Algae as Bio-fertilizers: Between current situation and future prospective

Bio-fertilization is a sustainable agricultural practice that includes using bio-fertilizers to increase soil nutrient content resulting in higher productivity. Soil micro-flora has been exposed to improve soil fertility and increase biomass productivity and identified as a correct environmentally friendly bio-based fertilizer for pollution-free agricultural applies. The majority of cyanobacteria can fix nitrogen from the atmosphere and several species including Anabaena sp., Nostoc sp., and Oscillatoria angustissima is known to be effective cyanobacterial based bio fertilizers. Acutodesmus dimorphus, Spirulina platensis Chlorella vulgaris, Scenedesmus dimorphus, Anabaena azolla, and Nostoc sp. are some of the green microalgae and cyanobacteria species that have been successfully used as bio fertilizers to boost crop growth. Also, Chlorella vulgaris is one of the most commonly used microalgae in bio fertilizer studies. The addition of seaweed species that are Sargassum sp. and Gracilaria verrucosa leads to chemical changes as a soil fertility indicator on clay and sandy soils, and the addition of seaweed conditioner to soil can improve its organic content, return pH to normal, and reduce C/N ratio in both sandy and clay soil. This review provides an effective approach to increase soil fertility via environmentally friendly bio-based fertilizer using micro and macro algae. Instead of the usage of inorganic and organic fertilizers that have polluted impacts to soil as aggregation of heavy metals, in addition to there their human carcinogenic effects.     

Cloning of a haemolysin from Citrobacter freundii and its expression in phylogenetically related bacteria

Abstract The determinants for a haemolysin from an extraintestinal isolate of Citrobacter freundii have been cloned and expressed in both Escherichia coli K12 and phylogenetically related bacteria. Compared with E. coli , where the haemolytic determinants are encoded in 7.5 kb, the hemolysin determinants of C. freundii are located on a 2.5-kb Hin dIII fragment in the recombinant plasmid PJP71. Chicken embryo tests indicate that this haemolysin does contribute to the pathogenicity of C. freundii .     

Efficacy of intra-lesional injections of meglumine antimoniate once a week vs. twice a week in the treatment of cutaneous leishmaniasis caused by L. tropica in Iran: A randomized controlled clinical trial

Treatment of Cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) is based on using antimoniate derivatives; patients’ compliance for systemic injections is low due to the pain and systemic complications. In this randomized open trial, the efficacy of intra-lesional (IL) injections of meglumine antimoniate (MA) once a week vs. twice a week in the treatment of Anthrpoponothic CL caused by L. tropica was studied. Eligible volunteer patients were selected according to inclusion/exclusion criteria. The included patients were randomly allocated to receive IL-MA injections once a week or twice a week. The primary outcome was set as complete healing of the lesion(s), and defined as complete re-epithelialization and absence of induration in the lesions. A total of 180 parasitologicaly proven CL patients caused by L. tropica were recruited, 90 patients were treated with weekly IL-MA and 90 patients received IL-MA twice a week. The complete cure was 87.9% vs. 89.2% in the group received weekly and twice a week IL-MA injections, respectively (P = 0.808). Patients’ compliance was acceptable and side effects were limited to a few local allergic reactions to MA. Median time to healing was significantly shorter in patients who received IL-MA twice a week (median ± SE) 37±3.8, (CI: 29.6–44.4) days compared to whom received IL-MA once a week 60±2.3, (CI: 55.6–64.5) days (P< 0.001), however the number of injections was higher in group who received IL-MA twice a week (12 vs. 9 injections). In conclusion, the rate of cure in the group of CL patients with IL-MA twice a week was not significantly different from the group who received IL-MA once a week shorten, but the duration of healing was shorter in the group who received IL-MA twice a week while the group received more injections so is recommended to use IL-MA once a week due to the fact the compliance is acceptable with limited side effects.Clinical Trial Registration: IRCT20081130001475N13; https://en.irct.ir/.     

