Potential Of Cyanobacteria Research Articles

Life Cycle Assessment of Exopolysaccharides and Phycocyanin Production with Arthrospira platensis

In the pursuit of sustainable solutions for contemporary environmental challenges arising from the increasing global demand for energy, this study delves into the potential of cyanobacteria, specifically Arthrospira platensis (commonly known as “spirulina”), as a versatile resource. Employing a life cycle assessment (LCA) in accordance with the ISO 14044:2006 standard and employing both midpoint and endpoint indicators, the study comprehensively evaluates environmental impacts. The research explored a range of scenarios, specifically investigating variations in light intensity and harvesting volume. These investigations were carried out using a pilot-scale photobioreactor, specifically an airlift reactor system featuring a horizontal tubular downcomer. The primary focus is on extracting valuable compounds, namely exopolysaccharides and phycocyanin. It emphasized the extraction of value-added products and strategic integration with a biogas plant for process heat, contributing to developing a sustainable supply network and offering insights into environmentally conscious algae cultivation practices with implications for renewable energy and the production of valuable products. The results emphasize the project’s potential economic feasibility with minimal energy impact from by-product extraction. The environmental assessment identifies marine ecotoxicity and fossil resource depletion as principal impacts, predominantly influenced by upstreaming and harvesting stages. After conducting comparisons across various scenarios, it was found that cultivations under higher light intensities have a lower environmental impact than cultivations with low light supply. However, regardless of light intensity, processes with shorter harvesting cycles tend to have a smaller environmental impact compared to processes with longer harvesting cycles. Overall, this research contributes a nuanced and realistic perspective, fostering informed decision-making in sustainable algae cultivation practices, with implications for renewable energy and valuable compound production.

Co-cultures from Plants and Cyanobacteria: A New Way for Production Systems in Agriculture and Bioprocess Engineering.

Due to the global increase in the world population, it is not possible to ensure a sufficient food supply without additional nitrogen input into the soil. About 30-50% of agricultural yields are due to the use of chemical fertilizers in modern times. However, overfertilization threatens biodiversity, such as nitrogen-loving, fast-growing species overgrow others. The production of artificial fertilizers produces nitrogen oxides, which act as greenhouse gases. In addition, overfertilization of fields also releases ammonia, which damages surface waters through acidification and eutrophication. Diazotrophic cyanobacteria, which usually form a natural, stable biofilm, can fix nitrogen from the atmosphere and release it into the environment. Thus, they could provide an alternative to artificial fertilizers. In addition to this, biofilms stabilize soils and thus protect against soil erosion and desiccation. This chapter deals with the potential of cyanobacteria as the use of natural fertilizer is described. Possible partners such as plants and callus cells and the advantages of artificial co-cultivation will be discussed later. In addition, different cultivation systems for studying artificial co-cultures will be presented. Finally, the potential of artificial co-cultures in the agar industry will be discussed.

Problems and Prospects of Applications of Cyanobacteria (Review)

This review focuses on cyanobacteria and their metabolites with beneficial properties for humans. Cyanobacteria metabolites are uniquely diverse. Many of them exhibit antibacterial, antifungal, anti-carcinogenic, immunosuppressive, antioxidant types of activity, etc. The problems and prospects of using biologically active products of cyanobacteria metabolism are discussed. The issues of obtaining pharmaceuticals and other valuable products (pigments, enzymes, amino acids, vitamins, biodegradable plastic) are considered, and the potential of cyanobacteria as a source of biofuels is evaluated.

