SummaryA coccal bacterium (strain ES5) was isolated from methanogenic bioreactor sludge with glycerol as the sole energy and carbon source. Strain ES5 fermented glycerol to 1,3‐propanediol as main product, and lactate, acetate and formate as minor products. The strain was phylogenetically closely related to Trichococcus flocculiformis; the rRNA gene sequence similarity was 99%. However, strain ES5 does not show the typical growth in chains of T. flocculiformis. Moreover, T. flocculiformis does not ferment glycerol. Strain ES5 used a variety of sugars for growth. With these substrates, lactate, acetate and formate were the main products, while 1,3‐propanediol was not formed. The optimum growth temperature of strain ES5 ranges from 30–37°C, but like several other Trichoccoccus strains, strain ES5 is able to grow at low temperature (< 10°C). Therefore, strain ES5 may be an appropriate catalyst for the biotechnological production of 1,3‐propanediol from glycerol at low ambient temperature.

The impact of the installation of a technologically advanced wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) on the benthic microbial community of a vinyl chloride (VC) impacted eutrophic river was examined two years before, and three and four years after installation of the WWTP. Reduced dissolved organic carbon and increased dissolved oxygen concentrations in surface water and reduced total organic carbon and total nitrogen content in the sediment were recorded in the post-WWTP samples. Pyrosequencing of bacterial 16S rRNA gene fragments in sediment cores showed reduced relative abundance of heterotrophs and fermenters such as Chloroflexi and Firmicutes in more oxic and nutrient poor post-WWTP sediments. Similarly, quantitative PCR analysis showed 1–3 orders of magnitude reduction in phylogenetic and functional genes of sulphate reducers, denitrifiers, ammonium oxidizers, methanogens and VC-respiring Dehalococcoides mccartyi. In contrast, members of Proteobacteria adapted to nutrient-poor conditions were enriched in post-WWTP samples. This transition in the trophic state of the hyporheic sediments reduced but did not abolish the VC respiration potential in the post-WWTP sediments as an important hyporheic sediment function. Our results highlight effective nutrient load reduction and parallel microbial ecological state restoration of a human-stressed urban river as a result of installation of a WWTP.

Soybean meal-induced enteritis was characterized by the disappearance of the supranuclear vacuoles (SNV) in the enterocytes of the distal intestine of Atlantic salmon Salmo salar. The loss of SNV was correlated with an endocytosis uptake block as shown with ferritin as a marker molecule.

The surfactant sodium lauryl ether sulfate (SLES) is widely used in the composition of detergents and frequently ends up in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). While aerobic SLES degradation is well studied, little is known about the fate of this compound in anoxic environments, such as denitrification tanks of WWTPs, nor about the bacteria involved in the anoxic biodegradation. Here, we used SLES as sole carbon and energy source, at concentrations ranging from 50 to 1000 mg L−1, to enrich and isolate nitrate-reducing bacteria from activated sludge of a WWTP with the anaerobic-anoxic-oxic (A2/O) concept. In the 50 mg L−1 enrichment, Comamonas (50%), Pseudomonas (24%), and Alicycliphilus (12%) were present at higher relative abundance, while Pseudomonas (53%) became dominant in the 1000 mg L−1 enrichment. Aeromonas hydrophila strain S7, Pseudomonas stutzeri strain S8, and Pseudomonas nitroreducens strain S11 were isolated from the enriched cultures. Under denitrifying conditions, strains S8 and S11 degraded 500 mg L−1 SLES in less than 1 day, while strain S7 required more than 6 days. Strains S8 and S11 also showed a remarkable resistance to SLES, being able to grow and reduce nitrate with SLES concentrations up to 40 g L−1. Strain S11 turned out to be the best anoxic SLES degrader, degrading up to 41% of 500 mg L−1. The comparison between SLES anoxic and oxic degradation by strain S11 revealed differences in SLES cleavage, degradation, and sulfate accumulation; both ester and ether cleavage were probably employed in SLES anoxic degradation by strain S11.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00253-017-8212-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

With the intensive use of fossil fuels such as oil, natural gas and coal, which are the main factors of global climate change after industrialization, the amount of toxic greenhouse gases in the atmosphere has increased and respiratory diseases such as asthma, bronchitis, COPD have reached a significant rate in associate with the air pollution that has emerged. The projections on the effects of climate change are foreseen to be more severely affected by the Mediterranean Basin. The expected effects of climate change all over the world include increasing the number and severity of climate-related natural disasters such as floods, fires, storms and earthquakes; there are changes in precipitation pattern, emergence of invasive species due to excessive heat waves and global epidemics. In the last twenty years, climate disasters caused annual average 462 million of dollars’ economic damage. Therefore, it is really important in this struggle for everyone to take responsibility.

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