Statistical Optimization Approaches for High Cell Biomass Production of Lactobacillus casei

216-221Probiotic bacteria are known to treat and prevent diseases and hence promote physical and mental wellness due to their significant brain-gut relationship. The main challenge involved in probiotic commercialization is the bio processing limitation to produce high cell mass, especially with the cultivation of lactic acid bacteria which produces lactic acid as a by product. Synthesis of lactic acid by lactic acid bacteria inhibits bacterial growth, and in turn disrupts high cell mass production. Current work presents the findings for Lactobacillus casei medium optimization by response surface methodology in shake flask level. A simple medium using 4 components: lactose, soybean meal, yeast extract and magnesium sulphate has been identified to produce high cell mass than generic mediaused for probiotic cultivation, such as the MRS medium. Secondly, response surface methodology using Box-Behken Design was employed as an optimization strategy. After optimization process, the production of Lactobacillus casei biomass increased by about 164.6% recording 6.51g.L-1 compared to cell biomass obtained using initial un-optimized medium (2.46g.L-1)

The effect of mycorrhizal fungi and organic fertilizers on quantitative and qualitative traits of two important satureja species

The quantitative yield and essential oil percentage and composition of two important savory species in response to various fertilizers were explored in a field experiment as a factorial study based on a randomized complete block design with three replications in north Lorestan, Iran, in 2017–2019. The first factor was assigned to three mycorrhizal fungi (Funneliformis mosseae, Rhizophagus irregularis, and Glomus fasciculatum), phosphate biofertilizer (Baravar-2), fish manure (800 kg/ha), cattle manure (20 t/ha), vermicompost (5 t/ha), and a control (no fertilization); the second factor was assigned to two savory species, including Satureja khuzestanica and S. rechingeri. The results of the combined analysis of variance for the second and third years showed that the simple effects of fertilizers and species were significant on all recorded traits, except for some constituents of the essential oil. Among the mycorrhizal fungi, R. irregularis and S. khuzestanica outperformed S. rechingeri in all traits, except for essential oil content and yield. The interaction between year and species was significant for all traits. The essential oil content of S. rechingeri in the third year (5.1%) was 18% higher than that of S. rechingeri in the second year (4.3%) and 41% higher than that of S. khuzestanica in the third year (3.6%). According to the results, the foliar application of vermin compost at a rate of 5 t/ha can contribute to the sustainable production of both savory species, improving their growth and essential oil yield

Tree bark scrape fungus: a potential source of laccase for application in bioremediation of non-textile dyes

Although laccase has been recognized as a wonder molecule and green enzyme, the use of low yielding fungal strains, poor production, purification, and low enzyme kinetics have hampered its large-scale application. Thus,this study aims to select high yielding fungal strains and optimize the production, purification, and kinetics of laccase of Aspergillus sp. HB-RZ4. The results obtained indicated that Aspergillus sp. HB-RZ4 produced a significantly large amount of laccase under meso-acidophilic shaking conditions in a medium containing glucose and yeast extract. A 25 μM CuSO4 was observed to enhance the enzyme yield. The enzyme was best purified on a Sephadex G-100 column. The purified enzyme resembled laccase of A. flavus. The kinetics of the purified enzyme revealed high substrate specificity and good velocity of reaction,using ABTS as a substrate. The enzyme was observed to be stable over various pH values and temperatures. The peptide structure of the purified enzyme was found to resemble laccase of A. kawachii IFO 4308. The fungus was observed to decolorize various dyes independent of the requirement of a laccase mediator system. Aspergillus sp. HB-RZ4 was observed to be a potent natural producer of laccase, and it decolorized the dyes even in the absence of a laccase mediator system. Thus, it can be used for bioremediation of effluent that contains non-textile dyes. © 2020 Sayyed et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited

Statistically Designed Bioprocess for Enhanced Production of Alkaline Protease in Bacillus cereus HP_RZ17