Conceptual Method of Temperature Sensation in Bionic Hand by Extraordinary Perceptual Phenomenon

Lack of temperature sensation of myoelectric prosthetic hand limits the daily activities of amputees.To this end,a non-invasive temperature sensation method is proposed to train amputees to sense temperature with psychophysical sensory substitution.In this study,22 healthy participants took part besides 5 amputee participants.The duration time of the study was 31 days with five test steps according to the Leitner technique.An adjustable temperature mug and a Peltier were used to change the temperature of the water/phantom digits to induce temperature to participants.Also,to isolate the surround-ings and show colors,a Virtual Reality(VR)glass was employed.The statistical results conducted are based on the response of participants with questionnaire method.Using Chi-square tests,it is concluded that participants answer the experiment significantly correctly using the Leitner technique(P value＜0.05).Also,by applying the"Repeated Measures ANOVA",it is noticed that the time of numbness felt by participants had significant(P value＜0.001)difference.Participants could remember lowest and highest temperatures significantly better than other temperatures(P value＜0.001);furthermore,the well-trained amputee participant practically using the prosthesis with 72.58％could identify object's temperature with only once time experimenting the color temperature.     

Susceptibility of three lepidopteran pests to five entomopathogenic nematodes and in vivo mass production of these nematodes

Abstract

An investigation was conducted in pots to access the susceptibility of three lepidopteran pests, namely, gram pod borer, Helicoverpa armigera, greater wax moth, Galleria mellonella, and rice moth, Corcyra cephalonica, to two recently described species, Steinernema masoodi, S. seemae, and three indigenous S. carpocapsae, S. glaseri and S. thermophilum entomopathogenic nematodes (EPN). The suitability of these lepidopterans for the in vivo mass production of the nematodes was also estimated. Among the five species of EPN, S. masoodi, S. seemae and S. carpocapsae were found most pathogenic to C. cephalonica, bringing about mortality within 24 h, followed by H. armigera (36, 38 and 48 h, respectively) and G. mellonella (30, 36 and 48 h, respectively). The other species of EPN, viz., S. glaseri and S. thermophilum was the least pathogenic, which killed the larvae of C. cephalonica in 29 and 36 h, respectively, G. mellonella in 48 h, and H. armigera in 38 and 56 h, respectively. Galleria mellonella was found the most suitable host for the mass production of infective juveniles (IJs) of S. seemae, which yielded higher IJs than S. carpocapsae. Helicoverpa armigera was the next best suitable alternate host, which produced maximum IJs in case of S. seemae followed by S. masoodi, S. carpocapsae, S. glaseri and S. thermophilum. Rice moth, Corcyra cephalonica was the least suitable host. The susceptibility of H. armigera to five tested EPN species and susceptibility of G. mellonella and C. cephalonica to S. masoodi and S. seemae are new records.     

Improved ethanol yield and reduced Minimum Ethanol Selling Price (MESP) by modifying low severity dilute acid pretreatment with deacetylation and mechanical refining: 1) Experimental

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Historically, acid pretreatment technology for the production of bio-ethanol from corn stover has required severe conditions to overcome biomass recalcitrance. However, the high usage of acid and steam at severe pretreatment conditions hinders the economic feasibility of the ethanol production from biomass. In addition, the amount of acetate and furfural produced during harsh pretreatment is in the range that strongly inhibits cell growth and impedes ethanol fermentation. The current work addresses these issues through pretreatment with lower acid concentrations and temperatures incorporated with deacetylation and mechanical refining. RESULTS: The results showed that deacetylation with 0.1 M NaOH before acid pretreatment improved the monomeric xylose yield in pretreatment by up to 20 % while keeping the furfural yield under 2 %. Deacetylation also improved the glucose yield by 10 % and the xylose yield by 20 % during low solids enzymatic hydrolysis. Mechanical refining using a PFI mill further improved sugar yields during both low- and high-solids enzymatic hydrolysis. Mechanical refining also allowed enzyme loadings to be reduced while maintaining high yields. Deacetylation and mechanical refining are shown to assist in achieving 90 % cellulose yield in high-solids (20 %) enzymatic hydrolysis. When fermentations were performed under pH control to evaluate the effect of deacetylation and mechanical refining on the ethanol yields, glucose and xylose utilizations over 90 % and ethanol yields over 90 % were achieved. Overall ethanol yields were calculated based on experimental results for the base case and modified cases. One modified case that integrated deacetylation, mechanical refining, and washing was estimated to produce 88 gallons of ethanol per ton of biomass. CONCLUSION: The current work developed a novel bio-ethanol process that features pretreatment with lower acid concentrations and temperatures incorporated with deacetylation and mechanical refining. The new process shows improved overall ethanol yields compared to traditional dilute acid pretreatment. The experimental results from this work support the techno-economic analysis and calculation of Minimum Ethanol Selling Price (MESP) detailed in our companion paper.     

