The deconstruction of biomass is a pivotal process for the manufacture of target products using microbial cells and their enzymes. But the enzymes that possess a significant role in the breakdown of biomass remain relatively unexplored. Thermophilic microorganisms are of special interest as a source of novel thermostable enzymes. Many thermophilic microorganisms possess properties suitable for ...

In order to develop a practical method for the decomposition of intact chicken feathers, a moderate thermophile strain, Meiothermus ruber H328, having strong keratinolytic activity, was used in a bio-type garbage-treatment machine working with an acidulocomposting process. The addition of strain H328 cells (15 g) combined with acidulocomposting in the garbage machine resulted in 70% degradation...

1 Faculty of Biosciences and Medical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Skudai, Malaysia, Division of Genetics and Molecular Biology, Institute of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, Rapid City, SD, USA, CINDEFI (CCT, La Plata-CONICET, UNLP)...

We report several novel environmental sequences of archaea from the kingdom Crenarchaeota, recovered from anaerobic freshwater-lake sediments in Michigan. A nested PCR approach with Archaea- and Crenar-chaeota-specific primers was used to amplify partial Small-subunit ribosomal DNAs. Phylogenetic analysis of seven sequences shows that these DNAs represent a monophyletic lineage diverging prior ...

River Tyne (UK) estuarine sediments harbour a genetically and functionally diverse community of methane-oxidizing bacteria (methanotrophs), the composition and activity of which were directly influenced by imposed environmental conditions (pH, salinity, temperature) that extended far beyond those found in situ. In aerobic sediment slurries methane oxidation rates were monitored together with th...

Frataxin is the protein responsible for the genetically-inherited neurodegenerative disease Friedreich's ataxia caused by partial silencing of the protein and loss of function. Although the frataxin function is not yet entirely clear, it has been associated to the machine that builds iron-sulfur clusters, essential prosthetic groups involved in several processes and is strongly conserved in org...

Well-developed genetic tools for thermophilic microorganisms are scarce, despite their industrial and scientific relevance. Whereas highly efficient CRISPR/Cas9-based genome editing is on the rise in prokaryotes, it has never been employed in a thermophile. Here, we apply Streptococcus pyogenes Cas9 (spCas9)-based genome editing to a moderate thermophile, i.e., Bacillus smithii, including a gen...