Masashi Kuroda

Characterization of Pseudomonas stutzeri NT-I capable of removing soluble selenium from the aqueous phase under aerobic conditions.

Pseudomonas stutzeri strain NT-I was isolated from the drainage wastewater of a selenium refinery plant. This bacterium efficiently reduced selenate to elemental selenium without prolonged accumulation of selenite under aerobic conditions. Strain NT-I was able to reduce selenate completely at high concentrations (up to 10 mM) and selenite almost completely (up to 9 mM). In addition, higher concentrations of selenate and selenite were substantially reduced. Activity was observed under the following experimental conditions: 20-50°C, pH 7-9, and 0.05-20 g L(-1) NaCl for selenate reduction, and 20-50°C, pH 6-9, and 0.05-50 g L(-1) NaCl for selenite reduction. Under anaerobic conditions, selenate was reduced more rapidly, whereas selenite was not reduced at all. The high selenate- and selenite-reducing capability at high concentrations suggested that strain NT-I is suitable for the removal of selenium from high-strength industrial wastewater.

Isolation of a selenite-reducing and cadmium-resistant bacterium Pseudomonas sp. strain RB for microbial synthesis of CdSe nanoparticles

Bacteria capable of synthesizing CdSe from selenite and cadmium ion were enriched from a soil sample. After repeated transfer of the soil-derived bacterial cultures to a new medium containing selenite and cadmium ion 42 times (during 360 days), an enrichment culture that can simultaneously remove selenite and cadmium ion (1 mM each) from the liquid phase was obtained. The cultures color became reddish-brown, indicating CdSe nanoparticle production, as confirmed by energy-dispersive x-ray spectra (EDS). As a result of isolation operations, the bacterium that was the most responsible for synthesizing CdSe, named Pseudomonas sp. RB, was obtained. Transmission electron microscopy and EDS revealed that this strain accumulated nanoparticles (10-20 nm) consisting of selenium and cadmium inside and on the cells when cultivated in the same medium for the enrichment culture. This report is the first describing isolation of a selenite-reducing and cadmium-resistant bacterium. It is useful for CdSe nanoparticle synthesis in the simple one-vessel operation.

Molecular Cloning and Characterization of the srdBCA Operon, Encoding the Respiratory Selenate Reductase Complex, from the Selenate-Reducing Bacterium Bacillus selenatarsenatis SF-1

Previously, we isolated a selenate- and arsenate-reducing bacterium, designated strain SF-1, from selenium-contaminated sediment and identified it as a novel species, Bacillus selenatarsenatis. B. selenatarsenatis strain SF-1 independently reduces selenate to selenite, arsenate to arsenite, and nitrate to nitrite by anaerobic respiration. To identify the genes involved in selenate reduction, 17 selenate reduction-defective mutant strains were isolated from a mutant library generated by random insertion of transposon Tn916. Tn916 was inserted into the same genome position in eight mutants, and the representative strain SF-1AM4 did not reduce selenate but did reduce nitrate and arsenate to the same extent as the wild-type strain. The disrupted gene was located in an operon composed of three genes designated srdBCA, which were predicted to encode a putative oxidoreductase complex by the BLASTX program. The plasmid vector pGEMsrdBCA, containing the srdBCA operon with its own promoter, conferred the phenotype of selenate reduction in Escherichia coli DH5α, although E. coli strains containing plasmids lacking any one or two of the open reading frames from srdBCA did not exhibit the selenate-reducing phenotype. Domain structure analysis of the deduced amino acid sequence revealed that SrdBCA had typical features of membrane-bound and molybdopterin-containing oxidoreductases. It was therefore proposed that the srdBCA operon encoded a respiratory selenate reductase complex. This is the first report of genes encoding selenate reductase in gram-positive bacteria.

Characterization of the genes involved in nitrogen cycling in wastewater treatment plants using DNA microarray and most probable number-PCR

AbstractTo improve nitrogen removal performance of wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), it is essential to understand the behavior of nitrogen cycling communities, which comprise various microorganisms. This study characterized the quantity and diversity of nitrogen cycling genes in various processes of municipal WWTPs by employing two molecular-based methods:most probable number-polymerase chain reaction (MPN-PCR) and DNA microarray. MPN-PCR analysis revealed that gene quantities were not statistically different among processes, suggesting that conventional activated sludge processes (CAS) are similar to nitrogen removal processes in their ability to retain an adequate population of nitrogen cycling microorganisms. Furthermore, most processes in the WWTPs that were researched shared a pattern:the nirS and the bacterial amoA genes were more abundant than the nirK and archaeal amoA genes, respectively. DNA microarray analysis revealed that several kinds of nitrification and denitrification genes were detected in both CAS and anaerobic-oxic processes (AO), whereas limited genes were detected in nitrogen removal processes. Results of this study suggest that CAS maintains a diverse community of nitrogen cycling microorganisms; moreover, the microbial communities in nitrogen removal processes may be specific.

