http://hdl.handle.net/10033/6854 Sun, 19 May 2013 11:52:35 GMT 2013-05-19T11:52:35Z http://hdl.handle.net/10033/283778 Title: Diversity of Bacillus-like organisms isolated from deep-sea hypersaline anoxic sediments. Authors: Sass, Andrea M; McKew, Boyd A; Sass, Henrik; Fichtel, Jörg; Timmis, Kenneth N; McGenity, Terry J Abstract: The deep-sea, hypersaline anoxic brine lakes in the Mediterranean are among the most extreme environments on earth, and in one of them, the MgCl2-rich Discovery basin, the presence of active microbes is equivocal. However, thriving microbial communities have been detected especially in the chemocline between deep seawater and three NaCl-rich brine lakes, l'Atalante, Bannock and Urania. By contrast, the microbiota of these brine-lake sediments remains largely unexplored. Tue, 01 Jan 2008 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/10033/283778 2008-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10033/264053 Title: Microbial β-glucosidases from cow rumen metagenome enhance the saccharification of lignocellulose in combination with commercial cellulase cocktail. Authors: Del Pozo, Mercedes V; Fernández-Arrojo, Lucía; Gil-Martínez, Jorge; Montesinos, Alejandro; Chernikova, Tatyana N; Nechitaylo, Taras Y; Waliszek, Agnes; Tortajada, Marta; Rojas, Antonia; Huws, Sharon A; Golyshina, Olga V; Newbold, Charles J; Polaina, Julio; Ferrer, Manuel; Golyshin, Peter N Abstract: A complete saccharification of plant polymers is the critical step in the efficient production of bio-alcohols. Beta-glucosidases acting in the degradation of intermediate gluco-oligosaccharides produced by cellulases limit the yield of the final product. Sun, 01 Jan 2012 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/10033/264053 2012-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10033/246443 Title: Functional metagenomics unveils a multifunctional glycosyl hydrolase from the family 43 catalysing the breakdown of plant polymers in the calf rumen. Authors: Ferrer, Manuel; Ghazi, Azam; Beloqui, Ana; Vieites, José María; López-Cortés, Nieves; Marín-Navarro, Julia; Nechitaylo, Taras Y; Guazzaroni, María-Eugenia; Polaina, Julio; Waliczek, Agnes; Chernikova, Tatyana N; Reva, Oleg N; Golyshina, Olga V; Golyshin, Peter N Abstract: Microbial communities from cow rumen are known for their ability to degrade diverse plant polymers at high rates. In this work, we identified 15 hydrolases through an activity-centred metagenome analysis of a fibre-adherent microbial community from dairy cow rumen. Among them, 7 glycosyl hydrolases (GHs) and 1 feruloyl esterase were successfully cloned, expressed, purified and characterised. The most striking result was a protein of GH family 43 (GHF43), hereinafter designated as R_09-02, which had characteristics very distinct from the other proteins in this family with mono-functional β-xylosidase, α-xylanase, α-L-arabinase and α-L-arabinofuranosidase activities. R_09-02 is the first multifunctional enzyme to exhibit β-1,4 xylosidase, α-1,5 arabinofur(pyr)anosidase, β-1,4 lactase, α-1,6 raffinase, α-1,6 stachyase, β-galactosidase and α-1,4 glucosidase activities. The R_09-02 protein appears to originate from the chromosome of a member of Clostridia, a class of phylum Firmicutes, members of which are highly abundant in ruminal environment. The evolution of R_09-02 is suggested to be driven from the xylose- and arabinose-specific activities, typical for GHF43 members, toward a broader specificity to the glucose- and galactose-containing components of lignocellulose. The apparent capability of enzymes from the GHF43 family to utilise xylose-, arabinose-, glucose- and galactose-containing oligosaccharides has thus far been neglected by, or could not be predicted from, genome and metagenome sequencing data analyses. Taking into account the abundance of GHF43-encoding gene sequences in the rumen (up to 7% of all GH-genes) and the multifunctional phenotype herein described, our findings suggest that the ecological role of this GH family in the digestion of ligno-cellulosic matter should be significantly reconsidered. Sun, 01 Jan 2012 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/10033/246443 2012-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10033/145611 Title: Transcriptional profiling of the marine oil-degrading bacterium Alcanivorax borkumensis during growth on n-alkanes. Authors: Sabirova, Julia S; Becker, Anke; Lünsdorf, Heinrich; Nicaud, Jean-Marc; Timmis, Kenneth N; Golyshin, Peter N Abstract: The marine oil-degrading bacterium Alcanivorax borkumensis SK2 has attracted significant interest due to its hydrocarbonoclastic lifestyle, its alkane-centered metabolism, and for playing an important ecological role in cleaning up marine oil spills. In this study, we used microarray technology to characterize the transcriptional responses of A. borkumensis to n-hexadecane exposure as opposed to pyruvate, which led to the identification of a total of 220 differentially expressed genes, with 109 genes being upregulated and 111 genes being downregulated. Among the genes upregulated on alkanes are systems predicted to be involved in the terminal oxidation of alkanes, biofilm formation, signal transduction, and regulation. Wed, 01 Jun 2011 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/10033/145611 2011-06-01T00:00:00Z