491-498Alkaline protease is one of the bulk enzymes having wide commercial demand for various applications. It is commercially produced by a submerged fermentation process employing various bacteria, Bacillus sp. being the most widely used species. Statistical optimization of the process for the production of alkaline proteases from rhizospheric bacteria and its application in the biocontrol of plant pathogens has not been explored fully and needs to be studied for the development of efficient bioprocess. We report the enhanced production of alkaline protease in the minimal salt medium (MSM) optimized using statistical approaches such as Plackett Burman Design (PBD) and Response Surface Methodology (RSM). In the first step; PBD, among the total eight variables, three variables namely, yeast extract (pppBacillus cereus HP_RZ17. These three variables were further analyzed in the second step i.e. Central Composite Design (CCD) of RSM. The optimum yield of alkaline protease by B. cereus HP_RZ17 (130.72 UmL-1) was obtained under the optimal conditions such as yeast extract (0.899% w/v), fructose (0.873% w/v), and pH (11.25) of production media. The statistically optimized values of variables used for the scale-up of the process at 5 L capacity bioreactor enhanced the alkaline protease yield (132.48 UmL-1) by 1.09 fold vis-à-vis un-optimized protocol (121.96 UmL-1) in B. cereus HP_RZ17

Isolation and Identification Studies on Potential Xylanase Producing Strain Trichoderma sp. WICC F46 Isolated from Tropical Soil

Trichoderma is one of few fungal species of high potential application as bio factory for xylanase production. During last few years increased demand have been observed on the need to isolate high efficient strains from soil sample and to use different microbiological and bioprocess engineering approaches to increase the production yield. In this work, efficient xylanase producer strain was isolated from soil and fully identified using phylogeny analysis. In order to develop an efficient submerged medium for xylanase production, media screening was carried out followed by optimization using one factor at a time (OFAT) method. After optimization of medium composition, the maximal xylanase volumetric production reached 311.71 UmL-1. This medium was composed of corn cob, peptone, magnesium sulphate, calcium chloride, and ammonium sulphate

UV Induced Mutagenesis Elevates the Production of Laccase in Enterobacter cloacae

442-448The increasing commercial significance of microbial laccase in various fields compels the supply of enzymes in large quantities at an affordable price. Laccase has been produced by a wide variety of wild cultures of bacteria and fungi, the high yielding strains are always desired to meet the increasing demand of laccase. Although various approaches have been proposed for improving the yield of laccase, UV mutagenesis is known as the best method of improving the strains for better yield of microbial metabolites. However, the reports on the use of UV light in strain improvement for laccase production by the use of Enterobacter sp. are scarce and need to be explored fully. For this purpose present study was aimed to improve the laccase production in Enterobacter cloacae through UV mutagenesis. We report enhanced production of laccase in a high yielding strain of E. cloacae isolated from the soap industry waste. UV mutagenesis of a wild strain of E. cloacae resulted in 3.09 folds further improvement in the production. Optimum laccase synthesis was reported at 26 h, of incubation at 30ºC under neutral pH (7.0) conditions. This high yielding mutant strain will have great industrial significance for laccase production

Statistical Optimization Approaches for High Cell Biomass Production of Lactobacillus casei

Probiotic bacteria are known to treat and prevent diseases and hence promote physical and mental wellness due to their significant brain-gut relationship. The main challenge involved in probiotic commercialization is the bio processing limitation to produce high cell mass, especially with the cultivation of lactic acid bacteria which produces lactic acid as a by product. Synthesis of lactic acid by lactic acid bacteria inhibits bacterial growth, and in turn disrupts high cell mass production. Current work presents the findings for Lactobacillus casei medium optimization by response surface methodology in shake flask level. A simple medium using 4 components: lactose, soybean meal, yeast extract and magnesium sulphate has been identified to produce high cell mass than generic mediaused for probiotic cultivation, such as the MRS medium. Secondly, response surface methodology using Box-Behken Design was employed as an optimization strategy. After optimization process, the production of Lactobacillus casei biomass increased by about 164.6% recording 6.51g.L-1 compared to cell biomass obtained using initial un-optimized medium (2.46g.L-1)

Selective Recovery of Cadmium, Cobalt, and Nickel from Spent Ni–Cd Batteries Using Adogen® 464 and Mesoporous Silica Derivatives

