Bacterial bioaugmentation for improving methane and hydrogen production from microalgae

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Background:
The recalcitrant cell walls of microalgae may limit their digestibility for bioenergy production. Considering that cellulose contributes to the cell wall recalcitrance of the microalgae Chlorella vulgaris, this study investigated bioaugmentation with a cellulolytic and hydrogenogenic bacterium, Clostridium thermocellum, at different inoculum ratios as a possible method to improve CH4 and H2 production of microalgae.
Results:
Methane production was found to increase by 17?~?24% with the addition of C. thermocellum, as a result of enhanced cell disruption and excess hydrogen production. Furthermore, addition of C. thermocellum enhanced the bacterial diversity and quantities, leading to higher fermentation efficiency. A two-step process of addition of C. thermocellum first and methanogenic sludge subsequently could recover both hydrogen and methane, with a 9.4% increase in bioenergy yield, when compared with the one-step process of simultaneous addition of C. thermocellum and methanogenic sludge. The fluorescence peaks of excitation-emission matrix spectra associated with chlorophyll can serve as biomarkers for algal cell degradation.
Conclusions:
Bioaugmentation with C. thermocellum improved the degradation of C. vulgaris biomass, producing higher levels of methane and hydrogen. The two-step process, with methanogenic inoculum added after the hydrogen production reached saturation, was found to be an energy-efficiency method for hydrogen and methane production.Source:
http://www.biotechnologyforbiofuels.com/content/6/1/92

Development and application of a high throughput carbohydrate profiling technique for analyzing plant cell wall polysaccharides and carbohydrate active enzymes

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Background:
Plant cell wall polysaccharide composition varies substantially between species, organs and genotypes. Knowledge of the structure and composition of these polysaccharides, accompanied by a suite of well characterised glycosyl hydrolases will be important for the success of lignocellulosic biofuels. Current methods used to characterise enzymatically released plant oligosaccharides are relatively slow.
Results:
A method and software was developed allowing the use of a DNA sequencer to profile oligosaccharides derived from plant cell wall polysaccharides (DNA sequencer-Assisted Saccharide analysis in High throughput, DASH). An ABI 3730xl, which can analyse 96 samples simultaneously by capillary electrophoresis, was used to separate fluorophore derivatised reducing mono- and oligo-saccharides from plant cell walls. Using electrophoresis mobility markers, oligosaccharide mobilities were standardised between experiments to enable reproducible oligosaccharide identification. These mobility markers can be flexibly designed to span the mobilities of oligosaccharides under investigation, and they have a fluorescence emission that is distinct from that of the saccharide labelling. Methods for relative and absolute quantitation of oligosaccharides are described. Analysis of a large number of samples is facilitated by the DASHboard software which was developed in parallel. Use of this method was exemplified by comparing xylan structure and content in Arabidopsis thaliana mutants affected in xylan synthesis. The product profiles of specific xylanases were also compared in order to identify enzymes with unusual oligosaccharide products.
Conclusions:
The DASH method and DASHboard software can be used to carry out large-scale analyses of the compositional variation of plant cell walls and biomass, to compare plants with mutations in plant cell wall synthesis pathways, and to characterise novel carbohydrate active enzymes.Source:
http://www.biotechnologyforbiofuels.com/content/6/1/94

NewsLife Interview: Dr. Ruben Villareal – on ‘biotechnology answer to safer

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NewsLife Interview: Dr. Ruben Villareal - on #39;biotechnology answer to safer better crops #39;
NewsLife Interview: Dr. Ruben Villareal, Academian, National Academy of Science Technology - on #39;biotechnology answer to safer better crops #39; - [June 28, ...

By: PTV PH

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NewsLife Interview: Dr. Ruben Villareal - on 'biotechnology answer to safer

Leadership Stage (Education to Dream Employment) System Profile – Biotechnology Professional – Video

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Leadership Stage (Education to Dream Employment) System Profile - Biotechnology Professional
Leadership Stage (Education to Dream Employment) System Profile - Biotechnology Professional Service Provider:- Kalaanantarupah Consultants - World Leaders i...

