All Microbial Biotechnology articles
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NewsA soil bacterium turns electricity and carbon dioxide into acetate
A new study shows that a soil bacterium can directly reduce Fe(III) minerals, exchange electrons with electrodes, and use electrode-derived electrons to convert carbon dioxide into acetate under autotrophic conditions.
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NewsTracking melanoidins to improve food-waste biogas recovery
Higher pretreatment temperatures in food-waste biogas recovery can promote Maillard reactions, generating melanoidins. A study shows that melanoidins increase with hydrothermal temperature and inhibit methane production by disrupting methanogenic microbial communities.
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NewsThree interlinked factors are needed to sustainably grow microbes for MICP
A new review investigates cost-effective and greener ways to grow microorganisms for use in Microbially Induced Calcium Carbonate Precipitation (MICP), a microbial process that precipitates calcium carbonate, and identifies three interlinked factors that determine success or failure.
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OpinionBiopiracy in microbiology: Who owns nature’s resources?
A growing global debate over “biopiracy” is raising urgent questions for microbiologists, researchers, industry and policymakers alike — and Applied Microbiology International is calling on members to help shape the conversation. Biopiracy refers to the unauthorised or unethical use of biological materials — including seeds, plants, ...
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NewsStudy reveals 45 new toxins produced by bacteria associated with foodborne infections
Researchers have discovered 45 new toxins produced by Salmonella bacteria, some of which are associated with foodborne infections. The study shows that these substances primarily act in the competition among microorganisms for space and resources.
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NewsDigital model guides cleaner biohydrogen production
A research team has developed an enzyme-aware digital model that explains why hydrogen-producing microbes often struggle to grow fast and generate hydrogen efficiently at the same time. The study reveals how limited enzyme resources shape the balance between cell growth, by-product formation, and hydrogen generation.
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NewsEU project aims to make climate-neutral plastics and cosmetics using bacteria
A European research team is aiming to revolutionize the chemical industry: as part of the CarboNcare project, scientists are developing bacteria that can produce important chemical base materials from sustainable methanol – thereby replacing fossil resources.
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NewsRedesigning an elusive bacterial enzyme into an efficient green catalyst
Scientists engineer the CYP107J1 enzyme from Bacillus subtilis into a more practical tool for selective oxidation chemistry.
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NewsAsian scientists unveil 10-year roadmap for building synthetic cells
Scientists from six Asian countries have launched an ambitious 10-year effort to build synthetic cells from non-living molecules, marking the region’s first coordinated push to create an artificial single-celled biological system.
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NewsResearchers transfer nitrogen-harvesting genes into new bacteria
New research has identified a key cluster of genes that can be moved from rhizobia bacteria that harvest nitrogen into bacteria that don’t — raising the possibility that microbes that dwell in cereal crops could eventually be engineered to atmospherically harvest nitrogen as well.
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NewsGenetic engineering of cyanobacteria for the production of sulfated polysaccharide
Researchers have developed a novel strategy to genetically engineer bacteria for the production of sulfated polysaccharides. They demonstrated the successful transfer and functional integration of an entire gene cluster responsible for producing a sulfated polysaccharide known as “synechan.”
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NewsNew ‘permanently wet’ coating method could transform wastewater treatment by helping bacteria survive better
Living bacteria embedded in coatings could clean wastewater, capture carbon and generate biofuels – if they survive the manufacturing process. Researchers have developed a method that keeps bacteria submerged throughout coating formation, increasing the number of surviving cells by around 500 times compared to conventional approaches.
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NewsResearch findings could expand bioluminescence-based applications in medicine and other industries
Medical researchers have used fungal light-producing enzymes in the Fungal Bioluminescence Pathway (FBP) to visually track processes like tumor progression and inflammatory responses. New research provides insights that may help improve and expand such bioluminescence-based tools and applications.
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NewsScientists establish ‘eco-friendly bio-platform’ to replace petroleum-derived naphtha
KAIST announced on May 19th that the KAIST-Hanwha Solutions Future Technology Research Institute has secured bio-technology capable of mass-producing eco-friendly raw materials for plastics and textiles using waste resources, offering an alternative to petroleum-derived naphtha. Source: KAIST From Left: Hyun Bae Bang, Cheon Woo Moon, Cindy Pricilia Surya ...
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NewsProtein engineering and testing condensed to a single day
Engineered proteins must be created in the real world and tested for performance - a labor-intensive process that involves constructing the DNA instructions for each protein in yeast or bacteria and growing individual clones for protein production and testing. Researchers say they have condensed the time-intensive protein building and testing process to just 24 hours.
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NewsMarine-inspired sunscreen ingredient made by E. coli
Researchers have engineered microbial “cell factories” to sustainably produce the UV-protective compound gadusol, which could eventually serve as a sunscreen ingredient and an antioxidant additive. Gadusol, found in the eggs of various fish and other marine organisms, helps protect against ultraviolet damage.
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NewsResearchers develop microalgae that photosynthetically produce and secrete biofuel precursors
A research group has developed cyanobacterial strains that produce free fatty acids (FFAs) and secrete them into the culture medium. FFAs are important precursor materials for sustainable aviation fuel and diesel fuel alternatives.
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NewsNew reactor design produces renewable methane from carbon dioxide
A new reactor design efficiently converts carbon dioxide and renewable electricity into methane while scaling the system up by roughly an order of magnitude. It demonstrated that microbial electrosynthesis systems can be expanded beyond laboratory-scale devices while maintaining high energy efficiency and methane production rates.
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NewsResearchers develop next-generation CRISPR biocontainment technology for controlling microbial survival without DNA cleavage
Researchers have employed a CRISPR-dCas9-based base editing system capable of introducing precise nucleotide changes without inducing DNA double-strand breaks. The researchers targeted the start codons of essential genes and irreversibly disrupted their function, permanently blocking cell survival.
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NewsWith large DNA fragment assembly, scientists can design microbes that produce countless complex products
A review demonstrates that scientists can now reliably build and combine very large pieces of DNA, making it much easier to redesign microbes such as yeast and bacteria to act as efficient “cell factories.”