Isolation of moderately halotolerant bacterial strains, associated with coral Porites lutea from Gulf of Kachchh: Antibacterial activity and PHB production.

The marine ecosystem contains a solution for food, shelter, pharmaceutical problems and has a key role in the economy of the country as tourism. The Gulf of Kachchh, known for its high tides and the coral reefs are less explored for its antibiotic activity due to the coral bleaching and diseases. The bacterial strains in the coral Porites lutea are determined to possess antibiotic activity against bacterial strains such as E.coli, P. aeruginosa, S. aureus and S. faecalis. Among thirty bacterial strains isolated from the tissue, skeleton and mucus, two bacterial strains resulted in the better antagonistic activity. The antibiotic compound extracted from both the bacteria elucidated to be 4-[(2E)-4-hydroxypent-2-en-1-yl]-5,6-dihydro-2H-pyran-2-one. Further, through ADMET prediction it was inferred that it is an effective drug lead as it reports less toxicity and better drug-likeliness. The study also includes the effect of Poly Hydroxy Butarate (PHB) production by the isolated bacterial strain.

Sensing of azo toxic dyes using nanomaterials and its health effects - A review.

Development of science has taken over our lives and made it mandatory to live with science. Synthetic technology takes more than it has given for our welfare. In the process of meeting the demand of the consumers, industries supported synthetic products to meet the same. One such sector that employs synthetic azo dyes for food coloring is the food industry. The result of the process is the production of a variety of colored foods which looks more appealing and palatable. The process not only meets the consumer's demand it also has an impact on customers' health because the consumption of azo-toxic dye-treated foods regularly or in direct contact with synthetic azo dyes can also cause severe human health consequences. Nanotechnology is a rapidly evolving branch of research in which nanosensors are being developed for a variety of applications, including sensing various azo-toxic dyes in food products, which provides a wider scope in the future, with the innovation in designing different nanosensors. The current review focuses on the different types of nanosensors, their key role in sensing, and the sensing of azo toxic dyes using nanosensors, their advantages over other sensors, applications of nanomaterials, and the health impacts of azo dyes on humans, appropriate parameters for maximum permissible limits, and an Acceptable Daily Intake (ADI) of azo toxic dye to be followed. The regulations followed on the application of colorants to the food are also elaborated. The review also focuses on the application of enzyme-based biosensors in detecting azo dyes in food products.

Prevalence of differential microbiome in healthy, diseased and nipped colonies of corals, Porites lutea in the Gulf of Kachchh, north-west coast of India.

Coral reefs are constantly subjected to multiple stresses like diseases and fish predation, which can profoundly influence the coral microbiome. This study investigated the differences in bacterial community structure of healthy, white syndrome affected and blenny nipped coral colonies of Porites lutea, collected from the coral reefs of Gulf of Kachchh, north-west coast of India. Present study observed that the stressed coral colonies harbored more OTUs and contained higher diversity values compared to healthy corals colonies. Similarly, beta diversity analysis indicated the dissimilarities among the three coral samples analyzed. Though the taxonomy analysis indicated bacterial phyla like Proteobacteria, Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes, and Actinobacteria among the entire coral samples studied, there was a variation in their relative abundances. Huge variations were observed in the relative dominance at the bacterial genera level. About 13phyla and 11 genera was identified in healthy coral. The PBN sample was found to contain Proteobacteria, Cyanobacteria, Verrucomicrobia, and Lentisphaerae as dominant phyla and Endozoicomonas, Dyella, Woeseia, and Winogradskyella as dominant genera. The PWS sample contained Proteobacteria, Lentisphaerae, Spirochaetes, and Tenericutes as dominant phyla and Endozoicomonas, Arcobacter, Sunxiuqinia, and Carboxylicivirgia as dominant genera. Among the healthy samples, sequences belonging to Uncultured Rhodospirillaceae were dominant, while Woeseia and sequences belonging to Uncultured Rhodovibrionaceae were dominant among the blenny nipped white syndrome infected corals. Although any previously established pathogen was not identified, present study revealed the presence of a potentially pathogenic bacterium, Arcobacter, among the diseased corals. It also demonstrated a dynamic microbiome among the Porites lutea colonies on subjecting to various stresses.

