Membrane biofouling is a major problem of the membrane process owing to microbial growth and biofilm on the membrane surface. In this work, a thin‐film composite polyamide membrane was modified with poly(ethylene glycol) and copper nanoparticles. Results demonstrated that surface modification induced changes in membrane‐surface characteristics and enhanced filtration property. The membrane surfaces became more hydrophilic (decreased water contact angle from around 48° to 28°) and had better antibacterial properties than the original ones. The separation property of modified membranes improved, increasing the membrane flux (up to 40%) and antifouling property simultaneously. In particular, the maintained flux ratio (anti‐biofouling property) significantly increased after 4 days of immersing the membranes in Escherichia coli bacterial solution. The membranes were then used for filtration tests with different foulants, such as humic acid and bovine serum albumin solutions.
In this study, the polyamide thin film composite membrane surface has been modified by anti-microbial silver nanoparticles (AgNPs). The membrane surfaces were interwoven with AgNPs by ultraviolet grafting polymerization method using AgNPs with or without poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG). The membrane surface characteristics were determined by scanning electron microscopy-energy dispersive x-ray spectrometry images, attenuated total reflection-Fourier transforms infrared spectroscopy, water contact angle values, and anti-bacterial property. The separation performance was determined based on the flux and the ability to remove calcium ions in water. The anti-biofouling property was appraised through the maintained flux ratios and the irreversible fouling factors of unmodified and modified membranes during 10 h-filtration of protein bovine serum albumin (BSA) in an aqueous solution, in which, before filtration of BSA, all membranes were immersed in E. coli bacteria solution for 4 days. The results of the experiments corroborated the hydrophilicity and more anti-microbial property of the membrane surfaces after being incorporated into AgNPs. The water contact angle decreased from around 49 for the unmodified membrane to 36 and 23 for the AgNPmodified membranes without/with PEG, while no colonies appeared in the medium containing the AgNP-modified membranes. The separation property of modified membranes was improved, with both membrane flux and antifouling properties, along with the substantial surge of the anti-biofouling property. After 10 h of BSA filtration, the fluxes of the modified membranes were maintained at 68% and 78% for AgNP-modified membranes without and with PEG, respectively. Conversely, this value was only 46% for the unmodified one.
15The Target Of Rapamycin (TOR) signaling pathway is known to regulate growth in response to 16 nutrient availability and stress in eukaryotic cells. In the present study, we have investigated the TOR 17 pathway in the white-rot fungus Phanerochaete chrysosporium. Inhibition of TOR activity by 18 rapamycin affects conidia germination and hyphal growth highlighting the conserved mechanism of 19 susceptibility to rapamycin. Interestingly, the secreted protein content is also affected by the 20 rapamycin treatment. Finally, homologs of the components of TOR pathway can be identified in P. 21 chrysosporium. Altogether, those results indicate that the TOR pathway of P. chrysosporium plays a 22 central role in this fungus. 23 24 Key words 25 Phanerochaete chrysosporium; Target of Rapamycin; rapamycin 26 27 65 growth and secretome composition. By combining genome mining, structure modeling, we identified 66 in this study the TOR signaling pathway of P. chrysosporium and highlighted its role in regulating the 67 extracellular secreted protein composition. 68 Material and methods 69 Fungal strain 70 The homokaryotic strain P. chrysosporium RP78 was used in this study. This is the most widely used 71 strain of P. chrysosporium in studies posterior to 2000, especially after its genome sequence was 72 published in 2004 (23). A version 2.0 of genomic database is available on 73 https://genome.jgi.doe.gov/Phchr2/Phchr2.home.html. The mycelium is maintained on solid malt 74 extract agar medium (20g.L -1 and 30g.L -1 respectively).
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