Trello Beffa

• PhD
• Founder and CEO at MADEP SA

Waste biomass deriving from agricultural activities has different destinations depending on the possibility of applying it to specific processes. As the waste biomass is abundant, cheap, and generally safe, it can be used for several applications, biogas production being the most relevant from the quantitative point of view. In this study, we have...

A pilot scale membrane bioreactor (MBR) was bioaugmented with the aquatic fungal isolate Phoma sp. UHH 5-1-03, and the removal of the water-polluting pharmaceutically active compounds (PhACs)Diclofenac and Carbamazepine from non-sterile municipal wastewater was successfully demonstrated over several weeks. Concomitantly, the long-term presence of...

Microbacterium sp. strain BR1 is a bacterial strain that recently received attention for its capability to mineralize sulfamethoxazole (SMX) and other sulfonamides. In this study, the survival of Microbacterium sp. in municipal sludge waters was tested in batch experiments to explore optimal process conditions. Inoculation of Microbacterium sp. was...

In this study, we isolated five strains capable of degrading 14C-labeled sulfamethoxazole to 14CO2 from a membrane bioreactor acclimatized to sulfamethoxazole, carbamazepine, and diclofenac. Of these strains, two belonged to the phylum Actinobacteria, while three were members of the Proteobacteria.

The fungitoxic effect of increasing concentrations of elemental sulphur (S°) was studied during the pregermination period of spores of Phomopsis viticola and conidia of Neurospora crassa. High concentrations of S° (> 10 μM final concentration) inhibited respiratory activities strongly and decreased the ATP content of spores and conidia. S° at low c...

35S-labelled elemental sulphur (S°) at nontoxic levels (3 μM) was incorporated into sulphur amino acids and glutathione by the spores of the fungus Phomopsis viticola. Incorporation studies were performed with 3 μM 35S° during the pregermination period of P. viticola spores. The free sulphur amino acids and protein sulphur amino acids were purified...

Beffa, T., Pezet, R. and Turian, G. 1987. Multiple-site inhibition by colloidal elemental sulfur (S°) of respiration by mitochondria from young dormant α spores of Phomopsis viticola. Mitochondria from young dormant α spores of Phomopsis viticola Sacc. (ATCC 44940) were isolated by grinding and differential centrifugation. They presented a good int...

Extracellular xylanase activity and thermostratification were monitored during the thermogenic phase of industrial composting (mainly garden waste) in aerated trenches. Xylanase activity was assayed at different temperatures and pH by incubation of clarified compost extracts with xylan. The highest xylanase activity and temperatures were measured d...

This is the first detailed report of xylanolytic activity in Thermus strains. Two highly thermophilic xylanolytic bacteria, very closely related to non-xylanolytic T. thermophilus strains, have been isolated from the hottest zones of compost piles. Strain X6 was investigated in more detail. The growth rate (optical density monitoring) on xylan was...

Thermogenic composts are known to host a variety of thermophilic micro-organisms that were recently investigated by cultural means and identified as Thermus thermophilus, Bacillus spp., and Hydrogenobacter spp. In this paper, we present a classical, cultural enumeration of thermophilic populations on the one hand, and a molecular investigation of t...

The influence of the windrow turning frequency on the pro liferation and dispersion of Aspergillus fumigatus (AF) at a classic, open-air windrow composting site was investigated. Independent of the turning frequency, the intially high con centrations of AF (>106 cfu/gDW ) were strongly reduced already after 2 weeks of composting in the center of al...

This paper presents some recent developments regarding current work on hygienic aspects, in particular the presence and dispersion of fungi (e.g. Aspergillus fumigatus), of biological waste and compost.

The restriction enzyme profiles of 16S ribosomal DNAs (rDNAs) amplified by PCR from thermophilic heterotrophic bacterial strains isolated from composts were compared with those of reference strains. This allowed us to assign all but 1 of 16 strains to four different Bacillus species (namely, Bacillus stearothermophilus, Bacillus pallidus, Bacillus...

High numbers (10(7) to 10(10) cells per g [dry weight]) of heterotrophic, gram-negative, rod-shaped, non-sporeforming, aerobic, thermophilic bacteria related to the genus Thermus were isolated from thermogenic composts at temperatures between 65 and 82 degrees C. These bacteria were present in different types of wastes (garden and kitchen wastes an...

A variety of autotrophic, sulfur- and hydrogen-oxidizing thermophilic bacteria were isolated from thermogenic composts at temperatures of 60–80° C. All were penicillin G sensitive, which proves that they belong to the Bacteria domain. The obligately autotrophic, non-spore-forming strains were gram-negative rods growing at 60–80°C, with an optimum a...

Composting is a self-heating, aerobic solid phase biodegradative process of organic waste materials, making possible its return to the environment as soil fertilizer and conditioner (Finstein & Morris, 1975; de Bertoldi & Zucconi, 1987; Finstein, 1992). Temperature increase involves a rapid transition from a mesophilic to a thermophilic microflora...

