Biofilm-overproducing Bacillus subtilis B12ΔYwcc decreases Cd uptake in Chinese cabbage through increasing Cd-immobilizing related gene abundance and root surface colonization

Biofilm-producing bacteria can decrease Cd uptake in vegetables, but mechanisms underlying this effect are poorly characterized. In this study, two mutant strains B12ΔYwcc and B12ΔSlrR were constructed from a biofilm-producing Bacillus subtilis strain B12. Then, the impacts of strain B12 and its high biofilm-producing mutant strain B12ΔYwcc and low biofilm-producing mutant strain B12ΔSlrR on Cd availability and uptake in Chinese cabbage and the related mechanisms were investigated in the Cd-polluted soil. Strain B12 and its mutants B12ΔYwcc and B12ΔSlrR increased the dry biomasses of edible tissues by 54%–130% compared with the controls. Strain B12 and its mutant B12ΔYwcc reduced the soil available Cd content by 36%–50% and root and edible tissue Cd contents by 23%–50% compared with the controls. Furthermore, the mutant strain B12ΔYwcc reduced the edible tissue Cd content by 40% and increased the polysaccharide content by 23%, invertase activity by 139%, and gene copies of the cumA by 4.5-fold, epsA by 7.1-fold, and cadA by 4.3-fold, which were involved in Cd adsorption in the rhizosphere soils, respectively, compared with strain B12. The polysaccharide content and cumA, epsA, and cadA gene copy numbers showed significantly reverse correlations with the available Cd content. Notably, the mutant strain B12ΔYwcc showed better ability to colonize the vegetable root surface than strain B12. These findings demonstrated that the biofilm-overproducing mutant strain B12ΔYwcc increased the polysaccharide production and Cd-immobilizing related cumA, epsA, and cadA gene copies, resulting in lower Cd availability and accumulation in Chinese cabbage in the Cd-polluted soil.     

A Review of Waste Tyre Utilisation in the Marine Environment

Waste tyres pose a major disposal problem on land creating a fire hazard and, in warmer climates, providing breeding pools for mosquitoes. the void space in tyres makes them unsuitable for land burial. Schemes to use shredded tyres for road bases and asphalt filler are being pursued in the USA. Tyre combustion for electricity production is being investigated in the UK.

The widespread availability and durability of tyres has led to their use in the marine environment for breakwaters/coastal defence structures and as artificial reefs for promoting fisheries.

Tyres have a low density and have been used in floating breakwaters. Schemes have been proposed to protect and strengthen shorelines with tyre structures.

The void space in tyres facilitates the construction of artificial reefs to attract fish. the most intensive use is in the south west Pacific and Australia. Tyre surfaces are colonised by algae and a wide range of faunal species, including corals and shellfish. the wide acceptance of tyres as a suitable reef construction material appears to be based largely on these observations. Experience of initial poor deployment practices in the USA led to tyres washing ashore after storms and resulted in the banning or restriction of their use in coastal states of the USA. A review of the scientific literature has yielded limited information on the environmental impact of tyres and in particular the leaching of heavy metals and organic compounds from tyres into sea water.

Preliminary results of tyre dust/sea water leaching studies are presented. These identify zinc as the major leachate (totalling 10mg/tyre after 3 months). Diluted leachates have not shown significant effects of the growth of the phytoplankton Phaeodactylum and Isocrysis.

Further work to characterise the sea water leaching of tyre compounds is recommended.     

Frontiers created by ‘the Others’

ABSTRACT

This paper highlights the colonized perspective, and aims to reflect on the consequences of a predominant perspective of land control and use for Amazonian indigenous people. The demarcation of indigenous territories has been presented by external public actors, the ‘Others’ to explicitly support indigenous people defend their territories. However, demarcation effectively creates a frontier and enclosure which contribute to alienate indigenous people within their new territories. Amazonian groups normally maintain that they belong to the Land, and their historical use of a determined land has been asserted by anthropological studies. But they belong to Land. In contrast, occupying a territory to generate profit allows the exploitation of everything inside it. Every form of extraction helps to reproduce the colonial logic. A key question we need to address is, therefore: Why do the ‘others’ not feel that belonging?     

