There is, I think, something ethereal about i —the square root of minus one. I remember first hearing about it at school. It seemed an odd beast at that time—an intruder hovering on the edge of reality.

Usually familiarity dulls this sense of the bizarre, but in the case of i it was the reverse: over the years the sense of its surreal nature intensified. It seemed that it was impossible to write mathematics that described the real world in …

I and i

Fundamental features of microbial cellulose utilization are examined at successively higher levels of aggregation encompassing the structure and composition of cellulosic biomass, taxonomic diversity, cellulase enzyme systems, molecular biology of cellulase enzymes, physiology of cellulolytic microorganisms, ecological aspects of cellulase-degrading communities, and rate-limiting factors in nature. The methodological basis for studying microbial cellulose utilization is considered relative to quantification of cells and enzymes in the presence of solid substrates as well as apparatus and analysis for cellulose-grown continuous cultures. Quantitative description of cellulose hydrolysis is addressed with respect to adsorption of cellulase enzymes, rates of enzymatic hydrolysis, bioenergetics of microbial cellulose utilization, kinetics of microbial cellulose utilization, and contrasting features compared to soluble substrate kinetics. A biological perspective on processing cellulosic biomass is presented, including features of pretreated substrates and alternative process configurations. Organism development is considered for "consolidated bioprocessing" (CBP), in which the production of cellulolytic enzymes, hydrolysis of biomass, and fermentation of resulting sugars to desired products occur in one step. Two organism development strategies for CBP are examined: (i) improve product yield and tolerance in microorganisms able to utilize cellulose, or (ii) express a heterologous system for cellulose hydrolysis and utilization in microorganisms that exhibit high product yield and tolerance. A concluding discussion identifies unresolved issues pertaining to microbial cellulose utilization, suggests approaches by which such issues might be resolved, and contrasts a microbially oriented cellulose hydrolysis paradigm to the more conventional enzymatically oriented paradigm in both fundamental and applied contexts.

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Microbial cellulose utilization: fundamentals and biotechnology.

http://academic.oup.com/milmed/article-pdf/146/7/506/24126715/milmed-146-7-506.pdf

Goodman and Gilman's The Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics

Energy demand is increasing continuously due to rapid growth in population and industrialization development. The development of energy sources is not keeping pace with spiraling consumption. Even developed countries are not able to compensate even after increasing the energy production multifold. The major energy demand is provided from the conventional energy sources such as coal, oil, natural gas, etc. Two major problems, which every country is facing with these conventional fuels, are depletion of fossil fuels and deterioration of environment. The present review article aims to highlight various biochemical processes for conversion of biomass into biological hydrogen gas and ethanol. The present discussion focuses on hydrogen production through various routes viz. fermentative, photosynthesis and biological water gas shift reaction. In addition, emphasis has been laid on ethanol as biomass-based energy fuel. The discussion has been focused on the technology for ethanol production from various biomass sources such as molasses, lignocellulosic feedstock and starch. Various biochemical processes and their major steps involved during the ethanol production from biomass have been discussed in detail.

http://www.biotek.lu.se/fileadmin/bioteknik/Utbildning/Kurser/KKKA05/BiomassBiofuel.pdf

Biomass-based energy fuel through biochemical routes: A review

Microbial biosensors: A review

Direct anaerobic bioconversion of cellulosic substances into ethanol by Clostridium thermocellum ATCC 27405 has been carried out at 60 degrees C and pH 7.0 (initial for 100 L) under continuous sparging of oxygen free nitrogen in a culture vessel. Raw bagasse, mild alkali-treated bagasse, and solka floc were used as substrates. The extent of conversion of raw bagasse (cellulose, 50%; hemicellulose, 25%; lignin, 19%) was observed as 52% (w/w) and 79% (w/w) in the case of mild alkali and steam-treated bagasse (cellulose, 72%; hemicellulose, 11%; lignin, 12%), respectively. Use of bagasse concentration above 10 g/L showed a decreased rate in ethanol production. An inoculum age between 28-30 h and cell mass content of 0.027-0.036 g/L (dry basis) were used. The results obtained with raw and pretreated bagasse have been compared with those of highly pure Solka Floc (hemicellulose, 10%). Studies on the product inhibition indicated a linear fall of the percent of survivors with time. An Arrhenius type correlation between the cell decay rate constant and the product concentration was predicted. Even at low levels, the inhibitory effects of products on cell viability, the specific growth rate, and extracellular cellulase enzyme were observed.

Bioconversion of cellulose into ethanol by Clostridium thermocellum--product inhibition.

Studies on citric acid production by Aspergillus niger using treated Indian cane molasses

Medicinal plants and probiotics both have very high potential in terms of their antimicrobial activity against antibiotic-resistant enteric pathogens. The probiotics being enteric microorganism do not have any parasitic effect on human beings. They have been an integral part of daily food for centuries. They have been shown to have health beneficiary properties. The probiotics retard the growth of the microorganisms, while essential oil kills them. Combining the effect of medicinal plant extract and probiotics may be a new approach due to their complementary antimicrobial effects and practically no side effects. The synergistic effect of the essential oil and probiotics will be necessarily higher than using them alone as health product.

/pdf/development-of-probiotic-candidate-in-combination-with-4pgsobhb6n.pdf

Development of Probiotic Candidate in Combination with Essential Oils from Medicinal Plant and Their Effect on Enteric Pathogens: A Review

Trace analysis of cefotaxime at carbon paste electrode modified with novel Schiff base Zn(II) complex.

A new potentiometric microbial biosensor based on Pseudomonas aeruginosa was developed in this study for detecting the cephalosporin group of antibiotics. Preliminary results with the biosensor indicated that P. aeruginosa cells, when treated with lysozyme, showed more efficiency in detecting cephalosporin C in a wide concentration range of 0.1–11 mM with high sensitivity compared to the normal cells. Optimization of the three important biosensor design parameters permeabilized cell contents, quantities of gelatin, and glutaraldehyde resulted in high performance of the biosensor. The optimized values of the above parameters were cell contents 2.5 mg/cm2, gelatin 8.5 mg/cm2, and 0.25% glutaraldehyde. The assay conditions, namely phosphate buffer pH, ionic strength, and temperature, were optimized for best performance of the biosensor. The specificity test of the biosensor towards detecting different β-lactam antibiotics showed good response only for the cephalosporins. The operational and storage stability in detecting cephalosporin C indicated very good potential of the biosensor in detecting cephalosporins with high accuracy.

Subir Kundu

Papers

Bioconversion of cellulose into ethanol by Clostridium thermocellum--product inhibition.

Studies on citric acid production by Aspergillus niger using treated Indian cane molasses

Development of Probiotic Candidate in Combination with Essential Oils from Medicinal Plant and Their Effect on Enteric Pathogens: A Review

Trace analysis of cefotaxime at carbon paste electrode modified with novel Schiff base Zn(II) complex.

Cephalosporins Determination with a Novel Microbial Biosensor Based on Permeabilized Pseudomonas aeruginosa Whole Cells