Hydrogen and dark oxygen drive microbial productivity in diverse groundwater ecosystems.

Around 50% of humankind relies on groundwater as a source of drinking water. Here we investigate the age, geochemistry, and microbiology of 138 groundwater samples from 95 monitoring wells (<250 m depth) located in 14 aquifers in Canada. The geochemistry and microbiology show consistent trends suggesting large-scale aerobic and anaerobic hydrogen, methane, nitrogen, and sulfur cycling carried out by diverse microbial communities.

Opuntia ficus-indica cladodes as feedstock for ethanol production by Kluyveromyces marxianus and Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

The feasibility of ethanol production using an enzymatic hydrolysate of pretreated cladodes of Opuntia ficus-indica (prickly pear cactus) as carbohydrate feedstock was investigated, including a comprehensive chemical analysis of the cladode biomass and the effects of limited aeration on the fermentation profiles and sugar utilization. The low xylose and negligible mannose content of the cladode biomass used in this study suggested that the hemicellulose structure of the O. ficus-indica cladode was atypical of hardwood or softwood hemicelluloses.

Biting of anthropophilic Culicoides fulvithorax (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae), a vector of Mansonella perstans in Nigeria.

Anthropophilic Culicoides were investigated in a rural community endemic for Mansonella perstans in Ijebu North area of western Nigeria between December 2003 and October 2004. Three hundred and fifty-nine adults of Culicoides fulvithorax collected by human bait in the morning were dissected for Mansonella perstans larvae, and 1.95% of infection rate was found.