ESM 214

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ESM 214

• Bioremediation
• Winter 2005

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Motivations for the Course

• Wastewater
• Eutrophication
• Disease
• drinking water
• fishing
• recreation

• Toxic releases
• Wildlife loss
• Cancer, birth defects
• drinking water
• particulate inhalation
• direct contact

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Eutrophication(Source http//www.umanitoba.ca/in
stitutes/fisheries/eutro.html)
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Sewage spills, beach closures in CA
http//www.healthebay.org/brc/closures.asp
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Love Canal (1978)
20,000 tons toxic waste buried
A community in a state of emergency
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1989 Valdez Oil Spill (NOAA http//response.resto
ration.noaa.gov/index.html)
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Kesterson Reservoir, San Joaquin, CA
(Source http//www.lbl.gov/Science-Articles/Archi
ve/greenrust.html)
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Bemidji Oil Spill(source http//water.usgs.gov/n
rp/organic/bemidji.htm )
ca. 10,000 barrels in 1979
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Bioremediation

• the act of treating waste or pollutants by the
  use of microorganisms (as bacteria) that can
  break down the undesirable substances
• the branch of biotechnology that uses biological
  process to overcome environmental problems

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Advantages of Biological Treatment

• Products are innocuous (mostly)
• Catalysis (by microbes) may be ancillary
• May use natural C and energy
• May use O2 for respiration
• Relatively inexpensive
• Mostly permanent

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What are the microbes?(Table 1, handout)

• Prokaryotes
• Bacteria
• Archaea (ancient bacteria)
• Eukaryotes
• Fungi
• Slime molds
• Protozoa
• Algae
• Plant-microbe symbioses

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Detailed phylogenetic tree of the major lineages
(phyla) of Bacteria based on 16S ribosomal RNA
sequence comparisons
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Bacillus dividing
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Rhizobium trifolii on root tip(image width 12
microns)
--a clover symbiont
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Rhizobial bacteroids in NeptuniaTEM Image width
4.7 microns
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Azospirillum brasilense a nitrogen fixing
bacterium that lives in the soil rhizosphere
(image 7 microns)
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Azotobacter sp. free living N2 fixer in soil
(image width 2 microns). Here we see an
X-section of a cyst, the resting stage analogous
to an endospore
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Nitrosomonas sp. (3 micron width TEM) an
ammonia oxidizer (NH4 to NO2-)
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Bacillus thuringeinsis (TEM, width 4
microns)(round spores surrounded by cell wall,
angular toxin to left)
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Mold on banana peel in compost Conidiophores
bearing asexual spores (conidiospores)
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Barley leaf infected with rust and mold
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E. coli
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Salmonella typhimurium causes food poisoning.
Flagella are used for locomotion (image width 3
microns)
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Dividing Azoarcus tolulyticus a facultative,
toluene-utilizing anaerobe (O2 or NO3-) isolated
from a gasoline contaminated aquifer in Michigan
(width 3.5 microns)
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Halomonadaceae salt and high pH-tolerant 2,4 D
(Weed be Gone) degrader (8 micron image width)
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Why are microbes important?

• Abundant
• 5 E30 prokaryotes (Whitman)
• Equals C in all plants
• 10X more N and P than plants
• Major biomass pool large nutrient reservoirs
• Ubiquitous
• All major compartments on Earth
• Diverse

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Why are microbes important?

• They cause disease (the minority)
• They catalyze reactions (the majority), e.g.
• Cyanobacteria produce O2
• Nutrient (C, N, S, Fe, etc.) cycling,
  sequestration
• Biodegradation of pollutants
• N fixation in agriculture
• Biocontrol in agriculture (e.g. Bt)

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What cells need and do
environmental conditions pH, moisture,
temperature, salinity
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The cell as a machine basic functions
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