Publications by authors named "Ivana Marova"

The main entrance point of highly toxic organic Hg forms, including methylmercury (MeHg), into the aquatic food web is phytoplankton, which is greatly represented by various natural microalgal species. Processes associated with MeHg fate in microalgae cells such as uptake, effects on cells and toxicity, Hg biotransformation, and intracellular stability are detrimental to the process of further biomagnification and, as a consequence, have great importance for human health. The study of MeHg uptake and distribution in cultures of marine halophile and freshwater acidophilic alga demonstrated that most of the MeHg is imported inside the cell, while cell surface adhesion is insignificant.

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Background: Monitoring and control of both growth media and microbial biomass is extremely important for the development of economical bioprocesses. Unfortunately, process monitoring is still dependent on a limited number of standard parameters (pH, temperature, gasses etc.), while the critical process parameters, such as biomass, product and substrate concentrations, are rarely assessable in-line.

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is a South American herb used in traditional medicine to treat a wide range of ailments. The healing and antimicrobial effects of this plant have already been covered by many studies, which have confirmed its beneficial effects on human health. In this study, the antimicrobial effect of hydroalcoholic extract against ATCC10536, ATCC25923, ATCC12228 and INCQS00076 was determined.

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The biogeochemical cycling of mercury in aquatic environments is a complex process driven by various factors, such as ambient temperature, seasonal variations, methylating bacteria activity, dissolved oxygen levels, and Hg interaction with dissolved organic matter (DOM). As a consequence, part of the Hg contamination from anthropogenic activity that was buried in sediments is reinserted into water columns mainly in highly toxic organic Hg forms (methylmercury, dimethylmercury, etc.).

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Microalgae are mostly phototrophic microorganisms present worldwide, showcasing great adaptability to their environment. They are known for producing essential metabolites such as carotenoids, chlorophylls, sterols, lipids, and many more. This study discusses the possibility of the mixotrophic abilities of microalgae in the presence of food waste oils.

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The consequence of the massive increase in population in recent years is the enormous production of mainly industrial waste. The effort to minimize these waste products is, therefore, no longer sufficient. Biotechnologists, therefore, started looking for ways to not only reuse these waste products, but also to valorise them.

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Acne vulgaris is a prevalent skin condition that is caused by an imbalance in skin microbiomes mainly by the overgrowth of strains such as and which affect both teenagers and adults. Drug resistance, dosing, mood alteration, and other issues hinder traditional therapy. This study aimed to create a novel dissolvable nanofiber patch containing essential oils (EOs) from and for acne vulgaris treatment.

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Four non-conventional oleaginous and pigmented yeast strains of , , , and were used in this study. Complex yeast extracts were prepared and tested for biological activity, safety, and effect on human health. In this paper, we measured the antioxidant activity and antimicrobial effect of yeast biomass as a whole and their extracts to compare the influence of carotenoids and other bioactive substances in the studied biomass.

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Carotenogenic yeasts are a group of microorganisms producing valuable metabolites such as carotenoids, ergosterol, ubiquinone or fatty acids. Their exceptional adaptability allows them to grow in diverse conditions. Owing to their extracellular lipase activity, they are capable of processing many lipid-type waste substrates.

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Antimicrobial resistance is a public health threat and the increasing number of multidrug-resistant bacteria is a major concern worldwide. Common antibiotics are becoming ineffective for skin infections and wounds, making the search for new therapeutic options increasingly urgent. The present study aimed to investigate the antibacterial potential of prenylated phenolics in wound healing.

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Participation in leisure time physical activity (LTPA) has considerable health-related, psychological, and social benefits. However, the involvement of individuals with disabilities is considerably less than that of their peers without disabilities. A higher rate of participation of individuals with disabilities in LTPA may be achieved by the active involvement of volunteers.

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Oleogenic yeasts are characterized by the ability to accumulate increased amounts of lipids under certain conditions. These microbial lipids differ in their fatty acid composition, which allows them to be widely used in the biotechnology industry. The interest of biotechnologists is closely linked to the rising prices of fossil fuels in recent years.

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One of the most addressed topics today is the transfer from a linear model of economics to a model of circular economics. It is a discipline that seeks to eliminate waste produced by various industries. The food industry generates huge amounts of waste worldwide, particularly the coffee industry, and related industries produce millions of tons of waste a year.

