This study aimed to develop bioremediation agent with bacterial cells as components for the treatment of biomedical wastes from two hospitals in Semarang City (Central Java), i.e. Roemani Muhammadiyah (coded R1) and Wongsonegoro (coded R2). Single isolates and consortium of indigenous hydrolytic bacteria characterized as multiple hydrolytic enzyme producers with low-to non-pathogenic properties obtained from previous study were tested for their degradation performance. The degradation performance test is necessary to formulate components of bacterial consortium as bioremediation agent. The tests were conducted on the selected bacteria as single isolate and as consortium. The six bacteria tested as single colonies and as consortium were Bacillus velezensis R1.3, B. amyloliquefaciens R1.6, B. amyloliquefaciens R1.14, B. velezensis R1.16, B. licheniformis R2.5, and B. amyloliquefaciens R2.9. Degradation performance on biomedical waste mainly containing organic matters was assessed based on water pollution parameters on 4.0-L samples. They included a control, 6 samples treated with bacteria as single colonies, a sample treated with bacteria as indigenous consortium and a sample treated with bacteria as mixed consortium. Parameters of wastewater pollution measured included COD (Chemical Oxygen Demand), BOD (Biological Oxygen Demand), TSS (Total Soluble Solid), NH3, and PO4. Next, encapsulation of a bacterial consortium as the best condition for degradation was also carried out using maltodextrin to allow storage and preservation of the bioremediation agent for longer period. The encapsulated product was visualized in SEM images to evaluate its quality. The results showed that a consortium comprising 4 indigenous bacterial isolates from R1 hospital could decrease BOD of biomedical wastewater by 85% and TSS by 43%. Those from R2 showed performance in reducing PO4 by 21%. This study demonstrated that compared to single isolates and mixed bacterial consortium tested, the indigenous hydrolytic bacterial consortium showed better ability in improving BOD and TSS of liquid biomedical waste of R1 hospital.

Introduction; Acne vulgaris or commonly called acne, is a disease that is generally suffered by teenagers. Acne is caused by the formation of colonies of pathogenic bacteria such as Propionibacterium acnes and S. epidermidis. Excessive use of antibiotics can lead to bacterial resistance. Therefore, there is a need for other alternatives to the use of antibiotics. Probiotics can be an alternative as an antimicrobial against P. acnes and S. epidermidis bacteria. The aim of this study was to determine the antibacterial activity of probiotic bacteria, namely W. confusa against P. acnes and S. epidermidis. Method; antimicrobial test by agar diffusion method. The positive control used tetracycline antibiotics and the negative control used a blank disk. Results; the presence of antimicrobial activity against P. acnes and S. epidermidis, indicated by the average zone of inhibition in P. acnes of 13.4 mm and S. epidermidis 14 mm. Conclusion; Probiotic bacteria are able to inhibit the growth of pathogenic bacteria that cause acne, namely P. acnes and S. epidermidis.Keywords: Acnes vulgaris, Probiotics, P. acnes, S. epidermidis

Seafood-borne outbreaks caused by Vibrio cholerae have led to the increased need for food safety risk assessment of marine products. An in silico investigation about the potential of virulence gene of V. cholerae, rtxA, as a DNA biomarker of the toxigenic bacterium has been carried out. The aim of this study was to use the bacterial DNA biomarker sequence as a tool to facilitate early rapid detection of cholera infection. Five specific pairs of primers were designed from the rtxA open reading frame DNA of V. cholerae O1 biovar El Tor str. N16961 genomic DNA using Primer3Plus. Next, in silico Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) assay was carried out using the newly designed primers and 25 genomic DNA of vibrio spp. retrieved from the in silico database. One of the five designed pairs of primers, RtxAOF-RtxAOR: ‘5-CGCAAAACAGTTTCAGCCGA-3’ and 5’-AGGTTGGTCTTTTGTGGCCA-3’, could result in single DNA amplicon sized 518 bp only from V. cholerae species. No amplicon bands were produced from 17 other vibrio genomes studied using similar RtxAF-RtxAR primers. A further check showed that the amplicon was indeed part of the rtxA gene of V. cholerae. Based on this in silico study, rtxA gene appeared to be a DNA biomarker of V. cholerae, which is potential to facilitate rapid diagnosis of the virulence bacterium using in silico PCR assay.