1,721,111 research outputs found
Probiotics and prebiotics in animal health and food safety
No full textThis book discusses the role of probiotics and prebiotics in maintaining the health status of a broad range of animal groups used for food production. It also highlights the use of beneficial microorganisms as protective agents in animal derived foods. The book provides essential information on the characterization and definition of probiotics on the basis of recently released guidelines and reflecting the latest trends in bacterial taxonomy. Last but not least, it discusses the concept of “dead” probiotics and their benefits to animal health in detail. The book will benefit all professors, students, researchers and practitioners in academia and industry whose work involves biotechnology, veterinary sciences or food productio
Emilia Romagna and Malta: A comparative ethnobotanical study
No full textBackground: A comprehensive ethnobotanical study was conducted on two Mediterranean regions which crossed
over in the past through several cultures. Although the two regions have distinctive geographical and cultural
characteristics, the aim of this study was to determine potential ethnobotanical similarities between the two
regions.
Methods: This desk research involved the thorough examination of the floral species that thrive in these two regions
and ethnobotanical information collected from reliable sources. Once the information was collected, the data was
sorted and organized into matrices and then analyzed statistically.
Results: Following a thorough search for common plants within the two regions, 193 taxa, distributed in 72 plant
families, were identified. The three predominant families, Asteraceae, Lamiaceae and Apiaceae, were selected
according to the popularity of medicinal uses of the taxa within the families (10.4 %, 7.8 % and 5.2 %, respectively).
The popular therapeutic ratios for taxa within the Asteraceae, Lamiaceae and Apiaceae families varied between
0.14-1.00, 0.17-0.82 and 0.27-0.60, respectively. It was observed that the most targeted therapeutic system was the
gastrointestinal system covering several ailments that included gastric disturbances, liver and biliary conditions,
and intestinal problems.
Conclusions: It can be concluded that although, these two regions are distinct from each other, the two regional
communities share the common understanding that the health status of an individual depends on the maintenance
of the health of the digestive system. Today, several studies support this relationship, with scientific evidence and
the use of natural products for their medicinal, nutraceutical and functionality in everyday life
Alterations in the Microbiota of Caged Honeybees in the Presence of Nosema ceranae Infection and Related Changes in Functionality
Full text linkSeveral studies have outlined that changes in the honeybee gut microbial composition may impair important metabolic functions supporting the honeybees’ life. Gut dysbiosis may be caused by diseases like Nosema ceranae or by other anthropic, environmental or experimental stressors. The present work contributes to increasing knowledge on the dynamics of the gut microbiome acquisition in caged honeybees, an experimental condition frequently adopted by researchers, with or without infection with N. ceranae, and fed with a bacterial mixture to control N. ceranae development. Changes of the gut microbiota were elucidated comparing microbial profile of caged and open-field reared honeybees. The absolute abundance of the major gut microbial taxa was studied with both NGS and qPCR approaches, whereas changes in the functionality were based on RAST annotations and manually curated. In general, all caged honeybees showed important changes in the gut microbiota, with γ-proteobacteria (Frischella, Gilliamella and Snodgrassella) lacking in all caged experimental groups. Caged honeybees infected with N. ceranae showed also a strong colonization of environmental taxa like Citrobacter, Cosenzaea and Morganella, as well as possibly pathogenic bacteria such as Serratia. The colonization of Serratia did not occur in presence of the bacterial mixture. The functionality prediction revealed that environmental bacteria or the supplemented bacterial mixture increased the metabolic potential of the honeybee gut microbiome compared to field and caged controls
An aerobic fixed-phase biofilm reactor system for the degradation of the low-molecular weight aromatic compounds occurring in the effluents of anaerobic digestors treating olive mill wastewaters
