Browsing Institute for Microbial Biotechnology & Metagenomics by Author "Cowan, Donald A."
Now showing items 1-20 of 25
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16 S rDNA primers and the unbiased assessment of thermophile diversity
(Portland Press, 2004)Our understanding of thermophile diversity is based predominantly on PCR studies of community DNA. ‘Universal’ and domain-specific rRNA gene PCR primers have historically been used for the assessment of microbial diversity ... -
Antarctic Dry Valley mineral soils contain unexpectedly high levels of microbial biomass
(Springer Verlag, 2002)We have applied bioluminescent ATP detection methods to microbial enumeration in Antarctic Dry Valley mineral soils, and validated our ATP data by two independent methods. We have demonstrated that ATP measurement is ... -
Biodegradation of high-concentration isopropanol by a solvent-tolerant thermophile, Bacillus pallidus
(Springer Verlag, 2002)The aerobic biodegradation of high-concentration, to 24 g l –1 , 2-propanol (IPA) by a thermophilic isolate ST3, identified as Bacillus pallidus , was successfully carried out for the first time. This solvent-tolerant B. ... -
Characterisation of the arsenic resistance genes in Bacillus sp. UWC isolated from maturing fly ash acid mine drainage neutralised solids
(Academy of Science of South Africa, 2010)An arsenic resistant Bacillus sp. UWC was isolated from fly ash acid mine drainage (FA-AMD) neutralised solids. A genomic library was prepared and screened in an arsenic sensitive mutant Escherichia coli strain for the ... -
Dissemination and survival of non-indigenous bacterial genomes in pristine Antarctic environments.
(Springer Verlag, 2005)Continental Antarctic is perceived as a largely pristine environment, although certain localized regions (e.g., parts of the Ross Dependency Dry Valleys) are relatively heavy impacted by human activities. The procedures ... -
Efficient molecular cloning of environmental DNA from geothermal sediments
(Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2002)An efficient and simple method for constructing an environmental library using mechanically sheared DNA obtained directly from geothermal sediments is presented. The method is based on blunt-end modification of DNA fragments ... -
Engineering pyruvate decarboxylase-mediated ethanol production in the thermophilic host Geobacillus thermoglucosidasius
(Springer Verlag, 2013)This study reports the expression, purification, and kinetic characterization of a pyruvate decarboxylase (PDC) from Gluconobacter oxydans . Kinetic analyses showed the enzyme to have high affinity for pyruvate (120 μM at ... -
High 16S rDNA bacterial diversity in glacial meltwater lake sediment, Bratina Island, Antarctica
(Springer Verlag, 2003)The microbial diversity in maritime meltwater pond sediments from Bratina Island, Ross Sea, Antarctica was investigated by 16S rDNA-dependent molecular phylogeny. Investigations of the vertical distribution, phylogenetic ... -
High-level diversity of tailed phages, eukaryote-associated viruses, and virophage-like elements in the metaviromes of Antarctic soils
(American Society for Microbiology, 2014)The metaviromes of two distinct Antarctic hyperarid desert soil communities have been characterized. Hypolithic communities, cyanobacterium-dominated assemblages situated on the ventral surfaces of quartz pebbles embedded ... -
Hypolithic and soil microbial community assembly along an aridity gradient in the Namib Desert
(Springer, 2013)The Namib Dessert is considered the oldest desert in the world and hyperarid for the last 5 million years. However, the environmental buffering provided by quartz and other translucent rocks supports extensive hypolithic ... -
The Institute for Microbial Biotechnology and Metagenomics 2009
(UWC, 2010-01)The IMBM Brochure (2009) provides a summary of the staffing, activities and outputs of the Institute for the 2009 academic year -
Metagenomics, gene discovery and the ideal biocatalyst
(Portland Press, 2004)With the rapid development of powerful protein evolution and enzyme-screening technologies, there is a growing belief that optimum conditions for biotransformation processes can be established without the constraints of ... -
Micro-Eukaryotic diversity in Hypolithons from Miers Valley, Antarctica
(Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (MDPI), 2013)The discovery of extensive and complex hypolithic communities in both cold and hot deserts has raised many questions regarding their ecology, biodiversity and relevance in terms of regional productivity. However, most ... -
Non-specificity of Staphylococcus generic primers
(Society for General Microbiology, 2003)Our results allow us to conclude that there appears to be significant conservation between the tuf genes of Planococcus, Planomicrobium and Staphylococcus spp., and that although the primer set TstaG422/TStag765 has ... -
PCR-based detection of non-indigenous microorganisms in ‘pristine’ environments
(Elsevier, 2003)PCR-based technologies are widely employed for the detection of specific microorganisms, and may be applied to the identification of non-indigenous microorganisms in ‘pristine’ environments. For ‘pristine’ environments ... -
Purification, crystallization and preliminary X-ray diffraction analysis of thermostable nitrile hydratase: research letter
(Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf), 2004)Microbial nitrile hydratases are important industrial enzymes that catalyse the conversion of nitriles to the corresponding amides. Bacillus strain RAPc8 nitrile hydratase has recently been cloned and functionally ... -
Review and re-analysis of domain-specific 16S primers
(Elsevier, 2003)The Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) has facilitated the detection of unculturable microorganisms in virtually any environmental source and has thus been used extensively in the assessment of environmental microbial diversity. ... -
The search for the ideal biocatalyst
(Nature Publishing Group, 2002)While the use of enzymes as biocatalysts to assist in the industrial manufacture of fine chemicals and pharmaceuticals has enormous potential, application is frequently limited by evolution-led catalyst traits. The advent ... -
Selection of Clostridium spp. in biological sand filters neutralizing synthetic acid mine drainage
(Wiley, 2013)In this study, three biological sand filter (BSF) were contaminated with a synthetic iron- [1500 mg L-1 Fe(II), 500 mg L-1 Fe(III)] and sulphate-rich (6000 mg L-1 SO2/4-) acid mine drainage (AMD) (pH = 2), for 24 days, to ...
