Biological removal of nickel (II) by Bacillus sp. KL1 in different conditions: optimization by Taguchi statistical approach

Bioremediation is the removal of heavy-metals such as nickel (Ni) using microorganisms and has been considered as an important field in the biotechnology. Isolation and characterization of microorganisms exhibiting bioremediation activities and their optimization to treat polluted wastewaters is a vital and difficult task in remediation technologies. In this study, investigation was carried out to isolate Ni (II) remediating microbial strains from soils contaminated with municipal solid waste leachate. Furthermore, Taguchi design of experiments were used to evaluate the influence of concentration, pH, temperature, and time on bioremediation of Ni (II) using isolated bacteria. This study concluded that Bacillus sp. KL1 is a Ni (II)-resistant strain and had Ni (II) bioremediation activity. The highest bioremediation of Ni (II) was observed as 55.06% after 24 h at 30ºC, pH 7, and 100 ppm concentration. Moreover, it was also observed that concentration is the most effective factor in the bioremediation process. In conclusion, we have demonstrated that bacteria isolated from soils contaminated with garbage leachate have the Bacillus sp. KL1 bacteria which can efficiently uptake and eliminate Ni (II) from contaminated sites and thus makes it possible to treat heavy-metal containing wastewaters in industry by using this microorganism at optimized conditions

Construction and Quantitative Evaluation of a Dual Specific Promoter System for Monitoring the Expression Status of Stra8 and c-kit Genes.

Applications of genetic constructs with multiple promoters, which are fused with reporter genes and simultaneous monitoring of various events in cells, have gained special attention in recent years. Lentiviral vectors, with their distinctive characteristics, have been considered to monitor the developmental changes of cells in vitro. In this study, we constructed a novel lentiviral vector (FUM-M), containing two germ cell-specific promoters (Stra8 and c-kit), fused with ZsGreen and DsRed2 reporter genes, and evaluated its efficiency in different cells following treatments with retinoic acid and DMSO. Several cell lines (P19, GC-1 spg and HEK293T) were transduced with this vector, and functional capabilities of the promoters were verified by flow cytometry and quantitative RT-PCR. Our results indicate that FUM-M shows dynamic behavior in the presence and absence of extrinsic factors. A correlation was also observed between the function of promoters, present in the lentiviral construct and the endogenous level of the Stra8 and c-kit mRNAs in the cells. In conclusion, we recommend this strategy, which needs further optimization of the constructs, as a beneficial and practical way to screen chemical inducers involved in cellular differentiation toward germ-like cells