By: Thiyagarajakumar Ramaswamy

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Leadership Stage (Education to Dream Employment) System Profile - Biotechnology Professional - Video

Biotechnology: Feeding the World, or a Brave New World of Agriculture? – Video

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Biotechnology: Feeding the World, or a Brave New World of Agriculture?
Featuring Jon Entine, Founding Director, Genetic Literacy Project; Kevin M. Folta, Interim Chair, Horticultural Sciences Department, University of Florida; a...

By: Biology Fortified, Inc.

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Biotechnology: Feeding the World, or a Brave New World of Agriculture? - Video

How effective are traditional methods of compositional analysis in providing an accurate material balance for a range of softwood derived residues?

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Background:
Forest residues represent an abundant and sustainable source of biomass which could be used as a biorefinery feedstock. Due to the heterogeneity of forest residues, such as hog fuel and bark, one of the expected challenges is to obtain an accurate material balance of these feedstocks. Current compositional analytical methods have been standardised for more homogenous feedstocks such as white wood and agricultural residues. The described work assessed the accuracy of existing and modified methods on a variety of forest residues both before and after a typical pretreatment process.
Results:
When "traditional" pulp and paper methods were used, the total amount of material that could be quantified in each of the six softwood-derived residues ranged from 88% to 96%. It was apparent that the extractives present in the substrate were most influential in limiting the accuracy of a more representative material balance. This was particularly evident when trying to determine the lignin content, due to the incomplete removal of the extractives, even after a two stage water-ethanol extraction. Residual extractives likely precipitated with the acid insoluble lignin during analysis, contributing to an overestimation of the lignin content. Despite the minor dissolution of hemicellulosic sugars, extraction with mild alkali removed most of the extractives from the bark and improved the raw material mass closure to 95% in comparison to the 88% value obtained after water-ethanol extraction. After pretreatment, the extent of extractive removal and their reaction/precipitation with lignin was heavily dependent on the pretreatment conditions used. The selective removal of extractives and their quantification after a pretreatment proved to be even more challenging. Regardless of the amount of extractives that were originally present, the analytical methods could be refined to provide reproducible quantification of the carbohydrates present in both the starting material and after pretreatment.
Conclusion:
Despite the challenges resulting from the heterogeneity of the initial biomass substrates a reasonable summative mass closure could be obtained before and after steam pretreatment. However, method revision and optimisation was required, particularly the effective removal of extractives, to ensure that representative and reproducible values for the major lignin and carbohydrate components.Source:
http://www.biotechnologyforbiofuels.com/content/6/1/90

Functional characterisation of the non-essential protein kinases and phosphatases regulating Aspergillus nidulans hydrolytic enzyme production

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Background:
Despite recent advances in the understanding of lignocellulolytic enzyme regulation, less is known about how different carbon sources are sensed and the signaling cascades that result in the adaptation of cellular metabolism and hydrolase secretion. Therefore, the role played by non-essential protein kinases (NPK) and phosphatases (NPP) in the sensing of carbon and/or energetic status was investigated in the model filamentous fungus Aspergillus nidulans.
Results:
Eleven NPKs and seven NPPs were identified as being involved in cellulase, and in some cases also hemicellulase, production in A. nidulans. The regulation of CreA-mediated carbon catabolite repression (CCR) in the parental strain was determined by fluorescence microscopy, utilising a CreA::GFP fusion protein. The sensing of phosphorylated glucose, via the RAS signalling pathways induced CreA repression, while carbon starvation resulted in derepression. Growth on cellulose represented carbon starvation and derepressing conditions. The involvement of the identified NPKs in the regulation of cellulose-induced responses and CreA derepression was assessed by genome-wide transcriptomics (GEO accession 47810) and the evaluation of CreA::GFP localisation, or a restoration of endocellulase activity via the introduction of [increment]CreA, in the NPK-deficient backgrounds. The absence of either the schA or snfA kinase dramatically reduced cellulose-induced transcriptional responses, including the expression of hydrolytic enzymes and transporters. The mechanism by which these two NPKs controlled gene transcription was identified, as the NPK-deficient mutants were not able to unlock CreA-mediated carbon catabolite repression under derepressing conditions, such as carbon starvation or growth on cellulose.
Conclusions:
Collectively, this study identified multiple kinases and phosphatases involved in the sensing of carbon and/or energetic status, while demonstrating the overlapping, synergistic roles of schA and snfA in the regulation of CreA derepression and hydrolytic enzyme production in A. nidulans. The importance of a carbon starvation-induced signal for CreA derepression, permitting transcriptional activator binding, appeared paramount for hydrolase secretion.Source:
http://www.biotechnologyforbiofuels.com/content/6/1/91

