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ACS Synthetic Biology Nov 2018Ureolytic bacteria ( e.g., Sporosarcina pasteurii) can produce calcium carbonate (CaCO). Tailoring the size and shape of biogenic CaCO may increase the range of useful...
Ureolytic bacteria ( e.g., Sporosarcina pasteurii) can produce calcium carbonate (CaCO). Tailoring the size and shape of biogenic CaCO may increase the range of useful applications for these crystals. However, wild type Sporosarcina pasteurii is difficult to genetically engineer, limiting control of the organism and its crystal precipitates. Therefore, we designed, constructed, and compared different urease operons and expression levels for CaCO production in engineered Escherichia coli strains. We quantified urease expression and calcium uptake and characterized CaCO crystal phase and morphology for 13 engineered strains. There was a weak relationship between urease expression and crystal size, suggesting that genes surrounding the urease gene cluster affect crystal size. However, when evaluating strains with a wider range of urease expression levels, there was a negative relationship between urease activity and polycrystal size (e.g., larger crystals with lower activity). The resulting range of crystal morphologies created by the rationally designed strains demonstrates the potential for controlling biogenic CaCO precipitation.
Topics: Calcium; Calcium Carbonate; Crystallization; Escherichia coli; Genetic Engineering; Multigene Family; Operon; Plasmids; Sporosarcina; Urease
PubMed: 30384588
DOI: 10.1021/acssynbio.8b00194 -
Environmental Science & Technology Aug 2021Microbially induced calcite precipitation is a biomineralization process with numerous civil engineering and ground improvement applications. In replicate soil columns,...
Microbially induced calcite precipitation is a biomineralization process with numerous civil engineering and ground improvement applications. In replicate soil columns, the efficacy and microbial composition of soil bioaugmented with the ureolytic bacterium were compared to a biostimulation method that enriches native ureolytic soil bacteria under conditions analogous to field implementation. The selective enrichment resulting from sequential stimulation treatments strongly selected for Firmicutes (>97%), with and comprising 60 to 94% of high-throughput 16S rDNA sequences in each suspended community sample. Seven species of the former and two of the latter were present in greater than 10% abundance at different times, demonstrating unexpected within-genus diversity and robustness in the suspended phase of this highly selective environment. Based on longer 16S sequences, it was inferred that augmented competed poorly with natural bacteria, decreasing to below detection after nine treatments, while the native microbial community was enriched to approximately that present in the stimulated columns. These analyses were corroborated by the observed convergence in bulk ureolytic rates and calcite contents between techniques. However, a 10-fold discrepancy between the observed cell density and an activity-based estimate indicates the attached community, uncharacterized despite efforts, substantially contributes to bulk behavior.
Topics: Bacteria; Calcium Carbonate; Soil; Sporosarcina
PubMed: 34279077
DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.1c01520 -
Environmental Science and Pollution... Aug 2023The microbial reduction of Cr(VI) to Cr(III) is widely applied, but most studies ignored the stability of reduction products. In this study, the Cr(VI)-reducing...
The microbial reduction of Cr(VI) to Cr(III) is widely applied, but most studies ignored the stability of reduction products. In this study, the Cr(VI)-reducing bacterium of Sporosarcina saromensis combined with microbially induced carbonate precipitation (MICP) was used to explore the reduction and mineralization mechanisms of Cr(VI). The results indicated that the high concentration of Ca could significantly enhance the reduction and mineralization of Cr(VI). The highest reduction and mineralization efficiencies of 99.5% and 55.9% were achieved at 4 g/L Ca. Moreover, the urease activity of S. saromensis in the experimental group was up to 13.28 U/mg NH-N. Besides, the characteristic results revealed that Cr(VI) and reduced Cr(III) were absorbed on the surface or got into the interspace of CaCO, which produced a new stable phase (CaCrO(CO)). Overall, the combination of S. saromensis and MICP technology might be a high-efficiency and environmentally friendly strategy for further application in the Cr(VI)-containing groundwater.
Topics: Chromium; Carbonates; Sporosarcina; Calcium Carbonate
PubMed: 37442938
DOI: 10.1007/s11356-023-28536-3 -
Microbiology Spectrum Dec 2023Since 1988, through the United States government's founding, the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) has provided an invaluable service to scientific...
Since 1988, through the United States government's founding, the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) has provided an invaluable service to scientific advancement. The universality and total freedom of use if on the one hand allow the use of this database on a global level by all researchers for their valuable work, on the other hand, it has the disadvantage of making it difficult to check the correctness of all the materials present. It is, therefore, of fundamental importance for the correctness and ethics of research to improve the databases at our disposal, identifying and amending the critical issues. This work aims to provide the scientific community with a new sequence for the type strain SK 55 and broaden the knowledge of the species, in particular, considering the ancient strain Aquil_B6 found in an ancient Roman amphora.
