Day :
Chair
Ruliang Pan
Professor
Co-Chair
Mohammed Menggad
Session Introduction
Ernestas Zaleckas
Aleksandras Stulginskis University, Lithuania
Title: The effect of biological microorganism products on maize vegetation and productivity
Biography:
Ernestas Zaleckas has completed his PhD at the age of 29 years from Lithuanian University of Agriculture and postdoctoral studies from Kaunas Technology
University. He has published more than 25 papers in scientific journals.
Abstract:
Agriculture is becoming more and more intense and farmers forget to take care of the soil, restore its fertility. One of the options is to use biological products because different microorganisms are vital components of the soil. They mobilize nutrients, produce plant growth regulators, protect plants from phytopathogens, improve soil structure and degrade xenobiotic compounds. The use of biological products results in the higher biomass and seedling height of maize. It also improves organic matter content and total nitrogen(N) in the soil. The aim of the experiment–to find out the effectiveness of the biological product for maize growth in three different soils: sandy loam, clay loam, and black soil/natural peat substrate. Maize seeds were treated in three different ways: 1–control (not treated), 2-treated with the biological product, 3–treated with the biological product, fulvic, humic acids, 4–treated with the biological product, amino acids, and seaweed extract. The research results have
revealed differences in maize green mass, root mass, height, chlorophyll index, area of the leaves and dry matter. Maize green mass was higher when seeds were treated with the biological product, fulvic and humic acids, therefore, root mass was higher when seeds were treated with the biological product, amino acids, and seaweed extract. It is noticed, that the use of biological compounds has a positive influence on maize chlorophyll index and yield.
Hiromi Shiota
Kyoto Prefectural University, Japan
Title: LiDAR data analysis with Fusion/LDV for individual tree measurement
Biography:
Hiromi Shiota has started his research for forestry management for 4 years after retirement from an IT vender. He is interested in Airborne Laser Scan of Remote
Sensing technology. He is now trying to measure average tree height in wide area by using large size ALS data with Area Based Approach. To operate large data,
for example, merge or divide data, change data format, or smoothing like these. He thinks, Fusion/LDV that developed by USDA is an excellent tool to analysis
LiDAR data. However, he is 65 years old now, but he keeps studying with the will.
Abstract:
Introduction: In recent years, many analyses have been conducted on the vertical structure of the forest using airborne LiDAR data. To analyze LiDAR data, analysis software is developed in Europe and USA. The forest conditions are quite differences between these countries and Japan. In this study, we used Fusion/LiDAR Data Viewer (LDV) software that developed in the USA, as a tool to analyze LiDAR data. The purpose of this study is to verify the efficacy of Fusion/LDV in Japanese forest management, in terms of function, accuracy, and type of output obtained using this software.
Methods: The verification parameters used in this study were tree height, crown base height (CBH), and crown width (CW).We used three data sources-automatically extracted Fusion/LDV data, manually measured Fusion/LDV data, and field survey data. In order to compare the obtained data, we used scatter diagram analysis, root-mean-square error (RMSE), and differences from three different types of field survey data.
Results: The study findings confirmed relatively high precision of both the automatic and manual measurements by Fusion/LDV in estimating tree height. The inclination of linear regression was over 0.9 in two survey areas. The results of R square were over 0.7. But while neither the measurement of CBH nor that of CW had such precision. The inclination of linear regression was near zero or minus values.
Conclusion: For individual tree height measurement Fusion/LDV was very useful when a tree has a clear peak, it was available enough in Japanese forest environment.
Biography:
Mohammed Menggad is a Professor in Hassan-II University of Casablanca, Morocco. He has completed Graduate diploma from Mohammed-V University, Rabat, Morocco. Postgraduate diploma and PhD from Paris XI University, France. He has experiences at Max-Planck-Institut fur Zellbiologie, Rosenh of Ladenburg, Germany and at Queen's University, Department of Biomedical and Molecular Sciences, Kingston, Canada.
Abstract:
Among 29 soil isolated actinomycetes, five new strains MFB11, MFB20, MFB21, MFB23 and MFB24 showed an intracellular hydrophobic pink red-like pigment production. These pigments present similar physio-chemical characteristics with anthracycline antibiotics of prodigiosin family. Crud extract and prepared fractions were tested by MTT on mice cancer cell line as well on human cancer cell line. The results indicated an important antiproliferative effect of the different strain pigments on the two organism cell types. Human cells were more sensitive to the pigments and presented different antiproliferative effect profiles. FACs analysis of this antiproliferative effect on cancer human cells line showed a cell cycle phase arrests at G1 and S.Nevertheless, negative antibacterial assay, Thin-layer chromatography (TLC) and interaction with organic solvents analysis of these pigments revealed their difference from known anthracycline antibiotics. Morphological, biochemical and gene coding 16S RNA sequence analysis allowed identification of the producer strains as Streptomyces coelicoflavus; known to produce important aminoglycoside antibiotics and other bioactive compounds but not anthracycline red-like pigments. Otherwise, two other strains produced water soluble Gram positive antibiotics and chloroform soluble bioactive compounds with strong and dramatic apoptotic antiproliferative activity as indicated by MTT and their cell cycle phase arrests at G0/G1 and G2.
