(Press-News.org) In Bolivia, in the largest continuous salt desert in the world, researchers from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia have found a bacterium that stores large amounts of PHB, a prized polymer. This biodegradable plastic is used by the food and pharmaceutical industries, for example to produce nanospheres to transport antibiotics.
In the quest for natural polymers to substitute for petroleum-based plastics, scientists have recently discovered that a microorganism in South America produces poly-beta-hydroxybutyrate (PHB), a biodegradable compound of great utility for the food, pharmaceutical, cosmetic and packaging industries.
The bacterium in question is Bacillus megaterium Uyuni S29, a strain that produces the largest amount of polymer of the genus. It has been found in the water 'eyes' of the famous Salar de Uyuni or Uyuni salt flat, in Bolivia.
"These are very extreme environments, which facilitate intracellular accumulation of PHB, a reserve material used by bacteria in times when nutrients are scarce," Dr Marisol Marqués, microbiologist at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC, Spain), explains to SINC.
Scientists from the UPC and the Graz University of Technology in Austria have successfully made the bacillus produce significant quantities of the compound in the laboratory in cultivation conditions similar to those used in industry. The technique is published in the journals Food Technology & Biotechnology and Journal of Applied Microbiology.
"The resulting biopolymer has thermal properties different from conventional PHBs, which makes it easier to process, independently of its application," Marqués goes on.
The researcher recognises that the costs of producing biopolymers are, in general, "still high and not competitive when compared with conventional polymers, although progress is being made in this regard."
The team has managed to reduce PHB's high molecular weight for the first time, using lipase enzymes, which break up fats, as well as using the biopolymer to form nano- and microspheres loaded with antibiotic to control their spread throughout the organism.
###
References:
A. Rodríguez-Contreras, M Koller, M. Miranda de Sousa Dias, M. Calafell, G. Braunegg, M. S. Marqués-Calvo. "Novel Poly[(R)-3-Hydroxybutyrate]-Producing Bacterium Isolated from a Bolivian Hypersaline Lake". Food Technology & Biotechnology 51 (1): 123-130, 2013.
A. Rodríguez-Contreras, M. Koller, M. Miranda-de Sousa Dias, M. Calafell, G. Braunegg, M. S. Marqués-Calvo. "High production of poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) from a wild Bacillus megaterium Bolivian strain. Journal of Applied Microbiology 114 (5):1378-87, 2013.
Bacteria from Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia conceal bioplastic
2013-07-10
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Calculating the value of effortful behavior: A clue to schizophrenia-related disability?
2013-07-10
Philadelphia, PA -- Many people with schizophrenia have marked problems with motivation, failing to initiate and persist in goal-directed behavior. These negative symptoms of schizophrenia can be disabling and prevent individuals from realizing their potential.
For many years it was thought this was due to an inability to experience pleasure associated with successful goal attainment. However, recent laboratory studies have shown that hedonic experience is actually intact in people with schizophrenia, calling for new approaches to better understand these motivational ...
Photosynthesis: Membranes in tight corners
2013-07-10
Photosynthesis takes place in specialized membrane systems, made up of stacked disks linked together by unstacked planar leaflets. A team of Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet (LMU) in Munich has now identified a protein that tucks the membrane in at the edge of each stack.
Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) micrograph of a chloroplast in maize (Zea mays) showing thylakoids (green) and assimilation starch granules (grey). (Prepared by freeze fracturing; micrograph is pseudo-colored.) (Source: G. Wanner LMU)
By making use of sunlight to generate molecular oxygen and other ...
Inscription from time of David & Solomon found near Temple Mount in Hebrew University excavation
2013-07-10
Working near the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, Hebrew University of Jerusalem archaeologist Dr. Eilat Mazar has unearthed the earliest alphabetical written text ever uncovered in the city.
The inscription is engraved on a large pithos, a neckless ceramic jar found with six others at the Ophel excavation site. According to Dr. Mazar, the inscription, in the Canaanite language, is the only one of its kind discovered in Jerusalem and an important addition to the city's history.