No full textAn aerobic co-culture, prepared by combining Ralstonia sp. LD35 and Pseudomonas putida DSM1868, was recently found to be capable of extensively degrading many of the hydroxylated and/or methoxylated benzoic, phenylacetic and 3-phenyl-2-propenoic acids occurring in the olive mill wastewaters (OMWs). In the perspective of developing a biotechnological process for the degradation of low-molecular weight (MW) aromatic compounds occurring in the effluents of anaerobic digestors treating OMWs, the capability of this bacterial co-culture of biodegrading a synthetic mix of the above mentioned compounds and the aromatic compounds of an anaerobic OMW-treatment plant effluent in the physiological state of immobilised cells was investigated. Two aerobic fixed-bed biofilm reactors were developed by immobilising the co-culture cells on Manville silica beads and on polyurethane foam cubes. Both supports were found to give rise to a microbiologically stable and biologically active biofilm. The two biofilm reactors were found to be similarly capable of rapidly and completely biodegrading the components of a synthetic mix of nine monocyclic aromatic acids typically present in OMWs and the low-MW aromatic compounds occurring in the anaerobic effluent in batch conditions. However, in the same conditions, the silica bead-packed reactor was found to be more effective in the removal of high-MW phenolic compounds from the anaerobic effluent with respect to the polyurethane cube-packed reactor. These results are encouraging in the perspective of using the co-culture as immobilized cells for developing a continuous biotechnological process for the post-treatment of effluents with low-MW aromatic compounds produced by anaerobic digestors treating OMWs. © 2001 Elsevier Science B.V
Biodegradation of hydroxylated and methoxylated benzoic, phenylacetic and phenylpropenoic acids present in olive mill wastewaters by two bacterial strains
No full textTwo aerobic bacterial strains, a chlorophenol-degrading bacterium characterized in this work as a Ralstonia sp. LD35 on the basis of the sequence of the gene encoding for 16S ribosomal RNA, and Pseudomonas putida DSM 1868, capable of metabolizing 4-methoxybenzoic acid, were tested for their capacity to degrade monocyclic aromatic acids responsible for the toxicity of olive mill wastewaters (OMWs). Both strains possess interesting and complementary degradation capabilities in resting cell conditions: Ralstonia sp. LD35 was found to metabolize 4-hydroxybenzoic, 4-hydroxyphenylacetic, 3,4-dihydroxycinnamic and cinnamic acid, whereas DSM 1868 was capable of metabolizing 4-hydroxy-3-methoxybenzoic, 3,4-dimethoxybenzoic and 4-hydroxy-3,5-dimethoxybenzoic acid, as well as 4-hydroxybenzoic and 4-hydroxyphenylacetic acid. The kinetic parameters describing the growth of the two strains on the same compounds were determined in growing-cell batch conditions, and showed that both strains presented high affinity and high specific growth rates towards all assayed substrates. In addition, the two strains were capable of growing on and extensively biodegrading a mixture of monocyclic aromatic acids commonly found at high concentrations in OMWs, and of growing on a 20% dilution of a natural OMW. All these features make the two strains attractive candidates for the development of a biotechnological process for the biodegradation of aromatic compounds found in OMWs. © 2001 Éditions scientifiques et médicales Elsevier SAS
Biodegradation of synthetic and naturally occurring mixtures of mono-cyclic aromatic compounds present in olive mill wastewaters by two aerobic bacteria
No full textTwo bacterial strains, Ralstonia sp. LD35 and Pseudomonas putida DSM 1868, were assayed for their ability to degrade the monocyclic aromatic compounds commonly found in olive mill wastewaters (OMWs). The goal was to study the possibility of employing the two strains in the removal of these recalcitrant and toxic compounds from the effluents of anaerobic treatment plants fed with OMWs. At first, the two strains were separately assayed for their ability to degrade a synthetic mixture of nine aromatic acids present in OMWs, both in growing- and resting-cell conditions. Then, due to the complementary activity exhibited by the two strains, a co-culture of the two bacteria was tested under growing-cell conditions for degradation of the same synthetic mixture. Finally, the degradation activity of the co-culture on two fractions was studied. Both fractions one deriving from natural OMWs through reverse osmosis treatment and containing low-molecular weight organic molecules, and the other obtained from an anaerobic lab-scale treatment plant fed with OMWs, were rich in monocyclic aromatic compounds. The co-culture of the two strains was able to biodegrade seven of the nine components of the tested synthetic mix (2, 6-dihydroxy-benzoic acid and 3, 4, 5-trimethoxybenzoic acid were the two undegraded compounds). In addition, an efficient biodegrading activity towards several aromatic molecules present in the two natural fractions was demonstrated
Characterization and molecular cloning of Bifidobacterium longum cryptic plasmid pMB1
No full textThe small cryptic plasmid pMB1 (1.9 kb), previously isolated from Bifidobacterium longum, has been characterized by physical mapping. Two cloning vectors, pMR3 and pDG7, carrying chloramphenicol and ampicillin resistances derived from pJH101, have been electroporated in Escherichia coli
Effects of a low-cost industrial mix of randomly methylated cyclodextrins on the biological depuration of soils contaminated with a PCB-containing transformer oil
No full textUse of randomly methylated-beta-cyclodextrins in the lab-scale bioremediation of two aged PCB-contaminated soils
No full textBiodegradazione della Componente aromatica monociclica delle acque di vegetazione ad opera di una co-coltura batterica immobilizzata in bioreattori aerobici a letto fisso
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