Topics: United States; DNA, Bacterial; Bacillaceae; Planococcaceae
PubMed: 37975675
DOI: 10.1128/spectrum.00686-23 -
Molecular Biology Reports Feb 2019Urease is an important virulence factor for a variety of pathogenic bacteria strains such as Helicobacter pylori, which colonizes human gastric mucosa, and Proteus sp.,...
Urease is an important virulence factor for a variety of pathogenic bacteria strains such as Helicobacter pylori, which colonizes human gastric mucosa, and Proteus sp., responsible for urinary tract infections. Specific inhibition of urease activity could be a promising adjuvant strategy for eradication of these pathogens. Due to the interesting antiureolytic activity of carvone and the scant information regarding the inhibitory properties of corresponding monoterpenes, we decided to study selected monoterpenic ketones and their oxygen derivatives. Several monoterpenes and their terpenoid oxygen derivatives were evaluated in vitro against Sporosarcina pasteurii urease. The most effective inhibitors-derivatives of β-cyclocitral (ester 10 and bromolactone 14)-were described with [Formula: see text] of 46.7 µM and 45.8 µM, respectively. Active inhibitors of native urease were tested against H. pylori and Proteus mirabilis whole cells. Here, the most active inhibitor, 14, was characterized with IC values of 0.32 mM and 0.61 mM for P. mirabilis and H. pylori, respectively. The antibacterial activity of a few tested inhibitors was also observed. Compound 14 limited the growth of E. coli ([Formula: see text]= 250 μg/mL). Interestingly, 10 was the only compound that was effective against both Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria. It had a [Formula: see text] of 150 μg/mL against E. coli and S. aureus. In the presented study a group of novel antiureolytic compounds was characterised. Besides carvone stereoisomers, these are the only terpenoid urease inhibitors described so far.
Topics: Aldehydes; Anti-Bacterial Agents; Diterpenes; Escherichia coli; Gastric Mucosa; Helicobacter pylori; Humans; Monoterpenes; Plant Extracts; Sporosarcina; Staphylococcus aureus; Terpenes; Urease; Urinary Tract Infections
PubMed: 30350237
DOI: 10.1007/s11033-018-4442-y -
Bioresource Technology Nov 2022Anaerobic digestion of kitchen waste with grass after hyperthermophilic pretreatment was performed in semi-continuously operated reactors. The greatest methane yield of...
Anaerobic digestion of kitchen waste with grass after hyperthermophilic pretreatment was performed in semi-continuously operated reactors. The greatest methane yield of 293 NmlCH/gVS (volatile solids) was reported for the mixture of both substrates at 55 °C with a solids retention time of 30 d and the corresponding organic lading rate of 1.72 kgVS/m/d. In contrast, pretreated grass subjected to thermophilic digestion produced only 131 NmlCH/gVS. However, when mesophilic conditions were applied, the digestion process turned into dark fermentation, especially visible for the mixture. Metagenomic analysis revealed the dominance Ruminococcaceae, Atopobiaceae and Lactobacillaceae at a family level in mesophilic processes, whereas Petrotogaceae, Synergistaceae, Hungateiclostridiaceae, Planococcaceae and two methanogens Methanosarcinaceae and Methanothermobacteriaceae were the most frequent microbes of thermophilic digestion. Kitchen waste can successfully be co-digested with hyperthermophilically pretreated grass at high loading rates, however the digesters must be operated at thermophilic temperatures.
PubMed: 36195216
DOI: 10.1016/j.biortech.2022.128053 -
Biometals : An International Journal on... Apr 2011Mercuric reductase (MerA) enzyme plays an important role in biogeochemical cycling and detoxification of Hg and recently, has also been shown to be useful in clean up of...
Mercuric reductase (MerA) enzyme plays an important role in biogeochemical cycling and detoxification of Hg and recently, has also been shown to be useful in clean up of Hg-contaminated effluents. Present study describes isolation of a heavy metal-resistant isolate of Sporosarcina, which could tolerate up to 40, 525, 210, 2900 and 370 μM of Cd, Co, Zn, Cr and Hg respectively. It was found to reduce and detoxify redox-active metals like Cr and Hg. The chromate reductase and MerA activities in the crude cell extract of the culture were 1.5 and 0.044 units/mg protein respectively. The study also describes designing of a new set of highly degenerate primers based on a dataset of 23 Firmicute merA genes. As the primers encompass the known diversity of merA genes within the phylum Firmicutes, they can be very useful for functional diversity analysis. They were successfully used to amplify a 787 bp merA fragment from the current isolate. A 1174 bp merA fragment was further cloned by designing an additional downstream primer. It was found to show 92% similarity to the putative merA gene from Bacillus cereus AH820. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of mercury resistance and merA gene sequence from Sporosarcina.
Topics: Bacillus cereus; Base Sequence; Cadmium; Chromium; Cobalt; Mercury; Molecular Sequence Data; Oxidoreductases; Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid; Sporosarcina; Zinc
PubMed: 21181488
DOI: 10.1007/s10534-010-9396-z -
Nature Communications Apr 2021Studies in humans and laboratory animals link stable gut microbiome "enterotypes" with long-term diet and host health. Understanding how this paradigm manifests in wild...
