Freeze drying and vacuum impregnating characteristics of Nostoc sphaeroides Kützing

ABSTRACT

Nostoc sphaeroides Kützing (N. sphaeroides) is a kind of edible algae widely growing in China. The paper is aimed at developing a novel snack food of N. sphaeroides using vacuum impregnation. The samples from freeze drying (FD) have large volume and loose structure, which were found suitable for processing. With nuclear magnetic resonance and imaging, the water signal of N. sphaeroides was measured in FD, and different drying-stage raw N. sphaeroides were selected to impregnate by different solutions, when the products’ impregnated mass, water activity, and flavor difference were analyzed. Results indicate that the water distribution in FD was uniform. Sucrose impregnated product was stable with large impregnated mass and low water activity, whereas trehalose impregnated product was easy to separate from the solution with low sweetness. For the products with the raw N. sphaeroides dried for 9 and 12?h, no obvious difference was found in water activity and flavor. Result shows that N. sphaeroides dehydrated for 9?h in FD is suitable for vacuum impregnation, and different impregnated products are acceptable from the point of view of flavor and storage stability.     

Hydrogen production from rotten dates by sequential three stages fermentation

This study was devoted for H₂ production from rotten fruits of date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) by three fermentation stages. A facultative anaerobe, Escherichia coli EGY was used in first stage to consume O₂ and maintain strict anaerobic conditions for a second stage dark fermentative H₂ production by the strictly anaerobic Clostridium acetobutylicum ATCC 824. Subsequently, a third stage photofermentation using Rhodobacter capsulatus DSM 1710 has been conducted for the H₂ production. The maximum total H₂ yield of the three stages (7.8 mol H₂ mol⁻¹ sucrose) was obtained when 5 g L⁻¹ of sucrose was supplemented to fermentor as rotten date fruits. A maximum estimated cumulative H₂ yield of the three stages (162 LH₂ kg⁻¹ fresh rotten dates) was estimated at the (5 g L⁻¹) sucrose concentration. These results suggest that rotten dates can be efficiently used for commercial H₂ production. The described protocol did not require addition of a reducing agent or flashing with argon which both are expensive.     

球形红细菌降解PNP的不同因素影响及代谢机理

通过拟合Haldane动力学方程,分析球形红细菌(Rhodobacter sphaeroides)H菌株降解对硝基苯酚(PNP)的生长动力学特性;考察营养因素(碳源、金属离子和NaCl浓度)对H菌株降解PNP的影响以及H菌株对酚类物质的底物广谱性,并对H菌株降解PNP的代谢机理进行推测。结果表明,H菌株降解PNP的生长动力学符合Haldane模型(R~2=0.9990);H菌株降解PNP的最适碳源和金属离子分别是苹果酸和Ca~(2+),NaCl浓度耐受值为20 mg·L-1;酚类物质中邻苯二酚对PNP降解影响最大;利用高效液相色谱-质谱联用仪(HPLC-MC)对菌株代谢PNP的产物进行分析,发现中间产物主要为对苯二酚(HQ)、4-羟基粘糠酸半醛(4-HS)和马来酰胺乙酸(MA),同时酶活性分析表明底物HQ在粗酶液中对苯二酚1,2-双加氧酶作用下生成4-HS,由此推测H菌株可能利用的是对苯二酚代谢途径。     

Photoactive Electrodes Incorporating Electrosprayed Bacterial Reaction Centers

Highly efficient light absorption and charge separation within the photosystem and reaction center (RC) complexes of photosynthetic plants and bacteria are of great interest for solar cell and photo detector applications, since they offer almost unity quantum yield and expected ultimate power conversion efficiencies of more than 18% and 12%, respectively. In addition, the charge separated states created by these protein complexes are very long lived compared to conventional semiconductor solar cells. In this work, a novel technique is presented for the deposition of photosynthetic protein complexes, by electrospraying RCs of Rhodobacter sphaeroides onto highly ordered pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) electrodes. Remarkably, it is shown that the RCs not only survive exposure to the high electric fields but also yield peak photocurrent densities of up to 7 μA cm^?2, which is equal to the highest value reported to date.     

Aspects of the metabolism of hydrogen production by Rhodobacter sphaeroides

Photosynthetic bacteria are favorable candidates for biological hydrogen production due to their high conversion efficiency and versatility in the substrates they can utilize. For large-scale hydrogen production, an integrated view of the overall metabolism is necessary in order to interpret results properly and facilitate experimental design. In this study, a summary of the hydrogen production metabolism of the photosynthetic purple non-sulfur (PNS) bacteria will be presented.Practically all hydrogen production by PNS bacteria occurs under a photoheterotrophic mode of metabolism. Yet results show that under certain conditions, alternative modes of metabolism—e.g. fermentation under light deficiency—are also possible and should be considered in experimental design.Two enzymes are especially critical for hydrogen production. Nitrogenase promotes hydrogen production and uptake hydrogenase consumes hydrogen.Though a wide variety of substrates can be used for growth, only a portion of these is suitable for hydrogen production. The efficiency of a certain substrate depends on factors such as the activity of the TCA cycle, the carbon-to-nitrogen ratio, the reduction-state of that material and the conversion potential of the substrate into alternative metabolites such as PHB.All these individual components of the hydrogen production interact and are subject to strict regulatory controls. An overall scheme for the hydrogen production metabolism is presented.     

影响天然混合红螺菌产氢因素的实验研究

研究了以葡萄糖为基质利用天然混合红螺菌生产氢气的影响因素。结果表明，天然混合红螺菌产氢必须在光照、厌氧的条件下进行，在实验范围内较高光强度对天然混合红螺菌的产氢比较有利，并提出天然混合红螺菌产氢的最佳产氢工艺条件，即温度为32℃-40℃，pH值为5—8，接种量为5％～15％。添加有机氮源可使产氢量大幅度提高，天然混合红螺菌在最佳产氢工艺条件下以1％的葡萄糖为基质时的最大产氢量为1．62L／L，具有较好的工程应用前景。     

Improvement of growth stability of photosynthetic bacterium Rhodobacter capsulatus

Using a semicontinuous culture method, in which operational parameters such as cell concentration and light intensity distribution were maintained almost constant, instability of the specific growth rate of Rhodobacter capsulatus B-100, a purple bacterium, was observed to be similar to that of R. capsulatus ST-410 when cultivated under high ratios of light intensity on the illuminated side to that of the transmitted light. Such instability was not observed in the cultivation of Chlorella vulgaris, a eukaryotic green alga, even at higher cell concentrations. Under the same conditions, the increase in only the ferrous concentration from 43 microM, the concentration in the original RCV medium, to 172 microM sustained a stable growth, whereas Fe(2+) was slightly consumed during the cultivation. Supplemental illumination with a fluorescent lamp on the transmitted side of a flat plate photobioreactor sustained a moderate level of stable growth, while a halogen lamp slightly affected the growth stability. Our results showed that an increase in Fe(2+) concentration or supplemental illumination improves the growth stability of R. capsulatus.     

类球红细菌突变株及其应用

本研究以类球红细菌1.1737为出发菌株,经空间搭载实验,从回收样品中筛选得到了一株颜色变浅的类球红细菌突变株,利用高效液相色谱分析发现该突变株的辅酶Q10产量较出发菌株提高了30.4%。另外柱层析提纯的结果显示突变株发酵液的分离效率优于出发菌株。