Toward broader applications of iron ore waste in pollution control: Adsorption of norfloxacin.

Norfloxacin, a kind of antibiotic frequently detected in environments, represents a group of non-persistent organic pollutants with latent risks to the ecosystem. Iron ore waste, generated and accumulated in large quantities from the iron/steel industry, was evaluated as a potential sorbent for norfloxacin removal. Kinetics analysis showed that the adsorption process reached equilibrium at 72 h, and the adsorption process could be best defined by the pseudo-second-order kinetics with the primary mechanism of norfloxacin adsorption suggested to be cation exchange. Further, adsorption of norfloxacin to iron ore waste was shown to be facilitated by the pH range of 2-10, low cation concentration, and low temperature, which are characteristic of natural surface waters, suggesting the potential of practical applications in aquatic environments. These findings provide new insight into the potentials of beneficial reuse for iron ore waste in the adsorptive removal of environmental pollutants.

Complete genome sequence of Bacillus subtilis BSD-2, a microbial germicide isolated from cultivated cotton.

Bacillus subtilis BSD-2, isolated from cotton (Gossypium spp.), had strong antagonistic activity to Verticillium dahlia Kleb and Botrytis cinerea. We sequenced and annotated the BSD-2 complete genome to help us the better use of this strain, which has surfactin, bacilysin, bacillibactin, subtilosin A, Tas A and a potential class IV lanthipeptide biosynthetic pathways.