Simple and effective protocols of cell wall disruption were elaborated for tested fungal strains: Penicillium citrinum, Aspergillus fumigatus, Rhodotorula gracilis. Several techniques of cell wall disintegration were studied, including ultrasound disintegration, homogenization in bead mill, application of chemicals of various types, and osmotic shock. The release of proteins from fungal cells and the activity of a cytosolic enzyme, glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase, in the crude extracts were assayed to determine and compare the efficacy of each method. The presented studies allowed adjusting the particular method to a particular strain. The mechanical methods of disintegration appeared to be the most effective for the disintegration of yeast, R. gracilis, and filamentous fungi, A. fumigatus and P. citrinum. Ultrasonication and bead milling led to obtaining fungal cell-free extracts containing high concentrations of soluble proteins and active glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase systems.

Corn processing generates thousands of tons of cob husks, which still contains many valuable elements. To make the most of these wastes, they are applied as substrates for biotransformation's procedures. This approach allowed converting or releasing, the elements deposited in the plant material and obtaining valuable products. Thus bioconversion of corn cob husks (CCH) using a fungus of the Fusarium culmorum genus resulted in obtaining silica nanoparticles of defined size and morphology. SEM analysis excluded their presence on the surface of the substrate. FTIR confirmed the presence of siloxane bonds and O-Si-O bonds in post-biotransformation fluid. Using the Heteropoly Blue Method, it was checked that the highest concentration of silica during 16-day biotransformation falls on the 7th day of the process, in which both the substrate sterilization and the process of the biocatalyst starvation were of key importance. Using the STEM and EDX analysis, it was proved that the obtained nanoparticles with a spherical form are structured and their dimensions are ~40 and ~70 nm. ICP-OES proved that the overall process efficiency was 47%. Such nanoparticles can be successfully used in the medical industry.

Cyanobacteria are blue-green Gram-negative and photosynthetic bacteria which are seen as one of the most morphologically numerous groups of prokaryotes. Because of their ability to fix gaseous nitrogen and carbon dioxide to organic materials, they are known to play important roles in the universal nutrient cycle. Cyanobacteria has emerged as one of the promising resources to combat the issues of global warming, disease outbreaks, nutrition insecurity, energy crises as well as persistent daily human population increases. Cyanobacteria possess significant levels of macro and micronutrient substances which facilitate the versatile popularity to be utilized as human food and protein supplements in many countries such as Asia. Cyanobacteria has been employed as a complementary dietary constituent of feed for poultry and as vitamin and protein supplement in aquatic lives. They are effectively used to deal with numerous tasks in various fields of biotechnology, such as agricultural (including aquaculture), industrial (food and dairy products), environmental (pollution control), biofuel (bioenergy) and pharmaceutical biotechnology (such as antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, immunosuppressant, anticoagulant and antitumor); recently, the growing interest of applying them as biocatalysts has been observed as well. Cyanobacteria are known to generate a numerous variety of bioactive compounds. However, the versatile potential applications of cyanobacteria in biotechnology could be their significant growth rate and survival in severe environmental conditions due to their distinct and unique metabolic pathways as well as active defensive mechanisms. In this review, we elaborated on the versatile cyanobacteria applications in different areas of biotechnology. We also emphasized the factors that could impede the implementation to cyanobacteria applications in biotechnology and the execution of strategies to enhance their effective applications.

This is the first report on morphologically different strains of cyanobacteria: Arthrospira maxima, Nostoc cf-muscorum and Nodularia sphaerocarpa used for enantioselective bioreduction of selected, structurally different diethyl esters of oxophosphonic acids. The efficiency of the asymmetric hydrogen transfer was strongly dependent on the chemical structure of the substrates. Arthrospira maxima was active only toward diethyl (S)-2-oxopropylphosphonate (20% of yield, 99% of ee), whereas the application of Nostoc cf-muscorum as a biocatalyst allowed diethyl (S)-2-hydroxy-2-phenylethylphosphonate with a high enantiomeric excess (99%) and with 26% conversion degree to be obtained. Employing Nodularia sphaerocarpa led to the most spectacular result – diethyl (S)-2-hydroxy-2-phenylethylphosphonate with a degree of conversion of 99% and an optical purity of 92%. Enantioselective bioconversion of oxophosphonate with an aromatic side group located in the immediate vicinity of the carbonyl functionality was achieved for the first time. Additionally, flow cytometry showed excellent resistance of the cells of Nodularia sphaerocarpa against the examined xenobiotic – 2-oxo-2-phenylethylphosphonate, these cells remain viable at the concentration of 10 mM of the bioconversion substrate compared to the 1 mM described previously for a fungal biocatalyst. The effect of cultivation medium, light source and light cycle (light : dark) on the effectiveness of the biotransformation process was examined.