Stirred-tank leaching of coarse-grained waste, printed circuit boards with Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans

Stirred tank leaching of metals from coarse-grained waste, printed circuit boards (WPCB) used Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans (A. ferrooxidans) at ambient temperature (20-35°C). The effect of the baffle size, WPCB concentration, and inoculation volume was tested. 95.92% of Cu, 93.53% of Al, 92.58% of Zn, 65.27% of Ni, and 95.33% of Sn in WPCBs were leached under the optimal conditions: no baffle, WPCB concentration of 5.0% (w/w), and inoculation volume of 5% (v/v). The alkaline substance and reactivity metal of WPCBs, and the oxidation of Fe2+, consume H+. Adding acid can maintain the pH value of the leaching solution, which is conducive to the growth and reproduction of the bacteria and improves the leaching efficiency of WPCBs. The second-order dynamics model can describe the acid consumption in the bioleaching process of coarse-grained WPCBs. Moreover, the Avrami equation can successfully explain the bioleaching kinetics of Cu, Al, Zn, Ni, and Sn from the coarse-grained WPCBs. The key factors controlling the bioleaching of coarse-grained WPCBs are metal reactivity and specific surface area. These results revealed that bioleaching metals from coarse-grained WPCBs using A.ferrooxidans is feasible, and has important significance to guiding its industrialization

Increasing the Grain Yield and Grain Protein Content of Common Wheat (Triticum aestivum) by Introducing Missense Mutations in the Q Gene

Grain yield (GY) and grain protein content (GPC) are important traits for wheat breeding and production; however, they are usually negatively correlated. The Q gene is the most important domestication gene in cultivated wheat because it influences many traits, including GY and GPC. Allelic variations in the Q gene may positively affect both GY and GPC. Accordingly, we characterized two new Q alleles (Qs1 and Qc1-N8) obtained through ethyl methanesulfonate-induced mutagenesis. Compared with the wild-type Q allele, Qs1 contains a missense mutation in the sequence encoding the first AP2 domain, whereas Qc1-N8 has two missense mutations: one in the sequence encoding the second AP2 domain and the other in the microRNA172-binding site. The Qs1 allele did not significantly affect GPC or other processing quality parameters, but it adversely affected GY by decreasing the thousand kernel weight and grain number per spike. In contrast, Qc1-N8 positively affected GPC and GY by increasing the thousand kernel weight and grain number per spike. Thus, we generated novel germplasm relevant for wheat breeding. A specific molecular marker was developed to facilitate the use of the Qc1-N8 allele in breeding. Furthermore, our findings provide useful new information for enhancing cereal crops via non-transgenic approaches