Microbial biofilms in biorefinery - Towards a sustainable production of low-value bulk chemicals and fuels.

Harnessing the potential of biocatalytic conversion of renewable biomass into value-added products is still hampered by unfavorable process economics. This has promoted the use of biofilms as an alternative to overcome the limitations of traditional planktonic systems. In this paper, the benefits and challenges of biofilm fermentations are reviewed with a focus on the production of low-value bulk chemicals and fuels from waste biomass.

[Effect of He-Ne-laser irradiation on plasmid transformation of Escherichia coli bacteria].

The influence of the of radiation a He-Ne laser (632.8 nm, 30 W/m2, 5-20 J/m2) on the transformation of Escherichia coli cells with plasmid DNA was studied. The irradiation of a mixture of bacterial cells and plasmid DNA increased the transformation efficiency 2.