Isolation, Identification and Optimization of Halotolerant bacteria for the degradation of Tannery Saline Wastewater

Senthilkumar Sivaprakasam, Surianarayanan Mahadevan and Swaminathan Gopalraman

In the context of water scarcity and the intrusion of salt into freshwater, the management of saline effluents is of priority concern in India. This study deals with tannery saline wastewater which is a primary effluent generated by the soaking of hides and skins. This study deals with aerobic biodegradation of tannery saline wastewater by a halotolerant bacterial strain isolated from the same effluent itself and identified as P.aeruginosa. The growth factors were optimized at batch level and biodegradation of tannery saline wastewater was performed at optimized conditions. Effect of salinity on COD removal was studied and 4 % (NaCl by wt) was found to be maximum salt tolerance limit for better degradation. Effect of initial biomass concentration on treatment efficiency was also studied and P.aeruginosa was proven to be a potential strain for efficient biodegradation of tannery saline wastewater.

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Porous Alumina Membrane as a Support System for Candida Bombicola Cells and their use in Biotransformation of Arachidonic Acid to 19-HETE and 20-HETE

Shah Sachin, Prabhune Asmita and Kulkarni Sulabha

Availability of porous channels, large surface area and biocompatibility of alumina membranes make them useful for the immobilization of whole cells and enzymes, which have significant application in biocatalytic reaction. Attachment of the Candida bombicola cells to hydrophobic porous alumina membrane is through nonspecific interaction between the hydrophobic ODA molecule and the cell wall. The transformation of arachidonic acid takes place through the cytochrome P450 enzyme present in the immobilized Candida bombicola cells on functionalized ODA porous alumina membrane to yield sophorolipids followed by acid hydrolysis to produces 19-hydroxy-eicosaterenioc acid (19-HETE) and 20-hydroxyeicosaterenioc acid (20-HETE). Surface morphologies of the cell wall were analyzed with the help of atomic force microscopy (AFM). The binding of the cells to ODA porous alumina membrane was studied by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The biocompatibility of porous alumina membrane and possibility of reusing is also demonstrated.

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Biodegradation of Phenol by Bacteria Isolated from Anchuthengu Backwaters, South West Coast of Kerala, India

Reshma J.K., Gnana Thanga V. Salom and Murugan R.Paul

Growth rate and biodegradation experiments were conducted to monitor the biodegradation potential of four species of bacteria namely Pseudomonas , E.coli , Micrococcus , and Bacillus sp., in different concentration of phenol ranging from 200-800 ppm. Biodegradation studies for all the strains clearly indicate that some species, which possessed plasmids, have high degradation capacity (P1, E1 and B2). These strains when selected for transformation studies against weak degrading ones (P6 and B1), produced transformants {P6(a), B1(a), and B1(b)}, which possessed 2-3 plasmids of size ranging from 3-15 kb. Biodegradation potential of the transformants indicate that the srains B1(a) and B1(b) took only 24 hours, and thus, degraded very faster than strain P6(a) which took around 72 hours for the complete degradation of phenol.

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Evaluation of Antioxidant Activity of Achyranthes Aspera on Sesame Oil Fed Rats

Priya K. and Krishnakumari S.

Cellular damage caused by reactive oxygen species (ROS) has been implicated in several diseases and hence antioxidants have significant importance in human health. The present study examined the effect of aqueous extracts of Achyranthes aspera on sesame oil fed rats and its enzymatic and non-enzymatic antioxidant activity was investigated in liver, heart and kidney tissues. The levels of SOD, CAT, GST, G6PD, GSH, Vitamin C and Vitamin E showed a marked decline when compared to control groups. The tendency of these parameters to retrieve towards normalcy in Achyranthes aspera treated groups reveals the potential of Achyranthes aspera in combating oxidative dysfunction. Our findings reveal that Achyranthes aspera possess antioxidant activity.

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Process Optimization for the decolorization of Bismarck brown by Phanerochaete chrysosporium

Sukumar M., Sivasamy A., Swaminathan G., Rajasekar C.R. Sai and Saravanan M.

Fungi can remove dyes from wastewater, leading to a decrease in their toxicity. The detoxification rates seem to be dependent on media and culture conditions. The degradation of Bismarck Brown using the white rot fungi Phanerochaete chrysosporium is discussed. The effect of independent variables such as carbon sources, nitrogen sources, pH, nutrients etc. (for the specific microorganism needed for dye decolorization) on decolorization efficiency has been discussed. Biodegradation of Bismarck Brown in cultures of the white rot fungi Phanerochaete chrysosporium was demonstrated by decolorization of the culture medium, the extent of which was determined by monitoring the decrease in absorbance at or near the maximum wavelength for this dye.

