Reduction of bioburden on large area surfaces through use of a supplemental residual antimicrobial paint.

Paint is a versatile material that can be used to coat surfaces for which routine disinfection practices may be lacking. EPA-registered copper-containing supplemental residual antimicrobial paints could be used to reduce the bioburden on often-neglected surfaces. An interventional study was conducted by painting the walls of a preschool restroom and metal locker surfaces in two hospital locker rooms with a copper-containing antimicrobial paint to evaluate the potential for bioburden reduction compared to a non-copper-containing control paint.

Physiological Studies of Suggest that Bacillithiol Derivatives Are the Most Widespread Thiols in Bacteria.

Low-molecular-weight (LMW) thiols mediate redox homeostasis and the detoxification of chemical stressors. Despite their essential functions, the distribution of LMW thiols across cellular life has not yet been defined. LMW thiols are also thought to play a central role in sulfur oxidation pathways in phototrophic bacteria, including the Here we show that synthesizes a novel LMW thiol with a mass of 412 ± 1 Da corresponding to a molecular formula of CHNOS, which suggests that the new LMW thiol is closely related to bacillithiol (BSH), the major LMW thiol of low-G+C Gram-positive bacteria.

Expression of naturally ionic liquid-tolerant thermophilic cellulases in Aspergillus niger.

Efficient deconstruction of plant biomass is a major barrier to the development of viable lignocellulosic biofuels. Pretreatment with ionic liquids reduces lignocellulose recalcitrance to enzymatic hydrolysis, increasing yields of sugars for conversion into biofuels. However, commercial cellulases are not compatible with many ionic liquids, necessitating extensive water washing of pretreated biomass prior to hydrolysis.

A bacterial pioneer produces cellulase complexes that persist through community succession.

Cultivation of microbial consortia provides low-complexity communities that can serve as tractable models to understand community dynamics. Time-resolved metagenomics demonstrated that an aerobic cellulolytic consortium cultivated from compost exhibited community dynamics consistent with the definition of an endogenous heterotrophic succession. The genome of the proposed pioneer population, 'Candidatus Reconcilibacillus cellulovorans', possessed a gene cluster containing multidomain glycoside hydrolases (GHs).

Comparative Community Proteomics Demonstrates the Unexpected Importance of Actinobacterial Glycoside Hydrolase Family 12 Protein for Crystalline Cellulose Hydrolysis.

Unlabelled: Glycoside hydrolases (GHs) are key enzymes in the depolymerization of plant-derived cellulose, a process central to the global carbon cycle and the conversion of plant biomass to fuels and chemicals. A limited number of GH families hydrolyze crystalline cellulose, often by a processive mechanism along the cellulose chain. During cultivation of thermophilic cellulolytic microbial communities, substantial differences were observed in the crystalline cellulose saccharification activities of supernatants recovered from divergent lineages.

Refining the phylum Chlorobi by resolving the phylogeny and metabolic potential of the representative of a deeply branching, uncultivated lineage.

Recent studies have expanded the phylum Chlorobi, demonstrating that the green sulfur bacteria (GSB), the original cultured representatives of the phylum, are a part of a broader lineage whose members have more diverse metabolic capabilities that overlap with members of the phylum Bacteroidetes. The 16S rRNA gene of an uncultivated clone, OPB56, distantly related to the phyla Chlorobi and Bacteroidetes, was recovered from Obsidian Pool in Yellowstone National Park; however, the detailed phylogeny and function of OPB56 and related clones have remained unknown. Culturing of thermophilic bacterial consortia from compost by adaptation to grow on ionic-liquid pretreated switchgrass provided a consortium in which one of the most abundant members, NICIL-2, clustered with OPB56-related clones.

High throughput nanostructure-initiator mass spectrometry screening of microbial growth conditions for maximal β-glucosidase production.

Production of biofuels via enzymatic hydrolysis of complex plant polysaccharides is a subject of intense global interest. Microbial communities are known to express a wide range of enzymes necessary for the saccharification of lignocellulosic feedstocks and serve as a powerful reservoir for enzyme discovery. However, the growth temperature and conditions that yield high cellulase activity vary widely, and the throughput to identify optimal conditions has been limited by the slow handling and conventional analysis.

Sulfite oxidation in chlorobaculum tepidum.

The green sulfur bacterium Chlorobaculum tepidum is proposed to oxidize sulfide and elemental sulfur via sulfite as an obligate intermediate. The sulfite pool is predicted to be contained in the cytoplasm and be oxidized by the concerted action of ApsBA, which directly oxidizes sulfite, and QmoABC, which transfers electrons from ApsBA to the quinone pool. Like other green sulfur bacteria, C.

Beyond the genome: functional studies of phototrophic sulfur oxidation.

The increasing availability of complete genomic sequences for cultured phototrophic bacteria and assembled metagenomes from environments dominated by phototrophs has reinforced the need for a "post-genomic" analytical effort to test models of cellular structure and function proposed from genomic data. Comparative genomics has produced a testable model for pathways of sulfur compound oxidation in the phototrophic bacteria. In the case of sulfide, two enzymes are predicted to oxidize sulfide: sulfide:quinone oxidoreductase and flavocytochrome c sulfide dehydrogenase.