Studies in humans and laboratory animals link stable gut microbiome "enterotypes" with long-term diet and host health. Understanding how this paradigm manifests in wild herbivores could provide a mechanistic explanation of the relationships between microbiome dynamics, changes in dietary resources, and outcomes for host health. We identify two putative enterotypes in the African buffalo gut microbiome. The enterotype prevalent under resource-abundant dietary regimes, regardless of environmental conditions, has high richness, low between- and within-host beta diversity, and enrichment of genus Ruminococcaceae-UCG-005. The second enterotype, prevalent under restricted dietary conditions, has reduced richness, elevated beta diversity, and enrichment of genus Solibacillus. Population-level gamma diversity is maintained during resource restriction by increased beta diversity between individuals, suggesting a mechanism for population-level microbiome resilience. We identify three pathogens associated with microbiome variation depending on host diet, indicating that nutritional background may impact microbiome-pathogen dynamics. Overall, this study reveals diet-driven enterotype plasticity, illustrates ecological processes that maintain microbiome diversity, and identifies potential associations between diet, enterotype, and disease.
Topics: Animals; Buffaloes; Communicable Diseases; DNA, Bacterial; Feces; Feeding Behavior; Firmicutes; Gastrointestinal Microbiome; Incidence; Metagenomics; Phylogeny; Planococcaceae; Prevalence; RNA, Ribosomal, 16S; South Africa; Symbiosis
PubMed: 33859184
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-22510-8 -
Frontiers in Microbiology 2018is a ubiquitous member of marine biofilm, and reduces thiosulfate to produce toxic hydrogen sulfide gas. In this study, lytic bacteriophages were isolated and applied...
is a ubiquitous member of marine biofilm, and reduces thiosulfate to produce toxic hydrogen sulfide gas. In this study, lytic bacteriophages were isolated and applied to inhibit the growth of in planktonic mode at different temperature, pH, and salinity. Bacteriophages showed optimal infectivity at a multiplicity of infection of 10 in saline conditions, and demonstrated lytic abilities over all tested temperature (25, 30, 37, and 45°C) and pH 6-9. Planktonic exhibited significantly longer lag phase and lower specific growth rates upon exposure to bacteriophages. Bacteriophages were subsequently applied to -enriched biofilm and were determined to lower the relative abundance of -related taxa from 0.17 to 5.58% in controls to 0.01-0.61% in treated microbial communities. The relative abundance of , and decreased, possibly due to the phage-induced disruption of the biofilm matrix. Lastly, when applied to mitigate biofouling of ultrafiltration membranes, bacteriophages were determined to reduce the transmembrane pressure increase by 18% when utilized alone, and by 49% when used in combination with citric acid. The combined treatment was more effective compared with the citric acid treatment alone, which reported ca. 30% transmembrane pressure reduction. Collectively, the findings demonstrated that bacteriophages can be used as a biocidal agent to mitigate undesirable -associated problems in seawater applications.
PubMed: 29770130
DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2018.00875 -
Water Research Feb 2021Reusing produced water (PW) as the subsequent hydraulic fracturing fluid is currently the most economical and dominant practice in the shale oil and gas industry....
Reusing produced water (PW) as the subsequent hydraulic fracturing fluid is currently the most economical and dominant practice in the shale oil and gas industry. However, high Ca present in PW needs to be removed prior to reuse to minimize the potential for well clogging and formation damage. In this study, the microbially induced calcite precipitation (MICP), as an emerging biomineralization technique mediated by ureolytic bacteria, was employed to remove Ca and toxic contaminants from hypersaline PW for the first time. Batch and continuous studies demonstrated the feasibility of MICP for Ca removal from hypersaline PW under low urea and nutrient conditions. Throughout the continuous biofiltration operation with biochar as the media, high removal efficiencies of Ca (~96%), organic contaminants (~100%), and heavy metals (~100% for As, Cd, Mn and Ni, 92.2% for Ba, 94.2% for Sr) were achieved when PW co-treated with synthetic domestic wastewater (SDW) under the condition of PW:SDW = 1:1 & urea 4 g/L. Metagenomic sequencing analysis showed that a stable ureolytic bacterial consortium (containing Sporosarcina and Arthrobacter at the genus level) was constructed in the continuous biofiltration system under hypersaline conditions, which may play a crucial role during the biomineralization process. Moreover, the combination of the MICP and ammonium recovery could significantly reduce the acute toxicity of PW towards Vibrio fischeri by 72%. This research provides a novel insight into the biomineralization of Ca and heavy metals from hypersaline PW through the MICP technique. Considering the low cost and excellent treatment performance, the proposed process has the potential to be used for both hydraulic fracturing reuse and desalination pretreatment on a large scale.
Topics: Biomineralization; Calcium Carbonate; Chemical Precipitation; Sporosarcina; Urea; Water
PubMed: 33360619
DOI: 10.1016/j.watres.2020.116753