scholarly journals CARBON SOURCES FOR BIOMASS, FOOD, FOSSILS, BIOFUELS AND BIOTECHNOLOGY - REVIEW ARTICLE

2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Savas G. Anastassiadis
Keyword(s):  
Carbon Atom ◽  
Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide ◽  
Fossil Fuels ◽  
Organic Molecules ◽  
Carbon Sources ◽  
Microbial World ◽  
Carbon Cycles ◽  
Process Economics ◽  
Living Organisms ◽  
Life On Earth

Carbon atom Carbon atom is most important and abundant constituent of existing and new generated biological mater and biomass and the basis of all forms of life on earth. It is involved in the composition and construction of organic micro- and macromolecules, cells and living organisms, storage molecules, fossils, fossil fuels, biofuels and energy resources of living and nonliving organic matter. Initially originated from atmospheric carbon dioxide, it is absorbed and incorporated into organic molecules by photosynthetic plants and microorganisms through photosynthetic processes to form glucose and other less or more complex organic molecules, enabling and sustaining life on Earth. A semantic part of CO2 has been captured, trapped and immobilized in various forms of fossils, not participating in biogeochemical carbon cycles for millions of years, or is dissolved in oceans. Carbon sources is also one of most important parameters, strongly influencing microbial growth and the accumulation of cellular metabolites, fermentation technologies, process economics and feasibility of industrial production. Advanced developments in recombinant technologies, such as metabolic and genetic engineering, systems and synthetic biology, as well as in bioengineering, biotechnology, industrial microbiology and fermentation technology will expand the opportunities of literally unseen microbial world.

Biological solar energy

2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Barber
Keyword(s):  
Carbon Dioxide ◽  
Solar Energy ◽  
Fossil Fuels ◽  
Organic Molecules ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Raw Materials ◽  
Storage System ◽  
Waste Product ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
Living Organisms

Oil, gas, and coal provide us with most of the energy needed to power our technologies, heat our homes, and produce the wide range of chemicals and materials that support everyday life. Ultimately the quantities of fossil fuels available to us today will dwindle, and then what? Even before that we are faced with the problem of increasing levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and the consequences of global warming (Climate Change, 2001). To address these issues it is appropriate to remind ourselves that fossil fuel reserves are derived from the process of photosynthesis. Plants, algae, and certain types of bacteria have learnt how to capture sunlight efficiently and convert it into organic molecules, the building blocks of all living organisms. It is estimated that photosynthesis produces more than 100 billion tons of dry biomass annually, which would be equivalent to a hundred times the weight of the total human population on our planet at the present time, and equal to about 100 TJ of stored energy. In this chapter we emphasize the enormity of the energy/carbon dioxide problem that we face within the coming decades and discuss the contributions that could be made by biofuels and developing new technologies based on the successful principles of photosynthesis. We will particularly emphasize the possibility of exploiting the vast amounts of solar energy available to extract hydrogen directly from water. The success of this energy generating and storage system stems from the fact that the raw materials and power needed to synthesise biomass are available in almost unlimited amounts: sunlight, water and carbon dioxide. At the heart of the reaction is the splitting of water by sunlight into oxygen and hydrogen. The oxygen (a ‘waste product’ of the synthesis) is released into the atmosphere where it is available for us to breathe and to use for burning our fuels. The ‘hydrogen’ is not normally released into the atmosphere as H2, but instead is combined with carbon dioxide to make organic molecules of various types.

scholarly journals Identification and Characterization of Oleaginous Yeast Isolated from Kefir and Its Ability to Accumulate Intracellular Fats in Deproteinated Potato Wastewater with Different Carbon Sources

2017 ◽  
Vol 2017 ◽  
pp. 1-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Iwona Gientka ◽  
Marek Kieliszek ◽  
Karolina Jermacz ◽  
Stanisław Błażejak
Keyword(s):  
Fatty Acids ◽  
Fatty Acid ◽  
Fossil Fuels ◽  
Unsaturated Fatty Acids ◽  
Saturated Fatty Acids ◽  
Carbon Sources ◽  
Debaryomyces Hansenii ◽  
Industry Waste ◽  
Identification And Characterization

The search for efficient oleaginous microorganisms, which can be an alternative to fossil fuels and biofuels obtained from oilseed crops, has been going on for many years. The suitability of microorganisms in this regard is determined by their ability to biosynthesize lipids with preferred fatty acid profile along with the concurrent utilization of energy-rich industrial waste. In this study, we isolated, characterized, and identified kefir yeast strains using molecular biology techniques. The yeast isolates identified wereCandida inconspicua,Debaryomyces hansenii,Kluyveromyces marxianus,Kazachstania unispora, andZygotorulaspora florentina. We showed that deproteinated potato wastewater, a starch processing industry waste, supplemented with various carbon sources, including lactose and glycerol, is a suitable medium for the growth of yeast, which allows an accumulation of over 20% of lipid substances in its cells. Fatty acid composition primarily depended on the yeast strain and the carbon source used, and, based on our results, most of the strains met the criteria required for the production of biodiesel. In particular, this concerns a significant share of saturated fatty acids, such as C16:0 and C18:0, and unsaturated fatty acids, such as C18:1 and C18:2. The highest efficiency in lipid biosynthesis exceeded 6.3 g L−1.Kazachstania unisporawas able to accumulate the high amount of palmitoleic acid.

