Search results for "Bacterial"
showing 10 items of 3246 documents
Detection and Characterization of Wolbachia Infections in Natural Populations of Aphids: Is the Hidden Diversity Fully Unraveled?
2011
Copyright © 2011 Augustinos et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Aphids are a serious threat to agriculture, despite being a rather small group of insects. The about 4,000 species worldwide engage in highly interesting and complex relationships with their microbial fauna. One of the key symbionts in arthropods is Wolbachia, an a-Proteobacterium implicated in many important biological processes and believed to be a potential tool for biological control. Aphids were thought not to harbour W…
Evolutionary Changes after Translational Challenges Imposed by Horizontal Gene Transfer
2019
International audience; Genes acquired by horizontal gene transfer (HGT) may provide the recipient organism with potentially new functions, but proper expression level and integration of the transferred genes in the novel environment are not granted. Notably, transferred genes can differ from the receiving genome in codon usage preferences, leading to impaired translation and reduced functionality. Here, we characterize the genomic and proteomic changes undergone during experimental evolution of Escherichia coli after HGT of three synonymous versions, presenting very different codon usage preference, of an antibiotic resistance gene. The experimental evolution was conducted with and without…
Antimicrobial secondary metabolites from the medicinal plant Crinum glaucum A. Chev. (Amaryllidaceae)
2020
Abstract Medicinal plants are known as sources of potential antibacterial compounds including alkaloids. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the antibacterial activities of the extract, fractions, and some secondary metabolites isolated from the leaves of Crinum glaucum A. Chev. (Amaryllidaceae). The antibacterial activities were performed with the ethanol (EtOH) extract, as well as with ethyl acetate (EtOAc) and n-butanol (n-BuOH) fractions. Repeated column chromatography of the fractions led to the isolation of several compounds and their structures were elucidated mainly by means of extensive spectroscopic analysis [(one-dimensional (1D) and two-dimensional (2D) nuclear magnetic…
Resource availability and competition shape the evolution of survival and growth ability in a bacterial community
2013
Resource availability is one of the main factors determining the ecological dynamics of populations or species. Fluctuations in resource availability can increase or decrease the intensity of resource competition. Resource availability and competition can also cause evolutionary changes in life-history traits. We studied how community structure and resource fluctuations affect the evolution of fitness related traits using a two-species bacterial model system. Replicated populations of Serratia marcescens (copiotroph) and Novosophingobium capsulatum (oligotroph) were reared alone or together in environments with intergenerational, pulsed resource renewal. The comparison of ancestral and evol…
Essential oil variability in a collection of Ocimum basilicum L. (basil) cultivars.
2016
Ocimum basilicum L. (Lamiaceae) is an aromatic plant of great tradition in the Mediterranean area. Its economic importance is growing up determining an expansion of cultivation. This paper evaluated the morphological traits, the chemical profiles, and antibacterial activity of 21 cultivars of basil belonging to Ê»Genoveseʼ, Ê»Napoletanoʼ, and Ê»Purple basilʼ types. The cultivars were characterized by different growth rate and morphological traits. The chemical composition of the oils analyzed by GC and GC/MS analysis, supported by the PCA analysis, underlined the strong influence of chemotype. It is noteworthy that estragole, never present in Genovese and purple basil types, occurred in …
Alleviation of Salt Stress by Plant Growth-Promoting Bacteria in Hydroponic Leaf Lettuce
2020
Mediterranean areas with intensive agriculture are characterized by high salinity of groundwater. The use of this water in hydroponic cultivations can lead to nutrient solutions with an electrical conductivity that overcomes the tolerance threshold of many vegetable species. Plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) were shown to minimize salt stress on several vegetable crops but the studies on the application of PGPR on leafy vegetables grown in hydroponics are rather limited and have not been used under salt stress conditions. This study aimed to evaluate the use of plant growth-promoting bacteria to increase the salt tolerance of leaf lettuce grown in autumn and spring in a floating s…
BIOCLEANING
2017
Cleaning is one of the first and most important steps in conservative restora- tion intervention, as it removes the unwanted layers of dirt and deposit from the surface of an artefact. It must be done selectively, however, by adapting the cleaning operation to the different zones and removing successive layers of deposit without acting directly on the original materials of the surface. Generally, cleaning protocols are based on chemical or physical procedures with potential negative effects for restorers’ health and/or for the materials constituting the artworks. As an alternative, solvent gels, rigid gels and resin soaps can be used for selective cleaning. In recent decades, biological cle…
Evaluation of Antibacterial Efficacy of Photodynamic Therapy vs. 2.5% NaOCl against E. faecalis-infected Root Canals Using Real-time PCR Technique
2017
Background Bacteria like E. faecalis can produce intra- and extra-radicular biofilms. Theoretically, the adjustable penetration ability of lasers enables better access to root canal system. Therefore the aim of the present study was to compare the ability of photoactivated laser and 2.5% NaOCl irrigation solution to eliminate E. faecalis from the root canals by real-time PCR technique. Material and methods Sixty extracted human upper central incisors were selected and sterilized in an autoclave. The root canals were infected with E. faecalis (PTCC 1237, Persian Type Culture Collection, Iran) and then incubated for 24 hours. The samples were randomly divided into 3 groups. No intervention wa…
Roles for RpoS in survival of Escherichia coli during protozoan predation and in reduced moisture conditions highlight its importance in soil environ…
2017
The soil is a complex ecosystem where interactions between biotic and abiotic factors determine the survival and fate of microbial inhabitants of the system. Having previously shown that Escherichia coli requires the general stress response regulator, RpoS, to survive long term in soil, it was important to determine what specific conditions in this environment necessitate a functional RpoS. This study investigated the susceptibility of soil-persistent E. coli to predation by the single-celled eukaryotes Acanthamoeba polyphaga and Tetrahymena pyriformis, and the role RpoS plays in resisting this predation. Strain-specific differences were observed in the predation of E. coli strains, with so…
Cellular Concentrations of the Transporters DctA and DcuB and the Sensor DcuS of Escherichia coli and the Contributions of Free and Complexed DcuS to…
2017
ABSTRACT In Escherichia coli , the catabolism of C 4 -dicarboxylates is regulated by the DcuS-DcuR two-component system. The functional state of the sensor kinase DcuS is controlled by C 4 -dicarboxylates (like fumarate) and complexation with the C 4 -dicarboxylate transporters DctA and DcuB, respectively. Free DcuS (DcuS F ) is known to be constantly active even in the absence of fumarate, whereas the DcuB-DcuS and DctA-DcuS complexes require fumarate for activation. To elucidate the impact of the transporters on the functional state of DcuS and the concentrations of DcuS F and DcuB-DcuS (or DctA-DcuS), the absolute levels of DcuS, DcuB, and DctA were determined in aerobically or anaerobic…