Previous research has demonstrated that production of natural fiber reinforced thermoplastic composites (NFRTCs) utilizing bacterially-derived pure polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) does not yield a product that is cost competitive with synthetic plastic-based NFRTCs. Moreover, the commercial production of pure PHB is not without environmental impacts. To address these issues, we integrated unpurified ...

This investigation was carried out at the experimental farm of Medicinal and Aromatic plants Research Department, Horticulture Research, Dokki, Giza during two successive seasons of 2009/2010 and 2010/2011.The research aimed to study the effect of compost rates (2,4and 8 ton/fed) and some biofertilizers (Azotobacter Chroococcum, Bacillus megaterium, Bacillus circulanse) alone or all strains in ...

The structure of the iron sites of nitrogenase in dithionite-reduced and thionine-oxidized forms of the Mo-Fe and V-Fe proteins has been investigated using Fe K-edge X-ray absorption spectroscopy. For the dithionite-reduced Azotobacter uinelandii Mo-Fe protein, the dominant EXAFS Fourier transform peaks are assigned to F e 4 and Fe-Fe interactions at -2.32 and 2.64 A, as expected for F e S clus...

The phenotypic features of the Azotobacter vinelandii RhdA mutant MV474 (in which the rhdA gene was deleted) indicated that defects in antioxidant systems in this organism were related to the expression of the tandem-domain rhodanese RhdA. In this work, further insights on the effects of the oxidative imbalance generated by the absence of RhdA (e.g. increased levels of lipid hydroperoxides) are...

Mutants of Azotobacter which grow normally on excess ammonia under a variety of conditions and which grow slowly or not at all on atmospheric nitrogen have been isolated. Extracts of these strains have low or no detectable nitrogenase activity. There are three classes of mutants. Cell-free preparations of members of the first class possess an enhancement factor (EF+) which stimulates wild-type ...

The reduction of nitrogen, acetylene, azide, and cyanide at various oxygen concentrations by nitrogenase from Azotobacter vinelandii was measured with a well-defined system. Oxygen inhibited the reduction of each substrate uncompetitively. The inhibition constants (K(i)) were 0.014, 0.023, 0.008, and 0.003 atm of oxygen for reduction of nitrogen, acetylene, azide, and cyanide, respectively. The...

A number of chlorate-resistant mutants were selected, and one of these, clr68-5, was studied in detail. This mutant cannot utilize nitrate in vivo to overcome the effect of nonmetabolizable repressors of nitrogenase. The reason for this inability was that strain clr68-5 lacked nitrate reductase. Nitrate inhibited the activity of nitrogenase but did not act as a corepressor of nitrogenase in str...

The MoFe protein from Azotobacter vinelandii catalyzes the reduction of methylene blue and other oxidants by H2 under anaerobic conditions. H2 uptake followed manometrically or by 3H2 transfer from the gas to aqueous phase occurs concomitantly with methylene blue disappearance monitored optically or coulometrically. The stoichiometry was found to be 1:1 methylene blue/H2. MoFe protein oxidized ...

In Azotobacter vinelandii cells, the short-term inhibition of nitrogenase activity by NH4Cl was found to depend on several factors. The first factor is the dissolved oxygen concentration during the assay of nitrogenase. When cells are incubated with low concentrations of oxygen, nitrogenase activity is low and ammonia inhibits strongly. With more oxygen, nitrogenase activity increases. Cells in...

We have applied 57Fe nuclear resonance vibrational spectroscopy (NRVS) for the first time to study the dynamics of Fe centers in Fe-S protein crystals, including oxidized wild type rubredoxin crystals from Pyrococcus furiosus, and the MoFe protein of nitrogenase from Azotobacter vinelandii. Thanks to the NRVS selection rule, selectively probed vibrational modes have been observed in both orient...