Fortifying nursery soil-less media with cyanobacteria for enhancing the growth of tomato

Priming nursery media to develop robust nurseries is a major objective of horticulturists for improving yields and quality of produce, and use of cyanobacteria, with both plant growth promoting and biofertilizing properties, can be valuable for generating robust nurseries of tomato. The potential of cyanobacteria as supplements to different soilless media combinations involving perlite, cocopeat and vermiculite (P,C,V) in different combinations was evaluated in terms of their ability to enhance the growth of tomato, from seed to fruiting stage. Agriculturally beneficial cyanobacterial cultures - Anabaena laxa, Calothrix elenkinii, and biofilm- Anabaena torulosa-Trichoderma viride (An-Tr) were used to augment these media and evaluated in Pro-Trays, pot and polyhouse beds respectively. Significant differences were recorded in terms of plant and media parameters. A positive correlation (r = 0.55, 0.78) between PEP carboxylase and Carbonic anhydrase enzyme activities was observed in Pro-Tray and polyhouse experiments. The performance of C:V + C. elenkinii, P:C:V + An-Tr, PM (Potting mix; C:V:P, 3:1:1) + A. laxa in terms of leaf, soil and nutrient data suggested their superiority among all other treatments. An enhancement of 14.70% and 36.55% in fruit and flower count was observed in PM + A. laxa over control. Among all the media evaluated, PM was most responsive to augmentation using any of the cultures, highlighting it as an effective nursery medium. A. laxa proved most superior among the cultures evaluated. Future research is focused on the upscaling the use of A. laxa as a nursery medium supplement for enhancing growth and productivity of tomato.

Влияние физиологического потенциала цианобактерий на растительно-микробное взаимодействие.

Влияние физиологического потенциала цианобактерий на растительно-микробное взаимодействие.

Abstract 195: Evaluation of the cell surface binding of phycocyanin and associated mechanisms causing cell death in prostate cancer cells

Abstract Plant and microbial metabolites are constantly explored to identify novel therapeutics with promising potential for treating diseases such as cancer. Marine-derived compounds are also tapped frequently for their efficacy in treating cancers and are used both in mono and combination therapies. The potential of cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) as the source of anticancer agents has been explored for many decades and, as a result of continuing efforts, several compounds have emerged as templates for the development of new anticancer drugs from these microorganisms. The C-phycocyanin (C-PC) tested in our experiments was derived from the cyanobacteria Limnothrix sp., strain 37-2-1, which is found abundantly in Florida’s Everglades. In our previous studies, this fluorescent compound was found to potentiate the cytotoxic effects of Taxol and Topotecan. In LNCaP prostate cancer cells, C-PC was able to induce apoptosis by itself through activation of the apoptotic pathway and completing DNA fragmentation. It was originally anticipated that C-PC might penetrate the cell membrane to induce mitochondrial damage and trigger the apoptotic process through activations of caspases. In order to verify this possibility, experiments were conducted to determine the uptake of C-PC using LNCaP cells. When we incubated the cells with C-PC at the concentrations of 250 and 500 µg/mL for 12 hrs and assessed the cellular uptake by capturing the fluorescence signals at the wavelength of 605 nm, using a fluorescence microscope, the signals were observed only with the periphery of the cells. Furthermore, with subsequent washes using PBS, the fluorescence signal that was seen to be associated with the plasma membrane was reduced gradually and was removed completely after the 3rd wash without any signs of penetration into the cytoplasm. The binding of C-PC to the plasma membrane was very transient and quickly dissociated at room temperature. However, after incubating the cells with the same concentrations of C-PC, there was up-regulation of proapoptotic markers such as p53 and p21 and as a result, the cells showed a significant reduction (>65%) in viability. So far, our results suggest that the cytotoxicity towards LNCaP cells might have been triggered by the binding of C-PC to the cell membrane receptors such as FasR, TRAIL-R, TNF-R, which may be linked to the mediators of extrinsic and intrinsic apoptotic signals. Hence, our findings are significant for explaining some of the apoptotic events triggered by C-PC. However, additional studies are required to identify the actual receptors involved in triggering the pathway. (The support from the Royal Dames of Cancer Research Inc., Ft. Lauderdale, Florida is gratefully acknowledged). Citation Format: Paramjot Kaur, Sivanesan Dhandayuthapani, Shona Joseph, Syed Hussain, Miroslav Gantar, Appu Rathinavelu. Evaluation of the cell surface binding of phycocyanin and associated mechanisms causing cell death in prostate cancer cells [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2017; 2017 Apr 1-5; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2017;77(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 195. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2017-195

