Role of Acidothermophilic Autotrophs in Bioleaching of Mineral Sulphide Ores

451-464Living organisms synthesize a wide array of enzymes, which catalyze a myriad of reactions both inside and outside the cell. The acidothermophilic iron-oxidizing bacteria represent a group of obligately autotrophic chemolithotrophs, They include mesophilic Thiobacillus thiooxidans, Leptospirillum ferrooxidans and thermophilic bacteria such as Sulfolobus and Acidianus species. Several studies have shown the importance and feasibility of microbiological prospecting for sulphide ore deposits. Acidothermophilic autotrophic bacteria are now considered as an ideal source to exploit more unusual commercial applications of Geo-biotechnology, especially for metal and mining industry. The mining of copper, uranium, molybdenum, zinc, silver, gold, etc, from their sulphide ores is successfully possible with these microbes. The predominant characteristic of chemolithotrophs is their ability to survive and flourish in a completely inorganic aqueous environment with a supply of oxidizable substrate and CO2, A number of different species have now been isolated from high temperature regions and their potential for the rapid leaching of some ores. The ability of such isolates to tolerate high concentration of toxic heavy metals makes them excellent tools for accumulation and/or for biochemical transformation of metals. The outline of such applications are described in the present review

Umrania, Bioremediation of toxic heavy metals using acidothermophilic autotrophes

Abstract Investigations were carried out to isolate microbial strains from soil, mud and water samples from metallurgically polluted environment for bioremediation of toxic heavy metals. As a result of primary and secondary screening various 72 acidothermophilic autotrophic microbes were isolated and adapted for metal tolerance and biosorption potentiality. The multi-metal tolerance was developed with higher gradient of concentrations of Ag, As, Bi, Cd, Cr, Co, Cu, Hg, Li, Mo, Pb, Sn and Zn. The isolates were checked for their biosolubilization ability with copper containing metal sulfide ores. In case of chalcopyrite 85.82% and in covellite as high as 97.5% copper solubilization occurred in presence of 10 À3 M multi-heavy metals on fifth day at 55°C and pH 2.5. Chemical analyses were carried out by inductively coupled plasma spectroscopy (ICP) for metal absorption. The selected highly potential isolate (ATh-14) showed maximum adsorption of Ag 73%, followed by Pb 35%, Zn 34%, As 19%, Ni 15% and Cr 9% in chalcopyrite

<i style="">In silico </i>identification of putative drug targets in <i style="">Klebsiella pneumonia </i>MGH78578<i style=""></i>

432-439The prolonged use of antibiotics over the years has transformed many organisms into resistant to multiple drugs. Klebsiella pneumoniae MGH78578, a causative agent for respiratory and urinary tract infections, is one of the few Gram-negative bacteria, which has developed resistance to drugs. The present study was carried out to identify potential drug targets in K. pneumonia that might facilitate the discovery of novel drugs in near future. The present study has followed an in silico based approach for identification of drug targets. The comparison and analysis of proteomes of the causal organism and humans was made to screen out non-homologous proteins. Further, studies were carried out to list out essential proteins of the organism. KEGG pathway analysis was carried out to study the function of proteins. Different databases were used to find novel drug targets and various tools were used for the prediction of sub-cellular localization and membrane proteins. From the detailed analysis, 105 novel drug targets were identified, which have been involved in 24 specific pathways of K. pneumoniae MGH78578. Thirty nine proteins were predicted as outer membrane proteins, which could be used as potential vaccine candidates

GREEN SYNTHESIS OF SILVER NANO PARTICLES

The research was carried out to investigate the synthesis of silver nano particles. The silver nano particles have wide tremendous application in the therapeutics, antimicrobials, diagnostics, catalysis, micro-electronics and high sensitivity biomolecular detection. Silver nano particles grow in a single-step method, at room temperature, and with no addition of external energy. The silver nanoparticles were synthesized from silver nitrate aqueous solution through a simple, ecofriendly and cost effective course using the leaf broth of the Oscimum sanctum, Azadirachta indica and Lawsonia Inermis (kadvi mehndi), therefore calling it green synthesis. The Synthesized AgNP was confirmed by sampling the aqueous component at different time intervals and the absorption maxima was scanned by UV-Vis spectrometry and Particle Size Distribution (PSD). Based on PSD, the particles were further characterized by Scanning Electron Microscope. Synthesized AgNP was confirmed at 531,540and 543 nm. Among the total percentage of size distribution, D-50 value, which is 50% size distribution, was taken into consideration, where the size of the nanoparticle was established to 0.135µm. Further research is going on with reference to the synthesized nanoparticles