Effects of heavy metals and chelants on phytoremediation capacity and on rhizobacterial communities of maize.

Heavy metals (HMs) are one of the major ecological problem related to human activities. Phytoremediation is a promising "green technology" for soil and water reclamation, and it can be improved by means of the use of chelants. In the past particular attention was paid on the effects of HMs and/or chelants on plant health, but much less on their effects on rhizosphere communities. To shed light on the interaction among plant-HM-chelant-rhizobacterial community a pot experiment was set up. Maize plants were grown on uncontaminated, multi-metal (copper and zinc) contaminated and chelants artificially amended soils. A high concentration of HMs was detected in the different maize organs; chelants improved the accumulation capacity of the maize plants. The rhizosphere bacterial community isolated from control plants showed the largest biodiversity in terms of bacterial genera. However, the addition of HMs reduced the number of taxa to three: Bacillus, Lysinibacillus and Pseudomonas. The effects of HM treatment were counteracted by the addition of chelants in terms of the genetic biodiversity. Furthermore, several bacterial strains particularly resistant to HMs and chelants were isolated and selected. Our study suggests that the combined use of resistant bacteria and chelants could improve the phytoremediation capacity of maize.

Escherichia coli as a Model for the Description of the Antimicrobial Mechanism of a Cationic Polymer Surface: Cellular Target and Bacterial Contrast Response.

In this study, we use Escherichia coli as a model to investigate the antimicrobial mechanism of a film made of a copolymer based on monomethylether poly(ethylene glycol), methyl methacrylate, and 2-dimethyl(aminoethyl) methacrylate, whose surface is active towards Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria. The polymer contains not quaternized amino groups that can generate a charged surface by protonation when in contact with water. For this purpose, we adopted a dual strategy based on the analysis of cell damage caused by contact with the polymer surface and on the evaluation of the cell response to the surface toxic action. The lithic effect on the protoplasts of E. coli showed that the polymer surface can affect the structure of cytoplasmic membranes, while assays of calcein leakage from large unilamellar vesicles at different phospholipid compositions indicated that action on membranes does not need a functionally active cell. On the other hand, the significant increase in sensitivity to actinomycin D demonstrates that the polymer interferes also with the structure of the outer membrane, modifying its permeability. The study on gene expression, based on the analysis of the transcripts in a temporal window where the contact with the polymer is not lethal and the damage is reversible, showed that some key genes of the synthesis and maintenance of the outer membrane structure ( fabR, fadR, fabA, waaA, waaC, kdsA, pldA, and pagP), as well as regulators of cellular response to oxidative stress ( soxS), are more expressed when bacteria are exposed to the polymer surface. All together these results identified the outer membrane as the main cellular target of the antimicrobial surface and indicated a specific cellular response to damage, providing more information on the antimicrobial mechanism. In this perspective, data reported here could play a pivotal role in a microbial growth control strategy based not only on the structural improvements of the materials but also on the possibility of intervening on the cellular pathways involved in the contrast reaction to these and other polymers with similar mechanisms.

The Role of Charge Density and Hydrophobicity on the Biocidal Properties of Self-Protonable Polymeric Materials.

Intrinsic antimicrobial thermoplastic A(BC)n copolymers (n = 1, 2, 4), where A was poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG), BC was a random chain of methylmethacrylate (MMA), and alkyl-aminoethyl methacrylate (AAEMA), were synthesized and the antimicrobial activity and hemolyticity were evaluated on plaques obtained by casting as a function of the architecture, the N-substituent groups of the AAEMAs (methyl, ethyl, isopropyl, and tert-butyl groups) and the hydrophobic/charge density balance. Antimicrobial effectiveness and efficiency is controlled by the surface charge density and by the influence of N-alkyl groups on the surface morphology. Also interestingly, it is the absence of hemolitytic activity in all copolymers. In presence of Escherichia coli, the A(BC)2 copolymer with 40% of N-methyl groups is the most efficient, killing 91% of the bacteria already after 1.5 h.