Kofi Baah Boamah
Jiangsu University, China
Title: Forecasting the carbon dioxide emission of china based on the brain storm optimisation algorithms
Biography:
Kofi Baah Boamah, a distinguished Researcher with over 12 years teaching and research experience in the field of Energy Economics, Environmental anagement, International Economics, International Trade, Applied Econometrics, Growth and Development, Foreign Direct Investments and Health Economics. He has several published articles in top Journals. He is currently with the Computational Centre for Social Sciences- School of Management, Jiangsu University, pursuing his PhD Studies.
Abstract:
This paper seeks to forecast the carbon emission of China using the BrainStorm Optimisation Algorithms (BSO). In recent years, the concentration of carbon dioxide emission of China is on the ascendancy. Yet, accurate prediction of air quality remains at the fringes of current studies. Though, several researchers have attempted to predict air quality of most countries;most studies adopted approaches varying from ordinary linear regressions, multivariate regressions, fuzzy logic to conventional swarm intelligence, which mostly leads to but inaccurate predictions owing to imminent inherent arameters problems in these approaches. Hence, the vital need for accurate prediction of air quality into the future whilst using robust techniques.This is to aid in monitoring and implementing of precise policies and reforms, tailored specifically for China. Our study, therefore, employed an augmented rainstorm optimization, originally proposed by Yushi S. for the prediction. Our study utilized the following paramount variables in recent literature on energy-environmental pollution nexus: energy consumption,economic growth, international trade and the carbon dioxide emission. Our findings revealed that the proposed Brainstorm optimization offer better prediction of the air quality in China when compared with the original BSO and the ARIMA model as it had better convergence speed, adaptive value, and better diagnostic error.
Nandita Nath
Nandita Nath, Tripura University, India
Title: Pichia kudriavzeviia NN/SG ll potential yeast strain isolated from Gora- a rice based fermented beer traditionally prepared by the indigenous Koloi tribes of Tripura
Biography:
Nandita Nath is a Research Scholar at the Tripura University, India. She has extended his valuable service for many years and has been a recipient of many award and grants. Her international experience includes various programs, contributions and participation in different countries for diverse fields of study. Her research interests reflect in his wide range of publications in various national and international journals.
Abstract:
Gora a rice based fermented beer traditionally prepared by the Koloi tribes of Tripura using indigenous brewing techniques. The present study aimed to isolate and identify the indigenous yeast flora of ‘Gora’ and evaluate its fermentation ability comparison with a industrial strain. Culture dependent approaches- phenotypic characterization were done to investigate the responsible yeast species and identified as Pichia kudriavzevii which was further confirmed by the molecular identification using partial 18S rRNA gene sequence. The reducing and non-reducing sugar content of ‘Gora’ was 1.19 ± 0.999 and 1.04 ± 0.010 mg/ml respectively. Whereas the carbohydrate, protein and Total alcohol content of the rice beer ‘Gora’ was 0.56 ±0.101,11.96 ± 0.001 mg/ml and 6.40 ± 0.008 % v/v. respectively. The comparative analysis of the isolate Pichia kudriavzeviia NN/SG II with the industrial strains in aboratory condition shows significant similarities in the nutritional parameters and alcohol percentages with the industrial strain. This is the first scientific investigation of indigenous yeast strain of ‘Gora’ from this region may provide sufficient background and potentiality for its scientific and logical appreciation and promoting the microbial legacy of indigenous alcoholic beverage as an immaterial cultural heritage for future as well as small scale commercialization for rural livelihood.
Marwa M Elmaghrabi
Alexandria University, Egypt
Title: Isolation and identification of predominant bacterial isolates infecting urinary tract
Biography:
Marwa M Elmaghrabi is currently a permanent researcher at Stem Cells and Tissue Culture Labs, Faculty of Medicine, Alexandria University, a healthcare and quality advisor at Canadian Academy of Sciences, Egypt. She has MSc in Microbiology (2012), Faculty of Science, Egypt. She accumulated 8-years of experience in quality and infection control, and appointed to a number of key jobs; ISO 9001:2015 Lead Auditor, quality manager (2015-2017) and quality and infection control manager (2013-2015) in Madina Fertility group, quality-specialist at Medical Research Institute, Alexandria University, 2015-2017, and senior quality assurance specialist and internal auditor at Hassab-Labs ompany, 2010-2013. She participated in a number of regional and international conferences and as a member of Organizing Committee of Microbial Ecology-2018 pre-conference workshop. She contributed to PAN-African and electronic network project as a broadcasting lecturer. She served as a member of the Egyptian Syndicate of Scientific professions, and Arab QOSH of safety professionals' experts.
