Extensive tree mortality from insect epidemics has raised concern over possible effects on soil biogeochemical processes. Yet despite the importance of microbes in nutrient cycling, how soil bacterial communities respond to insect-induced tree mortality is largely unknown. We examined soil bacterial community structure (via 16S rRNA gene pyrosequencing) and community assembly processes (via nul...

Soil bacteria may be influenced by vegetation and play important roles in global carbon efflux and nutrient cycling under global changes. Coniferous and broadleaved forests are two phyletically distinct vegetation types. Soil microbial communities in these forests have been extensively investigated but few studies have presented comparable data regarding the characteristics of bacterial communi...

Organic matter decomposition in the globally widespread coniferous forests has an important role in the carbon cycle, and cellulose decomposition is especially important in this respect because cellulose is the most abundant polysaccharide in plant litter. Cellulose decomposition was 10 times faster in the fungi-dominated litter of Picea abies forest than in the bacteria-dominated soil. In the ...

A field experiment was conducted to illustrate the different degree and dynamics of microbial community structure and function in the rhizosphere across four growing stages (before plantation and three growth stages) using a combination of biochemical (enzyme assay and microbial biomass carbon) and molecular approaches of qPCR and PCR-DGGE (polymerase chain reaction-denaturing gradient gel elec...

Endophytic and plant-associated bacteria were isolated from plants and rhizoplane soil of naturally grown Brachiaria grasses at International Livestock Research Institute in Nairobi, Kenya. Eighty-four bacterial strains were isolated from leaf tissues, root tissues, and rhizoplane soil on nutrient agar and 869 media. All bacterial strains were identified to the lowest possible taxonomic unit us...

Enzymatic debridement is a therapeutic strategy used clinically to remove necrotic tissue from wounds. Some of the enzymes utilized for debridement have been tested against bacterial pathogens, but the effectiveness of these agents in dispersing clinically relevant biofilms has not been fully characterized. Here, we developed an in vitro Staphylococcus aureus biofilm model that mimics wound-lik...

The determination of cell volumes and biomass offers a means of comparing the standing stocks of auto- and heterotrophic microbes of vastly different sizes for applications including the assessment of the flux of organic carbon within aquatic ecosystems. Conclusions about the importance of particular genotypes within microbial communities (e.g., of filamentous bacteria) may strongly depend on w...

We present a mathematical model for growth and control of facultative anaerobic bacterial biofilms in nutrient rich environments. The growth of the microbial population is limited by protonated lactic acids and the local pH value, which in return are altered as the microbial population changes. The process is described by a non-linear parabolic system of three coupled equations for the dependen...

The objective of this study was to examine ochratoxin A (OTA) binding by three lactic acid bacteria (LAB) species: Lactobacillus plantarum, L. brevis, and L. sanfranciscensis. Experiments were conducted using MRS medium and PBS buffer contaminated with 1000 ng/mL OTA and inoculated with live or thermally inactivated bacterial biomass at a concentration of 1 or 5 mg dry weight/mL. It was found t...

A dense population of the purple sulfur bacterium Amoebobacter purpureus in the chemocline of meromictic Mahoney Lake (British Columbia, Canada) underwent consistent changes in biomass over a two year study period. The integrated amount of bacteriochlorophyll reached maxima in August and declined markedly during early fall. Bacteriochlorophyll was only Weakly correlated with the light intensity...