Carbon nanomaterials and its applications in pharmaceuticals: A brief review.

Nanotechnology for the past decade has made tremendous improvement and diverse applications in various sector. Among the nanomaterials synthesized, carbon allotropes are advantageous due to its easy functionalization, conductivity, surface area and electrical activity. Hence, they are termed as "Wonder materials". Allotropes such as carbon nanotubes, graphene, graphene oxide, fullerens, and carbon dots has paved its importance in the pharmaceuticals. They are coated in the biomedical devices, applied in the therapeutics and diagnosis. These are also used in the treatment of cancer and they possess anti-microbial and antiviral activity. Carbon nanomaterials possess several applications from biosensors to remediation of pollutants. Detection of hazardous compounds in food, pharmaceutical products, gene and drug delivery. They are also used in tissue regeneration and gene therapy. Application of carbon allotropes in the current scenario provides a wide scope in future with improvisations in building electrochemical biosensors. Its selectivity, sensitivity and cost-effectiveness prove it to be better alternative compared to other nanomaterials. The review focuses on the carbon allotropes used in pharmaceuticals, biosensors, pollutants detection and treatment were discussed in detail.

Cellulase enzyme catalyst producing bacterial strains from vermicompost and its application in low-density polyethylene degradation.

Cellulose is the main polysaccharide present abundantly in the earth, an important substrate for the cellulase enzyme. Cellulases have attracted considerable attention due to its diverse application in different textile, detergent, leather, food, feed and paper industries. Among the cellulase producing microbes, bacteria have a faster growth compared to other microbes. The present study focuses on isolating bacterial strains (Bacillus pacificus and Pseudomonas mucidolens) from vermicompost. The study focused on extracting cellulase enzyme and its molecular weight using SDS-PAGE, which was determined to be 32Kda. The maximum enzyme activity resulted to be 0.12 U/mL and 0.17 U/mL after dialysis. The LDPE degradation was reported up to 30 days. Further, the growth conditions of the bacterial strains were optimised at different pH and temperature. The degradation of LDPE was determined using FTIR analysis, resulting in the peak changes (formation and shifts). The bacterial strains were morphologically characterized using Scanning Electron Microscopy. The bacterial strains Bacillus pacificus and Pseudomonas mucidolens were identified using 16 S rRNA sequencing.

Acetaminophen degradation using bacterial strains isolated from winogradsky column and phytotoxicity analysis of dump site soil.

The increase in pollution increased the threat level of living organisms in the environment. Municipal Solid Waste is one of the most important wastes which contribute to polluted sites affecting livelihood. They pollute the water stream, marine environment ecology, soil fertility, and agriculture production. This, in turn, reduces the microflora of the marine environment, agricultural soil, and fertility. This could be analyzed by setting up a Winogradsky column using dumpsite soil samples. The current work was designed to study the municipal solid wastes from different dumpsite soil. Soil characterization revealed that the pH of Kodungaiyur and Otteri was 7.3 and 6.4. The bulk density was 0.067 g/cm3 and 0.069 g/cm3. The Porosity resulted to be 0.511 particle/volume and 0.513 particle/volume for Kodungaiyur and Otteri. The Kodungaiyur soil containing contaminants supplied with natural sources showed a 100% germination index, and Otteri soil containing contaminants supplied with natural sources showed a maximum vigour index. The presence of medicinal strips in the collected soil samples led to the study on Acetaminophen degradation. HB1 showed to be 79 ± 0.005% at optimum pH 5 containing 100 mg/L of Acetaminophen at day four among the isolated bacterial strains. Further, the intermediate formation was determined using FTIR and GC-MS. The isolated HB1 bacterial strain was identified as Staphylococcus hominis, which is heterotroph.

