Project description:Biological hydrogen (H2) production from the biowastes is widely recognized as a suitable alternative approach to utilize low cost feed instead of costly individual sugars. In the present investigation, pure and mixed biowastes were fermented by defined sets of mixed cultures for hydrolysis and H2 production. Under batch conditions, up to 65, 67 and 70 L H2/kg total solids (2%, TS) were evolved from apple pomace (AP), onion peels (OP) and potato peels (PP) using a combination of hydrolytic mixed culture (MHC5) and mixed microbial cultures (MMC4 or MMC6), respectively. Among the different combinations of mixed biowastes including AP, OP, PP and pea-shells, the combination of OP and PP exhibited maximum H2 production of 73 and 84 L/kg TS with MMC4 and MMC6, respectively. This study suggested that H2 production can be effectively regulated by using defined sets of mixed cultures for hydrolysis and H2 production from pure and mixed biowastes as feed even under unsterile conditions.
Project description:Early life stage mortality is an important issue for Atlantic cod aquaculture. The impact of the cod maternal (egg) transcriptome on egg quality and mortality during embryonic development is poorly understood. In the present work we studied embryonic mortality and maternal transcript expression using 15 females within an Atlantic cod broodstock development program. Cumulative mortality at 7 days post-fertilization (segmentation stage) and percent hatch were used to assess embryonic survival as an indicator of egg quality. A 20,000 probe (20K) microarray experiment compared the 7 hour post-fertilization (7 hpf, ~ 2-cell stage) egg transcriptome of the two lowest quality females (both with less than 1 percent hatch) to that of the highest quality female (greater than 50 percent hatch).
Project description:Fish in use in aquaculture display large variation in gamete biology. To reach better understanding around this issue, this study aims at identifying if “egg life history traits” can be hidden in egg transcriptomes. To pursue this, salmon and cod eggs were selected due to their largely differencing phenotypes (size, robustness, fresh/marine). An oligo microarray analysis was performed on ovulated eggs from cod (~23 000 genes, n=8) and salmon (~44 000 genes, n=7). The arrays were normalized to a similar spectrum for both arrays. Both arrays were re-annotated based on official gene symbol to retrieve an orthologous KEGG annotation, in salmon and cod arrays this represented 14009 and 7437 genes respectively. The probe linked to the highest gene expression for that particular KEGG annotation was used to compare expression between species. Differential expression was calculated for genes that had an annotation with score > 300, resulting in a total of 2354 KEGG annotations (genes) being differently expressed between the species. The most differentially expressed genes in salmon and cod (FD≥2), were used to reveal pathways that were overrepresented in the eggs of each species. This analysis revealed that immune, signal transduction, and excretory related pathways were overrepresented in salmon compared to cod. The most overrepresented pathways in cod were related to regulation of genetic information processing and metabolism. To conclude this analysis clearly point at some distinct transcriptome repertoires for cod and salmon and that these differences may explain some of the species-specific biological features for salmon and cod eggs.
Project description:Hydrogen-producing acetogens (HPA) have a transitional role in anaerobic wastewater treatment. Thus, bioaugmentation with HPA cultures can enhance the chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal efficiency and CH4 yield of anaerobic wastewater treatment. Cultures with high degradation capacities for propionic acid and butyric acid were obtained through continuous subculture in enrichment medium and were designated as Z08 and Z12. Bioaugmentation with Z08 and Z12 increased CH4 production by glucose removal to 1.58. Bioaugmentation with Z08 and Z12 increased the COD removal rate in molasses wastewater from 71.60% to 85.84%. The specific H2 and CH4 yields from COD removal increased by factors of 1.54 and 1.63, respectively. Results show that bioaugmentation with HPA-dominated cultures can improve CH4 production from COD removal. Furthermore, hydrogen-producing acetogenesis was identified as the rate-limiting step in anaerobic wastewater treatment.