Large-scale bioprospecting of cyanobacteria, micro- and macroalgae from the Aegean Sea

Marine organisms constitute approximately one-half of the total global biodiversity, being rich reservoirs of structurally diverse biofunctional components. The potential of cyanobacteria, micro- and macroalgae as sources of antimicrobial, antitumoral, anti-inflammatory, and anticoagulant compounds has been reported extensively. Nonetheless, biological activities of marine fauna and flora of the Aegean Sea have remained poorly studied when in comparison to other areas of the Mediterranean Sea. In this study, we screened the antimicrobial, antifouling, anti-inflammatory and anticancer potential of in total 98 specimens collected from the Aegean Sea. Ethanol extract of diatom Amphora cf capitellata showed the most promising antimicrobial results against Candida albicans while the extract of diatom Nitzschia communis showed effective results against Gram-positive bacterium, S. aureus. Extracts from the red alga Laurencia papillosa and from three Cystoseira species exhibited selective antiproliferative activity against cancer cell lines and an extract from the brown alga Dilophus fasciola showed the highest anti-inflammatory activity as measured in primary microglial and astrocyte cell cultures as well as by the reduction of proinflammatory cytokines. In summary, our study demonstrates that the Aegean Sea is a rich source of species that possess interesting potential for developing industrial applications.

Cyanobacteria as bioindicators and bioreporters of environmental analysis in aquatic ecosystems

Knowledge of the incidence of anthropogenic pressure on water ecosystems is one of the main focus of integrated water resource management. The use of biological methods to assess water quality is of particular importance since organisms show an integrating response to their environment. Tolerances or ecological ranges of individual species can differ depending on the taxon, which leads to distinct bioindicator values of cyanobacterial taxa. In addition, a number of morphological and physiological features are known to relate with the environment in which they occur, which makes them excellent environmental indicators. Therefore, we review literature data of the main cyanobacterial methods used to obtain information about changes in running water quality, mainly related to eutrophication processes, which are found as the main cause of disturbance in rivers, with the focus on benthic cyanobacteria, as habitat recommended for monitoring studies. Further, their trophic independence and ease of cultivation make them very useful in the field of bioreporters of environmental monitoring and ecotoxicology. In fact, several cyanobacterial strains have been already genetically engineered to construct bioreporters which respond to different types of pollutants as well as limiting nutrients. The potential of cyanobacteria both as in situ bioindicators as well as bioreporters of environmental analysis in aquatic ecosystems will be discussed.

Effect of Variable pCO2 on Ca2+ Removal and Potential Calcification of Cyanobacterial Biofilms —An Experimental Microsensor Study

Two different cyanobacterial biofilms from German karstwater creeks were investigated with respect to their photosynthetic effect on Ca2+ removal and potential CaCO3 precipitation in artificial creek waters of different CO2 partial pressures at a given, constant calcite supersaturation. CO2 partial pressures were adjusted to 350 ppmV, 2200 ppmV and 8700 ppmV respectively, covering the range of Phanerozoic atmospheric CO2 partial pressures inferred from palaeosoils, stomatal indices and model calculations. Microsensor measurements of calcium, pH and oxygen revealed differences in the potential to precipitate CaCO3 between the two model organisms Tychonema-relative strain SAG 2388 and Synechococcus sp. strain SAG 2387. Whereas a strong removal of Ca2+ from the solution was measured at Tychonema-relative biofilm, the Synechococcus sp. biofilm exercised a much lower Ca2+ removal during photosynthesis. Photosynthesis was enhanced in both organisms with increasing CO2 and HCO3−, as indicated by enhanced O2 production, but only for the motile filamentous taxon Tychonema-relative a concomitantly increasing calcium removal was measured. However, model calculations indicate that this short-term Ca2+ binding in the Tychonema-relative is due to complexation to exopolymers or oscillin, with no immediate CaCO3 precipitation. In contrast, Ca2+ and pH measurements at Synechococcus sp. biofilm could be consistent with immediate CaCO3 precipitation at the cells. In both biofilms, pH gradients increase with increasing pCO2 from 350 to 2200 ppmV due to enhanced photosynthesis, but decrease at a pCO2 of 8700 ppmV despite of further enhanced photosynthesis. This observation, regardless whether CO2 or HCO3− is used by the cyanobacteria, is in accordance with hydrochemical modeling demonstrating an increased DIC buffering at high pCO2 conditions. These results indicate that the potential of cyanobacteria to form spatially defined calcification pattern via pH gradients at their cell envelopes ('calcified cyanobacteria') increases at elevated pCO2, while at high pCO2 conditions Ca2+ binding and lowered pH microgradients lead to spatially diffuse calcification without defined cell envelope precipitates.

