The application of Phragmites australis based constructed wetlands (CW) have been widely used in various climates and also used for secondary treatment of diverse wastewater and polluted water. This work compares the treatment performance of two Phragmites-based mesocosms: the first with surface horizontal flow (SF), and the other with subsurface horizontal flow (SSF), in the same conditions of feeding and climate. The results showed a significantly high mineral content of the effluent water exiting SSF-CW.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRiparian woodlands play a multiple ecological and environmental role, including control of non-point source pollution and increasing of nutrients retention. Four riparian species (Arundo donax L., Salix purpurea L.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAcetate can be efficiently metabolized by the green microalga . The regular concentration is 17 mM, although higher concentrations are reported to increase starch and fatty acid content. To understand the responses to higher acetate concentrations, cells were cultivated in batch mode in the light at 17, 31, 44, and 57 mM acetate.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLemna gibba (Lemnaceae) had been experimented in Morocco to develop macrophyte-based wastewater treatment systems adapted to the local climatic and socio-economic circumstances. This species growing on pre-treated urban wastewater, in a lagoon (Lemna bioreactor) operating in fed-batch, generates a net productivity of 28.39 t dw.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe qualitative screening method used to select complex I mutants in the microalga Chlamydomonas, based on reduced growth under heterotrophic conditions, is not suitable for high-throughput screening. In order to develop a fast screening method based on measurements of chlorophyll fluorescence, we first demonstrated that complex I mutants displayed decreased photosystem II efficiency in the genetic background of a photosynthetic mutation leading to reduced formation of the electrochemical proton gradient in the chloroplast (pgrl1 mutation). In contrast, single mutants (complex I and pgrl1 mutants) could not be distinguished from the wild type by their photosystem II efficiency under the conditions tested.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn Chlamydomonas, unlike in flowering plants, genes coding for Nd7 (NAD7/49 kDa) and Nd9 (NAD9/30 kDa) core subunits of mitochondrial respiratory-chain complex I are nucleus-encoded. Both genes possess all the features that facilitate their expression and proper import of the polypeptides in mitochondria. By inactivating their expression by RNA interference or insertional mutagenesis, we show that both subunits are required for complex I assembly and activity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, the expression of the Nia1 gene encoding NAD(P)H nitrate reductase is controlled at the transcriptional level, positively by light and nitrate and negatively by ammonium. The sequences lying between positions -247 and -25 with respect to the start site of transcription were analyzed for the presence of regulatory elements using an arylsulfatase reporter gene ( Ars) fused to a minimal beta-tubulin promoter. An 84-bp sequence resulting from the joining of two partially homologous regions (-231 to -201 and -77 to -25) was shown to be necessary and sufficient to ensure activation and repression of the reporter gene.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, the expression of the Nia1 gene encoding NAD(P)H nitrate reductase is controlled at the transcriptional level, positively by light and negatively by ammonium. Previous work has shown that the region -279 to +269 with respect to the start site of transcription was sufficient to confer regulated expression of a promoterless arylsulfatase (Ars) reporter gene. To understand the mechanisms underlying this regulation, the -279 to +2 sequence was analysed for the presence of ammonium-responsive elements using either pJD54 (promoterless Ars gene) or pJD100 (minimal beta-tubulin promoter-driven Ars gene).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe NAD(P)H nitrate reductase (NR) from Chlamydomonas reinhardtii is encoded by the structural gene Nia1. Numerous data from the literature indicate that this enzyme is submitted to complex regulation mechanisms involving multiple controls at transcriptional and post-transcriptional levels. To specifically investigate the regulation of the Nia1 gene at the transcriptional level, NR+ and NR- transformed cells harbouring the Nia1:Ars construct (Nia1 promoter fused to the arylsulfatase (ARS)-encoding Ars reporter gene) were cultivated under various experimental conditions and the ARS activities were recorded.
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