Structure, Activity and Composition of Biofilms

1994 ◽  
Vol 29 (7) ◽  
pp. 335-344 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tian C. Zhang ◽  
Paul L. Bishop

The spatial distributions of properties of biofilms have been investigated by using three different kinds of biofilms as test materials. Biofilms, cultured by laboratory-scale rotating drum biofilm reactors with synthetic wastewater, were first cut into 10 to 20 µm thick slices using a microtome, and then apportioned into samples representing 3 or 4 layers. The biofilm properties of each layer were investigated by measuring the densities, phospholipid concentrations, and AR18 dye adsorption abilities. The bacterial population distributions and the metabolically active bacterial distributions were studied by plate count methods or a MPN method, and the tetrazolium dye (INT) reduction method, respectively. Based on statistic evaluations, the micro-slicing technique, the procedure for analyzing phospholipid concentrations of biofilms, and the AR18 dye adsorption tests were suitable to be used in biofilm studies. It was found that the densities of biofilms in the bottom layers were 4 to 7 times higher than those in the top layers. For thick biofilms (thickness > 500 µm), the INT active bacteria decreased from 82-89% in the top layers to 5-11% in the bottom layers. The porosities of thick biofilms changed from 83-92% in the top layers to 56-64% in the bottom layers. For thin biofilms (thickness < 500 µm), the porosities of biofilms changed from 72-75% in the top layers to 35-44% in the bottom layers. Highly spatial distributions of bacterial populations, mean pore radius, and specific surface areas were also observed. As a result of these spatial distributions, the ratio of effective diffusivity to diffusivity in the bulk solution also shows a decrease with depth of the biofilm. Assuming biofilm properties are of a uniform distribution may be an over-simplified assumption, valid only in specific cases.

1994 ◽  
Vol 29 (10-11) ◽  
pp. 263-270 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. C. Zhang ◽  
Y. C. Fu ◽  
P. L. Bishop

Competitions in biofilms for substrate and space have been studied by using a microelectrode technique and a microslicing technique. Three different kinds of biofilms, cultured by laboratory-scale rotating drum biofilm reactors (RDBR) with synthetic wastewater, have been used as test materials. Oxygen, ammonium-nitrogen, nitrate-nitrogen, and pH concentration profiles in the biofilms were measured using microelectrodes. Experimental results showed that: 1) an increase of organic loading rate would result in a decrease of DO concentration in the biofilm. However, after the organic loading rate exceeded a certain value, the oxygen profiles within the biofilm did not change any more; 2) Heterotrophs competed for oxygen with nitrifiers, which resulted in the inhibition of nitrification because of the shortage of oxygen. Glucose itself, however, did not inhibit the nitrification processes; and 3) The competition for substrate in biofilms resulted in a stratified biofilm structure. Experiments showed that competition in biofilms resulted in non-uniform spatial distributions of bacterial populations and metabolically active bacteria. The spatial distributions of biotic and abiotic components in turn affected the substrate transfer and substrate competition within the biofilm. Traditional biofilm modelling will fail in many cases if they are based on substrate removal kinetics and uniform distributions of biofilm properties.


2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 87-91
Author(s):  
Ekamaida Ekamaida

The soil fertility aspect is characterized by the good biological properties of the soil. One important element of the soil biological properties is the bacterial population present in it. This research was conducted in the laboratory of Microbiology University of Malikussaleh in the May until June 2016. This study aims to determine the number of bacterial populations in soil organic and inorganic so that can be used as an indicator to know the level of soil fertility. Data analysis was done by T-Test that is by comparing the mean of observation parameter to each soil sample. The sampling method used is a composite method, which combines 9 of soil samples taken from 9 sample points on the same plot diagonally both on organic soil and inorganic soil. The results showed the highest bacterial population was found in total organic soil cfu 180500000 and total inorganic soil cfu 62.500.000


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 1534-1545
Author(s):  
Xuhui Wang ◽  
Jianchuan Sun ◽  
Shuaiqi Chen ◽  
Shuai Ren ◽  
Awang Gao ◽  
...  