The monogenean Paradiplozoon ichthyoxanthon behaves like a micropredator on two of its hosts, as indicated by stable isotopes

2018 ◽  
Vol 93 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-75 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. Sures ◽  
M. Nachev ◽  
B.M. Gilbert ◽  
Q.M. Dos Santos ◽  
M.A. Jochmann ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Stable Isotopes ◽  
Trophic Level ◽  
Trophic Interactions ◽  
Carbon Sources ◽  
Food Sources ◽  
Carbon And Nitrogen ◽  
Blood Sucking ◽  
Vaal Dam ◽  
Living Organisms ◽  
Host Fishes

AbstractThe analysis of stable isotopes of carbon and nitrogen has been used as a fingerprint for understanding the trophic interactions of organisms. Most of these studies have been applied to free-living organisms, while parasites have largely been neglected. Studies dealing with parasites so far have assessed the carbon and nitrogen signatures in endoparasites or ectoparasites of different hosts, without showing general trends concerning the nutritional relationships within host–parasite associations. Moreover, in most cases such systems involved a single host and parasite species. The present study is therefore the first to detail the trophic interactions of a freshwater monogenean–host model using δ13C and δ15N, where a single monogenean species infects two distinctly different hosts. Host fishes, Labeobarbus aeneus and Labeobarbus kimberleyensis from the Vaal Dam, South Africa, were assessed for the monogenean parasite Paradiplozoon ichthyoxanthon, individuals of which were removed from the gills of the hosts. The parasites and host muscle samples were analysed for signatures of δ13C and δ15N using an elemental analyser connected to an isotope ratio mass spectrometer. Host fish appear to use partly different food sources, with L. aeneus having slightly elevated δ13C signatures compared to L. kimberleyensis, and showed only small differences with regard to their nitrogen signatures, suggesting that both species range on the same trophic level. Carbon and nitrogen signatures in P. ichthyoxanthon showed that the parasites mirrored the small differences in dietary carbon sources of the host but, according to δ15N signatures, the parasite ranged on a higher trophic level than the hosts. This relationship resembles predator–prey relationships and therefore suggests that P. ichthyoxanthon might act as a micropredator, similar to blood-sucking arthropods such as mites and fleas.

scholarly journals The compact Earth system model OSCAR v2.2: description and first results

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Gasser ◽  
Philippe Ciais ◽  
Olivier Boucher ◽  
Yann Quilcaille ◽  
Maxime Tortora ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide ◽  
Stratospheric Ozone ◽  
Earth System Model ◽  
System Model ◽  
Future Climate Change ◽  
Historical Period ◽  
Earth System ◽  
Atmospheric Concentration ◽  
Carbon Cycles ◽  
The Earth

Abstract. This paper provides a comprehensive description of OSCAR v2.2, a simple Earth system model. The general philosophy of development is first explained, it is then followed by a complete description of the model's drivers and various modules. All components of the Earth system necessary to simulate future climate change are represented in the model: the oceanic and terrestrial carbon-cycles – including a book-keeping module to endogenously estimate land-use change emissions – so as to simulate the change in atmospheric carbon dioxide; the tropospheric OH chemistry and the natural wetlands, to simulate that of methane; the stratospheric chemistry, for nitrous oxide; thirty-seven halogenated compounds; changing tropospheric and stratospheric ozone; the direct and indirect effects of aerosols; changes in surface albedo caused by black carbon deposition on snow and land-cover change; and the global and regional response of climate – in terms of temperatures and precipitations – to all these climate forcers. Following the probabilistic framework of the model, an ensemble of simulations is made over the historical period (1750–2010). We show that the model performs well in reproducing observed past changes in the Earth system such as increased atmospheric concentration of greenhouse gases or increased global mean surface temperature.

scholarly journals Role of Water for Life

2019 ◽  
Vol 03 (01) ◽  
pp. 3-19
Author(s):  
Bengt Nordén
Keyword(s):  
Chemical Potential ◽  
Genetic Recombination ◽  
Solar Systems ◽  
Gene Recognition ◽  
Low Dielectric ◽  
Sexual Recombination ◽  
Dna Strand Exchange ◽  
Living Organisms ◽  
Dna Strand ◽  
Life On Earth

