Metatranscriptomic analysis reveals active microbes and genes responded to short-term Cr(VI) stress.

Heavy metals have been severely polluting the environment. However, the response mechanism of microbial communities to short-term heavy metals stress remains unclear. In this study, metagenomics (MG) and metatranscriptomics (MT) was performed to observe the microbial response to short-term Cr(VI) stress.

The guanidine thiocyanate-high EDTA method for total microbial RNA extraction from severely heavy metal-contaminated soils.

Molecular analyses relying on RNA, as a direct way to unravel active microbes and their functional genes, have received increasing attention from environmental researchers recently. However, extracting sufficient and high-quality total microbial RNA from seriously heavy metal-contaminated soils is still a challenge. In this study, the guanidine thiocyanate-high EDTA (GTHE) method was established and optimized for recovering high quantity and quality of RNA from long-term heavy metal-contaminated soils.

Organismic-level acute toxicology profiling of reactive azo dyes.

In the present study, organismic-level acute toxicology profile of three reactive azo dyes, viz. Reactive Blue 221, Reactive Red 195, and Reactive Yellow 145, was investigated, by using bacterial (Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Staphylococcus aureus, Listeria monocytogenes, and Bacillus subtilis), fungal (Trichoderma asperellum, Aspergillus flavus, Fusarium fujikuroi, and Rhizoctonia solani), plant (Raphanus sativus, Triticum aestivum, Sorghum bicolor, and Phaseolus mungo), and aquatic (Artemia salina and Daphnia magna) specimens. Microbial test organisms (all the six bacteria and two fungi, i.