A series of γ-alumina with different pore sizes (5.7 nm–21.6 nm) and similar specific surface areas were synthesized via an organic-free method and their adsorption rates and capacities for Congo red (CR), direct blue 78 (DB78) and direct green 26 (DG26) were investigated. The kinetics study reveals that the dye adsorptions of all γ-alumina samples fit the pseudo-2nd-order model. For CR, its k2 and the pore size of absorbent are in a linear relationship at low dye concentrations. Both of the experimental results and Langmuir isotherm calculation results suggest that the dye adsorption capacities of the γ-alumina prepared in our lab are much higher than those of other γ-alumina reported in literatures. GA-1 with the largest specific area of surface and largest size of pores exhibits a CR adsorption capacity up to 4213.6 mg/g. In addition, initial dye adsorption rates of the γ-alumina prepared in-house are much higher than that of the γ-alumina prepared with the commercially available alumina under the same conditions.


2018 ◽  
Vol 78 (10) ◽  
pp. 2204-2213 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liang Cheng ◽  
Raphael Marie-Guillaume Flavigny ◽  
Md Iqbal Hossain ◽  
Wipa Charles ◽  
Ralf Cord-Ruwisch

Abstract The current paper describes a novel passive aeration simultaneous nitrification and denitrification (PASND) zeolite amended biofilm reactor that removes organic carbon and nitrogen from wastewater with low-energy consumption. Next to the ammonium oxidizing bacteria (AOB), this reactor contained naturally enriched glycogen accumulating organisms (GAOs) and zeolite powder to initially adsorb BOD (acetate) and ammonium (NH4+-N) from synthetic wastewater under anaerobic conditions. Draining of the treated wastewater exposed the biofilm directly to air enabling low-energy oxygen supply by passive aeration. This allowed the adsorbed ammonium to be oxidized by the AOB and the produced nitrite and nitrate to be reduced simultaneously by the GAOs using the adsorbed BOD (stored as PHAs) as carbon source. Overall, with an operation mode of 1 h anaerobic and 4 h aerobic phase, the nutrient removal efficiency after single treatment was about 94.3% for BOD and 72.2% for nitrogen (NH4+-N). As high-energy aeration of the bulk solution for oxygen supply is completely avoided, the energy requirement of the proposed PASND biofilm reactor can be theoretically cut down to more than 50% compared to the traditional activated sludge process.


1978 ◽  
Vol 41 (9) ◽  
pp. 692-695 ◽  
Author(s):  
JOHN T. FRUIN ◽  
JAMES F. FOSTER ◽  
JAMES L. FOWLER

Bologna products most frequently are stored and consumed as refrigerated products. Thus bacteria that survive processing or those that contaminate the product subsequent to processing are not destroyed. Ten types of presliced, vacuum-packaged bologna products were purchased from a high-volume retail market and analyzed for total aerobic plate count (APC) and common foodborne pathogens. No Salmonella were isolated. Less than 1% of the 419 samples analyzed contained either Clostridium perfringens or Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus was isolated from 4% of the samples, but only one sample contained more than 1000/g. Just over 5% of the samples contained coliform organisms. The manufacturer appeared to play an important role in bacterial quality of the finished items. An APC < 5 × 106/g is a realistic criterion for bologna products at the time of delivery to retail markets.