Bioremediation of aromatic hydrocarbons contaminated soil from industrial site using surface modified amino acid enhanced biosurfactant.

Surface modified lipopeptide biosurfactant (BS) with enhancement of amino acids was produced using Bacillus Malacitensis. The aromatic hydrocarbons from contaminated soil were removed by BS soil washing process and bioremediation using activated functionalized carbon-BS matrix (AFC-BS). The Central Composite Design (CCD) showed the optimum time100 h; pH 7; temperature 30°C on maximum yield of BS. The amino acid profiling of BS reveals the enhancement of amino acids especially polar amino acids and its importance in the formation of micellar structure for the tight packing of aromatic hydrocarbons from industrial contaminated soil. AFC-BS matrix was implanted directly into the contaminated soil for 28 days and found 61.80 % of Total Petroleum Hydrocarbon (TPH) removal efficiency which is high compared to the AFC treated soil. The compounds were extracted from contaminated soil and AFC-BS matrix, found similar peaks in high performance liquid chromatography, which reveals the ability of BS to remove aromatic contaminants. The soil toxicity was also analyzed by seed germination and found improvement in the growth of seeds. The germination of seeds increased from 60 % to 100 % and the phytotoxicity of root and shoot was reduced from 89.50 %, 88.45 % to12.55 %, 11.87 % respectively.

Analysis and microbial degradation of Low-Density Polyethylene (LDPE) in Winogradsky column.

Plastic pollution is threatening the world and the life in it. Cost-effective and eco-friendly treatment is the need of the hour. Treating plastics using chemical methods adds up chemicals into the environment with toxic byproducts. The physical method, a slow and expensive process, is not the better alternative. The process should rely on the environmental sources producing eco-friendly byproducts. The byproducts such as biofuel could be utilized for a sustainable environment, but the conversion of plastics into biofuel is expensive. Hence, biodegradation is the better, sustainable, and cost-effective process for plastic/any other pollutant removal. The study focuses on the construction of Winogradsky column using dumpsite soil. The column amended with Low-Density Polyethylene (LDPE) serves as a carbon source for native microbes. The utilization of microbes in every niche for the degradation enhances the degradation of LDPE. The Otteri soil resulted in 35.4 ± 0.3%, while Kodungaiyur and agriculture soil show 29.7 ± 0.6% and 19.8 ± 0.8%. The AFM analysis shows the disruption of smooth LDPE surface by forming ridges and grooves, which further confirms the occurrence of degradation. The FTIR analysis shows the incorporation of OH, CO, and other CO-O-CO in the CH backbone of LDPE. The oxidation of LDPE will aid in cleavage and result in the process of weathering. The tensile strength decreased after LDPE treatment (23.88 MPa - control, 22.50 MPa - Kodungaiyur, and 14.92 MPa - Otteri). Thus, utilizing the native microbes present in every niche enhances the degradation of pollutants.

Biosurfactant matrix for the environmental clean-up of dichlorophenol from aqueous medium and soil.

Chlorophenols are used in many industries for their importance in preservation and herbicide preparation even though they possess high-risk factors. The prolonged usage of these compounds makes it very complicated to remove them from water and soil by conventional treatment methods. Biosurfactant are the promising structures with the ability to remove contaminants effectively. In this work, an attempt has been made to eliminate 2,4-dichlorophenol from soil and water using amino acid-enhanced cationic biosurfactant obtained from Bacillus axarquiensis. The produced BS has the ability to reduce the surface tension to 30.0 mN m-1. From RSM, the optimum conditions for the maximum production of BS were obtained at time 95 h; pH 7; temperature 35 °C, and concentration of substrate 5%. The BS was immobilized using a solid support matrix for the stability. The environmental factors such as temperature and pH have no effect on the matrix used and found to be viable even under extreme conditions. The removal efficiency was achieved in the range of 93-96% from water and 80-85% from soil. Additionally, the recyclability and reusability of the matrix were also analyzed, and it withstands up to 8 cycles. As a result, the significance of biosurfactant by enhancing the amino acid content was explored in remediation technology.