Biotechnology: An Overview – Good Herald

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Application of technologies on biological systems, dead organisms and their derivatives and food and medicine can be broadly defined as biotechnology. It never had a particular definition since its applications and implementations on various other areas of science are enormous. From manipulating crops and plants to increase the yield to transfer of genes from one organism to the other biotechnology encompasses almost all the living and non-living entities on earth. With the drastic improvement in various machineries and equipments used in the processing of biological materials and the examining of microscopic organisms biotechnology has come a far way since the traditional days of fermentation like techniques, which also is a part of biotechnology.

In the earlier times, biotechnologys application was limited to agriculture and in the production of fermented food products but with the discovery of newer and much complicated data comprising of the most smallest of structures that are measured in microns biotechnology has been found fruitful in the production of many useful products that improves the quality of life of mankind. The categories of science like genetic engineering, animal cell culture, plant cell culture, microbiology, molecular biology, cytogenetics, cryopreservation, bioprocessing, biochemistry, cell biology, embryology, immunology and bioinformatics all these come under biotechnology.

Biotechnology has wide prospects when it comes to environmental science as well. It is used to recycle and retreat the wastes that are left behind at contaminated sites by various industries. This process is termed as bioremediation. Many experiments concerning DNA and RNA and other molecular structures in the human body also comprise of a wide area of practical biotechnology. Mapping of the genes has risen a lot of interest in this decade and with the completion of the Human Genome Project newer prospects for biotechnology has paved way.

Biotechnology has found promising applications in pharmaceutical manufacturing as well. From the production of antibiotics to the purification and separation processes for biomolecules. Biotechnology has its presence felt almost everywhere. Biotechnology plays a massive role in the field of medicine as well. As more and more genetic diseases are brought into picture it is through biotechnology that we try and find ways and means of manipulating the genes and discovering the cure for the disease.

Also with the depleting natural resources for fuel and the environmental effects caused by the use of the conventional fuels can be curbed to a certain extent with the proper manifestation of biotechnology in the production of biorenewable fuel from crops. Biotechnology can speed the production of ethanol and methane for natural gas from these crops.

Overall, biotechnology improves the quality of life and brings in new horizons of modern techniques in various aspects of human life.

The author of this article has great knowledge on Biotechnology. He has written many articles on Chromatography with the great knowledge. He has a great deal of knowledge in Pharmaceutical information as well.

Photo By qimono from Pixabay

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Biotechnology: An Overview - Good Herald

Mary-Dell Chilton, Ph.D., Biotechnology Pioneer, World Food Prize Laureate – Video

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Mary-Dell Chilton, Ph.D., Biotechnology Pioneer, World Food Prize Laureate
The World Food Prize Foundation announced that Mary-Dell Chilton, the founder and Distinguished Science Fellow of Syngenta Biotechnology, Inc., along with tw...

By: syngentabiotech

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Mary-Dell Chilton, Ph.D., Biotechnology Pioneer, World Food Prize Laureate - Video