Alignment of threat,effort, and perceived success in North American conservation translocations

The use of conservation translocations to mitigate human effects on biodiversity is increasing, but how these efforts are allocated remains unclear. Based on a comprehensive literature review and online author survey, we sought to determine the goals of translocation efforts, whether they focus on species and regions with high threat and likelihood of perceived success, and how success might be improved. We systematically searched the ISI Web of Knowledge and Academic Search Complete databases to determine the species and regions of conservation translocations and found 1863 articles on conservation translocations in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Central America, and Caribbean published from 1974 to 2013. We questioned 330 relevant authors to determine the motivation for translocations, how translocations were evaluated, and obstacles encountered. Conservation translocations in North America were geographically widespread (in 21 countries), increased in frequency over time for all animal classes (from 1 in 1974 to 84 in 2013), and included 279 different species. Reintroductions and reinforcements were more common in the United States than in Canada and Mexico, Central America, or the Caribbean, and their prevalence was correlated with the number of species at risk at national and state or provincial levels. Translocated species had a higher threat status at state and provincial levels than globally (International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List categorization), suggesting that translocations may have been motivated by regional priorities rather than global risk. Our survey of authors was consistent with these results; most translocations were requested, supported, or funded by government agencies and downlisting species at national or state or provincial levels was the main goal. Nonetheless, downlisting was the least reported measure of success, whereas survival and reproduction of translocated individuals were the most reported. Reported barriers to success included biological factors such as animal mortality and nonbiological factors, such as financial constraints, which were less often considered in the selection of release sites. Our review thus highlights discrepancies between project goals and evaluation criteria and between risk factors considered and obstacles encountered, indicating room to further optimize translocation projects.     

Controlling bacterial leaf blight of rice and enhancing the plant growth with endophytic and rhizobacterial Bacillus strains

This study was conducted to assess efficacy of biological control against bacterial leaf blight (BLB) of rice produced by Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae. Five endophytic strains (A1, A2, A3, A13 and A15) and two rhizospherial Bacilli (D29 and H8) were tested for their antagonistic activities against BLB in vitro and in vivo. All seven strains showed high potential of antagonistic activity against X. oryzae pv. oryzae and three phytopathogenic fungi in vitro. Test of 16SrRNA gene sequence were assigned isolates A1, A3 and A13 as Bacillus amyloliquefaciens while isolates A2 and A15 as B. methylotrophicus and B. subtilis, respectively. In greenhouse, four strains of displayed 50.29%–57.86% inhibition rate against the pathogen and significantly increased plant fresh weight from 50.03% to 73.11% and dry weight from 64.11% to 86.65% in treated rice plants. In addition, these strains demonstrated strong capability to produce indole-3-acetic acid, siderophores, solubilizing phosphate and also colonize roots. Real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction revealed that expression of defense-related genes including OsAOS2, OsJMT1, OsNPR1 and OsPR1b were significantly up-regulated in leaves of D29-exposed rice plants, suggesting that treatment of rice with D29 suppressed BLB through systemic activation of the plant defense system. Therefore, data suggest that Bacillus isolates A13, A15, D29 and H8 support effective antagonistic activity against BLB under greenhouse conditions in addition to their potential to promote growth of rice plants.     

An occupancy‐based quantification of the highly imperiled status of desert fishes of the southwestern United States

Desert fishes are some of the most imperiled vertebrates worldwide due to their low economic worth and because they compete with humans for water. An ecological complex of fishes, 2 suckers (Catostomus latipinnis, Catostomus discobolus) and a chub (Gila robusta) (collectively managed as the so‐called three species) are endemic to the U.S. Colorado River Basin, are affected by multiple stressors, and have allegedly declined dramatically. We built a series of occupancy models to determine relationships between trends in occupancy, local extinction, and local colonization rates, identify potential limiting factors, and evaluate the suitability of managing the 3 species collectively. For a historical period (1889–2011), top performing models (AICc) included a positive time trend in local extinction probability and a negative trend in local colonization probability. As flood frequency decreased post‐development local extinction probability increased. By the end of the time series, 47% (95% CI 34‐61) and 15% (95% CI 6‐33) of sites remained occupied by the suckers and the chub, respectively, and models with the 2 species of sucker as one group and the chub as the other performed best. For a contemporary period (2001?2011), top performing (based on AIC_c) models included peak annual discharge. As peak discharge increased, local extinction probability decreased and local colonization probability increased. For the contemporary period, results of models that split all 3 species into separate groups were similar to results of models that combined the 2 suckers but not the chub. Collectively, these results confirmed that declines in these fishes were strongly associated with water development and that relative to their historic distribution all 3 species have declined dramatically. Further, the chub was distinct in that it declined the most dramatically and therefore may need to be managed separately. Our modeling approach may be useful in other situations in which targeted data are sparse and conservation status and best management approach for multiple species are uncertain.     

