BACKGROUND Conversion of plant cell walls to bioethanol and bio-based chemicals requires pretreatment as a necessary step to reduce recalcitrance of cell walls to enzymatic and microbial deconstruction. In this study, the sweet sorghum stems were subjected to various hydrothermal pretreatment processes (110°C to 230°C, 0.5 to 2.0 h), and the focus of this work is to systematically evaluate the ...

In this study, an approach using influent COD/N ratio reduction was employed to improve process performance and nitrification efficiency in a membrane bioreactor (MBR). Besides sludge reduction, membrane fouling alleviation was observed during 330 d operation, which was attributed to the decreased production of soluble microbial products (SMP) and efficient carbon metabolism in the autotrophic ...

Microbial production of plant-derived natural products by engineered microorganisms has achieved great success thanks to large extend to metabolic engineering and synthetic biology. Anthocyanins, the water-soluble colored pigments found in terrestrial plants that are responsible for the red, blue and purple coloration of many flowers and fruits, are extensively used in food and cosmetics indust...

The Gram-negative bacterium Klebsiella planticola represents an interesting host organism for the production of biotechnological products. Microbial processes – especially those of aerobic cultivation – lead to the generation of considerable amounts of biomass, thus lowering the product yield. These are the reasons for studying methods for the recycling of biomass from K. planticola. It will be...

Preclinical studies with probiotics continue to unravel mechanisms of cytoprotection and suggest that approaches utilizing microbial products as therapeutics in acute and chronic gastrointestinal disorders could be effective. However, clinical trials using these bacteria have thus far been inconsistent. In this issue of the JCI, Yan et al. describe a novel mechanism of cytoprotection by p40, a ...

In order to ascertain the effects of different carbon sources (methanol, glucose, starch and NaHCO(3)) on denitrification in BESs, the experiment was conducted in a constant current, 3.5 of chemical oxygen demand to nitrate ratio in a greenhouse. Among the four carbon sources investigated in BESs, NaHCO(3) showed the highest nitrite accumulation and the ratio of soluble microbial products to so...

This paper presents the results of 195 days of pilot-scale submerged membrane bioreactor (SMBR) experiments on settled municipal wastewater. Short-term and long-term thickening experiments were performed at a constant membrane flux of 30L/(m(2)h) to determine the impact of the following mixed liquor properties: colloidal material, soluble COD, soluble microbial products, extracellular polymeric...

the low bioavailability of zinc (zn) is in calcareous and saline soil, therefore the study of chemical forms and bioavailability of zn in these soils is necessary to estimate the potential availability. the objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of plant growth promoting rhizobacteria and mycorrhizae fungi inoculation on the chemical forms of zn in a calcareous soil at different sal...

Fundamental features of microbial cellulose utilization are examined at successively higher levels of aggregation encompassing the structure and composition of cellulosic biomass, taxonomic diversity, cellulase enzyme systems, molecular biology of cellulase enzymes, physiology of cellulolytic microorganisms, ecological aspects of cellulase-degrading communities, and rate-limiting factors in nat...