Exopolymeric Substances (EPS) Produced by Petroleum Microbial Consortia

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)Microbial consortia recuperated of crude oil samples from the Pampo Sul field, Campos Basin, RJ, produced biosurfactants in mineral media containing glucose and 9,10-dihydrophenantrene, n-nonadecane, nonadecanoic acid, slightly biodegraded crude oil (P1) or heavily biodegraded crude oil (P2) as carbon sources. The production of exopolimeric substances (EPS) and petroleum biodegradation do not necessarily occur simultaneously. The EPS analyses by infrared and eletronspray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS) revealed a mixture of surfactine isoforms. The biosurfactants reduced the surface tension of water and Zinder medium from 72.4 and 55.7 to 28.6 mN m(-1). Additionally, this surfactant emulsified different oils in water with performances similar to or better than of a conventional surfactant, Tween 80.21815171523FINEPPETROBRASCoordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES

Mechanistic investigation of the Candida albicans CCT 0776 stereoinversion system and application to obtain enantiopure secondary alcohols

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)Phenylethanol deracemization with Candida albicans CCT 0776 whole cells yields the (R)-enantiomer in over 99% enantiomeric excess and 98% yield. The deracemization process involves, in the first step, a fast, highly (S)-selective oxidation (NADP and O(2) dependent) and, in the second step, a slower partially (S)selective reduction (NADH dependent) of the intermediate ketone. The process was extended to other 2-alkanols, 1,2-diols and 1,3-diols and, with the exception of 1,3-diol (unreactive), the enantiomeric excess and yield of the deracemization were about 99% and 62-98%, respectively. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.202226352638PETRO-BRASConselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES

Screening for hydrocarbon biodegraders in a metagenomic clone library derived from Brazilian petroleum reservoirs

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)Metagenomics has been successfully applied to isolate novel biocatalysts from diverse environments and functional screening has been used as the primary technique to identify clones carrying the desired traits. This work aimed at the construction and screening of a metagenomic library as a source of potential hydrocarbon biodegraders. A library of 31000 clones was obtained from aerobic and anaerobic enrichments generated using a biodegraded petroleum sample collected at the Potiguar Basin in Brazil as an inoculum. A total of 5000 clones were randomly selected for high throughput screening of hexadecane biodegradation, revealing 72 positive hits. These were further evaluated using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), outstanding hexadecane biodegradation ability (>70%) being detected in five clones. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.417675681PETROBRASFundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES