Survival of enterococci and Tn916-like conjugative transposons in soil

2004 ◽  
Vol 50 (11) ◽  
pp. 957-966 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert E Andrews Jr. ◽  
Wesley S Johnson ◽  
Abby R Guard ◽  
Jonathan D Marvin

The persistence of Enterococcus faecalis, fecal enterococci from swine waste, and Tn916-like elements was determined following inoculation into autoclaved and native soil microcosms. When cells of E. faecalis CG110 (Tn916) were inoculated into native microcosms, enterococcal viability in the soil decreased approximately 5 orders of magnitude (4.8 × 105CFU/g soil to < 10 CFU/g) after 5 weeks. In autoclaved microcosms, the viability of E. faecalis decreased by only 20% in 5 weeks. In contrast, the content of Tn916, based on PCR of DNA extracts from soil microcosms, decreased by about 20% in both native and autoclaved microcosms. Similar results were obtained when the source of fecal enterococci and Tn916-like elements was swine waste. Because the concentration of Tn916-independent E. faecalis DNA (the D-alanine D-alanine ligase gene), based on PCR, decreased to nearly undetectable levels (at least 3 orders of magnitude) after 5 weeks in the native microcosms, the evidence suggests Tn916 stability in the soil results from en masse transfer of the transposon to the normal soil microflora and not survival of E. faecalis DNA in the soil system. Results from denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis suggest that multiple forms of Tn916 occur in swine waste, but only forms most like Tn916 exhibit stability in the soil.Key words: Tn916, Enterococcus faecalis, soil, antibiotic resistance, conjugation, transposon.

2009 ◽  
Vol 76 (3) ◽  
pp. 810-819 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Cosgrove ◽  
P. L. McGeechan ◽  
P. S. Handley ◽  
G. D. Robson

ABSTRACT This work investigated biostimulation and bioaugmentation as strategies for removing polyurethane (PU) waste in soil. Soil microcosms were biostimulated with the PU dispersion agent “Impranil” and/or yeast extract or were bioaugmented with PU-degrading fungi, and the degradation of subsequently buried PU was determined. Fungal communities in the soil and colonizing buried PU were enumerated on solid media and were analyzed using denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE). Biostimulation with yeast extract alone or in conjunction with Impranil increased PU degradation 62% compared to the degradation in untreated control soil and was associated with a 45% increase in putative PU degraders colonizing PU. Specific fungi were enriched in soil following biostimulation; however, few of these fungi colonized the surface of buried PU. Fungi used for soil bioaugmentation were cultivated on the surface of sterile wheat to form a mycelium-rich inoculum. Wheat, when added alone to soil, increased PU degradation by 28%, suggesting that wheat biomass had a biostimulating effect. Addition of wheat colonized with Nectria haematococca, Penicillium viridicatum, Penicillium ochrochloron, or an unidentified Mucormycotina sp. increased PU degradation a further 30 to 70%, suggesting that biostimulation and bioaugmentation were operating in concert to enhance PU degradation. Interestingly, few of the inoculated fungi could be detected by DGGE in the soil or on the surface of the PU 4 weeks after inoculation. Bioaugmentation did, however, increase the numbers of indigenous PU-degrading fungi and caused an inoculum-dependent change in the composition of the native fungal populations, which may explain the increased degradation observed. These results demonstrate that both biostimulation and bioaugmentation may be viable tools for the remediation of environments contaminated with polyurethane waste.


2007 ◽  
Vol 73 (18) ◽  
pp. 5817-5824 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lee Cosgrove ◽  
Paula L. McGeechan ◽  
Geoff D. Robson ◽  
Pauline S. Handley

