[Sneddon-Wilkinson disease: a case report]. / Maladie de Sneddon-Wilkinson: à propos d'un cas.

Sneddon-Wilkinson disease is a benign amicrobial pustulosis belonging to the spectrum of neutrophilic dermatoses. It is characterized by evident stereotypic clinical features, including, in most cases, pustular lesions of the trunk and prominent skin folds. This pustulosis may be associated with other diseases (IgA monoclonal gammopathy, rheumatoid arthritis, neoplasms or other neutrophilic dermatoses) and therefore requires regular follow-up. This disease has a relapsing-remitting course. First line therapy is dapsone. We here report the case of a 49-year-old patient with amicrobial pustulosis (Sneddon-Wilkinson disease).

Biodegradation of malodorous thiols by a Brevibacillus sp. strain isolated from a Tunisian phosphate factory.

Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) and thiols (RSH) generated by the phosphate industry cause harmful effects on human health and quality of life. The present study aims to investigate and evaluate a bacterial strain CAT37 isolated from gas-washing wastewaters in terms of its properties and ability to degrade malodorous thiols. Gas-washing wastewater samples were submitted to physicochemical analyses and used for the isolation of thiol-degrading bacteria. The results from gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis revealed that the isolated strain CAT37 was able to oxidize ∼99% of each thiol, decanethiol and dodecanethiol used as sole carbon and energy sources after 30 days of incubation at 37°C. The strain CAT37 displayed a biodegradative potential on several thiols known by their toxicity and odors. The results from phylogenetic and phenotypic analysis revealed that the CAT37 isolate belonged to the genus Brevibacillus, showing the highest sequence similarity to Brevibacillus agri. Overall, the results indicated that the strain CAT37 exhibited a number of attractive biodegradation abilities against thiols and could be considered a promising candidate for industrial application in future thiol biodeodorization strategies.

Phytoremediation potential of Arabidopsis thaliana, expressing ectopically a vacuolar proton pump, for the industrial waste phosphogypsum.

Phosphogypsum (PG) is a by-product of the phosphorus-fertiliser industry and represents an environmental concern since it contains pollutants such as cadmium (Cd). We have recently shown that the overexpression of a proton pump gene (TaVP1) in transgenic tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) led to an enhanced Cd tolerance and accumulation. The aim of this study was to evaluate the potential of transgenic Arabidopsis thaliana plants harbouring the TaVP1 gene to phytoremediate phosphogypsum. A pot experiment was carried out under greenhouse conditions. Transgenic A. thaliana plants harbouring the TaVP1 gene were grown on various substrates containing phosphogypsum (0, 25, 50 and 100 %) for 40 days. At the end of the growth period, we examined the growth (germination, root length, fresh weight) and physiological parameters (chlorophyll and protein contents, catalase activity and proteolysis) as well as the cadmium, Mg, Ca, and P contents of the A. thaliana plants. In order to evaluate Cd tolerance of the A. thaliana lines harbouring the TaVP1 gene, an in vitro experiment was also carried out. One week-old seedlings were transferred to Murashige and Skoog agar plates containing various concentrations of cadmium; the germination, total leaf area and root length were determined. The growth and physiological parameters of all A. thaliana plants were significantly altered by PG. The germination capacity, root growth and biomass production of wild-type (WT) plants were more severely inhibited by PG compared with the TaVP1 transgenic A. thaliana lines. In addition, TaVP1 transgenic A. thaliana plants maintained a higher antioxidant capacity than the WT. Interestingly, elemental analysis of leaf material derived from plants grown on PG revealed that the transgenic A. thaliana line accumulated up to ten times more Cd than WT. Despite its higher Cd content, the transgenic A. thaliana line performed better than the WT counterpart. In vitro evaluation of Cd tolerance showed that TaVP1 transgenic A. thaliana lines were more Cd-tolerant than the WT plants. These results suggested that ectopic expression of a vacuolar proton pump in A. thaliana plants can lead to various biotechnological applications including the phytoremediation of industrial wastes.