2006 ◽  
Vol 69 (6) ◽  
pp. 1456-1459 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. D. STOPFORTH ◽  
M. LOPES ◽  
J. E. SHULTZ ◽  
R. R. MIKSCH ◽  
M. SAMADPOUR

Fresh beef samples (n = 1,022) obtained from two processing plants in the Midwest (July to December 2003) were analyzed for levels of microbial populations (total aerobic plate count, total coliform count, and Escherichia coli count) and for the presence or absence of E. coli O157:H7 and Salmonella. A fresh beef cut sample was a 360-g composite of 6-g portions excised from the surface of 60 individual representative cuts in a production lot. Samples of fresh beef cuts yielded levels of 4.0 to 6.2, 1.1 to 1.8, and 0.8 to 1.0 log CFU/g for total aerobic plate count, total coliform count, and E. coli count, respectively. There did not appear to be substantial differences or obvious trends in bacterial populations on different cuts. These data may be useful in establishing a baseline or a benchmark of microbiological levels of contamination of beef cuts. Mean incidence rates of E. coli O157:H7 and Salmonella on raw beef cuts were 0.3 and 2.2%, respectively. Of the 1,022 samples analyzed, cuts testing positive for E. coli O157:H7 included top sirloin butt (0.9%) and butt, ball tip (2.1%) and for Salmonella included short loins (3.4%), strip loins (9.6%), rib eye roll (0.8%), shoulder clod (3.4%), and clod, top blade (1.8%). These data provide evidence of noticeable incidence of pathogens on whole muscle beef and raise the importance of such contamination on product that may be mechanically tenderized. Levels of total aerobic plate count, total coliform count, and E. coli count did not (P ≥ 0.05) appear to be associated with the presence of E. coli O157:H7 and Salmonella on fresh beef cuts. E. O157:H7 was exclusively isolated from cuts derived from the sirloin area of the carcass. Salmonella was exclusively isolated from cuts derived from the chuck, rib, and loin areas of the carcass. Results of this study suggest that contamination of beef cuts may be influenced by the region of the carcass from which they are derived.


1997 ◽  
Vol 60 (7) ◽  
pp. 874-876 ◽  
Author(s):  
CLAUDE P. CHAMPAGNE ◽  
NANCY J. GARDNER ◽  
JULIE FONTAINE ◽  
JACQUES RICHARD

The results from a shortened procedure for the direct epifluorescent filter technique (DEFT) determination of viable bacterial populations in raw milk were compared to standard plate counts. Shortening the prefiltration trypsin-Triton X-100 incubation period from 10 to 3 min enabled the completion of the analysis within 20 min. The short DEFT method results had a correlation coefficient (r) of 0.81 with plate counts. With respect to precision, the average difference between values of duplicate plate count analyses was 0.16 log units; that of the short DEFT was 0.14 log units. The slopes of the regressions equations were less than 1, indicating that a direct correlation is not achieved. Short DEFT values were 0.17 log units higher than those of plate counts on milk samples containing less than 10,000 CFU/ml. For milk samples containing counts over 10,000 CFU/ml, short DEFT values averaged only 0.05 log units above plate count readings. Daily preparation of the stain appears unnecessary since acridine orange solutions stored for up to 2 days at 4°C did not produce results significantly (P > 0.05) different from those obtained with fresh solutions. The short DEFT method has potential for the assessment of the bacteriological quality of raw milk in tanker deliveries.


2005 ◽  
Vol 52 (7) ◽  
pp. 121-126 ◽  
Author(s):  
J.W. Shanahan ◽  
A.C. Cole ◽  
M.J. Semmens ◽  
T.M. LaPara

Membrane-aerated biofilm reactors (MABRs) are advantageous for wastewater treatment because of their ability to achieve both nitrification and denitrification in a single bioreactor. The stratification of membrane aerated biofilms, however, needs to be better understood so that MABRs can be properly designed and implemented. In this study, we present a modified multi-population model that accounts for variation in effective diffusivity in biofilms of variable biomass density. For biofilms grown at a low fluid velocity (2 cm s−1), the variation in effective diffusivity had a profound effect on the predicted stratification and activity of bacterial populations. For biofilms grown at a high fluid velocity (14 cm s−1), biomass density was relatively constant as a function of depth and thus there was less substantial variation in effective diffusivity; our modified model, therefore, predicted a population stratification that was similar to its original version under these conditions.


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