Overusing non-degradable plastics causes a series of environmental issues, inferring a switch to biodegradable plastics. Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) are promising biodegradable plastics that can be produced by many microbes using various substrates from waste feedstock. However, the cost of PHAs production …

Power-to-gas technologies are considered to be part of the future energy sys- tem, but their viability and applicability need to be assessed. Therefore, models for the viability of farm-scale bio-power-to-methane supply chains to produce green gas were analysed in terms of levelised cost of energy, energy …

Decomposition is an ecosystem process, mainly important in the carbon and nitrogen cycles. When looking at what drives decomposition, there are three major drivers. These are plant litter quality, microbes and soil animals (detritivores). A large problem in understanding the decomposition process is …

Corals harbor complex and diverse microbial communities that strongly impact host ftness and resistance to diseases, but these microbes themselves can be infuenced by stresses, like those caused by the presence of macroscopic symbionts. In addition to directly infuencing the host, symbionts may transmit …

DNA-based techniques are frequently used to confirm the relatedness of putative outbreak isolates. These techniques often lack the discriminatory power when analyzing closely related microbes such as E. coli. Here the value of Raman spectroscopy as a typing tool for E. coli in a clinical setting was …

In the production of fermented foods, microbes play an important role. Optimization of fermentation processes or starter culture production traditionally was a trial-and-error approach inspired by expert knowledge of the fermentation process. Current developments in high-throughput 'omics' technologies …