Project description:Fish in use in aquaculture display large variation in gamete biology. To reach better understanding around this issue, this study aims at identifying if M-bM-^@M-^\egg life history traitsM-bM-^@M-^] can be hidden in egg transcriptomes. To pursue this, salmon and cod eggs were selected due to their largely differencing phenotypes (size, robustness, fresh/marine). An oligo microarray analysis was performed on ovulated eggs from cod (~23M-BM- 000 genes, n=8) and salmon (~44M-BM- 000 genes, n=7). The arrays were normalized to a similar spectrum for both arrays. Both arrays were re-annotated based on official gene symbol to retrieve an orthologous KEGG annotation, in salmon and cod arrays this represented 14009 and 7437 genes respectively. The probe linked to the highest gene expression for that particular KEGG annotation was used to compare expression between species. Differential expression was calculated for genes that had an annotation with score > 300, resulting in a total of 2354 KEGG annotations (genes) being differently expressed between the species. The most differentially expressed genes in salmon and cod (FDM-bM-^IM-%2), were used to reveal pathways that were overrepresented in the eggs of each species. This analysis revealed that immune, signal transduction, and excretory related pathways were overrepresented in salmon compared to cod. The most overrepresented pathways in cod were related to regulation of genetic information processing and metabolism. To conclude this analysis clearly point at some distinct transcriptome repertoires for cod and salmon and that these differences may explain some of the species-specific biological features for salmon and cod eggs. 16 samples
Project description:We have developed highly efficient ethanologenic Escherichia coli strains that selectively consume pentoses and/or hexoses. Mixed cultures of these strains can be used to selectively adjust the sugar utilization kinetics in ethanol fermentations. Based on the kinetics of sugar utilization, we have designed and implemented an immobilized cell system for the optimized continuous conversion of sugars into ethanol. The results confirm that immobilized mixed cultures support a simultaneous conversion of hexoses and pentoses into ethanol at high yield and at a faster rate than immobilized homogenous cells. Continuous ethanol production has been maintained for several weeks at high productivity with near complete sugar utilization. The control of sugar utilization using immobilized mixed cultures can be adapted to any composition of hexoses and pentoses by adjusting the strain distribution of immobilized cells. The approach, therefore, holds promise for ethanol fermentation from lignocellulosic hydrolysates where the feedstock varies in sugar composition.
Project description:Monomethylmercury (MeHg) is produced in many aquatic environments by anaerobic microorganisms that take up and methylate inorganic forms of Hg(II). Net methylation of Hg(II) appears to be correlated with factors that affect the activity of the anaerobic microbial community and factors that increase the bioavailability of Hg(II) to these organisms. However, the relative importance of one versus the other is difficult to elucidate even though this information can greatly assist remediation efforts and risk assessments. Here, we investigated the effects of Hg speciation (dissolved Hg and nanoparticulate HgS) and microbial activity on the net production of MeHg using two mixed microbial cultures that were enriched from marine sediments under sulfate reducing conditions. The cultures were amended with dissolved Hg (added as a dissolved nitrate salt) and nanoparticulate HgS, and grown under different carbon substrate concentrations. The results indicated that net mercury methylation was the highest for cultures incubated in the greatest carbon substrate concentration (60 mM) compared to incubations with less carbon (0.6 and 6 mM), regardless of the form of mercury amended. Net MeHg production in cultures exposed to HgS nanoparticles was significantly slower than in cultures exposed to dissolved Hg; however, the difference diminished with slower growing cultures with low carbon addition (0.6 mM). The net Hg methylation rate was found to correlate with sulfate reduction rate in cultures exposed to dissolved Hg, while methylation rate was roughly constant for cultures exposed to nanoparticulate HgS. These results indicated a potential threshold of microbial productivity: below this point net MeHg production was limited by microbial activity, regardless of Hg bioavailability. Above this threshold of productivity, Hg speciation became a contributing factor towards net MeHg production.