Thirty-one ester hydrolases were cloned from Escherichia coli K-12 and an efficient screening strategy was applied to screen and characterize them, emphasizing on their enantioselectivity. We are the first to investigate the enantioselectivity of these enzymes, although their activity had been reported by other researchers. The enzyme XL3 from gene b0349, XL10 from gene b0494, XL15 from gene b3412, XL27 from gene b2154 and XL31 from gene b3825 exhibited high activity towards p -nitrophenyl esters with short chain. The enzyme XL15 from gene b3412 was demonstrated for the first time to show high enantioselectivity to ( R )-1-phenylethyl acetate both in hydrolysis and esterification with enantioselectivity value ( E) > 100 at the conversion of 31.2 and 36.8%, respectively.
The porous graphitic carbon nitride nanosheets (PCNSs) with high yields were synthesized by using one–step chemical exfoliation method. PCNSs accelerated separation efficiency of photo-generated electron−hole pairs in comparison to bulk graphitic carbon nitride. The PCNS5 (exfoliation for 5 h) exhibited optimal photocatalytic disinfection capability towards Escherichia coli K-12 under simulated solar light irradiation with complete disinfection of 6.5 log 10 cfu/mL of E. coil K-12 within 2 h. The enhanced photocatalytic activity of PCNS5 originated from mesoporous nanosheet structure. The possible mechanism of photocatalytic disinfection has proposed that intracellular reactive oxygen species levels and the activities of antioxidant enzymes (e.g., catalase and superoxide dismutase) were enhanced. Transmission electron microscope images observed during photocatalytic disinfection process suggested that the cell membrane was regarded as the first target for oxidation, resulting in a faster leakage of cytoplasmic content and finally degradation of DNA leading to bacterial death. Furthermore, the trapping experiment showed that superoxide radical (•O 2 − ) and holes (h + ) were responsible for E. coli K-12 disinfection by PCNS5.
This study introduces natural occurring magnetic pyrrhotite (NP) as an environmentally friendly, easy available, and cost-effective alternative catalyst to activate persulfate (PS) of controlling microbial water contaminants. The E. coli K-12 inactivation kinetics observed in batch experiments was well described with first-order reaction. The optimum inactivation rate ( k = 0.47 log/min) attained at a NP dose of 1 g/L and a PS dose of 1 mM, corresponding to total inactivation of 7 log 10 cfu/mL cells within 15 min. Measured k increased > 2-fold when temperature increased from 20 to 50 °C; and > 4-fold when pH decreased from 9 to 3. Aerobic conditions were more beneficial to cell inactivation than anaerobic conditions due to more reactive oxygen species (ROS) generated. ROS responsible for the inactivation were identified to be SO 4 − > OH > H 2 O 2 based on a positive scavenging test and in situ ROS determination. In situ characterization suggested that PS effectively bind to NP surface was likely to form charge transfer complex (≡Fe(II)⋯O 3 SO OSO 3 - ), which mediated ROS generation and E. coli K-12 oxidation. The increased cell-envelope lesions consequently aggravated intracellular protein depletion and genome damage to cause definite bacterial death. The NP still maintained good physiochemical structure and stable activity even after 4 cycle. Moreover, NP/PS system also exhibited good E. coli K-12 inactivation efficiency in authentic water matrices like surface water and effluents of secondary wastewater.