Background Celiac disease is an intestinal chronic disorder with multifactorial etiology resulting in small intestinal mucosal injuries and malabsorption. In genetically predisposed individuals with HLA DQ2/DQ8 molecules, the gluten domains rich in glutamine and proline present gluten domains to gluten reactive CD4+ T cells causing injury to the intestine. In the present experimental design, the indigenous bacteria from wheat samples were studied for their gluten hydrolyzing functionality. Results Proteolytic activity of Bacillus spp. was confirmed spectrophotometrically and studied extensively on gliadin-derived synthetic enzymatic substrates, natural gliadin mixture, and synthetic highly immunogenic 33-mer peptide. The degradation of 33-mer peptide and the cleavage specificities of the selected isolates were analyzed by tandem mass spectrometry. The gluten content of the sourdough fermented by the chosen bacterial isolates was determined by R5 antibody based competitive ELISA. All the tested isolates efficiently hydrolyzed Z-YPQ-pNA, Z-QQP-pNA, Z-PPF-pNA, and Z-PFP-pNA and also cleaved 33-mer immunogenic peptide extensively. The gluten content of wheat sourdough was found to be below 110 mg/kg. Conclusion It has been inferred that four Bacillus spp especially GS 188 could be useful in developing gluten-reduced wheat food product for celiac disease prone individuals.

Contamination of soil and water bodies with heavy metals like arsenic (As) is of major concern, since arsenic is non-biodegradable, toxic and causes ill effects to gastrointestinal system, skin, liver, kidney or neurological functions. In addition, animals affected by arsenic pollution through fodder intern enter to food chain. Hence, there is an urgent need to address heavy metal arsenic pollution especially through bioremediation. In this context, biosorption with indigenous microbiota has gained more interest in recent years as it is cost-effective, eco-friendly approach and with no adverse effects. In the present study, arsenic (As III)-resistant strains of fungi were isolated from soil samples collected from various locations of industrial sewage disposal sites of Davangere District, India, and screened. Among five fungal isolates, Aspergillus spp APR-1 and APR-2 showed greater resistance to arsenic in the laboratory conditions. In order to increase the surface area for biosorption, APR-1 and APR-2 isolates were immobilized on Luffa aegyptiaca (sponge gourd) (an agro-waste as biosorbent). With 250 mM arsenic solution, Aspergillus spp APR-1 and APR-2 showed biosorption of 53.94 and 52.54%, respectively, on inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry analysis and the adsorption of the fungal isolates on sponge gourd was confirmed using scanning electron microscopy. APR-1 isolate was further characterized by 18 s rDNA typing and identified as Aspergillus niger. Industrial scale application perhaps is taken up using selected fungal strains and mitigates the arsenic pollution in urban sewage.

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Probiotics have attained significant interest in recent years as a result of their gut microbiome modulation and gastrointestinal health benefits. Numerous fermented foods contain lactic acid bacteria (LAB) which are considered as GRAS and probiotic bacteria. The present study aimed to investigate indigenous LAB from homemade fermented milk samples collected in remote areas of Karnataka (India), in order to isolate the most potent and well-adapted to local environmental conditions bacteria, which were then evaluated using a step-by-step approach focused on the evaluation of probiotic traits and β-galactosidase-producing ability. LAB were screened using 5-bromo-4-chloro-3-indole-D-galactopyranoside (X-Gal) and O -nitrophenyl-β-D-galactopyranoside (ONPG) as substrate, and exhibited β-galactosidase activity ranging from 728.25 to 1,203.32 Miller units. The most promising isolates were selected for 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis and identified as Lactiplantibacillus plantarum , Limosilactobacillus fermentum , Lactiplantibacillus pentosus and Lactiplantibacillus sp. Furthermore, these isolates were evaluated by in vitro, viz. , survival in gastrointestinal tract, antibiotic susceptibility, antimicrobial activity, cell surface characteristics, and haemolytic activity. All eight isolates demonstrated strong adherence and prevented pathogen penetration into HT-29 cells, indicating potential of the bacteria to scale up industrial level production of milk products for lactose intolerants.