Analysis and effective separation of toxic pollutants from water resources using MBBR: Pathway prediction using alkaliphilic P. mendocina.

Azo dyes are highly toxic, which acts as a notable mutagen and carcinogen. This has a significant effect on human health, plants, animals, aquatic and terrestrial environments. Thus, the degradation of the azo dyes is exclusively studied using the conventional methods of which biodegradation is an eco-friendly approach. Hence, the present study is focused on the elucidation of reactive mixed azo dye degradation pathway using MBBR and laccase enzyme produced by an alkaliphilic bacterium P. mendocina. Synthetic wastewater treatment performed using MBBR was very effective which reduced the COD and BOD to 90 mg/L and 460 mg/L. The potential degrader P. mendocina was isolated and laccase enzyme was screened. Finally, the degradation pathway was elucidated. The in silico toxicity analysis predicted Reactive Red and Reactive Brown as developmental toxicants during Reactive Black as Developmental non-toxicant. Docking studies were performed to understand interaction of laccase with compounds evolved from dyes.

Integrated approach in LDPE degradation - An application using Winogradsky column, computational modeling, and pathway prediction.

Plastic pollution in the current scenario requires a sustainable and eco-friendly treatment process. Single-use plastics accumulate more than recyclable plastic wastes. Low-Density Polyethylene (LDPE) is one among the plastic family with inert characteristics. The traditional method, such as landfilling, develops pollution resistant micro-organisms. It is involved in the exploitation of the native microbes to the fullest. The soil of the Kodungaiyur, agriculture site, and Otteri dumpyard were used, which resulted in nearly 22.97 ± 2.7115%, 15.91667 ± 2.73775%, and 10.74 ± 0.502925% of LDPE degradation in 30 days without nutrient supplements. The enrichment of the column by organic nutrients increased the degradation of LDPE. The column enrichment was confirmed by the sulfur oxidizing bacteria (SOB) Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas stutzeri, which produced 195 mg/mL of sulfate ions. The FTIR of the LDPE degradation showed the polymer's oxygenation, while the electron microscopic images revealed cracks. In addition, an attempt was made to fit the experimental time-series data into suitable mathematical models to look at prediction and elementary forecasting. Three mathematical models, namely the customized moving averages model (CMAM), simple liinear regression model (SLRM), and a modified linear regression model (MLRM) with a lag, were able to represent the real experimental data complementarily.

Effect of chlorpyrifos on the earthworm Eudrilus euginae and their gut microbiome by toxicological and metagenomic analysis.

The earthworms are important soil invertebrates and play a crucial role in pedogenesis. The application of pesticides and prolonged exposure to pesticides causes mortality of earthworms apart from profoundly affecting the resident gut microbiome. The microbiome plays a significant effect on the metabolic processes associated with earthworms. The pesticide Chlorpyrifos (CPF) was studied for its toxicity on Eudrilus euginae by toxicity studies. The LC50 value of filter paper contact test and acute toxicity test was 3.8 mg/mL and 180 mg/kg. The prolonged exposure of earthworms to pesticide on reproductive toxicity resulted in the mortality of earthworms and absence of cocoon formation. Further, the effects of CPF on the whole gut microbiome of E. euginae was analyzed using a long amplicon Nanopore sequencing. Results indicated no fluctuations with Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes, that were found to be dominant at bacterial phyla level while at the genus level, remarkable differences were noticed. Clostridium dominated the earthworm gut prior to CPF exposure while Bacillus dominated after exposure. Similarly, the fungal members such as Ascomycota and Basidiomycota were observed to dominate the gut of earthworm at the phyla level before and after exposure to CPF. In contrast, Clavispora (65%) was the dominant genus before CPF exposure and Taloromyces (42%) dominated after the CPF exposure. Our study demonstrates the effect of CPF on the mortality of E. euginae while the amplicon sequencing established the unique microbiome of the gut in response to the CPF exposure.