Composting at industrial scale (installations treating. 100 tons per year) is increasingly used in Switzerland for the stabilization of organic waste and the recycling of humigenic materials. In 1992, 320.000 tons of garden and kitchen waste were treated in 150 composting sites, 80% thereof treating more than 1.000 t/a (1). Even if mature composts...

A great variety and high numbers of aerobic thermophilic heterotrophic and/or autotrophic bacteria growing at temperatures between 60–80°C have been isolated from thermogenic (temperature 60–80°C) composts in several composting facilities in Switzerland. They include strains related to the genus Thermus (T. thermophilus. T. aquaticlls. and several...

In this study we measured the exogenous production and the intracellular content of elemental sulfur (S0) in the thermophilic sulfur-oxidizing bacteriaHydrogenobacter spp. andBacillus schlegelii during mixolithoautotrophic growth on hydrogen and thiosulfate. Under these conditions, all strains produced and released white-yellow hydrophilic S0 parti...

Thiobacillus denitrificans strain RT, an obligate sulfur-oxidizing chemolithoautotroph, was grown under microaerophilic conditions with thiosulfate as the only energy source. The rates of tetrathionate, thiosulfate, elemental sulfur (So) and sulfite oxidation were measured respirometrically with an oxygen electrode, using actively growing cells. Ce...

Thiobacillus novellus (type strain) was grown chemolithoautrophically on thiosulfate in batch cultures under microaerophilic conditions. Under these conditions,T. novellus grew exponentially (=0.05–0.06 h–1). The respiratory oxidation rates of tetrathionate, thiosulfate, elemental sulfur (So), and sulfite were measured respirometrically with an oxy...

Heterotrophic pyruvate-limited steady-state continuous cultures of the bacterium Aquuspirillum rurtotrophicum were perturbed with a pulse injection of a small volume of concentrated pyruvate solution. These cultures exhibited an instantaneous change in the growth dynamics, turning from steady state to apparently linear growth. These transient growt...

Thiobacillus tepidarius (type strain) was grown in microaerophilic conditions, on tetrathionate, thiosulfate or crystalline So. The rates of tetrathionate, thiosulfate, elemental sulfur (So) and sulfite oxidation of the different cultures were measured respirometrically, using exponentially growing cells, with an oxygen electrode. Cells growing on...

The rates of thiosulfate, elemental sulfur (S0) and sulfite oxidation were measured respirometrically with an oxygen electrode using young cells of Thiobacillus versutus growing chemolithoautotrophically on thiosulfate under normal air pressure. Myxothiazol, an inhibitor of the cytochrome segment, and HQNO (), acting in the quinone-cytochrome b reg...

The rates of thiosulfate, elemental sulfur (S0) and sulfite oxidation were measured respirometrically with an oxygen electrode using young cells of Thiobacillus versutus growing chemolithoautotrophically on thiosulfate under normal air pressure. Myxothiazol, an inhibitor of the cytochrome b-c1 segment, and HQNO (2-N-heptyl-4-hydroxyquiniline N-oxid...

Thiobacillus versutus was shown to grow chemolithoautotrophically under microaerophilic conditions, with crystalline elemental sulfur (S°) and thiosulfate as sole electron source. The exponential growth rate on S° (μ = 0.106 h−1) measured in batch culture was similar to the reported maximum growth rate on thiosulfate in chemostat cultures. The rate...

The highly thermophilic, hydrogen-oxidizing aerobic bacteria related to Hydrogenobacter possess a respiratory chain comprising a quinone and b-type (alpha band at 556 nm and 562 nm) and c-type (alpha band at 552 nm) cytochromes. They have no aa3-type cytochromes and their terminal oxidase is an o-type cytochrome. A polarographic method with an oxyg...

The enzymatic production of sulfur froml-cysteine was studied in young dormant a-spores ofPhomopsis viticola. Cysteine aminotransferase (CAT) and mercaptopyruvate sulfurtransferase (MST) activities could be responsible for the production of endogenous elemental sulfur (S0) in a-spores.l-Cysteine was first deaminated, with production of ß-mercaptopy...

Endogenous elemental sulfur (S0) has been studied in dormant spores and in spores in the early stages of germination, of Phomopsis viticola. S0 was measured by high-pressure liquid chromatography ( (HPLC). The rapid and almost total disappearance of endogenous S0 during the early stages of spore germination was directly related to a sharp increase...

Endogenous elemental sulfur (S°) was measured in dormant α‐spores of Phomopsis viticola Sacc. (ATCC 44940) from young (25‐day‐old) and aging (105‐day‐old) cultures grown on malt extract agar medium enriched with [ ³⁵ S]‐MgSO 4 . Endogenous S° from the mitochondrial fraction, and the lipid and aqueous cytoplasmic fractions of young and aging α‐spore...

Thèse sc. biol. Genève (pas d'échange).