BACKGROUND Increasing energy costs and environmental concerns have motivated engineering microbes for the production of "second generation" biofuels that have better properties than ethanol. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION Saccharomyces cerevisiae was engineered with an n-butanol biosynthetic pathway, in which isozymes from a number of different organisms (S. cerevisiae, Escherichia coli, Clostridium ...

Nitrogen fixation is mainly responsible for improvement of crop yield. In this regard, diazotrophs like Rhizobium, Azotobacter and Azospirillum are important as they enrich nitrogen nutrition in N-deficient soils. Of these, Azotobacter promotes plant growth as well as nitrogen fixation. Thus technology has been developed for making use of Azotobacter biofertilizer for nitrogen and non-nitrogen ...

Spores of a number of clostridial species, and their resistance to thermal treatment is a major concern for the food industry. Spore resistance to wet heat is related to the level of spore hydration, which is inversely correlated with the content of calcium and dipicolinic acid (DPA) in the spore core. It is widely believed that the accumulation of DPA and calcium in the spore core is a fundame...

A synthetic pathway was engineered in Escherichia coli to produce isopropanol by expressing various combinations of genes from Clostridium acetobutylicum ATCC 824, E. coli K-12 MG1655, Clostridium beijerinckii NRRL B593, and Thermoanaerobacter brockii HTD4. The strain with the combination of C. acetobutylicum thl (acetyl-coenzyme A [CoA] acetyltransferase), E. coli atoAD (acetoacetyl-CoA transf...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Azotobacter is a diazotroph bacterium reported to possess various plant growth-promoting characteristics.The aim of this study was to isolate Azotobacter strains capable of fixing nitrogen and effectively hydrolyzing both organic and inorganic Pi compounds. MATERIALS AND METHODS In this study, soil samples collected from a diverse range of slightly alkaline soil type...

In order to evaluate the effects of seed priming with Plant Growth Promoting Rhizobacteria (PGPR) on dry matter remobilization and yield of maize (Zea mays L.) hybrids, a factorial experiment based on randomized complete block design with three replications was conducted in 2009 at the Research Farm of the Faculty of Agriculture University of Mohaghegh Ardabili. Factors included seed priming of...

An enrichment technique was developed whereby azotophage could readily be isolated after inoculation of soil sites with Azotobacter vinelandii.

In the year 2000 the occurrence of Azotobacter spp. in 31 Polish soils was examined and results of this study were compared with those published by Ziemięcka for 28 soils analysed in 1917-18. Almost 52% of the soils tested in 2000 were colonised by Azotobacter spp. indicating that intensification of agricultural practices that took place during the past century has not significantly changed (50...