https://faculty.washington.edu/renatab/courses/PSE490/downloads/pretreatment.pdf

Features of promising technologies for pretreatment of lignocellulosic biomass.

Improvement of enzyme activity, stability and selectivity via immobilization techniques

Phosphate solubilizing bacteria and their role in plant growth promotion

Laccases of fungi attract considerable attention due to their possible involvement in the transformation of a wide variety of phenolic compounds including the polymeric lignin and humic substances. So far, more than a 100 enzymes have been purified from fungal cultures and characterized in terms of their biochemical and catalytic properties. Most ligninolytic fungal species produce constitutively at least one laccase isoenzyme and laccases are also dominant among ligninolytic enzymes in the soil environment. The fact that they only require molecular oxygen for catalysis makes them suitable for biotechnological applications for the transformation or immobilization of xenobiotic compounds.

Fungal laccases - occurrence and properties.

Industrial applications of microbial lipases

Leaching of metals with fungi

Four species Aspergillus niger, Penicillium simplicissimum, Pseudomonas sp. ( PI18 89 ) and Penicillium aurantiogriseum were found to be very effective in solubilizing hardly-soluble AlPO4. A. niger produced citrate, oxalate and gluconate, whereas the other species did not produce any organic acid in detectable amounts. This indicates that the production of organic acids is an important solubilization mechanism of AlPO4 but not the only effective one—as supposed in the great majority of publications. Nevertheless, organic acids alone are able to solubilize AlPO4 to a certain extent, although they are less effective compared to biotic leaching. Proton-excretion accompanying NH4+-assimilation is thought to be the most probable explanation for microbial solubilization without acid production. In hydroponic studies with P-solubilizing microorganisms, the plant Lepidium sativum and AlPO4 as the sole P source led to an increase in the dry weight and Al-content of plants. Plant P-content increased only when P. simplicissimum was inoculated.

Solubilization of hardly-soluble AlPO4 with P-solubilizing microorganisms

From the contents: Soil Sampling and Storage.- Determination of Chemical and Physical Soil Properties.- Quantification of Soil Contamination.- Immunotechniques as a Tool for Detection of Hydrocarbons.- Feasibility Studies for Microbial Remediation of Hydrocarbon-Contaminated Soil.- Feasibility Studies for Microbial Remediation of Metal-Contaminated Soil.- Feasibility Studies for Phytoremediation of Metal-Contaminated Soil.- Quantification of Hydrocarbon Biodegradation Using Internal Markers.- Assessment of Hydrocarbon Biodegradation Potential Using Radiorespirometry.- Molecular Techniques for Monitoring and Assessing Soil Bioremediation.- Bioreporter Technology for Monitoring Soil Bioremediation.- Interpretation of Fatty Acid Profiles of Soil Microorganisms.- Enumeration of Soil Microorganisms.- Quantification of Soil Microbial Biomass by Fumigation-Extraction.- Determination of Adenylates and Adenylate Energy Charge.- Determination of Aerobic N-Mineralization.- Determination of Enzyme Activities in Contaminated Soil.- Assessment of Ecotoxicity of Contaminated Soil using Bioassays.

Manual for soil analysis : monitoring and assessing soil bioremediation

Properties of cold-adapted microorganisms and their potential role in biotechnology

A method for analysis of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from microbial cultures was established using proton transfer reaction-mass spectrometry (PTR-MS). A newly developed sampling system was coupled to a PTR-MS instrument to allow on-line monitoring of VOCs in the dynamic headspaces of microbial cultures. The novel PTR-MS method was evaluated for four reference organisms: Escherichia coli, Shigella flexneri, Salmonella enterica, and Candida tropicalis. Headspace VOCs in sampling bottles containing actively growing cultures and uninoculated culture medium controls were sequentially analyzed by PTR-MS. Characteristic marker ions were found for certain microbial cultures: C. tropicalis could be identified by several unique markers compared with the other three organisms, and E. coli and S. enterica were distinguishable from each other and from S. flexneri by specific marker ions, demonstrating the potential of this method to differentiate between even closely related microorganisms. Although the temporal profiles of some VOCs were similar to the growth dynamics of the microbial cultures, most VOCs showed a different temporal profile, characterized by constant or decreasing VOC levels or by single or multiple peaks over 24 h of incubation. These findings strongly indicate that the temporal evolution of VOC emissions during growth must be considered if characterization or differentiation based on microbial VOC emissions is attempted. Our study may help to establish the analysis of VOCs by on-line PTR-MS as a routine method in microbiology and as a tool for monitoring environmental and biotechnological processes.

Franz Schinner

Papers

Leaching of metals with fungi

Solubilization of hardly-soluble AlPO4 with P-solubilizing microorganisms

Manual for soil analysis : monitoring and assessing soil bioremediation

Properties of cold-adapted microorganisms and their potential role in biotechnology

On-Line Monitoring of Microbial Volatile Metabolites by Proton Transfer Reaction-Mass Spectrometry