Showing papers by "Franz Schinner published in 1999"

Biological decontamination of oil spills in cold environments

Abstract: The decontamination of oil-polluted cold environments has been recognized as an area of particular importance. The biodegradation of petroleum hydrocarbons at low temperatures has been reported in a variety of soil, water and marine systems in arctic, alpine and antarctic environments. Physical, chemical and biological factors contribute to hydrocarbon loss or alteration. Cold-adapted indigenous microorganisms are of essential importance for the biological decontamination of cold climates. Enrichments of oil-degrading microbial communities occur soon after oil contamination. Bioremediation, the acceleration of the natural biodegradation rate through the modification of environmental conditions, has been studied in cold arctic, alpine and antarctic environments. Biostimulation by the addition of inorganic nutrients results in an enhanced oil degradation by the indigenous microorganisms, whereas bioaugmentation with oil-degrading cold-adapted microorganisms was sometimes reported to be unsuccessful. The effect of temperature on oil biodegradation and ecological consequences of oil spills are discussed. By using biological decontamination, the contaminant concentration cannot be reduced to zero. © 1999 Society of Chemical Industry

Soil lipase activity : a useful indicator of oil biodegradation

Abstract: The evaluation of soil lipase activity as a tool to monitor the decontamination of a freshly oil-polluted soil was tested in a laboratory study. An arable soil was experimentally contaminated with diesel oil at 5 mg hydrocarbons g−1 soil dry weight and incubated with and without fertilization (N-P-K) for 116 days at 20 °C. Lipase activity and counts of oil-degrading microorganisms were measured at regular time intervals, and the correlations with the levels of hydrocarbon concentrations in soil were investigated. The residual soil hydrocarbon concentration correlated significantly negatively with soil lipase activity and with the number of oil-degrading microorganisms, independent of fertilization. The induction of soil lipase activity is a valuable indicator of oil biodegradation in naturally attenuated (unfertilized) and bioremediated (fertilized) soils.

Cold-adapted organisms : ecology, physiology, enzymology and molecular biology

Abstract: Ecology and Physiology. Cold-Adapted Microorganisms. Microbial Life in Permanently Cold Soils Lake Ice Microbial Communities in Alpine and Antarctic Lakes Physiology of Cold-Adapted Microorganisms. Cold-Adapted Plants. Ecological Aspects of Cold-Adapted Plants With a Special Emphasis on Environmental Control of Cold Hardening and Dehardening Plant Responses to Low Temperature: Signaling Pathways Involved in Plant Acclimation Ice Nucleation and Deep Supercooling in Plants: New Insights Using Infrared Thermography: Modeling Sequential Responses of Plant Cells to Freezing and Thawing. Cold-Adapted Animals. Cold Adaptations in Terrestrial Invertebrates Nival Invertebrate Animals in the East Alps: A Faunistic Overview High Alpine Streams: Cold Habitats for Insect Larvae Ecophysiological and Morphological Features of Glaciar-Dwelling Collembola Ecological Features of Antarctic Fishes Structure and Function of Hemoglobins From Antarctic Organisms: The Search For Correlations With Adaptive Evolution.- Enzymology. Cold Enzymes: A Hot Topic. Psychrophilic Enzymes: Insights Into Cold Adaptation and Catalysis From the First High Resolution Crystal Structures. Temperature Adaptation in Enzymes of Antarctic Fishes. Aspartate Aminotransferase From Moraxella TAC125: An Unusual Psychrophilic Enzyme.- Molecular Biology. Genes and Enzymes Involved in Argininge and Pyrimidine Biosynthesis in Psychrophilic Vibrio Strains From the Deep Sea. Plasmids From Antarctic Bacteria. Molecular Responses in Cold-Adapted Plants. Gene Expression and Cold Hardiness in Animals.-

Biotechnological applications of cold-adapted organisms

Abstract: Genetic Tools * Enzyme Biotechnology * Health Biotechnology * Food Biotechnology * Agricultural Biotechnology * Environmental Biotechnology * Bio-Mining * Multidisciplinary Applications. The complete Table of Contents can be found on the Internet.

Influence of nutrient solution on Al‐tolerance of Pseudomonas sp.

Abstract: Using a soil bacterium (Pseudomonas sp.), the influence of different levels of aluminium included in nutrient solutions before and after autoclaving and the influence of phosphorus addition on growth of the bacterium were investigated. Both phosphorus addition (350 μM) and Al-application before autoclaving caused a distinct decrease in Al-availability and thus an apparent increase in Al-tolerance, both effects adding up in a linear fashion. The Weibull function was shown to be well suited to describe toxic effects of Al on the microorganism under investigation.

A practicable and accurate method to differentiate between intra-and extracellular water of microbial cells

Abstract: A thermographimetric method which allows for a quick and accurate estimation of intra- and extracellular water of microbial cells is reviewed and improved. Knowledge of these fractions is important for physiological as well as for toxicological investigations. Results of the study indicate that besides the species, nutrient availability and growth conditions affect the intracellular water content. Intra- and extracellular water, dry matter, volume and density of a single cell of Arthrobacter sp. are calculated. There are indications that intracellular compartments of eukaryotes could also be investigated with this method.

Removal of nickel from plating rinsing water with a moving-bed sand filter inoculated with metal sorbing and precipitating bacteria

Abstract: The MERESAFIN (MEtal REmoval by SAnd Filter INoculation) process presented here was designed to combine the optimum conditions for more than one of the well-known processes of biological metal immobilisation like biosorption and bioprecipitation. The approach makes use of a continuously operated moving-bed AstraSand filter which has been inoculated with a mixed population of metal biosorbing and bioprecipitating bacteria. A pilot plant operating at 1 m 3 /h has been erected at a metal plating company in Vienna to treat waste water from an electroless nickel plating line. In addition to several mg/L of nickel the rinsing water also contains some organic acids and inorganic phosphates, which make conventional treatment difficult. The main laboratory experiments as well as preliminary results from the pilot installation are presented.

An optimized method for the isolation of protoplasts from penicillium simplicissimum to produce sealed plasma membrane vesicles

Abstract: As a first step to the production of plasma membrane vesicles, protoplast production from hy- phae of Penicillium simplicissimum was optimized with reference to the following criteria: (i) protoplast yield; (ii) percentage of viable protoplasts judged via fluorescent dyes; (iii) percentage of protoplasts which were able to regenerate a cell wall, and (iv) the degree of damage to the plasma membrane es- timated from the rate of glucose-stimulated proton excretion. Four mixtures of cell wall lytic enzymes were tested. The effect of different pretreatments (homogenization of mycelial pellets, addition of pro- teases, and addition of dithiothreitol) was also ex- amined. Protoplast production was further optimized with respect to the choice of osmotic stabilizer, the pH during cell wall digestion, the age of the myceli- um and the duration of cell wall digestion. The op- timal conditions for the production of protoplasts from hyphae of P. simplicissimum were determined. In general, conditions which increased the protoplast yield, also damaged the plasma membrane (mani- fested as a decrease in the rate of glucose-induced proton excretion). The highest yield was 2 X 109 pro- toplasts per gram of mycelium (dry weight). A mem- brane fraction was obtained by mechanical homoge- nization of the protoplasts. Orientation and mem- brane integrity of the vesicles in the membrane frac- tion were characterized by the activity of the plasma membrane H+-ATPase (vanadate-sensitive ATP-hy- drolyzing activity and proton pumping activity). The main part of vesicles (80%) were right-side-out.