diagnose microbial agents at least one day earlier based on mass spectrometric analysis becomes possible in the microbiology laboratory: MALDI TOF: matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionisation time-of-flight. Comparison between results of the new procedure with those obtained by conventional testing is mandatory. METHODS 204 clinical isolates grown on ag...

The biotransformation of the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) naphthalene and phenanthrene was investigated by using two dioxygenase-expressing bacteria, Pseudomonas sp. strain 9816/11 and Sphingomonas yanoikuyae B8/36, under conditions which facilitate mass-transfer limited substrate oxidation. Both of these strains are mutants that accumulate cis-dihydrodiol metabolites under the react...

In Sphingomonas paucimobilis UT26, LinD and LinE activities, which are responsible for the degradation of gamma-hexachlorocyclohexane, are inducibly expressed in the presence of their substrates, 2,5-dichlorohydroquinone (2,5-DCHQ) and chlorohydroquinone (CHQ). The nucleotide sequence of the 1-kb upstream region of the linE gene was determined, and an open reading frame (ORF) was found in diver...