The behavior of benzoic acid in polyethylene inspired me to reflect on why water is a unique molecule that all living organisms depend upon. From properties of DNA in aqueous solution a seemingly counter-intuitive conjecture emerges: water is needed for the creation of certain dry low-dielectric nm-size environments where hydrogen bonding exerts strong recognition power. Such environments seem to be functionally crucial, and their interactions with other hydrophobic environments, or with hydrophobic agents that modulate the chemical potential of water, can cause structural transformations via ‘hydrophobic catalysis’. Possibly combined with an excluded volume osmosis effect (EVO), hydrophobic catalysis may have important biological roles, e.g., in genetic recombination. Hydrophobic agents are found to strongly accelerate spontaneous DNA strand exchange as well as certain other DNA rearrangement reactions. It is hypothesized that hydrophobic catalysis be involved in gene recognition and gene recombination mediated by bacterial RecA (one of the oldest proteins we know of) as well as in sexual recombination in higher organisms, by Rad51. Hydrophobically catalyzed unstacking fluctuations of DNA bases can favor elongated conformations, such as the recently proposed [Formula: see text]-DNA, with potential regulatory roles. That living cells can survive as dormant spores, with very low water content and in principle as such travel far in space is reflected upon: a random walk model with solar photon pressure as driving force indicates our life on earth could not have originated outside our galaxy but possibly from many solar systems within it — at some place, though, where there was plenty of liquid water.

scholarly journals Biomonitoring of Heavy Metal Pollution Using Acanthocephalans Parasite in Ecosystem: An Updated Overview

Animals ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 811 ◽  
Author(s):  
El-Sayed E. Mehana ◽  
Asmaa F. Khafaga ◽  
Samar S. Elblehi ◽  
Mohamed E. Abd El-Hack ◽  
Mohammed A.E. Naiel ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Heavy Metals ◽  
Heavy Metal ◽  
Industrial Revolution ◽  
Heavy Metal Contamination ◽  
Developmental Stages ◽  
Heavy Metal Accumulation ◽  
Natural Ecosystem ◽  
Parasitic Infestation ◽  
Living Organisms ◽  
Life On Earth

As a result of the global industrial revolution, contamination of the ecosystem by heavy metals has given rise to one of the most important ecological and organismic problems, particularly human, early developmental stages of fish and animal life. The bioaccumulation of heavy metals in fish tissues can be influenced by several factors, including metal concentration, exposure time, method of metal ingestion and environmental conditions, such as water temperature. Upon recognizing the danger of contamination from heavy metals and the effects on the ecosystem that support life on earth, new ways of monitoring and controlling this pollution, besides the practical ones, had to be found. Diverse living organisms, such as insects, fish, planktons, livestock and bacteria can be used as bioindicators for monitoring the health of the natural ecosystem of the environment. Parasites have attracted intense interest from parasitic ecologists, because of the variety of different ways in which they respond to human activity contamination as prospective indices of environmental quality. Previous studies showed that fish intestinal helminths might consider potential bioindicators for heavy metal contamination in aquatic creatures. In particular, cestodes and acanthocephalans have an increased capacity to accumulate heavy metals, where, for example, metal concentrations in acanthocephalans were several thousand times higher than in host tissues. On the other hand, parasitic infestation in fish could induce significant damage to the physiologic and biochemical processes inside the fish body. It may encourage serious impairment to the physiologic and general health status of fish. Thus, this review aimed to highlight the role of heavy metal accumulation, fish histopathological signs and parasitic infestation in monitoring the ecosystem pollutions and their relationship with each other.

scholarly journals Replaying the tape of life in the twenty-first century

2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (6) ◽  
pp. 20150057 ◽  
Author(s):  
Virginie Orgogozo
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Evolution ◽  
First Century ◽  
Phenotypic Evolution ◽  
Phenotypic Differences ◽  
Diverse Species ◽  
Evolution Of Life ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Time Periods ◽  
Living Organisms ◽  
Life On Earth

Should the tape of life be replayed, would it produce similar living beings? A classical answer has long been ‘no’, but accumulating data are now challenging this view. Repeatability in experimental evolution, in phenotypic evolution of diverse species and in the genes underlying phenotypic evolution indicates that despite unpredictability at the level of basic evolutionary processes (such as apparition of mutations), a certain kind of predictability can emerge at higher levels over long time periods. For instance, a survey of the alleles described in the literature that cause non-deleterious phenotypic differences among animals, plants and yeasts indicates that similar phenotypes have often evolved in distinct taxa through independent mutations in the same genes. Does this mean that the range of possibilities for evolution is limited? Does this mean that we can predict the outcomes of a replayed tape of life? Imagining other possible paths for evolution runs into four important issues: (i) resolving the influence of contingency, (ii) imagining living organisms that are different from the ones we know, (iii) finding the relevant concepts for predicting evolution, and (iv) estimating the probability of occurrence for complex evolutionary events that occurred only once during the evolution of life on earth.