Abstract:
In this study, bacterial isolates of the most common urinary tract infection of 100 patients were investigated. Patients comprised of equal gender and 50 patients were above 40 y/o and 50 were under 40 y/o. Only 55 patients were infected of whom 63.6% females and 36.4% males, and among them, 66% were above 40 y/o, and 44% were under 40 y/o. The dipstick test revealed 24% were positive for leukocytes, 13% were positive for nitrite, 14% were positive for both leukocyte and nitrite. Phase contrast microscopy revealed 15% were positive for pyuria, and 34% were positive for bacteriuria. Morphological description leukocytosis and bacteriuria colonies have grown on cultured on MacConkey and Blood agar plates were achieved, where 64 bacterial strains and four fungal strains were identified. Based on Gram staining and cell shapes, isolates were grouped into three categories; Gram (+) cocci, Gram (-) coccobacilli, and Gram (-) bacilli, and analyzed using SYSTAT® program. Following cluster analysis, a representative strain of each cluster was selected for identification using VITEK® system. Results showed eight groups of isolates; 28 E. coli, 9 Klebsiella pneumonia, 6 Pseudomonas aeruginosa, 6 Proteus mirabilis, 5 Staphylococcus aureus, 4 Enterococcus faecalis, 4 Morganella morganii and 2 Pseudomonas fluorescens. Large cells of Candida albicans were also identified. Results indicated that the most predominant uropathogenic was E. coli as it was found in 43.7% of the isolates followed by Klebsiella Pneumonia 14.1%. Both Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Proteus mirabilis were represented in 9.4% of the isolates while Staphylococcus aureus was recorded in 7.8% of the samples. Enterococcus faecalis and Morganella morganii were represented in 6.2% of the isolates, however, only 3.2% was recorded for Pseudomonas fluorescens.
Saeeda Yousaf
University of Peshawar, Pakistan
Title: Estimation of soil carbon in the moist temperate forests : A case study of Galiyat Pakistan
Biography:
Soon after graduation, she joined World Wide Fund for Nature-Pakistan (WWF) where she worked for almost 4 years since 1999-2003 on several projects related to education and natural resource management, etc. She worked with mountainous area’s women in Gilgit, Ishkoman valley, Hisper Valley, Chitral, Kashmir, Sudhan Gali, Swat, Mahudand, and Kalam etc. After that, she joined the University of Peshawar in September 2003 as a lecturer and in 2009 promoted to Assistant Professor. During this time she had worked on a variety of projects related to global environmental and climate change, Natural Resource Management,water pollution, and soil pollution etc., funded by HEC. To date, she has 22 publications in peer-reviewed journals. She has been teaching several courses of Environmental Sciences since 2003 and has supervised 83 research groups of graduates and undergraduates level students’ and 10 MS/M.Phil students mostly female students in the field of Environmental Sciences.
Abstract:
The soil plays an important role in capturing carbon from the atmosphere also known as Carbon Sequestration. The current study was conducted to estimate soil carbon in the moist temperate forests of Galiyat, Pakistan. Samples plots (n=15) were randomly laid out in moist temperate forests of the study area which covered most of the area of the Galies Forest Division. Soil samples were collected from 0 to 15 cm and 15 to 30 cm depth with the help of a soil agar. In each sample plot data was collected on slopes, aspect, crown cover, elevation, soil bulk density, and soil organic matter and soil carbon. In each sample, moisture content (%) and ashes (g) were determined. Sample plots taken were located on different slopes with mostly on moderate slopes. The majority of the sample plots was located on North Eastern aspects and was at an elevation greater than 2000 m. On the basis of crown cover, the sample plots were located in open, medium dense and dense forests. The value of organic matter in the soil samples having depth from 0 to 15cm (3.642 g) and 15 to 30 cm depth (3.178 g) were found. The value of soil carbon for soil having depth of 0 to 15cm (2.112 g) and soil having depth of 15 to 30 cm (1.843 g) was calculated. The bulk density in the soil sample was calculated having depth 0 to 15 cm (1.462 g/cm3) and 15 to 30 cm (1.337 g/cm3). Moisture content for the soil having depth of 0 to 15cm (6.195 %) and soil having depth of 15 to 30 cm (6.205 %) was observed and the ashes value for soil having depth of 0 to 15cm (94.279 g) and soil having depth of 15 to 30 cm (95.087 g) was determined.