ABSTRACT Soil fungal communities involved in the biodegradation of polyester polyurethane (PU) were investigated. PU coupons were buried in two sandy loam soils with different levels of organic carbon: one was acidic (pH 5.5), and the other was more neutral (pH 6.7). After 5 months of burial, the fungal communities on the surface of the PU were compared with the native soil communities using culture-based and molecular techniques. Putative PU-degrading fungi were common in both soils, as <45% of the fungal colonies cleared the colloidal PU dispersion Impranil on solid medium. Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis showed that fungal communities on the PU were less diverse than in the soil, and only a few species in the PU communities were detectable in the soil, indicating that only a small subset of the soil fungal communities colonized the PU. Soil type influenced the composition of the PU fungal communities. Geomyces pannorum and a Phoma sp. were the dominant species recovered by culturing from the PU buried in the acidic and neutral soils, respectively. Both fungi degraded Impranil and represented >80% of cultivable colonies from each plastic. However, PU was highly susceptible to degradation in both soils, losing up to 95% of its tensile strength. Therefore, different fungi are associated with PU degradation in different soils but the physical process is independent of soil type.


2020 ◽  
Vol 51 (2) ◽  
pp. 125-146
Author(s):  
Nasiruddin Nasiruddin ◽  
Yu Zhangxin ◽  
Ting Zhao Chen Guangying ◽  
Minghui Ji

We grew cucumber in pots in greenhouse for 9-successive cropping cycles and analyzed the rhizosphere Pseudomonas spp. community structure and abundance by PCR-denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis and quantitative PCR. Results showed that continuous monocropping changed the cucumber rhizosphere Pseudomonas spp. community. The number of DGGE bands, Shannon-Wiener index and Evenness index decreased during the 3rd cropping and thereafter, increased up to the 7th cropping, however, however, afterwards they decreased again. The abundance of Pseudomonas spp. increased up to the 5th successive cropping and then decreased gradually. These findings indicated that the structure and abundance of Pseudomonas spp. community changed with long-term cucumber monocropping, which might be linked to soil sickness caused by its continuous monocropping.


2011 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lies Indah Sutiknowati

There is an information how to identify hydrocarbon degrading bacteria for bioremediation of marine oil spill. We have Bioremediation treatment for degradation of oil spill on Pari island and need two kind of experiment there are tanks experiment (sampling 0 to 90 days) and semi enclosed system (sampling 0 to 150 days). Biostimulation with nutrients (N and P) was done to analyze biodegradation of hydrocarbon compounds. Experiment design using fertilizer Super IB and Linstar will stimulate bacteria can degrade oil, n-alkane, and alkane as poly aromatic hydrocarbon. The bacteria communities were monitored and analyzed by Denaturing Gradient Gel Electrophoresis (DGGE) and Clone Library; oil chemistry was analyzed by Gas Chromatography Mass Spectrometry (GCMS). DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) was extracted from colonies of bacteria and sequence determination of the 16S rDNA was amplified by primers U515f and U1492r. Strains had been sequence and had similarity about 90-99% to their closest taxa by homology Blast search and few of them suspected as new species. The results showed that fertilizers gave a significant effect on alkane, PAH and oil degradation in tanks experiment but not in the field test. Dominant of the specific bacteria on this experiment were Alcanivorax, Marinobacter and Prosthecochloris. Keywords: Bioremediation, Biostimulation, DGGE, PAH, Pari Island


1998 ◽  
Vol 37 (4-5) ◽  
pp. 71-78 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas P. Curtis ◽  
Noel G. Craine

The explicit engineering of bacterial populations requires that we know which organisms perform which tasks. The comparison of the bacterial diversity of activated sludge plants may give important information about the functions of different bacteria. This difficult task may be made easier by the use of technologies based on 16S rRNA based techniques. In this study we have used denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) to determine the optimal sampling regime for comparative studies and used cluster analysis to show how plants may be quantitatively compared. We sought evidence of spatial, diurnal and intrasample variation in a number of sites. No evidence for variation was found in the plants studied and we concluded that a single sample of an activated sludge plant was sufficient for a plant to plant comparison. The cluster analysis was able to distinguish between plants, though further work is required to find the most appropriate basis for such comparisons. We found organisms from raw sewage in the mixed liquor samples, these organisms may have no functional significance in the treatment process and thus complicate plant to plant comparisons as will the probable presence of heteroduplex rDNA products. Nevertheless we believe that these drawbacks do not outweigh the advantages of being able to take and compare relatively large numbers of samples.


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