Review on solid-state anaerobic digestion of lignocellulosic biomass and organic solid waste.

Sustainable management of organic solid wastes especially the municipal solid waste (MSW) is essential for the realization of various sustainable development goals (SDGs). Resource recovery centric waste processing technologies generate valorizable products to meet the operations and maintenance (O&M) costs while reducing the GHG emissions. Solid-state anaerobic digestion (SSAD) of organic solid wastes is a biomethanation process performed at a relatively higher total solids (TS) loading in the range of 10-45%. SSAD overcomes various limitations posed by conventional anaerobic slurry digesters such as higher degradable matter per unit volume of the bioreactor resulting in a smaller footprint, low freshwater consumption, low wastewater generation, simple upstream and downstream processes, relatively lower operation, and maintenance costs. This review elucidates the recent developments and critical assessment of different aspects of SSAD, such as bioreactor design, operational strategy, process performances, mass balance, microbial ecology, applications, and mathematical models. A critical assessment revealed that the operating scale of SSAD varies between 1000 and 100,000 ts/year at organic loading rate (OLR) of 2-15 g volatile solids (VS)/L·day. The SSAD experiences process failures due to the formation of volatile fatty acids (VFAs), biogas pockets and clogging of the digestate outlet. Acclimatization of microbes accelerates the startup phase, steady-state performances, and the enrichment of syntrophic microbes with 10-50 times greater population of cellulolytic and xylanolytic microbes in thermophilic SSAD over mesophilic SSAD. Experimental limitations in the accurate determination of rate constants and the oversimplification of biochemical reactions result in an inaccurate prediction by the models.

Reduced representation approach for identification of genome-wide SNPs and their annotation for economically important traits in Indian Tharparkar cattle.

The present study was carried out in Tharparkar cattle for identification of genome-wide SNPs and microsatellites, and then annotate the identified high-quality SNPs to milk production, fertility, carcass, adaptability and immune response of economically important traits. A total of 146,011 SNPs were identified with respect to Bos taurus reference genome which are indicus specific, out of which 10,519 SNPs were found to be novel. Similarly, a total of 87,047 SNPs were identified with respect to Bos indicus reference genome. After final annotation of SNPs identified with respect to Bos indicus reference genome, 2871 SNPs were found to be associated in 383 candidate genes having to do with milk production, fertility, carcass, immune response and adaptability traits. Following that, 2571 microsatellites were identified. The information mined from the data might be of importance for the future breed improvement programs, conservation efforts and for enhancing the SNPs density of the existing bovine SNP chips.

Differential expression of cytokines in PBMC of Bos indicus and Bos taurus × Bos indicus cattle due to Brucella abortus S19 antigen.

Brucellosis is the most dreadful disease among bovines, although breed differences have been observed in prevalence of disease, worldwide. In present study, antibody response and relative expression of proinflammatory cytokines was compared in Bos indicus (zebu) and Bos taurus × Bos indicus (crossbred) cattle vaccinated by live attenuated Brucella abortus S19 antigen. Six female calves (4-6 months age) of both groups were vaccinated with B.abortus S19 strain. Blood samples were collected before vaccination (0d) and 7th (7d), 14th (14d) and 28th (28d) days after vaccination. Indirect ELISA showed high (p < .05) anti-Brucella antibody level after vaccination; with no significant difference between the groups. During Real-time expression, IFNγ, TNFα, IL6 and IL10 genes initially showed down regulation followed by upregulation in both the groups; however, the trend was much prominent in crossbreds. The expressions of IFNγ, TNFα and IL6, proinflammatory molecules important for initial containment of the Brucella were significantly (p < .01) higher in crossbred. The study showed that the Sahiwal cattle were less responsive to B.abortus S19 antigen than crossbreds, indicating its lower sensitivity to the Brucella, comparatively. In contrary, higher expression of the proinflammatory molecules in crossbreds could be important for containment of the organism during initial stage of infection.

Revisiting the susceptibility testing of Mycobacterium tuberculosis to ethionamide in solid culture medium.

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES: Increase in the isolation of drug resistant phenotypes of Mycobacterium tuberculosis necessitates accuracy in the testing methodology. Critical concentration defining resistance for ethionamide (ETO), needs re-evaluation in accordance with the current scenario. Thus, re-evaluation of conventional minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and proportion sensitivity testing (PST) methods for ETO was done to identify the ideal breakpoint concentration defining resistance. METHODS: Isolates of M. tuberculosis (n=235) from new and treated patients were subjected to conventional MIC and PST methods for ETO following standard operating procedures. RESULTS: With breakpoint concentration set at 114 and 156 µg/ml, an increase in specificity was observed whereas sensitivity was high with 80 µg/ml as breakpoint concentration. Errors due to false resistant and susceptible isolates were least at 80 µg/ml concentration. INTERPRETATION & CONCLUSIONS: Performance parameters at 80 µg/ml breakpoint concentration indicated significant association between PST and MIC methods.