Shweta Nistala
Ravishankar Shukla University, India
Title: The effect of biological microorganism products on maize vegetation and productivity
Biography:
Shweta Nistala recently defended for Ph.D degree from School of Studies in Biotechnology, Pt. Ravishankar Shukla University, Raipur, India. She is working as an environmental microbiologist and has expertise regarding isolation of the microbes using the modern cultivation approaches. She has been testing the microbes for biodegradation purpose of pesticides for achieving sustainability and also optimizing the growth and degradation conditions for the bacteria. She has been working in this particular area since three years. Achievements of isolating positive and responsive pollutant (especially pesticides) degrading bacteria have been made. In relation to this, she has published one paper and others are in communication.
Abstract:
Intensive and modern agriculture is extensively and purely based on the usage of pesticides for enhancing the crop productivity. In India, due to warm and humid climatic condition in most of the parts the agricultural productivity is under the major threat of variety of insects and pests. Hence, the highest consumption of pesticides is in agricultural sector. Organophosphates are one of the widely and globally used pesticides due to its easy availability and low economic price. Continuous and repeated use of organophosphates has become a major threat to soil environment due to its low water solubility, longer persistence and high soil adsorption coefficient. The present study emphasized on isolation and molecular authentication of organophosphate tolerant bacterial strains from paddy growing field using stimulated natural environment procedure. Molecular characterization identified the bacterial strains to be the member of Bacillus and Streptomyces genera. Scanning electron microscopy of one of the best tolerant bacteria revealed alterations in their cell surface as well as in their length and width. Total protein content was determined in the control sample and organophosphate (Chlorpyrifos) treated bacterial cells and accumulated data indicated a significant impact of applied concentrations of Chlorpyrifos on content of total protein predicting the expression of Chlorpyrifos responsive enzymes. Moreover, optimization of key growth regulators for the bacterial cell revealed that the 0.25% of Fructose and Yeast Extract was the optimum carbon and nitrogen source as well as 27.5oC and 8.0 were the best temperature and pH. Even, induction of Chlorpyrifos degrading enzymes was highest at pH 8.0 and temperature 30oC. Thus overall study suggested that the bacterium would be efficient and can be studied further in detail to be used for bioremediation of Chlorpyrifos contaminated sites.
Chair
William F Basener
Rochester Institute of Technology, USA
Co-Chair
Taha Nazir
ICDTD Inc., Canada
Session Introduction
Rafia Azmat
University of Karachi, Pakistan
Title: The remediation of drought stress under VAM inoculation through proline chemical transformation action
Biography:
Rafia Azmat has completed here PhD at the age of 42 years from University of Karachi leading to postdoctoral studies from same University. She is the Professor
in photochemistry in Department of chemistry in University of Karachi. She has published more than 125 papers in reputed journals, 5 chapters, 3 books and has
been serving as an editorial board member of repute journals. She has pufiled 4 patents and 3 patents atricles
Abstract:
The enhanced drought tolerance under arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) inoculation and normal growth, discussed in this article which was found to be very rewarding due to the activity of photoreceptors. The photoreceptor action under drought stress in dual symbiosis showed not only the high photosynthetic bustle but also provide information about the broad range of developmental and physiological responses. The pot experiment conducted in a natural environment where drought condition was observed twice a week via regular irrigation with water up to 12 months. Plant analysis showed the highest concentration of water, hydrogen peroxide, carotenoids and proline in both leaves and roots with a large surface area of leaves followed by regular growth. It suggested that the elevated concentration of hydrogen peroxide (0.04±0.0 μmol(gFW)-1) coupled with singlet oxygen species was the main modified molecular mechanism which was operative in drought condition. The accretion of proline under drought stress (32.3±0.3 μg/ml) was related to the highest branching pattern of young leaves and the chemical transformation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) including H2O2 and 3O2 into effective molecules like water and triplet molecular oxygen. The higher contents of carotenoids 5.0±1.2 mg(gFW)-1) in drought over control (4.8±1.6 mg(gFW)-1) and AM plant (4.9±1.2 mg(gFW)-1) was found to be supportive in the conversion of singlet oxygen into triplet one. The formation of water molecule via OH radical transformation related to the rehydration capability of proline in a drought condition followed by the transmutation of singlet oxygen into triplet oxygen couple with the absorption of CO2 was the internal molecular mechanism for normal the growth.
