Starch is one of the biomolecules that appears frequently in food composition due to its physical properties, and because it acts as a source of glucose and therefore of energy (DEMIATE; KONKEL; PEDROSO, 2001; WEBER; COLLARES-QUEIROZ; CHANG, 2009). The proliferation of microorganisms in foodstuffs is directly dependent on their ability to hydrolyze starch releasing glucose that will be the prim...

The structure of biocenosis is a powerful indicator for the condition of and changes in quality of the ecosystem. Identification and quantification of populations of microorganisms enables an assessment of the effect of any stressor on it. A method and some results are presented using automatic image acquisition, evaluation and recognition to ease the time consuming part of manual organism reco...

BACKGROUND In order to facilitate the setting of guidelines, this review article evaluates the health risks caused by poor microbiological quality of recreational natural water. METHODS Studies on uncontrolled waters, such as sea, lakes and rivers were considered in this review through MEDLINE and WHO resources. Out of the 37 studies identified, 22 were reviewed because they addressed associa...

The aim of this work was to isolate and characterize bacteriocins produced by 2 Lactobacillus fermentum strains isolated from artisanal Mexican Cocido cheese. Fractions (F ≤3 kDa) obtained cell-free supernatants Lb. J23 J32 were further fractionated reversed-phase HPLC on a C18 column. Antimicrobial activities F kDa bacteriocin-containing fractions (BCF), fractionation against 4 indicator micro...

A combined constructed wetland formed by a facultative pond (FP), a surface flow wetland (SF) and a subsurface flow wetland (SSF) was studied from December 2004 until September 2005 in north-western Spain in order to evaluate their efficiency in the removal of pathogenic and indicator microorganisms and to determine their relationships. Microbial removal ranged from 78% for coliphages to over 9...

Bacteria- and virus-containing aerosols were studied during the late summer and fall seasons in a midwestern suburb of the United States before and during the start-up and operation of an unenclosed activated sludge wastewater treatment plant. The study showed that the air in this suburban area contained low-level densities of indicator microorganisms. After the plant began operating, the densi...

Sunlight exposure is considered to be the most important cause of "natural disinfection" in surface water environments. The UV-B portion of the solar spectrum is the most bactericidal, causing direct (photo-biological) DNA damage. In the present experimental study, the effect of solar radiation on the elimination of bacteria in water, especially in surface water, was studied. The influence of d...

A sensitive and efficient colorimetric method was optimized for detection of esterase enzymes produced by endophytic fungi for development of High-Throughput Screening (HTS). The fungi were isolated and obtained previously from plant species of Cerrado and Atlantic Forest located in areas of environmental preservation in the State of Sao Paulo / Brazil, as part of the project "Chemical and biol...

This work aimed to evaluate the capability of different microorganisms to degrade commercial diesel oil in comparison to a weathered diesel oil collected from the groundwater at a petrol station. Two microbiological methods were used for the biodegradability assessment: the technique based on the redox indicator 2,6 -dichlorophenol indophenol (DCPIP) and soil respirometric experiments using bio...