Methylopila sp.SD-1与大豆联合修复苯磺隆污染土壤

分离得到1株苯磺隆降解菌株SD-1,根据表型、生理生化特征及16S rRNA基因序列分析,将其鉴定为Methylopila sp.SD-1,为首次报道能够降解苯磺隆的Methylopila属菌株,其在4d内完全降解50mg/L苯磺隆,最适降解温度、pH值分别为30℃和7.0,降解中间产物对大豆的毒性显著降低.大豆根系分泌物能促进菌株SD-1的生长,培养5d,菌株SD-1的数量由1.0×10⁷CFU/mL增至6.7×10⁷CFU/mL.分泌物中含有16种氨基酸,菌株SD-1对其中的Asp、Glu和Phe表现出明显的趋化性.接种菌悬液至苯磺隆污染土壤（3mg/kg）并种植大豆幼苗,培养4d,菌株SD-1依赖趋化性向大豆根系运动并定殖,存活率提高,根际土壤中苯磺隆的降解率相较于未种植大豆的处理提高36.0%.     

接种混合功能细菌降低黑麦草体内菲和芘污染的机理初探

本研究通过批量降解试验,探讨了功能菌株Massilia sp. Pn2和Mycobacterium flavescens 033降解菲和芘的基本动力学过程和规律;重点采用温室盆栽试验,研究了接种混合菌株对黑麦草体内PAHs含量及多酚氧化酶(PPO)和过氧化物酶(POD)活性的影响.结果表明,菌株Pn2和033可以分别利用菲和芘作为碳源和能源进行生长;在30℃、pH=7.0条件下,菌株Pn2和033对100 mg·L~(-1)菲和50 mg·L~(-1)芘的降解率分别高达99.7%和98.3%,降解半衰期分别为0.34 d和0.95 d(R~20.98).与接种灭活混合菌株对比,接种混合菌株Pn2和033显著地降低了黑麦草体内菲和芘的含量和积累量(p0.05),并阻控菲和芘由黑麦草根向茎叶转移.同时,接种混合菌株Pn2和033显著地提高了黑麦草根和茎叶中POD(p0.05)活性,该酶能够促进黑麦草体内超氧自由基的清除,并保护细胞免受PAHs损伤,进而影响PAHs在黑麦草体内的代谢过程.研究结果为阐明接种混合功能菌降低植物体内PAHs污染的作用机理提供了一定的参考价值.     

Studies on the influence of mycorrhiza on the growth and physiology of Vigna unguiculata and Abelmoschus esculentus

Diverse forms of microorganisms present in the soil and near the roots of plants, which play a vital role in numerous physiological processes, have attracted the attention of scientists. The dynamic microbial associations may be saprophytic, pathogenic, or symbiotic. The most widespread symbiosis of plants is the mycorrhizal association between root-inhabiting fungi and the feeder roots of plants. The present study was conducted to study the effects of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi on mineral nutrition of Vigna unguiculata and Abelmoschus esculentus. The experiment comprised of uninoculated seedlings and seedlings inoculated with Glomus mosseae. The chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b, total chlorophyll, carotenoid, protein, nitrate, nitrogen, and phosphorus content showed an increase in vesicular arbuscular mycorrhiza fungus-treated seedlings compared to non-mycorrhizal plants. The total soluble sugars and soluble starch content in leaves of all selected plant species in the present study showed a decrease in mycorrhizal seedlings compared to non-mycorrhizal seedlings.     

Characteristics of microbial community involved in early biofilms formation under the influence of wastewater treatment plant effluent

Effluents from wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) containing microorganisms and residual nutrients can influence the biofilm formation. Although the process and mechanism of bacterial biofilm formation have been well characterized, little is known about the characteristics and interaction of bacteria, archaea and eukaryotes in the early colonization, especially under the influence of WWTP effluent. The aim of this study was to characterize the important bacterial, archaeal and eukaryotic species in the early stage of biofilm formation downstream of the WWTP outlet. Water and biofilm samples were collected 24 and 48 hr after the deposition of bio-cords in the stream. Illumina Miseq sequencing of the 16S and 18S rDNA showed that, among the three domains, the bacterial biofilm community had the largest alpha and beta diversity. The early bacterial colonizers appeared to be “biofilm-specific”, with only a few dominant operational taxonomic units (OTUs) shared between the biofilm and the ambient water environment. Alpha-proteobacteria and Ciliophora tended to dominate the bacterial and eukaryotic communities, respectively, of the early biofilm already at 24 hr, whereas archaea played only a minor role during the early stage of colonization. The network analysis showed that the three domains of microbial community connected highly during the early colonization and it might be a characteristic of the microbial communities in the biofilm formation process where co-occurrence relationships could drive coexistence and diversity maintenance within the microbial communities.