Taha Nazir
Taha Nazir, ICDTD Inc., Canada
Title: Extensive Drug Resistant (XDR) to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MGD’s)
Biography:
Taha Nazir has multiple expertise with advanced knowledge of microbiology, pharmacology, and molecular biology. He was awarded the PhD (Microbiology) degree in 2010. Whereas, he got his post-graduation in Pharmacology from University of Agriculture and graduation in pharmacy from the University of Punjab. He has more than twenty year’s research, academic and professional experience. Additionally, his research interest includes the drug designing, novel formulations,cell pathology, epidemiologies, and biotechnology. Moreover, He has worked at prestigious research, academic and professional including Associate Professor,Associate Dean (Pharmaceutical Sciences), Chairman Board of Directors and President (Pharmacist Federation). He has worked with ICDTD Inc., Saskatoon SK,
Drug Store Pharmacy Calgary AB, Medicine Shoppe Pharmacy Saskatoon SK, and the University of Lahore and the University of Sargodha. Additionally, he has presided, chaired and participated in so many scientific/ academic/ professional conferences/ workshops and/ or training sessions. Currently, He is associated with ICDTD Inc. Canada as Head - Microbiology, Chemical Pathology and Molecular Biology Research Group, ICDTD Inc., Canada. Moreover, he performs a variety of role to develop partnerships between academic and practical skills. He has compiled six different books entitled Applied Pharmacotherapy, Applied Molecular Cell Biology, Clinical and Pharmaceutical Management of Diseases and Practical Manual of Pharmacology & Therapeutics. He has authored more than 30 research
articles published in reputed and accredited scientific journals.
Abstract:
There are ≥2’000’000 people get resistance against antibiotics every year in United State. CDC has graded bacterial resistance as worst reason of deaths and hospitalizations in US. The superbugs' include MDR/ XDR, MRSA, CRE, NDM-1, C-Diff, Neisseria gonorrhea, CRE (Carbapenem resistant nterobacteriaceae) and VRE (Vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus) are most
common threats for successful control of infectious diseases. Antimicrobial resistance is a serious threat that induced new resistance mechanics, emerged and spread throughout the world. Approximately 450 000 new MDR-TB cases were identified during 2012. XDR-TB strains identified in 92 different countries. Worldwide mostly the resistance seen in pneumonia,urinary tract infections and bloodstream. The expansion of worldwide travel and trade has prompted the transmission of resistant superbug strains. The resistance is an evolutionary and natural phenomenon, that may be activated and transmitted
to next generation. Inappropriate use (overuse, underuse or misuse) of antimicrobials drives the development of resistance.Appropriate pharmaceutical care may potentially reduce the resistance. The sub-therapeutic regimens in veterinary practice may produce and transmit resistant to humans. Substandard clinical practice and poor infection control may produce resistant
superbugs. The admitted patients are good reservoirs, carriers and source of infection transmission. The current antibiotics are losing their efficacy against resistant supergubs. Moreover, a declined trend to investigate for new antibiotics, insufficientresearch to collect the information of resistant strains and unavailability of vaccines may posed potential threats. Moreover,
the hazards from resistance superbugs are increasing and demanded an urgent action. The multifarious problems of resistance superbugs need a collective effort. Thus, WHO is calling for prompt action to stop the transmission of antibiotic resistance by introducing a 6 point policy package. Thus, in September 2000, the United Nations Millennium Declaration was signed. Eight
major MDG’s goals designed by the United Nations (UN). The UN members were agreed to attain these objectives by the year 2015. The world leaders were convinced to fight against poverty, hunger, environmental degradation, disease, discrimination against women and illiteracy. The designing, approval and enforcement of appropriate drug regulations may potentially help to optimize the pharmacotherapy and mitigate the emergence of antibiotic resistance. A prospective jurisprudential support is necessary to assure standard pharmaceutical care. The pharmacy professional and drug experts are expected to deliver their exact scientific and professional role of prescription reviewing, patient counseling, therapeutical drug monitoring,bio-safety, clinical services and pharmaceutical care instead of current irrelevant, non-technical, administrative and clerical work. Appropriate clinical and pharmaceutical care will minimized the resistance against. The pharmacovigilance, ADR’s, pharmacoeconomics and pharmacometrics should also be implicated to achieve the MDG’s in SEA countries.
Biography:
Hiromi Shiota has started his research for forestry management for 4 years after retirement from an IT vender. He is interested in Airborne Laser Scan of Remote
Sensing technology. He is now trying to measure average tree height in wide area by using large size ALS data with Area Based Approach. To operate large data,
for example, merge or divide data, change data format, or smoothing like these. He thinks, Fusion/LDV that developed by USDA is an excellent tool to analysis
LiDAR data. However, he is 65 years old now, but he keeps studying with the will.
Abstract:
Introduction: In recent years, many analyses have been conducted on the vertical structure of the forest using airborne LiDAR data. To analyze LiDAR data, analysis software is developed in Europe and USA. The forest conditions are quite differences between these countries and Japan. In this study, we used Fusion/LiDAR Data Viewer (LDV) software that developed in the USA, as a tool to analyze LiDAR data. The purpose of this study is to verify the efficacy of Fusion/LDV in Japanese forest management, in terms of function, accuracy, and type of output obtained using this software.
Methods: The verification parameters used in this study were tree height, crown base height (CBH), and crown width (CW).We used three data sources-automatically extracted Fusion/LDV data, manually measured Fusion/LDV data, and field survey data. In order to compare the obtained data, we used scatter diagram analysis, root-mean-square error (RMSE), and differences
from three different types of field survey data.Results: The study findings confirmed relatively high precision of both the automatic and manual measurements by Fusion/LDV in estimating tree height. The inclination of linear regression was over 0.9 in two survey areas. The results of R square were over 0.7. But while neither the measurement of CBH nor that of CW had such precision. The inclination of linear regression
was near zero or minus values.
Conclusion: For individual tree height measurement Fusion/LDV was very useful when a tree has a clear peak, it was available
enough in Japanese forest environment.
- Poster Presentations
Session Introduction
Zhao Baisuo
Graduate School Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS), China
Title: Complete genome sequence of Alkalitalea saponilacus, an anaerobic haloalkaliphilic bacterium capable of secreting halostable xylanase
Biography:
The focus of Baisuo Zhao research is bacterial taxonomy and microbial physiology, Molecular mechanisms of gene expression and mutagenesis. He is also interested in studies of molecular microbial ecology including the genetic and the functional diversity of microbial communities. His third research interest onMicrobial Genomics & Metagenomics involves in genome analysis of pure isolates and metagenomics from extreme conditions, reactors etc.
Abstract:
The anaerobic haloalkaliphile Alkalitalea saponilacus SC/BZ-SP2T could utilize xylan as sole carbon source and produce propionate as the main fermentation product. The xylanase activity from A. using the combined substrates of 0.4% (w/v) sucrose + 0.1% (w/v) birch xylan was 3.2-fold than that of 0.5% (w/v) sucrose or 0.5% (w/v) birch xylan. The xylanse is halo-stable as it exhibited optimal activity at a broad range of 2-6% NaCl. Its activity was inhibited by Cu2+, Fe3+, Ni2+, Al3+,Mn2+, Co2+, Zn2+ and Ca2+ while increased 1.16-fold with the addition of Tween 20. In order to get a deep understanding of the potential genetic mechanisms of xylanase secretion and adaptive saline-alkali tolerance, the complete genome sequence of strain SC/BZ-SP2T was performed with the Pacbio SMRT and Illumina Misseq platforms. The genome contained one chromosome, with the total size of 4,775,573 bps, and the G+C content of this strain was 39.27%. A number of genes related to xylan degradation and its complete xylan degradation pathway, xyn A gene of xylanase belonging to a glycoside hydrolase (GH) family 10 and its neighborhood genes were systematically identified. Furthermore, various genes involved in biosynthesis and transportation of osmolytes, as well as genes encoding monovalent cation/proton antiporters, multi-subunit sodium/
proton antiporters, F0F1-ATP synthases, H+-transporting ATPases, Na+/solute symporters and K+ transport systems were predicted. This genome sequence provides molecular information and elucidation for halo-stable xylanase production, and will be used in the biotechnology.
Andre F Cruz
Kyoto Prefectural University, Japan
Title: Operational taxonomic units that distinguish soils of crops and fruits in the whole Japan
Biography:
Andre Freire Cruz had focused on evaluation of soil microbial status as indicator of sustainability. He has worked with many agricultural soils, recently has concentrated on fruit orchards in Japan and other countries especially concerning on analysis of microbial growth and activity. He has used many methods to evaluate the soil biology, but actually most of his researches are using metagenome analysis of bacterial and fungal genes and their relation with other soils properties.
Abstract:
The microbial community evaluation constitutes an essential topic to access the soil health conditions, with special regard to the operational taxonomic units (OTU). This data can easily represent the soil bacterial condition and also might distinguish many kinds of environment, such as urban areas, and agricultural soils. As a criterion to set up a “finger-print” for agricultural soils in terms of microbial community, metagenomic profiles from crops and fruit soils had their OTU analyzed after the normalizing their abundance where the sum of each sample was equivalent to 1. The bacterial and fungal genes were the target region evaluated by principal component analysis (PCA). Although some dominant taxonomic groups were constantly present in most of the soils, the OTU within the bacterial and fungal communities were specific according to the land use type (crops or fruits) i.e. each one had a remarkable difference in terms of OTU. Hokkaido prefecture contained most of specific groups, whereas other prefectures were more diverse. Similar profile was found in fungal genes. Within the bacterial genes a few number of OTUs made possible to separate crops and fruit soils, however for the fungal ones a large number
was necessary for the same goal. The bacterial representative genera were Nitrospira (involved with Nitrogen cycling) and Arthrobacter. Whereas the Fusarium was the most important fungus in terms of OTU bioindicator.
