The present invention generally relates to bacteriologically pure bacterial cultures of novel strains of plant growth-promoting bacteria, and inoculums comprising the same. The invention is also directed to plant seeds coated with the inoculums, kits comprising the inoculums and methods for stimulating plant growth by applying the biologically pure bacterial culture or the inoculum to a plant, plant seed, or plant growth medium.

The present invention relates to a process of converting feather materials into keratin-rich microfibers and soluble protein hydrolysate, the process comprising using a microbial hydrolysis technique.

Soil plant productivity is improved by manipulation of soil microflora. The soil microflora is manipulated by addition of a bacterium belonging to Rhizobium (Rhizobiales) to the soil.

Provided herein are pre-protein signal peptides that direct secretion of expressed payload proteins in Bacillus bacteria and methods of their use in therapeutic and agriculture settings. The disclosed pre-protein signal peptides may be used with any payload protein to increase secretion thereof and therefore increase yield of the payload protein.

The application provides an enzyme immobilization carrier and a preparation method thereof, an immobilized enzyme and a preparation method thereof. The above enzyme immobilization carrier is obtained by an amino modification or a cyanuric chloride modification of super-crosslinked polyvinyl alcohol. The use of the enzyme immobilization carrier provided by the application may effectively improve the stability and reusability of the immobilized enzyme. Moreover, due to the use of the form of enzyme covalent linkage, compared with an embedding method, the preparation method is no need for chemical reagent immersion and the like, it is beneficial to maintain the own activity of the enzyme, and promote the immobilized enzyme to have the better activity while the stability and reusability are kept.

A method for controlling self-propelled particles includes providing the particles to a liquid crystalline medium having predesigned local ordering. The method may control at least one of: a local concentration, trajectory, and net flow of self-propelled particles.

A method of producing Bacillus spores comprising a step of culturing the Bacillus bacterium using a liquid medium having a C/N ratio (weight ratio of carbon content to nitrogen content) of greater than 4 and less than 9.5.

Provided is a mutant of the wild type phosphatidylcholine-specific phospholipase C of Bacillus cereus. The mutations involved comprise the amino acid residue at position 63 being mutated from asparagine to aspartic acid, the amino acid residue at position 131 being mutated from asparagine to serine, and the amino acid residue at position 134 being mutated from asparagine to aspartic acid, and may comprise the amino acid residue at position 56 being mutated from tyrosine to alanine, lysine, asparagine, glutamine, histidine or tryptophan, and further, may also comprise the amino acid residue at position 106 being mutated from methionine to valine. Also provided are a polynucleotide molecule encoding the mutant, a nucleic acid construct and a host cell comprising the polynucleotide molecule, a composition comprising the mutant, and the use of the mutant, the polynucleotide molecule, the nucleic acid construct and the host cell.

A method for improving a plant trait, comprising steps of: a. obtaining a plant; and b. inoculating said plant with at least one bacterium having at least one of sequences SEQ ID NO:1-SEQ ID NO: 17, as disclosed in the sequence listing of said application, germinating the seed and growing the plant A bacterial formulation useful for the method is disclosed comprising at least one bacterium having at least one of sequences SEQ ID NO:1-SEQ ID NO: 17, as disclosed in the sequence listing of said application.

Herein a Bacillus exosporium antigen delivery (BEAD) system that provides a means to introduce recombinant proteins or small molecules into the exosporium of members of the B. cereus family of bacteria, i.e. B. anthracis, B. cereus, and B. thuringiensis, is disclosed. The system results in the surface display of recombinant proteins or small molecules such that they can stimulate an immune response. In addition, methods of making and using the system are described.