Microbial ecology examines the diversity and activity of micro-organisms in Earth's biosphere. In the last 20 years, the application of genomics tools have revolutionized microbial ecological studies and drastically expanded our view on the previously underappreciated microbial world. This review first introduces the basic concepts in microbial ecology and the main genomics methods that have be...

The present study aimed at assessing the recovery of phototrophic and heterotrophic biofilm communities after a decrease in copper exposure. An original experiment was designed to evaluate the possible influence of non-exposed (i.e. pristine) communities (e.g. via immigration processes) in recovery dynamics. Laboratory channels were used to study the structural and functional changes in microbi...

Northern peatlands are a large repository of atmospheric carbon due to an imbalance between primary production by plants and microbial decomposition. The James Bay Lowlands (JBL) of northern Ontario are a large peatland-complex but remain relatively unstudied. Climate change models predict the region will experience warmer and drier conditions, potentially altering plant community composition, ...

The GGDEF domain protein MxdA, which is important for biofilm formation in Shewanella oneidensis MR-1, was hypothesized to possess diguanylate cyclase activity. Here, we demonstrate that while MxdA controls the cellular level of c-di-GMP in S. oneidensis, it modulates the c-di-GMP pool indirectly.

The potential for hydrogen gas to stimulate microbial respiratory activity in sediments was investigated. Cell elutions from Passaic River (NJ), San Diego Bay (CA), and Marine Harbor sediments were amended with hydrogen gas to evaluate its impact on microbial activity measured by intracellular reduction of 5cyano-2,3-ditolyl tetrazolium chloride (CTC). The transferability of this approach to se...

Introduction: In this study, the chemical composition and antimicrobial activity of essential oil of Ziziphora clinopodiodes and its potential application as a natural preservative in reducing the indigenous microbial population of hamburger were investigated. Method: Essential oil of Ziziphora clinopodiodes cultivated in Iran was obtained by Hydro-distillation method (HDM). Chemical compositio...

this experiment was conducted to determine the effect of procceesing of sugarcane pith with high pressure steam (210-220c◦, at 19 bar, over 3 min, on 70 % moisture) on fermentative activity and gas production parameters and degradation by pure microorganism of rumen. the microbial different groups of rumen were separated by physical and chemical methods and using antibiotics. these microbial gr...

the impact of phenolic-contaminated water on microbial community structure was assessed using biolog microarrays techniques. the following biolog plates were used: gen iii plates, new test panel for identification of both gram-negative and gram-positive bacteria, ecoplates microarray for evaluation of functional diversity of microbial communities and phenotype microarrays (pms) for characteriza...