Anthropogenic factors expose agricultural plants to abiotic and biotic stresses, one of which is oxidative stress. Oxidative stress changes cell metabolism, as well as inhibits plant growth and development. Microbial treatment is an environmentally safe method of oxidative stress prevention. The research objective was to study the antioxidant activity of microflora native to coal dumps in order to combat the oxidative stress in crops. The study featured microorganisms isolated from technogenically disturbed soils. Pure bacterial cultures were isolated by deep inoculation on beef-extract agar. A set of experiments made it possible to define the cultural, morphological, and biochemical properties of cell walls. The antioxidant activity and the amount of indole-3-acetic acid were determined on a spectrophotometer using the ABTS reagent and the Salkowski reagent, respectively. The isolated microorganisms were identified on a Vitek 2 Compact device. The biocompatibility of strains was tested by dripping, while the increase in biomass was measured using a spectrophotometer. The study revealed ten microbial strains with antioxidant activity ranging from 67.21 ± 3.08 to 91.05 ± 4.17%. The amount of indole-3-acetic acid varied from 8.91 ± 0.32 to 15.24 ± 0.69 mg/mL. The list of microorganisms included Klebsiella oxytoca, Enterobacter aerogenes, Pseudomonas putida, and Bacillus megaterium. The consortium of P. putida and E. aerogenes demonstrated the best results in antioxidant activity, indole-3-acetic acid, and biomass. Its ratio was 2:1 (94.53 ± 4.28%; 15.23 ± 0.56 mg/mL), while the optical density was 0.51 ± 0.02. Extra 2% glycine increased the antioxidant activity by 2.34%, compared to the control. Extra 0.5% L-tryptophan increased the amount of indole-3-acetic acid by 3.12 mg/mL and the antioxidant activity by 2.88%. The research proved the antioxidant activity of strains isolated from microflora native to coal dumps. The consortium of P. putida and E. aerogenes (2:1) demonstrated the best results. Further research will define its ability to reduce oxidative stress in plants.

Abiotic and biotic stresses have a major impact on crop growth. Stress affects the root system and decreases the amount of nutrients in fruits. Modern agricultural technologies help replace mineral fertilizers with new generation biopreparation. Unlike chemical fertilizers, biofertilizers reduce the risk of adverse environmental impacts. Of special interest are extremophilic microorganisms able to survive in extreme conditions. We aimed to study the phytostimulating ability of extremophilic bacteria isolated from disturbed lands in the coal-mining region. We isolated microorganisms from disturbed lands and studied their cultural, morphological, and biochemical properties. Then, we determined their ability to synthesize indole-3-acetic acids. The extremophilic bacteria were identified and subjected to biocompatibility testing by co-cultivation. Next, we created consortia of pure cultures and analyzed biomass growth. Finally, the biopreparation was experimentally tested on Trifolium prantense L. seeds. We isolated 10 strains of microorganisms that synthesized 4.39 to 16.32 mg/mL of indole-3-acetic acid. The largest amounts of the acid were produced by Pantoea spp., Enterococcus faecium, Leclercia spp., Rothia endophytica, and Klebsiella oxytoca. A consortium of Pantoea spp., E. faecium, and R. endophytica at a ratio of 1:1:1 produced the largest amount of indole-3-acetic acid (15.59 mg/mL) and accumulated maximum biomass. The addition of 0.2% L-tryptophan to the nutrient medium increased the amount of indole-3-acetic acid to 18.45 mg/mL. When the T. prantense L. seeds were soaked in the biopreparation (consortium’s culture fluid) at a concentration of 2.5, the sprouts were 1.4 times longer on the 10th day of growth, compared to the control. The consortium of Pantoea spp., E. faecium, and R. endophytica (1:1:1) stimulated the growth of T. prantense L. seeds. Our findings can be further used to develop biofertilizers for agriculture.

Antibiotics have traditionally been used to prevent and treat common diseases in farm animals. However, residual antibiotics in dairy products and meat remain a serious public health problem, which is associated with antibiotic resistance. The research objective was to assess the impact of antibiotic contamination on the quality and safety of dairy products, the microbiological composition of milk, and antibiotic-resistant bacteria. The study featured six years of Russian and foreign scientific articles registered in PubMed (National Center for Biotechnology Information, USA), Scopus and ScienceDirect (Elsevier, the Netherlands), Web of Science (Clarivate, USA), and eLibrary.ru. The analysis involved 63 foreign and domestic sources. Residual antibiotics in milk inhibits the vital activity of lactic acid bacteria, which, in its turn, disrupts the technological process of yogurts, cheeses, etc. After such processing as normalization, pasteurization, and homogenization, antibiotics accumulate in fermented dairy products and bind with milk proteins and fats. Antibiotics, in their initial amount, enter yoghurts from dairy raw materials. In cheese production, antibiotics usually pass into the whey, but aminoglycosides, quinolones, and tetracyclines remain in the finished product because they bind with the protein fraction. The problem of biological safety of dairy products is associated with antibiotic resistance developed by human intestinal microbiota. This problem remains understudied, and the number of scientific papers on the matter is limited.