Molecular and computational approaches to understand resistance of New Delhi metallo β-lactamase variants (NDM-1, NDM-4, NDM-5, NDM-6, NDM-7)-producing strains against carbapenems

The discovery of NDM-1 and its variants has caused the emergence of antibiotic resistance in the community and hospital setting, causing major concern for health care across the globe. New Delhi Metallo-β-lactamase is known to hydrolyse almost all β-lactam antibiotics. Studies have shown the hydrolytic activates of NDM-1 and some of its variants, however a comparative study of these NDM variants has not been explored in detail. Hence, we proposed to check their catalytic activity by performing a comparative study between NDM-1 and its variants. The study was initiated to clone NDM variants (NDM-1, NDM-4, NDM-5, NDM-6 and NDM-7) followed by overexpression of the recombinant proteins to check their hydrolytic properties against β-lactam antibiotics. The minimum inhibitory concentration of carbapenems antibiotics for bla_NDM-5 clone was found four fold increased, whereas no change was observed in the clones having other variants. The hydrolytic activity of carbapenem with NDM-5 variant was found to be augmented as per the kinetics parameter where Km was decreased and kcat, kcat/Km values increased as compared to the NDM-1. Molecular docking studies were employed to identify the variations in the binding ability among all NDM variants with imipenem or meropenem. Simulation studies at 100?ns showed a good stability of NDM-5 with imipenem and meropenem as compared to NDM-1. CD spectroscopy data revealed significant changes in the secondary structure of NDM variants. We conclude that NDM-5 showed higher hydrolytic activity as compared to other variants. This study provides a comparative analysis of the severity of NDM producing strains.     

Rapamycin Augments Immunomodulatory Properties of Bone Marrow-Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells in Experimental Autoimmune Encephalomyelitis

The immunomodulatory and anti-inflammatory properties of bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (BM-MSCs) have been considered as an appropriate candidate for treatment of autoimmune diseases. Previous studies have revealed that treatment with BM-MSCs may modulate immune responses and alleviate the symptoms in experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) mice, an animal model of multiple sclerosis. Therefore, the present study was designed to examine immunomodulatory effects of BM-MSCs in the treatment of myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein (MOG) 35-55-induced EAE in C57BL/6 mice. MSCs were obtained from the bone marrow of C57BL mice, cultured with DMEM/F12, and characterized with flow cytometry for the presence of cell surface markers for BM-MSCs. Following three passages, BM-MSCs were injected intraperitoneally into EAE mice alone or in combination with rapamycin. Immunological and histopathological effects of BM-MSCs and addition of rapamycin to BM-MSCs were evaluated. The results demonstrated that adding rapamycin to BM-MSCs transplantation in EAE mice significantly reduced inflammation infiltration and demyelination, enhanced the immunomodulatory functions, and inhibited progress of neurological impairments compared to BM-MSC transplantation and control groups. The immunological effects of rapamycin and BM-MSC treatments were associated with the inhibition of the Ag-specific lymphocyte proliferation, CD8+ cytolytic activity, and the Th1-type cytokine (gamma-interferon (IFN-γ)) and the increase of Th-2 cytokine (interleukin-4 (IL-4) and IL-10) production. Addition of rapamycin to BM-MSCs was able to ameliorate neurological deficits and provide neuroprotective effects in EAE. This suggests the potential of rapamycin and BM-MSC combined therapy to play neuroprotective roles in the treatment of neuroinflammatory disorders.