New bacterial strains for ibuprofen biodegradation: Drug removal, transformation, and potential catabolic genes.

Ibuprofen (IBU) is a significant contaminant frequently found in wastewater treatment plants due to its widespread use and limited removal during treatment processes. This leads to its discharge into the environment, causing considerable environmental concerns. The use of microorganisms has recently been recognized as a sustainable method for mitigating IBU contamination in wastewater.

Electrical impedance spectroscopy for potassium content analysis and botanical origin identification of honey.

Minerals are reported to dominate the electrical properties of honey and indicate its botanical and geographical origins. In this study, Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS) was used to assess the relation between mineral elements, electrical properties and botanical origin using three honey varieties - Citrus sp., Eucalyptus sp.

Chemical Characterization and Biological Properties Assessment of and Moroccan Propolis.

Although the plants of the genus are largely exploited by therapists in Morocco, the composition and antibacterial activities of propolis from these plants are still unknown. To address this gap, this study aimed to characterize the pollen type, the volatile compounds, and the phenolic and mineral profiles of three propolis samples collected in Morocco and evaluate their antimicrobial activities. The minimum inhibitory concentration of the propolis samples was determined by the microdilution method, and the anti-adherence activity was evaluated by the crystal violet assay.

Impact of lead (Pb) on the growth and biological activity of Serratia marcescens selected for wastewater treatment and identification of its zntR gene-a metal efflux regulator.

Microorganisms isolated from contaminated areas play an important role in bioremediation processes. They promote heavy metal removal from the environment by adsorbing ions onto the cell wall surface, accumulating them inside the cells, or reducing, complexing, or precipitating these substances in the environment. Microorganism-based bioremediation processes can be highly efficient, low-cost and have low environmental impact.

A community of marine bacteria with potential to biodegrade petroleum-based and biobased microplastics.

The biodegradability conditions for both, petroleum-based plastics and bioplastics needs to be evaluated under environmentally realistic conditions. We assessed the biodegradability of low-density polyethylene and biobased polyethylene terephthalate microplastic films by a consortium of marine bacteria during 45 days. Bacterial growth and pH were higher in the samples inoculated with bacteria, compared to the controls.

Scientists' warning against the society of waste.

The metabolism of contemporary industrialized societies, that is their energy and material flows, leads to the overconsumption and waste of natural resources, two factors often disregarded in the global ecological equation. In this Discussion article, we examine the amount of natural resources that is increasingly being consumed and wasted by humanity, and propose solutions to reverse this pattern. Since the beginning of the 20th century, societies, especially from industrialized countries, have been wasting resources in different ways.

Comparative Study of the Antioxidant and Enzyme Inhibitory Activities of Two Types of Moroccan Entire Honey and Their Phenolic Extracts.

Honey is a natural food product very famous for its health benefits for being an important source of antioxidant and phenolic compounds. honeys obtained from different regions of Morocco were evaluated for their ability to inhibit acetylcholinesterase, lipoxygenase, tyrosinase and xanthine oxidase activities. Their antioxidant properties were evaluated using the: 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical-scavenging capacity, nitric oxide scavenging activity (NO) and scavenging ability of superoxide anion radical.

A review of plant metabolites with metal interaction capacity: a green approach for industrial applications.

Rapid industrial development is responsible for severe problems related to environmental pollution. Many human and industrial activities require different metals and, as a result, great amounts of metals/heavy metals are discharged into the water and soil making them dangerous for both human and ecosystems and this is being aggravated by intensive demand and utilization. In addition, compounds with metal binding capacities are needed to be used for several purposes including in activities related to the removal and/or recovery of metals from effluents and soils, as metals' corrosion inhibitors, in the synthesis of metallic nanoparticles and as metal related pharmaceuticals, preferably a with minimum risks associated to the environment.

Anaerobic biodegradation of fluoxetine using a high-performance bacterial community.

Fluoxetine (FLX), an antidepressant extensively used worldwide is considered an emerging pollutant. The present work intends to investigate for the first time the capacity of a bacterial community containing sulphate-reducing bacteria (SRB) enriched from an anaerobic sludge to biodegrade and use FLX as sole carbon source, since current literature suggests that this drug is poorly biodegraded being mainly removed by adsorption to sediments, where it persists. FLX was biodegraded under sulphate reducing conditions until reaching its lowest and reliably detectable concentration, when 20 mg/L of the drug was used as sole carbon source, while 66 ± 9% of 50 mg/L FLX was removed, after 31 days.

Isolation and characterization of bacteria from activated sludge capable of degrading 17α-ethinylestradiol, a contaminant of high environmental concern.

The compound 17α-ethinylestradiol (EE2) is a synthetic oestrogen which is classified as a group 1 carcinogen by the World Health Organization. Together with other endocrine disruptor compounds, EE2 has been included in the surface water Watch List by the European Commission, since it causes severe adverse effects in ecosystems. Thus, it became a high priority to find or improve processes such as biodegradation of EE2 to completely remove this drug from the wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs).

Prokaryotic diversity in stream sediments affected by acid mine drainage.

