Statistical medium optimization of an alkaline protease from Pseudomonas aeruginosa MTCC 10501, its characterization and application in leather processing.

Proteases are shown to have greener mode of application in leather processing for dehairing of goat skins and cow hides. Production of protease by submerged fermentation with potent activity is reported using a new isolate P. aeruginosa MTCC 10501. The production parameters were optimized by statistical methods such as Plackett-Burman and response surface methodology. The optimized production medium contained (g/L); tryptone, 2.5; yeast extract, 3.0; skim milk 30.0; dextrose 1.0; inoculum concentration 4%: initial pH 6.0; incubation temperature 30 °C and optimum production at 48 h with protease activity of 7.6 U/mL. The protease had the following characteristics: pH optima, 9.0; temperature optima 50 °C; pH stability between 5.0-10.0 and temperature stability between 10-40 °C. The protease was observed to have high potential for dehairing of goat skins in the pre- tanning process comparable to that of the chemical process as evidenced by histology. The method offers cleaner processing using enzyme only instead of toxic chemicals in the pre-tanning process of leather manufacture.

Alcaligenes faecalis kw-a biofilm for denitrification of nitrate-rich effluent.

Alcaligenes faecalis kw-A selected for possessing good denitrification efficiency was used for biofilm development. The biofilm could be developed on a glass surface within 12 hr when 5%, Ix 10(8) cells/ml was used as inoculum. The microcolonies were seen in 6 hr and glycocalyx in 9 hr stage. At 24 hr the biofilm was developed fully and hence was visualised as dense mass. The biofilm protein content showed 48.5% increase in shake flask than in static condition. The exopoplymer is produced in larger amounts in biofilm as compared to the suspended cells. Also, its amount was more by 43% in the biofilm produced in shake flask condition than in static condition. The biofilm could remove 95% nitrate from nitrate-rich effluent in a bench-scale process in 36 hr. The attached growth technique demonstrated here can be utilised to study the effect of favourable as well as adverse conditions on the denitrification efficiency of a culture. The ultimate application of a denitrifying biofilm would be in attached growth or biofilm reactor.

Modelling Sporangiospore-yeast transformation of Dimorphomyces strain.

Two types of buffered media, strictly defined-Ammonium sulphate-basal salts and complex Peptone-basal salts, were used for the cultivation of Dimorphomyces pleomorphis, one of two dimorphic fungi isolated from fermenting juice of soursop fruit, Annona muricata L. The growth count was taken every twenty-four hours. Transient morphologies were observed to change from sporangiospores through enlarged globose cells, to granular particles and eventually, polar budding yeast cells in the strictly defined medium at 15 degrees, 20 degrees, or 37 degrees C, but the complex medium casually terminally induced polar budding yeast cells and multipolar budding yeast like cells in between the growth phases, at 15 degrees and 20 degrees C, while mainly multipolar budding yeastlike morphology was observed at elevated temperature. There was obvious influence of nutritional factor or morphological expression (p < 0.01). After analysis of variance, the growth data could not fit into predictive quadratic polynomial model because the organism's response curves were incongruent with basic assumptions of the model. Furthermore, a stepwise regression analysis gave very low coefficients of determination, r2, for the interactive combinations. They were therefore, considered unfit for the data. Construction of the pII-profiles led to inference being drawn from the chemiosmotic theory, polyelectrolyte theory to account for the behaviour in the buffered multiionic media. It was also thought that inherent cellular mitotic division and glycolytic activity led to a prelogarithmic growth response.