Microbial lipases are an important group of biotechnologically valuable enzymes, because of the versatility of their applied properties and ease of mass production. Lipases of microbial origin are widely diversified in their enzymatic properties and substrate specificity, which make them very attractive for industrial applications. This review describes the applications of microbial lipases in ...

Nonylphenol is a metabolic intermediate from the microbial transformation of detergents used worldwide. While nonylphenol shows some acute toxicity, it is also able to mimic important hormones resulting in the disruption of several processes by interfering with the signals that control the overall physiology of the organism. This work perform a critical reviews on the origin, environmental fate...

We investigated the effects of various factors (brij 30, brij 35, yeast extract, hydrogen peroxide and compost) on the aerobic degradation of nonylphenol (NP) in soil and characterized the structure of the microbial community in that soil. Residues of NP were measured using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and a change of microbial communities was demonstrated using denaturing gradi...

In order to evaluate natural attenuation in contaminated aquifers, there has been a recent recognition that a multidisciplinary approach, incorporating microbial and molecular methods, is required. Observed decreases in contaminant mass and identified footprints of biogeochemical reactions are often used as evidence of intrinsic bioremediation, but characterizing the structure and function of t...

Fine chemicals that are physiologically active, such as pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, nutritional supplements, flavoring agents as well as additives for foods, feed, and fertilizer are produced by enzymatically or through microbial fermentation. The identification of enzymes that catalyze the target reaction makes possible the enzymatic synthesis of the desired fine chemical. The genes encoding t...

A novel microfluidic reactor for biofilm growth and in situ characterization using time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS) was constructed to enable two-dimensional chemical imaging of hydrated biofilms. We demonstrate the detection of characteristic fatty acid fragments from microfluidic reactor-grown biofilms and illustrate advantages of hydrated-state ToF-SIMS imaging.

Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus are ubiquitous pathogens often found together in polymicrobial, biofilm-associated infections. This study is the first to use laser ablation electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (LAESI-MS) to rapidly study bacteria within a mixed biofilm. Fast, direct, non-invasive LAESI-MS analysis of biofilm could significantly accelerate biofilm studies a...

Antibiotic resistance in bacteria causing disease is an ever growing threat to the world. Recently, environmental bacteria have become established as important both as sources of antibiotic resistance genes and in disseminating resistance genes. Low levels of antibiotics and other pharmaceuticals are regularly released into water environments via wastewater, and the concern is that such environ...

Horizontal gene transfer (HGT) is the major mechanism responsible for spread of antibiotic resistance. Antibiotic treatment has been suggested to promote HGT, either by directly affecting the conjugation process itself or by selecting for conjugations subsequent to DNA transfer. However, recent research suggests that the effect of antibiotic treatment on plasmid conjugation frequencies, and hen...

objective(s): mindium laevigatum is an endemic plant of iran and turkey and is widely used as blood purifier, antiasthma and antidyspnea in traditional medicine. chemical composition of volatile materials of the plant and its antioxidant, antimicrobial and cytotoxic activities were reported in this study. materials and methods: simultaneous distillation-extraction (sde) and gc-mass-fid analysis...