Search results for "microbial"
showing 10 items of 2041 documents
Potential benefits of colostrum in gastrointestinal diseases
2016
This paper reviews the composition of colostrum and the potential preventive and therapeutic use of this "first milk" for treating various gastrointestinal disorders in humans. Colostrum is a complex biological liquid that is richer in antimicrobial peptides, immune-regulating compounds and growth factors than the subsequent mature milk. The main functions of colostrum are to provide essential nutritional components, strengthen the natural defense system, modulate immune response, balance intestinal microbiota and enhance the growth and repair of several tissues. Several studies and clinical trials carried out both in vitro and in vivo on humans and animals suggest the clinical benefits of …
Conjugative ESBL plasmids differ in their potential to rescue susceptible bacteria via horizontal gene transfer in lethal antibiotic concentrations.
2017
Conjugative ESBL plasmids differ in their potential to rescue susceptible bacteria via horizontal gene transfer in lethal antibiotic concentrations
Shifts in gut microbiota composition in an APP/PSS1 transgenic mouse model of Alzheimer's disease during lifespan.
2017
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common form of dementia and one of the major causes of disability and dependency in older people. Accumulating evidences link gut microbiota with different diseases and its relationship with neurodegenerative diseases is becoming most intriguing. This study was aimed to compare the gut microbiota of transgenic APP/PS1 (TG) mice, a well‐established deterministic mouse model of AD, with their C57BL/6 wild‐type (WT) littermates. Faecal samples were collected from 3‐, 6‐ and 24‐month‐old mice and analysed by pyrosequencing of the V1–V3 region of the bacterial 16S rRNA genes. Bacterial profiles were similar in all young mice (3 months old), and started to div…
New ΦBT1 site-specific integrative vectors with neutral phenotype in Streptomyces.
2016
Integrative plasmids are one of the best options to introduce genes in low copy and in a stable form into bacteria. The ΦC31-derived plasmids constitute the most common integrative vectors used in Streptomyces. They integrate at different positions (attB and pseudo-attB sites) generating different mutations. The less common ΦBT1-derived vectors integrate at the unique attB site localized in the SCO4848 gene (S. coelicolor genome) or their orthologues in other streptomycetes. This work demonstrates that disruption of SCO4848 generates a delay in spore germination. SCO4848 is co-transcribed with SCO4849, and the spore germination phenotype is complemented by SCO4849. Plasmids pNG1-4 were crea…
Chance and necessity in the genome evolution of endosymbiotic bacteria of insects.
2017
An open question in evolutionary biology is how does the selection–drift balance determine the fates of biological interactions. We searched for signatures of selection and drift in genomes of five endosymbiotic bacterial groups known to evolve under strong genetic drift. Although most genes in endosymbiotic bacteria showed evidence of relaxed purifying selection, many genes in these bacteria exhibited stronger selective constraints than their orthologs in free-living bacterial relatives. Remarkably, most of these highly constrained genes had no role in the host–symbiont interactions but were involved in either buffering the deleterious consequences of drift or other host-unrelated function…
Effects of alternative electron acceptors on the activity and community structure of methane-producing and consuming microbes in the sediments of two…
2017
The role of anaerobic CH4 oxidation in controlling lake sediment CH4 emissions remains unclear. Therefore, we tested how relevant EAs (SO42−, NO3−, Fe3+, Mn4+, O2) affect CH4 production and oxidation in the sediments of two shallow boreal lakes. The changes induced to microbial communities by the addition of Fe3+ and Mn4+ were studied using next-generation sequencing targeting the 16S rRNA and methyl-coenzyme M reductase (mcrA) genes and mcrA transcripts. Putative anaerobic CH4-oxidizing archaea (ANME-2D) and bacteria (NC 10) were scarce (up to 3.4% and 0.5% of archaeal and bacterial 16S rRNA genes, respectively), likely due to the low environmental stability associated with shallow depths.…
Microbial communities of polluted sub-surface marine sediments
2018
Abstract Microbial communities of coastal marine sediment play a key role in degradation of petroleum contaminants. Here the bacterial and archaeal communities of sub-surface sediments (5–10 cm) of the chronically polluted Priolo Bay (eastern coast of Sicily, Italy), contaminated mainly by n-alkanes and biodegraded/weathered oils, were characterized by cultural and molecular approaches. 16S-PCR-DGGE analysis at six stations, revealed that bacterial communities are highly divergent and display lower phylogenetic diversity than the surface sediment; sub-surface communities respond to oil supplementation in microcosms with a significant reduction in biodiversity and a shift in composition; the…
TheGCA1gene encodes a glycosidase-like protein in the cell wall ofCandida albicans
2016
Candida albicans Gca1p is a putative glucoamylase enzyme which contains 946 amino acids, 11 putative sites for N -glycosylation and 9 for O -glycosylation. Gca1p was identified in β-mercaptoethanol extracts from isolated cell walls of strain C. albicans SC5314 and it is involved in carbohydrate metabolism. The significance and the role of this protein within the cell wall structure were studied in the corresponding mutants. The homozygous mutant showed that GCA1 was not an essential gene for cell viability. Subsequent phenotypic analysis performed in the mutants obtained did not show significant difference in the behavior of mutant when compared with the wild strain SC5314. Zymoliase, Calco…
Rapid detection of carbapenem resistance: Targeting a zero level of inadequate empiric antibiotic exposure
2016
Resistance to carbapenems is an increasingly encountered phenomenon in the ICU, complicating empiric and targeted antimicrobial therapy. Infections due to carbapenem-resistant microorganisms are characterized by high morbidity and mortality [1, 2]. Recently, there has been an increasing interest in rapid detection techniques, based on real time on-demand easy-to-use PCR, to detect genes responsible for carbapenem resistance. One of these techniques is the Cepheid Xpert Carba-R assay, which is able to detect and differentiate five of the most frequent genes associated with non-susceptibility to carbapenems in Gram-negative bacteria (bla KPC, bla VIM, bla OXA-48, bla IMP-1, bla NDM). The diag…
Anti-herpetic and anti-dengue activity of abietane ferruginol analogues synthesized from (+)-dehydroabietylamine
2015
The abietane-type diterpenoid (+)-ferruginol (1), a bioactive compound isolated from several plants, has attracted much attention as consequence of its pharmacological properties, which includes antibacterial, antifungal, antimicrobial, cardioprotective, anti-oxidative, anti-plasmodial, leishmanicidal, anti-ulcerogenic, anti-inflammatory and antitumor actions. In this study, we report on the antiviral evaluation of ferruginol (1) and several analogues synthesized from commercial (+)-dehydroabietylamine. Thus, the activity against Human Herpesvirus type 1, Human Herpesvirus type 2 and Dengue Virus type 2, was studied. Two ferruginol analogues showed high antiviral selectivity index and reduc…