Lignin is probably one of the most recalcitrant compounds synthesized by plants. This compound is degraded by few microorganisms. White-rot fungi have been extensively studied due to its powerful ligninolytic enzymes. Ganoderma lucidum is one such organism that can degrade lignin and hence it was isolated and screened qualitatively by guaiacol plate assay. Spectrophotometric enzyme assays were ...

The development of imatinib, an ATP-competitive inhibitor of the BCR-ABL oncoprotein, has revolutionized the treatment of chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML). Unfortunately, the leukemia eventually becomes resistant imatinib as a result of emergence of cells expressing drug insensitive BCR-ABL mutant proteins. This has motivated the development of several next-generation ATP-competitive drugs. T...

Some litter-decaying fungi secrete haem-thiolate peroxygenases that oxidize numerous organic compounds and therefore have a high potential for applications such as the detoxification of recalcitrant organic waste and chemical synthesis. Like P450 enzymes, they transfer oxygen functionalities to aromatic and aliphatic substrates. However, in contrast to this class of enzymes, they only require H...

Microbial communities are ubiquitous in both natural and artificial environments. However, microbial diversity is usually reduced under strong selection pressures, such as those present in habitats rich in recalcitrant or toxic compounds displaying antimicrobial properties. Caffeine is a natural alkaloid present in coffee, tea and soft drinks with well-known antibacterial properties. Here we pr...

Honey is generated by various bee species from diverse plants, and because the value of different types of honey varies more than 100-fold, it is a target for fraud. This paper describes a protocol that employs DNA metabarcoding of three gene regions (ITS2, rbcLa, and COI) to provide an inexpensive tool to simultaneously deliver information on the botanical and entomological origins of honey. T...

Textile effluents are characterised by high content of recalcitrant compounds and are often discharged (together with municipal wastewater to increase their treatability) into centralized wastewater treatment plants with a complex treatment scheme. This paper reports the results achieved adopting a granular sludge system (sequencing batch biofilter granular reactor - SBBGR) to treat mixed munic...

Organohalides are recalcitrant pollutants that have been responsible for substantial contamination of soils and groundwater. Organohalide-respiring bacteria (ORB) provide a potential solution to remediate contaminated sites, through their ability to use organohalides as terminal electron acceptors to yield energy for growth (i.e., organohalide respiration). Ideally, this process results in non-...

Primary ciliary dyskinesia (PCD) also known as immotile cilia syndrome is a genetic disorder characterised by chronic infections of the upper and lower respiratory tracts, male infertility and situs inversus totalis. Authors are presenting clinical details of a patient who was operated upon for recalcitrant rhinosinusitis. Investigations carried to find out the predisposing factors for such sin...

Lignin structural studies play an essential role both in understanding the development of plant cell walls and for valorizing lignocellulosics as renewable biomaterials. Dimeric products released by selectively cleaving β-aryl ether linkages between lignin units reflect the distribution of recalcitrant lignin units, but have been neither absolutely defined nor quantitatively determined. Here, 1...

Laccases are an interesting group of multi copper enzymes, which have received much attention of researchers in last decades due to their ability to oxidize both phenolic and non-phenolic lignin related compounds as well as highly recalcitrant environmental pollutants. This makes these biocatalysts very useful for their application in several biotechnological processes. Such applications includ...