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The aim of this study was to evaluate the influence of model (alcohol, sugar, salt, protein and acid) and real foods and beverages on the viability of probiotics during incubation and artificial digestion. Viability of monocultures CCM4833 and CCM7825T, and a commercial mixture of 9 probiotic bacterial strains, was tested by cultivation assay and flow cytometry. In model foods, the best viability was determined in the presence of 0.

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Multifunctional biomass is able to provide more than one valuable product, and thus, it is attractive in the field of microbial biotechnology due to its economic feasibility. Carotenogenic yeasts are effective microbial factories for the biosynthesis of a broad spectrum of biomolecules that can be used in the food and feed industry and the pharmaceutical industry, as well as a source of biofuels. In the study, we examined the effect of different nitrogen sources, carbon sources and CN ratios on the co-production of intracellular lipids, carotenoids, β-glucans and extracellular glycolipids.

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Oleaginous filamentous fungi can accumulate large amount of cellular lipids and biopolymers and pigments and potentially serve as a major source of biochemicals for food, feed, chemical, pharmaceutical, and transport industries. We assessed suitability of Fourier transform (FT) Raman spectroscopy for screening and process monitoring of filamentous fungi in biotechnology. Six Mucoromycota strains were cultivated in microbioreactors under six growth conditions (three phosphate concentrations in the presence and absence of calcium).

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The co-cultivation of red yeasts and microalgae works with the idea of the natural transport of gases. The microalgae produce oxygen, which stimulates yeast growth, while CO produced by yeast is beneficial for algae growth. Both microorganisms can then produce lipids.

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The soil yeast secretes a killer toxin, named Kpkt, that shows β-glucanase activity and is lethal to wine spoilage yeasts belonging to , and . When expressed in , recombinant Kpkt displays a wider spectrum of action as compared to its native counterpart, being active on a vast array of wine yeasts and food-related bacteria. Here, to gather information on recombinant Kpkt cytotoxicity, lyophilized preparations of this toxin (LrKpkt) were obtained and tested on immortalized human keratinocyte HaCaT cells, a model for the stratified squamous epithelium of the oral cavity and esophagus.

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Raman spectroscopy is a universal method designed for the analysis of a wide range of physical, chemical and biological systems or various surfaces. This technique is suitable to monitor various components of cells, tissues or microorganisms. The advantages include very fast non-contact and non-destructive analysis and no or minimal need for sample treatment.

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Food fraud has been and still is a problem in the food industry. It is detectable by several approaches, such as high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), chemometric assays, or DNA-based techniques, each with its own drawbacks. This work addresses one major drawback of DNA-based methods, in particular their sensitivity to inhibitors contained in particular matrices from which DNA is isolated.

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Kpkt is a yeast killer toxin, naturally produced by Tetrapisispora phaffii, with possible applications in winemaking due to its antimicrobial activity on wine-related yeasts including Kloeckera/Hanseniaspora, Saccharomycodes and Zygosaccharomyces. Here, Kpkt coding gene was expressed in Komagataella phaffii (formerly Pichia pastoris) and the bioreactor production of the recombinant toxin (rKpkt) was obtained. Moreover, to produce a ready-to-use preparation of rKpkt, the cell-free supernatant of the K.

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Biodegradable packaging materials represent one possible solution for how to reduce the negative environmental impact of plastics. The main idea of this work was to investigate the possibility of utilizing grape seed lignin for the modification of polyhydroxyalkanoates with the use of its antioxidant capacity in packaging films. For this purpose, polymeric films based on the blend of high crystalline poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) (PHB) and amorphous polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) were prepared.

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Beta (β)-glucans are polysaccharides composed of D-glucose monomers. Nowadays, β-glucans are gaining attention due to their attractive immunomodulatory biological activities, which can be utilized in pharmaceutical or food supplementation industries. Some carotenogenic yeasts, previously explored for lipid and carotenoid coproduction, could potentially coproduce a significant amount of β-glucans.

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Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) are hydrolyzable bio-polyesters. The possibility of utilizing lignocellulosic waste by-products and grape pomace as carbon sources for PHA biosynthesis was investigated. PHAs were biosynthesized by employing grown on fructose (PHBV-1) or grape sugar extract (PHBV-2).

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In this study preparation and characterization of new UV-protecting systems based on liposomes/polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) with encapsulated coffee extracts are presented. Green and roasted coffee extracts with high phenolics content, high antioxidant activity and sun protection factor (SPF) value 40-50 were used as model organic UV filters and encapsulated into liposomes and PHB-liposomes. Particle size and colloid stability was observed by dynamic light scattering and zeta-potential.

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