Spent Ni–Cd batteries are now considered an important source for many valuable metals. The recovery of cadmium, cobalt, and nickel from spent Ni–Cd Batteries has been performed in this study. The optimum leaching process was achieved using 20% H2SO4, solid/liquid (S/L) 1/5 at 80 °C for 6 h. The leaching efficiency of Fe, Cd, and Co was nearly 100%, whereas the leaching efficiency of Ni was 95%. The recovery of the concerned elements was attained using successive different separation techniques. Cd(II) ions were extracted by a solvent, namely, Adogen® 464, and precipitated as CdS with 0.5% Na2S solution at pH of 1.25 and room temperature. The extraction process corresponded to pseudo-2nd-order. The prepared PTU-MS silica was applied for adsorption of Co(II) ions from aqueous solution, while the desorption process was performed using 0.3 M H2SO4. Cobalt was precipitated at pH 9.0 as Co(OH)2 using NH4OH. The kinetic and thermodynamic parameters were also investigated. Nickel was directly precipitated at pH 8.25 using a 10% NaOH solution at ambient temperature. FTIR, SEM, and EDX confirm the structure of the products. © 2022 by the authors.King Khalid University, KKU: KKU/RCAMS/22This work was supported by King Khalid University through a grant (KKU/RCAMS/22) under the Research Center for Advanced Materials Science (RCAMS) at King Khalid University, Saudi Arabia

Emplacement of inflated Pāhoehoe flows in the Naude’s Nek Pass, Lesotho remnant, Karoo continental flood basalt province: use of flow-lobe tumuli in understanding flood basalt emplacement

Physical volcanological features are presented for a 710-m-thick section, of the Naude’s Nek Pass, within the lower part of the Lesotho remnant of the Karoo Large Igneous Province. The section consists of inflated pāhoehoe lava with thin, impersistent sedimentary interbeds towards the base. There are seven discreet packages of compound and hummocky pāhoehoe lobes containing flow-lobe tumuli, making up approximately 50% of the section. Approximately 45% of the sequence consists of 14 sheet lobes, between 10 and 52-m-thick. The majority of the sheet lobes are in two packages indicating prolonged periods of lava supply capable of producing thick sheet lobes. The other sheet lobes are as individual lobes or pairs, within compound flows, suggesting brief increases in lava supply rate. We suggest, contrary to current belief, that there is no evidence that compound flows are proximal to source and sheet lobes (simple flows) are distal to source and we propose that the presence of flow-lobe tumuli in compound flows could be an indicator that a flow is distal to source. We use detailed, previously published, studies of the Thakurvadi Formation (Deccan Traps) as an example. We show that the length of a lobe and therefore the sections that are ‘medial or distal to source’ are specific to each individual lobe and are dependent on the lava supply of each eruptive event, and as such flow lobe tumuli can be used as an indicator of relative distance from source

Synthesis of a New Chelating Iminophosphorane Derivative (Phosphazene) for U(VI) Recovery

A new synthetic chelating N–hydroxy–N–trioctyl iminophosphorane (HTIP) was prepared through the reaction of trioctylphosphine oxide (TOPO) with N–hydroxylamine hydrochloride in the presence of a Lewis acid (AlCl3 ). Specifications for the HTIP chelating ligand were successfully determined using many analytical techniques,13C–NMR,1H–NMR, FTIR, EDX, and GC–MS analyses, which assured a reasonable synthesis of the HTIP ligand. The ability of HTIP to retain U(VI) ions was investigated. The optimum experimental factors, pH value, experimental time, initial U(VI) ion concentration, HTIP dosage, ambient temperature, and eluents, were attained with solvent extraction techniques. The utmost retention capacity of HTIP/CHCl3 was 247.5 mg/g; it was achieved at pH = 3.0, 25◦C, with 30 min of shaking and 0.99 × 10−3 mol/L. From the stoichiometric calculations, approximately 1.5 hydrogen atoms are released during the extraction at pH 3.0, and 4.0 moles of HTIP ligand were responsible for chelation of one mole of uranyl ions. According to kinetic studies, the pseudo–first order model accurately predicted the kinetics of U(VI) extraction by HTIP ligand with a retention power of 245.47 mg/g. The thermodynamic parameters ∆S◦, ∆H◦, and ∆G◦ were also calculated; the extraction process was predicted as an exothermic, spontaneous, and advantageous extraction at low temperatures. As the temperature increased, the value of ∆G◦ increased. The elution of uranium ions from the loaded HTIP/CHCl3 was achieved using 2.0 mol of H2SO4 with a 99.0% efficiency rate. Finally, the extended variables were used to obtain a uranium concentrate (Na2U2O7, Y.C) with a uranium grade of 69.93% and purity of 93.24%. © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.Princess Nourah Bint Abdulrahman University, PNU: PNURSP2022R13The authors express their gratitude for the support from Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University Researchers Supporting Project number (PNURSP2022R13), Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia