Chemistry: molecular biology and microbiology – Micro-organism – tissue cell culture or enzyme using process... – Process involving micro-organisms of different genera in the...
Reexamination Certificate
2000-03-27
2003-03-11
Lilling, Herbert J. (Department: 1741)
Chemistry: molecular biology and microbiology
Micro-organism, tissue cell culture or enzyme using process...
Process involving micro-organisms of different genera in the...
Reexamination Certificate
active
06531293
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an immobilized microbial consortium and a process for the preparation of the said immobilized microbial consortium, useful for rapid and reliable BOD estimation.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART
Rapid analytical devices have attracted tremendous interest and attention in science and technology for their wide range of possible application as an alternative to conventional analytical techniques. Analytical devices are sensitive to biological parameters and consist of a biological sensing element such as microbes, enzymes, etc., in close contact with a physico-chemical transducer such as an electrode, which converts biological signal to a quantitative response. These devices have several unique features such as compact size, simple to use, one step reagent-less analysis, low cost and quick real time results.
Rapid analytical devices, termed as biosensors, have the potential for a major impact in the human health care, environmental monitoring, food analysis and industrial process control. Among these, microbial biosensors (the devices using microbes as biological component), have great potential in environmental monitoring. Recent trends in biotechnology suggest that monitoring and control of pollutant by means of microbial biosensors may be of crucial importance. Such microbial sensors, constructed by entrapping the required micro-organisms in suitable polymeric matrices and attached to a transducer, function on the basis of assimilatory capacity of the micro-organisms. In addition, microbial biosensors are more stable and inexpensive for the determination of compounds of interest as compared to enzyme-based biosensors; where enzymes employed in enzyme-based biosensors require costly extraction and purification prior to use as biocatalysts. Further, micro-organisms employed in microbial biosensors show a high degree of stability as compared to enzymes.
The vast majority of micro-organisms are relatively easy to maintain in pure cultures, grow and harvest at low cost. Moreover, the use of microbes in biosensor field have opened up new possibilities and advantages such as ease of handling, preparation and low cost of the device. Such devices will help in monitoring the compounds of environmental interest such as Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD), heavy metals, pesticides, phenols, etc.
Among the environmental parameters, the potential demand for rapid BOD monitoring device is higher, since, BOD is a parameter which is measured most frequently by many industries for measuring the level of pollution of waste-waters. BOD provides information about the amount of biodegradable substances in waste-waters.
Conventional BOD test takes 3-5 days and as a consequence, is unsuitable for use in direct process control. A more rapid estimation of BOD is possible by developing a BOD biosensor. Such BOD biosensors are able to reduce the time of BOD test upto a great extent.
A number of microbial BOD sensors have been developed nationally and internationally (Rajasekar et al, 1992 and Karube, 1977). A number of pure cultures, eg.,
Trichosporon cutaneum, Hansenula anamola, Bacillus cereus, Bacillus subtilis, Klebsiella oxytoca,
Pseudomonas sp., etc., individually, have been used by many workers for the construction of BOD biosensor (Preinenger et al, 1994; Hyun et al, 1993, Li and Chu 1991; Riedel et al, 1989 and Sun and Kiu, 1992). Karube et al, (1992) developed a BOD biosensor by utilizing thermophilic bacteria isolated from Japanese hot spring. On the other hand, most of the workers have immobilized activated sludge (Vanrolleghem et al 1990; Kong et al 1993; Vanrolleghem et al, 1984), or a mixture of two or three bacterial species (Iki, 1992 and Galindo et al 1992) on various membranes for the construction of BOD biosensor. The most commonly used membranes were polyvinyl alcohol, porous hydrophilic membranes, etc. Riedel et al, (1988), have used polyvinyl alcohol for the immobilization of
Bacillus subtilis
or
Trichosporon cutaneum
which are used for the development of BOD biosensor. Vinegar (1993) immobilized
Klebsiella oxyoca
on porous hydrophilic membranes such as nitrocellulose, acetyl cellulose, polyvinylidene flouride or polyether sulfone, 50-2000 micrometer thick. Cellulose acetate membrane was used for the immobilization of
Lipomyces kononankoae
and
Asperillus niger
(Hartmeier et al, 1993).
The drawback of such developed BOD biosensors which are constructed by using either single, pure culture or activated sludge is that they do not give reproducible results, as single microbe is not able to assimilate/degrade all the organic compounds and therefore may not respond for the total organic matter present in the test sample (eg., carbohydrates, proteins, fats, grease, etc.) Moreover, in the activated sludge either non-specific predominating microorganisms are present thereof or microorganisms with antagonistic effects are present which may produce erratic results. On the other hand, randomly selected mixtures of two or three micro-organisms also do not give reproducible, comparable BOD results. The reproducibility of the BOD biosensor can be obtained by formulating a defined microbial composition.
To avoid the discrepancies in BOD results as well as to get instant BOD values using rapid analytical devices, in the present invention, a defined microbial composition is formulated by conducting a systematic study, i.e., pre-testing of selected micro-organisms for use as a seeding material in BOD analysis of a wide variety of industrial effluents. The formulated microbial consortium is capable of assimilating most of the organic matter present in different industrial effluents. The formulated microbial consortium has been immobilized on suitable membrane i.e., charged nylon membrane useful for BOD estimation. Suitability of the charged nylon membrane lies in the specific binding between the negatively charged bacterial cell and positively charged nylon membrane. So, the advantages of the used membrane over other membranes are the dual binding i.e., adsorption as well as entrapment, thus resulting in a more stable immobilized membrane. Such specific microbial consortium based BOD analytical devices, may find great application in on-line monitoring of the degree of pollutional strength, in a wide variety of industrial waste-waters within a very short time (from 3-5 days to within an hour), which is very essential from pollution point of view.
For solving the aforementioned problems, the applicants have realized that there exists a need to provide a process for the preparation of a defined synergistic microbial consortium immobilized on a suitable support i.e., charged nylon membrane, useful for BOD estimation. The said microbial consortium is capable of assimilating most of the organic matter present in different industrial effluents.
OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION
The main object of the present invention is to provide a microbial consortium and a process for the preparation of the microbial consortium immobilized on a suitable support useful for BOD estimation.
The formulated microbial consortium comprises of cultures of the following bacteria viz.,
Aerornonas hydrophila, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Yersinia enterocolitica, Serratia liquefaciens, Pseudomonas fluorescens, Enterobacter cloaca, Klebsiella oxytoca, Citrobacter amalonaticus
and
Enterobacter sakazaki.
The individual bacteria of microbial consortium are pre-tested by using them as a seeding material in BOD analysis of a wide variety of industrial effluents. The micro-organisms have been selected for the formulation of microbial consortium on the basis of pre-testing. The formulated microbial consortium is obtained by inoculating a suspension of these bacteria individually. Incubating at 37° C., mixing all bacterial cultures in equal proportions based on optical density and centrifuging. The resultant pellet is immobilized on suitable support, i.e., charged nylon membrane by entrapment and adsorption on the charged surface of the membrane. The said, charged immobilized microbial membr
Kumar Rita
Makhijani Santosh Dayaram
Manoharan A.
Rastogi Shikha
Sharma Alka
Council of Scientific and Industrial Research
Ladas & Parry
Lilling Herbert J.
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