Evaluation of environmental bacterial communities as a factor affecting the growth of duckweed Lemna minor

BackgroundDuckweed (family Lemnaceae) has recently been recognized as an ideal biomass feedstock for biofuel production due to its rapid growth and high starch content, which inspired interest in improving their productivity. Since microbes that co-exist with plants are known to have significant effects on their growth according to the previous studies for terrestrial plants, this study has attempted to understand the plant–microbial interactions of a duckweed, Lemna minor, focusing on the growth promotion/inhibition effects so as to assess the possibility of accelerated duckweed production by modifying co-existing bacterial community.ResultsCo-cultivation of aseptic L. minor and bacterial communities collected from various aquatic environments resulted in changes in duckweed growth ranging from −24 to +14% compared to aseptic control. A number of bacterial strains were isolated from both growth-promoting and growth-inhibitory communities, and examined for their co-existing effects on duckweed growth. Irrespective of the source, each strain showed promotive, inhibitory, or neutral effects when individually co-cultured with L. minor. To further analyze the interactions among these bacterial strains in a community, binary combinations of promotive and inhibitory strains were co-cultured with aseptic L. minor, resulting in that combinations of promotive–promotive or inhibitory–inhibitory strains generally showed effects similar to those of individual strains. However, combinations of promotive–inhibitory strains tended to show inhibitory effects while only Aquitalea magnusonii H3 exerted its plant growth-promoting effect in all combinations tested.ConclusionSignificant change in biomass production was observed when duckweed was co-cultivated with environmental bacterial communities. Promotive, neutral, and inhibitory bacteria in the community would synergistically determine the effects. The results indicate the possibility of improving duckweed biomass production via regulation of co-existing bacterial communities.

Effects of culture conditions of Pseudomonas aeruginosa strain RB on the synthesis of CdSe nanoparticles

Cadmium selenide (CdSe) was synthesized by Pseudomonas aeruginosa strain RB in a culture containing lactic acid as a carbon source, 1 mM selenite, and 1 mM cadmium under various conditions. High purity (1.02-1.16 of the atomic ratio of Se to Cd) and efficient synthesis of biogenic CdSe nanoparticles were observed at 25-30°C, 0.05-10 g L(-1) NaCl, and neutral pH conditions compared with other tested conditions. However, the size and shape of synthesized CdSe nanoparticles were not changed by changing culture conditions. The contents of S and Se in the particles respectively increased under alkaline and weak acidic conditions. Furthermore, high temperature (>37°C), high salinity (>10 g L(-1) NaCl), and alkaline pH affected the CdSe-synthesizing rate by strain RB. This report is the first optimizing the culture conditions for synthesizing biogenic CdSe nanoparticles in a batch processing.

Selenium recovery from kiln powder of cement manufacturing by chemical leaching and bioreduction

A novel process by using chemical leaching followed by bacterial reductive precipitation was proposed for selenium recovery from kiln powder as a byproduct of cement manufacturing. The kiln powder at a slurry concentration of 10 w/v% with 0.25 M Na2CO3 at 28°C produced wastewater containing about 30 mg-Se/L selenium. The wastewater was diluted four-fold and adjusted to pH 8.0 as preconditioning for bioreduction. A bacterial strain Pseudomonas stutzeri NT-I, capable of reducing selenate and selenite into insoluble elemental selenium, could recover about 90% selenium from the preconditioned wastewater containing selenium of 5 mg-Se/L when supplemented with lactate or glycerol. The selenium concentrations in the treated wastewater were low around the regulated effluent concentration of 0.1 mg-Se/L in Japan.

Draft Genome Sequence of Pseudomonas aeruginosa Strain RB, a Bacterium Capable of Synthesizing Cadmium Selenide Nanoparticles

ABSTRACT Pseudomonas aeruginosa strain RB is a bacterium capable of synthesizing cadmium selenide (CdSe) nanoparticles and was isolated from a soil sample. Here, we present the draft genome sequence of P. aeruginosa strain RB. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of a draft genome of a CdSe-synthesizing bacterium.

Draft Genome Sequence of Bacillus selenatarsenatis SF-1T, a Promising Agent for Bioremediation of Environments Contaminated with Selenium and Arsenic

ABSTRACT Bacillus selenatarsenatis sp. nov. strain SF-1T is a promising agent for bioremediation of environments contaminated with selenium and arsenic. Here, we report the draft genome sequence of this strain.

Assessing the Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Cost of Thermoelectric Generators for Passenger Automobiles: A Life Cycle Perspective

Toward realizing a low-carbon society, a thermoelectric generator (TEG) is promising for energy harvesting by generating electricity from thermal energy, especially waste heat. While there are various technologies available for energy recovery, one of the strengths of TEGs is to retrieve usable energy from waste heat whose temperature is as low as 200∼300 degrees Celsius. Yet, the conversion efficiency of the current thermoelectric materials remains low at 5∼10%, which makes it difficult to diffuse TEGs in our society. In order to clarify required performances of TEGs to diffuse them in the future, this paper aims to assess the life cycle CO2 emissions (LCCO2) and life cycle cost (LCC) of TEGs based on several product lifecycle scenarios, each of which assumes different future situations in, e.g., conversion efficiency of TEGs. In this paper, we focus on TEGs for passenger automobiles since a range of the temperatures of their exhaust gas is suitable for TEGs. Additionally, we focus on bismuth telluride (Bi-Te) materials to develop TEGs since they have already been available for commercial use. A case study of installing Bi-Te TEGs in passenger automobiles is carried out. The region of interest is Suita City, Osaka, Japan. By describing two scenarios that assume different conversion efficiency of thermoelectric materials, we compare assessment results from the viewpoints of LCCO2 and LCC. The results reveal that using TEGs has the potential to reduce CO2 emissions of the city by 0.07∼0.30%. It is also shown that the TEG cost needs to be drastically reduced to make the usage of TEGs profitable.Copyright