The microbial communities in mining impacted areas rely on a variety of mechanisms to survive in such extreme environments. In this work, a meta-taxonomic approach using 16S rRNA gene sequences was used to investigate the prokaryotic diversity of sediment samples from water bodies affected by acid mine drainage at the São Domingos mining area in the south of Portugal. Samples were collected in summer and winter from the most contaminated sites from where the water flows downstream to the freshwater of Chança's river reservoir.

Leaching efficiency and kinetics of the recovery of palladium and rhodium from a spent auto-catalyst in HCl/CuCl media.

The recycling of scarce elements such as platinum-group metals is becoming crucial due to their growing importance in current and emerging applications. In this sense, the recovery of palladium and rhodium from a spent auto-catalyst by leaching in HCl/CuCl media was studied, aiming at assessing the kinetic performance as well as the influence of some processing factors, and the behaviour of contaminant metals. Based on a kinetic model developed for the present case, the influence of temperature was evaluated and the corresponding values of activation energy were estimated as 60.

Biological synthesis of nanosized sulfide semiconductors: current status and future prospects.

There have been extensive and comprehensive reviews in the field of metal sulfide precipitation in the context of environmental remediation. However, these works have focused mainly on the removal of metals from aqueous solutions-usually, metal-contaminated effluents-with less emphasis on the precipitation process and on the end-products, frequently centering on metal removal efficiencies. Recently, there has been an increasing interest not only in the possible beneficial effects of these bioremediation strategies for metal-rich effluents but also on the formed precipitates.

Application of urea-agarose gel electrophoresis to select non-redundant 16S rRNAs for taxonomic studies: palladium(II) removal bacteria.

The 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) gene has been the most commonly used sequence to characterize bacterial communities. The classical approach to obtain gene sequences to study bacterial diversity implies cloning amplicons, selecting clones, and Sanger sequencing cloned fragments. A more recent approach is direct sequencing of millions of genes using massive parallel technologies, allowing a large-scale biodiversity analysis of many samples simultaneously.

Green synthesis of covellite nanocrystals using biologically generated sulfide: potential for bioremediation systems.

This work describes the synthesis of CuS powders in high yield and via an environmentally friendly and straightforward process, under ambient conditions (temperature and pressure), by adding to aqueous copper (II) a nutrient solution containing biologically generated sulfide from sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB). The powders obtained were composed of CuS (covellite) nanoparticles (NPs) exhibiting a spheroid morphology (<5 nm). The relevance of this method to obtain CuS supported solid substrates has been demonstrated by performing the synthesis in the presence of TiO2 and SiO2 submicron particles.

Aluminum and sulphate removal by a highly Al-resistant dissimilatory sulphate-reducing bacteria community.

A highly Al-resistant dissimilatory sulphate-reducing bacteria community was isolated from sludge of the wetland of Urgeiriça mine (community W). This community showed excellent sulphate removal at the presence of Al³⁺. After 27 days of incubation, 73, 86 and 81% of sulphate was removed in the presence of 0.

Bromate removal by anaerobic bacterial community: mechanism and phylogenetic characterization.

A highly bromate resistant bacterial community and with ability for bromate removal was obtained from a sulphate-reducing bacteria enrichment consortium. This community was able to remove 96% of bromate and 99% of sulphate from an aqueous solution containing 40 μM bromate and 10 mM sulphate. Moreover, 93% of bromate was removed in the absence of sulphate.

Mechanism of uranium (VI) removal by two anaerobic bacterial communities.

The mechanism of uranium (VI) removal by two anaerobic bacterial consortia, recovered from an uncontaminated site (consortium A) and other from an uranium mine (consortium U), was investigated. The highest efficiency of U (VI) removal by both consortia (97%) occurred at room temperature and at pH 7.2.

Effect of uranium (VI) on two sulphate-reducing bacteria cultures from a uranium mine site.

This work was conducted to assess the impact of uranium (VI) on sulphate-reducing bacteria (SRB) communities obtained from environmental samples collected on the Portuguese uranium mining area of Urgeiriça. Culture U was obtained from a sediment, while culture W was obtained from sludge from the wetland of that mine. Temperature gradient gel electrophoresis (TGGE) was used to monitor community changes under uranium stress conditions.

Anaerobic bio-removal of uranium (VI) and chromium (VI): comparison of microbial community structure.

Several microbial communities, obtained from uranium contaminated and non-contaminated samples, were investigated for their ability to remove uranium (VI) and the cultures capable for this removal were further assessed on their efficiency for chromium (VI) removal. The highest efficiency for removal of both metals was observed on a consortium from a non-contaminated soil collected in Monchique thermal place, which was capable to remove 91% of 22 mg L(-1) U(VI) and 99% of 13 mg L(-1) Cr(VI). This study revealed that uranium (VI) removing communities have also ability to remove chromium (VI), but when uranium (VI) was replaced by chromium (VI) several differences in the structure of all bacterial communities were observed.

Biological sulphate reduction using food industry wastes as carbon sources.

Biological treatment with dissimilatory sulphate-reducing bacteria has been considered the most promising alternative for decontamination of sulphate rich effluents. These wastewaters are usually deficient in electron donors and require their external addition to achieve complete sulphate reduction. The aim of the present study was to investigate the possibility of using food industry wastes (a waste from the wine industry and cheese whey) as carbon sources for dissimilatory sulphate-reducing bacteria.