Photosynthetic biofilm reactor (PBR) for nutrient removal from wastewater

Faculty advisor: Bo HuThis research was supported by the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP)

Effect of Fermentation Parameters on Extra Cellular Tannase Production by Lactobacillus plantarum MTCC 1407

Lactobacillus plantarum MTCC 1407 represents a valuable source of an economically attractive stable long-life tannase with potential for application in various industries. The effect of fermentation parameters such as pH, temperature and agitation speed on the growth of biomass and production of tannase using liquid medium were determined at the end of fermentation period. The optimum values of pH, reaction temperature and agitation speed for tannase activity were 6.0, 30 °C and 125 rpm respectively. The maximum tannase activity was found to be 9.29 U/mL

Lipase catalyzed ester synthesis for food processing industries

Lipases are one of the most important industrial biocatalyst which catalyzes the hydrolysis of lipids. It can also reverse the reaction at minimum water activity. Because of this pliable nature, it is widely exploited to catalyze the diverse bioconversion reactions, such as hydrolysis, esterification, interesterification, alcoholysis, acidolysis and aminolysis. The property to synthesize the esters from the fatty acids and glycerol promotes its use in various ester synthesis. The esters synthesized by lipase finds applications in numerous fields such as biodiesel production, resolution of the recemic drugs, fat and lipid modification, flavour synthesis, synthesis of enantiopure pharmaceuticals and nutraceuticals. It plays a crucial role in the food processing industries since the process is unaffected by the unwanted side products. Lipase modifications such as the surfactant coating, molecular imprinting to suit for the non-aqueous ester synthesis have also been reported. This review deals with lipase catalyzed ester synthesis, esterification strategies, optimum conditions and their applications in food processing industries

Statistical evaluation of medium components by Plackett-Burman experimental design and kinetic modeling of lipase production by Pseudomonas fluorescens

469-478The evaluation of medium components for lipase production by Pseudomonas fluorescens in submerged batch fermentation was studied using Plackett-Burman experimental design. Twelve medium components with three dummy variables were studied in this experimental design. The most significant variables affecting lipase production were found to be glucose, olive oil, yeast extract, dipotassium hydrogen phosphate and ferrous sulphate heptahydrate. Maximum lipase activity of 3.32 U mL⁻¹ and maximum cell mass concentration of 2.15 g L⁻¹ was obtained in the 32 h of fermentation using the optimized medium under optimized conditions of 30ºC, with an initial pH of 7.0 at 120 rpm. Various unstructured kinetic models were analyzed to simulate the experimental values of cell growth, lipase activity and glucose concentration. Logistic model for cell growth, Luedeking-Piret model for lipase production and modified Luedeking-Piret model for substrate utilization were found to predict the fermentation profile more accurately with high determination coefficient (R²) values of 0.9893, 0.9314 and 0.9765, respectively. The estimated values of the kinetic model parameters, α and β for lipase production clearly indicate that the lipase production by P. fluorescens is growth-associated

Effect of culture conditions and kinetic studies on extracellular tannase production by <i style="">Lactobacillus plantarum</i> MTCC 1407

321-328Production of tannase and microbial biomass by Lactobacillus plantarum MTCC 1407 was studied in submerged batch fermentation. The tannase production was performed in different media compositions maintaining the fermentation conditions constant at 30°C, initial pH 5.5 and agitation speed at 120 rpm. Maximum tannase activity of 5.22 U mL-l was obtained at 24 h in M3 medium containing the following composition (g L-l): tannic acid, 10; glucose, 1; NH4Cl, 3; MgSO4.7H2O, 2; KH2PO4, 0.5; K2HPO4, 0.5; and CaCl2, l. The medium optimization studies show that the tannic acid (1% w/v) as inducer along with glucose (0.1% w/v) as carbon source gave maximum tannase activity. Unstructured kinetic models, namely, logistic model for cell growth and Luedeking-Piret model for tannase production, were used to predict the fermentation kinetics. The estimated values of the kinetic model parameters, α and β for tannase production indicated that the tannase production by L. plantarum was growth associated

MOESM1 of Mycoalgae biofilm: development of a novel platform technology using algae and fungal cultures

Additional file 1: Figure S1. ATR-FTIR spectra of the pure cultures (Chlorella vulgaris; Mucor sp.) and mycoalgae biofilm. Region 1 is the fatty acid region, Region 2 is the protein region, Region 3 is mixed region and Region 4 is polysaccharide region

Hydrogeochemistry of the Paravanar River Sub-Basin, Cuddalore District, Tamilnadu, India

To assess the groundwater quality of the Paravanar river basin, groundwater data were collected by conventional methods. Hydrogeochemical facies of groundwater of study area reveals fresh to brackish and alkaline in nature. Piper plot shows that most of the groundwater samples fall in the mixed field of Ca-Mg-Cl type. Using GIS mapping technique, major element concentration of groundwater has been interpolated and studied. Groundwater thematic maps on electrical conductivity (EC), hydrogen ion concentration, bicarbonates, chlorides and nitrates were prepared from the groundwater quality data. Different classes in thematic maps were categorized as i) good, ii) moderate and iii) poor with respect to groundwater quality. Northeast and southeast parts of the study area represent the doubtful water class regarding the concentration of EC to represent connate nature of water adjacent to the coast. NNE (North-North-East) and southern parts of the study area have pH ranging from 7 to 8 indicating acidic nature as they were from the weathered Cuddalore sandstone. As northern part of the study area is irrigated, fertilizer used for agriculture may be the source for increase in concentration of nitrates. Chloride clusters in the south central part of the study area from coast up to NLC mines and reveals the chloridization of aquifer in 48 years either due to upwelling of connate water from the deeper aquifer as a result of depressurization of Neyveli aquifer for the safe mining of lignite

Microbial production of virus-like particle vaccine protein at gram-per-litre levels

This study demonstrates the feasibility of large-scale production of murine polyomavirus VP1 protein in recombinant Escherichia coli as pentamers which are able to subsequently self-assemble in vitro into virus-like particles (VLPs). High-cell-density pH-stat fed-batch cultivation was employed to produce glutathione-S-transferase (GST)-VP1 fusion protein in soluble form. The expression of recombinant VP1 was induced with IPTG at different cell optical densities (OD at 600nm of 20, 60 or 100). GST-VP1 production was highest when the culture was induced at a cell density of OD 60, with volumetric yield reaching 4.38gL in 31h, which we believe is the highest volumetric productivity for viral capsid protein reported to date. The induction cell density is shown to have a significant effect on the overall volumetric yield of recombinant VP1 and on final cell density, but not on VLP quality. VP1 yield was enhanced 15-fold by scaling-up from shake flask to pH-stat fed-batch cultivation in a bioreactor. Although numerous studies have expressed structural viral protein in E. coli, we believe this is the first report of translation to bioreactors yielding gram-per-litre levels. This VLP production technology overcomes major drawbacks associated with eukaryotic cell-based vaccine production technologies, and propounds the scope for large-scale commercially viable E. coli based VLP production by significantly reducing vaccine production time and cost