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Continuous Secondary Fermentation of Beer by Yeast Immobilized on the Foam Ceramic

Cheng Jiangfeng, Liu Junhong, Shao Hongbo and Qiu Yongmei

Applying immobilized yeast cells to beer production can achieve continuous and speeding-up fermentation process. Alginate, carrageenan, and other nature gels were generally used for entrapping yeast cells into the gel matrix, but bad mechanical properties of these gels, nutritional inadequacy for the cells entraped in the deep inner of gels and other faults were the barrier to industrial-scale application. A novel carrier material, the foam ceramic with enormous surface area and good mechanical property, was applied to immobilize yeast cells and the technique of beer continuous secondary fermentation by immobilized yeast cells was studied. The relation among reduced concentration of diacetyl, primary technological factors, operational temperature and dilution rate was investigated. The results indicated that dilution rate was the primary factor for reducing diacetyl, and optimum technological parameters were: operational temperature was ~12°C and dilution rate ~0.164. Under the operational conditions, the fermentor system continuously ran for 15 days and average reduced concentration of diacetyl was 0.091 mg L-1. The concentration of diacetyl, which is the main off-flavor, could be promptly decreased to permission level in the mature beer after about 6 hours, so the secondary fermentation cycle of beer could be cut significantly and continuous fermentation could also be run by applying the results mentioned above

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Therapeutic Effect of Probiotics on Immune Response and Hypercholesteremia: An Experimental Study

Bhatia A., Pawan Ritu, Singh Hardavinder and Singh Divyajot

An experimental study was carried out to study the effect of probiotics in diet as modulator of immune response and hypercholesteremia (HC). Lactococuus lactis subsp Lactis was given in the form of fermented milk to Swiss albino mice fed on hypercholesteremic diet or normal diet. In addition, the synergistic effect of probiotics diet (PBD) on drug therapy for hypercholesteremia was also studied. The serum cholesterol level and immune response of the animals were checked under normal, hypercholestremic state and after feeding the Hypercholesteraemic mice on PBD. The immune status was checked by employing INOS’s activity, bactericidal activity (BA) and NBT reduction test. The probiotic containing diet resulted in immune response enhancement and reduced the cholesterol level in the hypercholesteraemic mice. The probiotic diet showed the synergistic effect on drug’s effect. It is suggested that probiotic diet therapy can be a safe additive, alternative to existing drug therapy.

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Characterization and Application Studies of an Alkaline Protease from Staphylococcus aureus

Kalpana R., Vijayalakshmi G. and Adline Princy S.

An extracellular alkaline protease was obtained from Staphylococcus aureus. This protease was purified by Ammonium Sulfate fractionation, Sephadex G-50 and CM-Cellulose chromatographic methods and its properties were studied. The purified enzyme had a specific activity of 220U/mg of protein and the purification fold increased by 31 times. The purified protease had a molecular weight of 38KDa as determined by gel filtration. Optimum pH of 8 was obtained and the protease exhibited highest activity at 60ºC. The stability of the enzyme was evaluated in the presence of some organic solvents and it was found to withstand methanol, ethylene glycol, xylene, toluene and acetone. Further investigation also showed that protease efficiently cleaved the protein substrates tested and was effective in removing the blood stains and denaturing egg Albumin.

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Review Papers: Phytoremediation Technology – A Nature’s Bliss

Subhadra A.V. and Sharma Jot (Vyas)

Ameliorating the damage done to nature by human activities is therefore crucial for maintaining the healthy environment. The use of plants for fuel, food and fibre goes back to history of mankind. The role of plants have also been appreciated for aesthetical purposes, environmental counter-balances to industrialization, consumption of CO2 and other gaseous emissions slowing down the rate of global warming, water treatment and disposal of sludge. Plants have been explored to mitigate/minimize the damage done to nature by an emerging technology known as Phytoremediation. PHYTOREM means those plants which are recommended to detoxify metal and metalloids from environment and soil9. Growing plants at the contaminated site over a number of years aim either to remove the pollutant from the contaminated site or to alter the chemical and physical nature of the contaminant so that they no longer present a risk to human health and environment.

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Halophilic archaea and its biotechonological applications

Anshuman Kena P.

Halophilic archaea are salt loving microorganisms that grow optimally at about 4.5M NaCl. Analysis of cytoplasm showed that they contain a very high concentration of salts internally, about 4M K+ and 1M Na+, which is essentially iso - osmotic with the environment. The classification based on 16S rRNA has been confirmed by extensive phylogenetic studies on a variety of macromolecules formed in the patrimany of these microbes. The family Halobacteriaceae contains fifteen validated non – alkaliphilic and alkaliphilic genera as: Halobacterium, Haloarcula, Halobaculum, Halococcus, Haloferax, Halo-geometricum, Halorhabdus, Halorubrum, Haloterrigena, Natrialba, Natrinema, Natrono-bacterium, Natronococcus, Natronomonas and Natronorubrum. The halophilic archaea offer genuine and largely untapped opportunities in biotechnology-such as the synthesis of poly – hydroxyalkanoates produced in very large amounts in some species for use as biodegradable plastic, the use of gas vesicle genes to bioengineer microorganisms to partition into the upper aqueous layer for applications in fermentation and biological control, as a source of stable enzymes for processes requiring extreme conditions or organic solvents. In the coming years, it is likely that the biotechnological potential of halophilic archaea will provide significant stimulus for further research.

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