Dated to the tenth century BCE, the artifact predates by two hundred and fifty years the earliest ...
Stanford researchers say 'peak oil' concerns should ease
2013-07-10
Fears of depleting the Earth's supply of oil are unwarranted, according to new research, which concludes that the demand for oil – as opposed to the supply – will reach its own peak and then decline.
"Peak oil" prognosticators have painted pictures of everything from a calm development of alternatives to calamitous shortages, panic and even social collapse as the world reaches its peak of oil production – and then supplies fall.
But according to the study by researchers at Stanford University and the University of California-Santa Cruz, those scenarios assume that ...
A Malaysian beauty: Newly described endemic herb species under threat of extinction
2013-07-10
A new species of rare and beautiful plant has been described from the biodiversity rich Peninsular Malaysia. Ridleyandra chuana is endemic to the region and only known from two small montane forest populations. The conservation status of this recently described delicate flower is assessed as Endangered due to its restricted distribution. The new species was described and illustrated in the open access journal PhytoKeys.
Ridleyandra chuana is a perennial herb with a woody usually unbranched stem crowned by an asymmetrical rosette of dark green leaves covered in fine hairs. ...
Cigarette smoke impacts genes linked to health of heart and lungs
2013-07-10
New insights into why obese cigarette smokers experience a high risk of heart disease suggest that cigarette smoke affects the activity of hundreds of key genes that both protect the heart and lungs and expose them to damage. The study, published in ACS' Chemical Research in Toxicology, suggests that the effects may be especially profound in obese nonsmokers who inhale "sidesteam smoke" from cigarettes smoldering nearby.
Diana J. Bigelow and colleagues point out that active smoking doubles the risk of heart disease, while second-hand smoke exposure increases this risk ...
Toward a safer form of acetaminophen
2013-07-10
Efforts to develop a safer form of acetaminophen — the pain and fever-reducer that is one of the most widely used drugs — have led to discovery of substances that may have less potentially toxic effects on the liver. A report on the research appears in ACS Medicinal Chemistry Letters.
Roman Shchepin and colleagues explain that a link exists between acetaminophen and liver damage. The damage may be severe and can occur with intentional and accidental overdoses, as well as when susceptible individuals take the drug. Indeed, acetaminophen has been implicated in almost 50 ...
Study tracks depression in seniors, ethnic groups
2013-07-10
EAST LANSING, Mich. — Major depression is a serious public health problem among older adults in the United States, but tends to affect ethnic groups differently, finds new research led by a Michigan State University scholar.
According to a survey of nearly 2,000 people aged 50 and older, whites and blacks of Caribbean descent experience much higher rates of major depression than African-Americans.
Amanda Toler Woodward, lead investigator on the study and MSU associate professor of social work, said the findings, taken as a whole, suggest major depression among older ...
Discovery of the 'Plastisphere' -- a new marine ecological community
2013-07-10
The masses of plastic debris that float over large areas of the world's oceans have become new ecological communities that scientists have named the "Plastisphere." Their report in the ACS journal Environmental Science & Technology suggests that these novel habitats in the North Atlantic Ocean may harbor potential disease-causing microbes.
Erik Zettler of the Sea Education Association, Tracy Mincer of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and Linda Amaral-Zettler of the Marine Biological Laboratory explain that plastic has become the No. 1 form of ocean debris, causing ...
Unraveling the scientific basis of the infant feeding axiom 'breast is best'
2013-07-10
Scientists are making strides toward unraveling the surprisingly complex chemistry underpinning that axiom of infant feeding "breast is best," according to an article in the current edition of Chemical & Engineering News. C&EN is the weekly newsmagazine of the American Chemical Society, the world's largest scientific society.
Jyllian Kemsley, C&EN senior editor, points out that their findings reveal many intriguing and sometimes counterintuitive ways in which sugars, proteins and fat in milk interact with microbes in infants' intestines to nourish babies and protect their ...