Cyanobacteria: Photoautotrophic Microbial Factories for the Sustainable Synthesis of Industrial Products.

Cyanobacteria are widely distributed Gram-negative bacteria with a long evolutionary history and the only prokaryotes that perform plant-like oxygenic photosynthesis. Cyanobacteria possess several advantages as hosts for biotechnological applications, including simple growth requirements, ease of genetic manipulation, and attractive platforms for carbon neutral production process. The use of photosynthetic cyanobacteria to directly convert carbon dioxide to biofuels is an emerging area of interest. Equipped with the ability to degrade environmental pollutants and remove heavy metals, cyanobacteria are promising tools for bioremediation and wastewater treatment. Cyanobacteria are characterized by the ability to produce a spectrum of bioactive compounds with antibacterial, antifungal, antiviral, and antialgal properties that are of pharmaceutical and agricultural significance. Several strains of cyanobacteria are also sources of high-value chemicals, for example, pigments, vitamins, and enzymes. Recent advances in biotechnological approaches have facilitated researches directed towards maximizing the production of desired products in cyanobacteria and realizing the potential of these bacteria for various industrial applications. In this review, the potential of cyanobacteria as sources of energy, bioactive compounds, high-value chemicals, and tools for aquatic bioremediation and recent progress in engineering cyanobacteria for these bioindustrial applications are discussed.

Biodegradation of used motor oil by single and mixed cultures of cyanobacteria

This study was carried out to evaluate the potential of single and mixed cultures of Nostoc hatei and Synechocystis aquatilis in the biodegradation of 10% used motor oil. The rates of biodegradation of the oil were studied for a period of 21 days under laboratory conditions. Single cultures of N. hatei performed best in the biodegradation of the oil, showing dramatic reduction in total petroleum hydrocarbon with net loss of 13.0% within 14 days as compared to other treatments. First-order kinetic model revealed that N. hatei was the best microorganism in the biodegradation of used motor oil with biodegradation rate constant of 0.0667 day -1 and half-life of 10.39 days. The findings demonstrate the potential of cyanobacteria for oil bioremediation in the order: N. hatei > N. hatei + S. aquatilis > S. aquatilis . Keywords: Nostoc hatei , Synechocystis aquatilis , used motor oil, biodegradation

Rediscovering cyanobacteria as valuable sources of bioactive compounds (Review)

Cyanobacteria are a simple, but primitive and diverse group of microorganisms, with characteristics in common to both bacteria and algae. Their success as a group in a wide range of habitats has been attributed to their unique physiological characters and high adaptive ability under a wide range of environmental conditions. The potential of cyanobacteria as a source of a variety of compounds such as polysaccharides, lipids, proteins, vitamins, sterols, enzymes, pharmaceuticals and other fine chemicals is well recognized, and their demand is now on an increasing trend. This compilation reviews the salient advances in the discovery of bioactive compounds from cyanobacteria and their significance in agriculture and industry.