Yan Yanchun
Graduate School Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS), China
Title: Clustering Analysis of global soil microbe metagenome for characterizing community diversity
Biography:
Yanchun Yan has her expertise in bioremediation of environmental pollution and passion in improving the health and wellbeing. Her research team has been focused on the bioremediation for more than twenty years, and they have isolated more than 60 strains of bacteria or fungi capable of degrading pesticides or environmental estrogen chemicals. The degradation characteristics of the strains and a number of genes or gene clusters encoding key enzymes were investigated. These researches provided significant resources of strains and genes for bioremediation, and lay theoretical foundation for the degradation mechanism of pollutants.
Abstract:
Di-(2-ethylehxyl) phthalate (DEHP) is the most broadly representative phthalate esters (PAEs) used as a plasticizer and considered an endocrine-disrupting chemical. An efficient DEHP-degrading strain Rhodococcus ruber YC-YT1, with salt tolerance (0~12% NaCl), is the first DEHP-degrader isolated from marine plastic debris around coastal saline seawater, which could completely degraded 100 mg/L DEHP within 72 hours. Single factors (pH, temperature, and glucose) analysis and the optimum degradation conditions for the strain were measured by response surface methodology (RSM). According to HPLCMS analysis, DEHP was transformed by strain YC-YT1 into phthalate (PA) via mono (2-ethylehxyl) phthalate (MEHP), and then PA was used for cell growth. Furthermore, YC-YT1 metabolized initial concentrations of DEHP from 0.5 to 1000 mg/L.Especially, YC-YT1 degraded up to 60% of 0.5 mg/L DEHP. Moreover, compared with previous reports, strain YC-YT1 has the largest substrate spectrum, degrading up to 13 kinds of PAEs as well as diphenyl, PA, benzoic acid, protocatechuic acid (PCA), and 1,2,3,3-tetrachlorobenzene. Strain YC-YT1 could adjust its cell surface hydrophobicity (CSH) in the environment and 79.7~95.9% of DEHP-contaminated soil and water was remedied. These results demonstrate that strain YC-YT1 has vast potential to bioremediate various DEHP-contaminated environments, especially in saline environments. The whole genome sequence of strain YC-YT1 was obtained by the PacBio sequencing platform and submitted to GenBank (CP023712), which contained a circular genome and two plasmids. The genes and gene clusters involved in the degradation of PAEs and aromatic compounds, especially the phthalate dioxygenase genes and ring- cleavage dioxygenase genes, which involved the degradation of diphenyl, PCA, benzoate and phthalate were analyzed by comparative genomics analysis. Two genes (Dehp1199 and Mehp4077) encoding DEHP degrading esterases were obtained, condon optimization, expressed and verified. Dehp1199 is a novel alkaline esterase and the enzymological characteristics were analyzed.
Tetsushi Tanaka
Kyoto Prefectural University, Japan
Title: Clustering Analysis of global soil microbe metagenome for characterizing community diversity
Biography:
Tetsushi Tanaka belongs to Computational Systems Biology Laboratory in Nara Institute of Science and Technology and has studied bioinformatics, especially microbiome analysis. He is also familiar with molecular biology and was graduated from Saitama University with a bachelor's degree in Science.
Abstract:
Microbial communities in soil depend on environmental features such as land use and geographic isolation. In this study, we have analyzed soil metagenomes sampled from a wide range in the globe and variety of land use in the context of the environment or ecosystem, from Earth Microbiome Project, containing 4998 samples and 48674 operational taxonomic units (OTUs). The final goal of this work is to discover characteristic microbiota that corresponds to land use and environment. It is worth noting that microbiome OTU data is high dimensional but sparse and many OTUs are phylogenetically related. By
taking those factors into consideration, we tried to develop bioinformatics, computational methods as follows:
(1) Data were labeled into 8 land use categories and applied to Random Forested to reduce variables, and we selected OTUs which relates to land use categories.
(2) By using these OTUs, the differences between microbial communities were defined and clustered by UniFrac Distance which computes the distance difference based on the phylogenetic information.
The results lead to the interpretation that some clusters are composed of the samples from specific areas and environments,such as cropland in Japan, montane grassland in Mongolia, tundra, and forest, and some of those clusters are characterized by different dominant OTUs, e. g. DA 101, which is known as the one of the most abundant microbial phylotypes. We have concluded that the clusters of individual lands are quite clearly reflecting the ecosystems and can be characterized by the OTUs in the microbial community.
Serrano-Silva N,
National Autonomous University of Mexico, Mexico
Title: Metagenomic detection of bacteria and fungi in the atmosphere of Mexico City
Biography:
Nancy Serrano-Silva has her expertise in molecular methods to study microbial communities in environmental samples, mainly soils and air. Currently she is a Posdoctoral Researcher in the Center of atmospheric sciences at National Autonomous University of Mexico. Serrano-Silva and Calderón-Ezquerro have been working since 3 years ago in the implementation of metagenomic to evaluation of air quality (indoor and outdoor) in Mexico City. This is one of the first jobs that report the use of equipment such as the Hirst spore trap and the Durham sampler to collect and identify the microbiota of the atmosphere by using a metagenomic focus.