scholarly journals Galactose Metabolism Plays a Crucial Role in Biofilm Formation by Bacillus subtilis

mBio ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yunrong Chai ◽  
Pascale B. Beauregard ◽  
Hera Vlamakis ◽  
Richard Losick ◽  
Roberto Kolter
Keyword(s):  
Bacillus Subtilis ◽  
Biofilm Formation ◽  
Carbon Sources ◽  
Galactose Metabolism ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Leloir Pathway ◽  
The Matrix ◽  
Living Organisms ◽  
Galactose Metabolites ◽  
Biofilm Matrix

ABSTRACTGalactose is a common monosaccharide that can be utilized by all living organisms via the activities of three main enzymes that make up the Leloir pathway: GalK, GalT, and GalE. InBacillus subtilis, the absence of GalE causes sensitivity to exogenous galactose, leading to rapid cell lysis. This effect can be attributed to the accumulation of toxic galactose metabolites, since thegalEmutant is blocked in the final step of galactose catabolism. In a screen for suppressor mutants restoring viability to agalEnull mutant in the presence of galactose, we identified mutations insinR, which is the major biofilm repressor gene. These mutations caused an increase in the production of the exopolysaccharide (EPS) component of the biofilm matrix. We propose that UDP-galactose is the toxic galactose metabolite and that it is used in the synthesis of EPS. Thus, EPS production can function as a shunt mechanism for this toxic molecule. Additionally, we demonstrated that galactose metabolism genes play an essential role inB. subtilisbiofilm formation and that the expressions of both thegalandepsgenes are interrelated. Finally, we propose thatB. subtilisand other members of theBacillusgenus may have evolved to utilize naturally occurring polymers of galactose, such as galactan, as carbon sources.IMPORTANCEBacteria switch from unicellular to multicellular states by producing extracellular matrices that contain exopolysaccharides. In such aggregates, known as biofilms, bacteria are more resistant to antibiotics. This makes biofilms a serious problem in clinical settings. The resilience of biofilms makes them very useful in industrial settings. Thus, understanding the production of biofilm matrices is an important problem in microbiology. In studying the synthesis of the biofilm matrix ofBacillus subtilis, we provide further understanding of a long-standing microbiological observation that certain mutants defective in the utilization of galactose became sensitive to it. In this work, we show that the toxicity observed before was because cells were grown under conditions that were not propitious to produce the exopolysaccharide component of the matrix. When cells are grown under conditions that favor matrix production, the toxicity of galactose is relieved. This allowed us to demonstrate that galactose metabolism is essential for the synthesis of the extracellular matrix.

scholarly journals Evaluation of Soil 14C Data for Estimating Inert Organic Matter in the Rothc Model

Radiocarbon ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 1079-1091 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janet Rethemeyer ◽  
Pieter M Grootes ◽  
Sonja Brodowski ◽  
Bernard Ludwig
Keyword(s):  
Organic Matter ◽  
Organic Carbon ◽  
Soil Organic Carbon ◽  
Fossil Fuels ◽  
Crop Yields ◽  
Carbon Sources ◽  
Specific Marker ◽  
Fossil Carbon ◽  
Rothc Model ◽  
Similar Good

Changes in soil organic carbon stocks were simulated with the Rothamsted carbon (RothC) model. We evaluated the calculation of a major input variable, the amount of inert organic matter (IOM), using measurable data. Three different approaches for quantifying IOM were applied to soils with mainly recent organic matter and with carbon contribution from fossil fuels: 1) IOM estimation via total soil organic carbon (SOC); 2) through bulk soil radiocarbon and a mass balance; and 3) by quantifying the portion of black carbon via a specific marker. The results were highly variable in the soil containing lignite-derived carbon and ranged from 8% to 52% inert carbon of total SOC, while nearly similar amounts of 5% to 8% were determined in the soil with mainly recent organic matter. We simulated carbon dynamics in both soils using the 3 approaches for quantifying IOM in combination with carbon inputs derived from measured crop yields. In the soil with recent organic matter, all approaches gave a nearly similar good agreement between measured and modeled data, while in the soil with a fossil carbon admixture, only the 14C approach was successful in matching the measured data. Although 14C was useful for initializing RothC, care should be taken when interpreting SOC dynamics in soils containing carbon from fossil fuels, since these reflect the contribution from both natural and anthropogenic carbon sources.

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