Phosphotriesterase, isolated from the soil-dwelling bacterium Pseudomonas diminuta, catalyzes the detoxification of organophosphate-based insecticides and chemical warfare agents. The enzyme has attracted significant research attention in light of its possible employment as a bioremediation tool. As naturally isolated, the enzyme is dimeric. Each subunit contains a binuclear zinc center that is...

On the basis of phenotypic and genotypic characteristics and 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis, novel species belonging to the genera Sphingomonas and Brevundimonas were identified from samples taken from the Russian space laboratory Mir. Strain A1-18(T) was isolated from the air. 16S rDNA sequence analysis showed that strain A1-18(T) formed a coherent cluster with Sphingomonas sanguinis, Sphingo...

The influence of mineral substrate composition and structure on bacterial calcium carbonate productivity and polymorph selection was studied. Bacterial calcium carbonate precipitation occurred on calcitic (Iceland spar single crystals, marble, and porous limestone) and silicate (glass coverslips, porous sintered glass, and quartz sandstone) substrates following culturing in liquid medium (M-3P)...

Out of 78 adult laboratory and wild rats investigated for parasitic diseases, 19.23% were diagnosed positive for spontaneous Hymenolepis diminuta infection. Infection was more in laboratory rats (24%) than wild rats (10.71%). Sex wise distribution of H. diminuta infection was also higher male laboratory rats than females while wild rat females were found free from this tapeworm. Value of hemogl...

Animal manure is commonly used as fertilizer for agricultural crops worldwide, even though it is believed to contribute to the spread of antibiotic resistance from animal intestines to the soil environment. However, it is unclear whether and how there is any impact of manure fertilization on populations and community structure of antibiotic-resistant endophytic bacteria (AREB) in plant tissues....

The microbial burden of the Phoenix spacecraft assembly environment was assessed in a systematic manner via several cultivation-based techniques and a suite of NASA-certified, cultivation-independent biomolecule-based detection assays. Extremotolerant bacteria that could potentially survive conditions experienced en route to Mars or on the planet's surface were isolated with a series of cultiva...

In an effort to discover novel catalytic bioscavengers of organophosphorus (OP) nerve agents, cell lysates from a diverse set of bacterial strains were screened for their capacity to hydrolyze the OP nerve agents VX, VR, and soman (GD). The library of bacterial strains was identified using both random and rational approaches. Specifically, two representative strains from eight categories of ext...

The organophosphorous hydrolase (PTE) from Brevundimonas diminuta is capable of degrading extremely toxic organophosphorous compounds with a high catalytic turnover and broad substrate specificity. Although the natural substrate for PTE is unknown, its loop remodeling (loop 7-2/H254R) led to the emergence of a homoserine lactonase (HSL) activity that is undetectable in PTE (kcat/km values of up...