Abstract:
Bioaerosols significantly affect atmospheric processes. The identification of airborne bacteria and fungi has traditionally been performed by retrieval in culture media, but in this way their diversity in the air is underestimated. Advances in DNA sequencing technology have produced a broad knowledge of genomics and metagenomics, so the objective of this study was to efficiently recover microorganisms from the air and standardize monitoring protocols, sample processing and molecular detection of bioaerosols of the Mexico City. To examine this bioaerosols we performed deep sequencing on the 16S rRNA
and ITS genes from air samples collected during ten weeks (February to May, 2016) in south of Mexico City. Three samplers were used: a Durham-type spore trap (Durham), a seven-day recording volumetric spore trap (HST), and a high-throughput 'Jet' spore and particle sampler (Jet). A simple and efficient method for collecting bioaerosols and extracting good quality DNA for deep sequencing was standardized. The most abundant bacteria phyla in the air were Actinobacteria, Proteobacteria and Firmicutes. The HST sampler collected the largest amount of airborne bacterial and fungal diversity, however it may be
preferred to use one or the other sampler, as each one collected preferentially some groups, i.e. Durham favors the sampling of Cyanobacteria and HST the sampling of Firmicutes. The most abundant fungal phyla in the air were Ascomycota and Basidiomycota. Methods of sampling and processing of samples for metagenomic detection of bacteria and fungi in the air were standardized, which allows a deep exploration of the diversity of airborne bacteria and fungi.
- Young Research Forum
Session Introduction
Wesley J Basener
Piedmont Valley, USA
Title: A model for the ecological collapse of easter island caused by economic price fixing
Biography:
Wesley Basener is a student researcher at the Piedmont Valley Community College. His areas of expertise include population modeling, population genetics,
topology, data mining, and dynamical systems.
Abstract:
Easter Island, called Rapa Nui by its inhabitants, is an extremely isolated population, ideally suited for study as an ecosystem in isolation. Archeological evidence suggests that an initial group of around 50 people arrived on the island around 400 AD, at which time the island had an abundant supply of large palm trees supporting a vibrant ecosystem. The population grew in size and sophistication, creating the enormous and artistically complex statues for which the island is famous. By the 1700s, when the island was visited by explorers, the island was devoid of trees and the population seemed too small and poorly equipped to have built the statues. There have been many proposed 'causes' for the boom and crash of this population, including ecocide, genocide, and invasive species. In this presentation, we review some of the previous models and propose an ecological economics model showing that if the price of trees were effectively fixed, then the supply and demand interactions
could have caused a boom in population, complete exhaustion of the trees, and subsequent collapse of the population.
Biography:
Tatiane Flore Mayo Ngouno is the Projects and Policy Analyst of the city of Kumba, the largest municipality in the South West Region of Cameroon. She started her career as a Microprojects Associate at City of Kumba. After immense progress, she received sponsorship to study International Economics at the Ternopil National Economics University, Ukraine. She obtained a Bachelors’ degree in International Economics in June 2017. She then returned to city council of Kumba where she is presently working
Abstract:
Old growth forest in existing protected areas store more carbon than restored forests or plantations. Carbon storage in such forests has economic value independent of additionality, offering opportunities for policymakers to ensure their maintenance, and inclusion in climate change mitigation strategies. Old growth forests of the Meme Conservation Area (MCA), South West Region, Cameroon, though protected, face external stressors such as hydrological alterations because of flooding control structures and agriculture impacts. Moreover, decreased funding threatens the restoration of the Meme Conservation Area’s old growth forest. We evaluate several economic and ecological challenges confronting the economic valuation of total (vegetation plus soil) organic carbon (TOC) storage in the MCA old growth forest. Evaluated TOC stockpiling for this forested wetland ranges begins from 70 to 537 Mg C/ha and is higher than values revealed for tropical, boreal, and mild woodlands. We calculate the average abatement cost of C specific for MCA forest to value the TOC from 20–30.4 billion CFA. The valuation of the stored/legacy carbon is based on the: 1) ecogeomorphic attributes, 2) regional socio-economic milieu, and 3) status of the MCA old growth forest as a protected area. The assessment of C storage estimates and its economic value can change public perception about how this regulating ecosystem service supports human well-being and numerous economic activities. This perception, in turn, can contribute to future policy changes such that the MCA, the largest old growth forest conservation area in Cameroon, can be included as a potential alternative in climate change mitigation strategies.
- Video Presentations