Uses and Classifications of Bacteria

Sunday, January 4, 2009

Uses of Bacteria :

  • A bacterium breaks down the organic fertilizer (decomposed vegetables and animal matter) into material that can be used by plants.
  • Some species of soil bacteria convert nitrogen into nitrites, compounds that are readily absorbed by plants.
  • Different commercial processes also need certain bacteria, like Anaerobic bacteria that ferment certain substances are used in the production of vinegar and some drugs, and in the aging process of cheeses.
  • Some bacteria also produce waste products that are beneficial to humans, like Lactic acid, it is produced by intestinal bacteria and can promotes digestion in humans.
  • Bacteria are also grown commercially and it is added to certain foods like yogurt and drinks.
  • Bacteria are also used to chemically break down the tough, woody tissues of flax, jute, hemp, and coconut.
  • Bacteria are also being used in modern sewage disposal known as Bioremediation, it is a process by which bacteria are added to water or soil to convert toxic pollutants, such as pesticides and oil, into harmless substances.
Classifications of Bacteria: Bacteria are prokaryotes, that is, they are organisms that lack membranes surrounding their genetic material. Bacteria is reproduce mainly by simple, or binary, fission (splitting). Under certain condition, a mature organism splits apart to form two new organisms, it can multiply very fast and it can double its number every 20minutes. Budding is another way bacteria reproduce, it is a process in which a small out-growth from a single parent develops into a new, identical organism. There are also few bacteria that can reproduce sexually under certain conditions, this happen when two bacteria unite to form a zygote, which splits into new cells. There are some bacteria that can form a colonies big enough to be seen without using a microscope.

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Monolithic Columns for Biomolecule Analysis

During the development and production of therapeutic proteins, characterization of structural variants that can influence safety and efficacy is a critical challenge that must be met, according to the FDA and other regulatory agencies. For instance, microheterogeneity is a major constraint in developing monoclonal antibody therapeutics. These antibody variants can result from glycosylation, oxidation, mutation, phosphorylation, amino terminal modifications, incomplete processing of the c-terminus, and asparagine deamidation. There is a growing need for better chromatographic separation technologies to reliably resolve these variants. The technologies must combine speed and capacity without compromising resolution. Often, multidimensional chromatography is required to achieve desired separation of molecules of interest. This necessitates use of a high-capacity column in the first dimension to support sufficient sample to identify rare proteins of interest. However, high-resolution columns generally lack the necessary capacity to be considered for the first dimension. Speed and resolution are competing factors in separations using porous media. This trade-off is exacerbated in the separation of large biomolecules such as proteins and oligonucleotides. Under these conditions, increased flow rate can lead to significant broadening of peaks due to the mass transfer problem.

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