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- Cost-effective bioethanol production at low content of nitrogen source from carob syrupPublication . Raposo, Sara; Sousa, Catarina; Rodrigues, B.; Lima-Costa, Maria Emília; Quintas, Célia; Rodrigues, F.Ethanol, as biofuel, has received great interest in the latest decades due to its potential as an alternative transport fuel. Nowadays, ethanol can be produced through fermentative processes, using sugar rich agricultural raw material and it may have a significant role in reducing environmental impact of fossil fuels.
- Bioethanol production using carob pod, as carbon source on submerged fermentationPublication . Lima-Costa, Maria Emília; Sousa, Catarina; Rodrigues, B.; Quintas, Célia; Raposo, SaraIn the latest years the research for new sources of carbon sources, among industry by-products as potential raw material for bioethanol production is a needful and a sustainable strategy for the success of 2nd generation biofuels.
- Live-cell FRET imaging reveals clustering of the prion protein at the cell surface induced by infectious prionsPublication . Tavares, Evandro; Macedo, J.A.; Paulo, Pedro M. R.; Sousa, Catarina; Lopes, Carlos; Melo, EduardoPrion diseases are associated to the conversion of the prion protein into a misfolded pathological isoform. The mechanism of propagation of protein misfolding by protein templating remains largely unknown. Neuroblastoma cells were transfected with constructs of the prion protein fused to both CFP-GPI-anchored and to YFP-GPI-anchored and directed to its cell membrane location. Live-cell FRET imaging between the prion protein fused to CFP or YFP was measured giving consistent values of 10 +/- 2%. This result was confirmed by fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy and indicates intermolecular interactions between neighbor prion proteins. In particular, considering that a maximum FRET efficiency of 17 +/- 2% was determined from a positive control consisting of a fusion CFP-YFP-GPI-anchored. A stable cell clone expressing the two fusions containing the prion protein was also selected to minimize cell-to-cell variability. In both, stable and transiently transfected cells, the FRET efficiency consistently increased in the presence of infectious prions - from 4 +/- 1% to 7 +/- 1% in the stable clone and from 10 +/- 2% to 16 +/- 1% in transiently transfected cells. These results clearly reflect an increased clustering of the prion protein on the membrane in the presence of infectious prions, which was not observed in negative control using constructs without the prion protein and upon addition of non-infected brain. Our data corroborates the recent view that the primary site for prion conversion is the cell membrane. Since our fluorescent cell clone is not susceptible to propagate infectivity, we hypothesize that the initial event of prion infectivity might be the clustering of the GPI-anchored prion protein. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
- Kinetics of sugars consumption and ethanol inhibition in carob pulp fermentation by Saccharomyces cerevisiae in batch and fed-batch culturesPublication . Lima-Costa, Maria Emília; Sousa, Catarina; Raposo, Sara; Rodrigues, Brígida; Peinado, José M.The waste materials from the carob processing industry are a potential resource for second-generation bioethanol production. These by-products are small carob kibbles with a high content of soluble sugars (45–50%). Batch and fed-batch Saccharomyces cerevisiae fermentations of high density sugar from carob pods were analyzed in terms of the kinetics of sugars consumption and ethanol inhibition. In all the batch runs, 90–95% of the total sugar was consumed and transformed into ethanol with a yield close to the theoretical maximum (0.47–0.50 g/g), and a final ethanol concentration of 100–110 g/l. In fed-batch runs, fresh carob extract was added when glucose had been consumed. This addition and the subsequent decrease of ethanol concentrations by dilution increased the final ethanol production up to 130 g/l. It seems that invertase activity and yeast tolerance to ethanol are the main factors to be controlled in carob fermentations. The efficiency of highly concentrated carob fermentation makes it a very promising process for use in a second-generation ethanol biorefinery.
- Production of bioethanol from sweet potato, agro industrial wastesPublication . Raposo, Sara; Marques, L.; Sousa, Catarina; Duarte, C.; Lima-Costa, Maria EmíliaOne fraction of the existent petroleum is not extractable or the difficulties associated to extraction are very expensive making them unviable. This situation leads to a decrease in petroleum stocks all over the world and a resulting increment on its price, affecting in particular the transportation sector, since there is no relevant alternative to fossil petroleum.
- Hydrolysis of lignocellulosic material of carob pulp in Batch, SSF and NSSF processes for ethanol productionPublication . Raposo, Sara; Sousa, Catarina; Rodrigues, B.; Caiado, Daniela; Lima-Costa, Maria EmíliaThe progress of technologies for fuel ethanol production is a priority, because this biofuel is one of the most important resources used as renewable energy sources.