and sample foreign matter such as vaccines bacteria or viruses they come together as a group during what he and his team call the critical differentiation period.
In experiments with a mouse model of human immune function the scientists vaccinated mice for listeria a common bacterium that causes food-borne illness
and then exposed the animals to the bacteria. Mice in which the critical differentiation period was allowed to occur unimpeded remained healthy protected from a potentially lethal infection.
Not in offshore oil wells but in the water where blue-green algae thrive. The building blocks of blue-green algae#sunlight carbon dioxide and bacteria#are being used by researchers at KTH Royal Institute of technology in Stockholm to produce butanol a hydrocarbon-like fuel for motor vehicles.
The advantage of butanol is that the raw materials are abundant and renewable and production has the potential to be 20 times more efficient than making ethanol from corn and sugar cane.
Using genetically-modified cyanobacteria the team linked butanol production to the algae s natural metabolism says Paul Hudson a researcher at the School of Biotechnology at KTH who leads the research.#
#oewith relevant genes integrated in the right place in cyanobacteria s genome we have tricked the cells to produce butanol instead of fulfilling their normal function#he says.
Hudson says that it could be a decade before production of biofuel from cyanobacteria is a commercial reality.#
#oewe are excited very that we are now able to produce biofuel from cyanobacteria. At the same time we must remember that the manufacturing process is very different from today's biofuels#he says.#
He says that the use of engineering methods to build genomes of microorganisms is a relatively new area.
A bacterium that produces cheap fuel by sunlight and carbon dioxide could change the world. Hudson agrees.#
#oefuel based on cyanobacteria requires very little ground space to be prepared. And the availability of raw materials-sunlight carbon dioxide and seawater-is in principle infinite#Hudson says.
He adds that some cyanobacteria also able to extract nitrogen from the air and thus do need not any fertilizer.
The next step in the research is to ensure that cyanobacteria produce butanol in larger quantities without it dying of exhaustion or butanol
There are also plans to develop fuel from cyanobacteria that are more energetic and therefore particularly suitable for aircraft engines.
Without fungi and bacteria we'd be I don't know how many meters deep in waste both plant matter and animal tissue.
When exposed to the right microbes they will break down in 180 days in any landfill or backyard.
In phylogenetic analysis usually the tips of the trees the leaves are organisms or microbes.
Genomes try to root out parasites like Responder by creating and dispatching proteins into the nucleus and the cytoplasm.
These police proteins are armed with police sketches of the parasites in the form of small RNA transcripts.
Historically we've seen symptoms similar to IBDS associated with viruses spread by large-scale infestations of parasitic mites says Dr. David Tarpy an associate professor of entomology at North carolina State university
#The lifetime journeys of manure-based microbesstudies at the U s. Department of agriculture (USDA) are shedding some light on the microbes that dwell in cattle manure--what they are where they thrive where they struggle
In one project ARS microbiologist Lisa Durso used fecal samples from six beef cattle to identify a core set of bovine gastrointestinal bacterial groups common to both beef
She also observed a number of bacteria in the beef cattle that had not been reported in dairy cows and identified a diverse assortment of bacteria from the six individual animals
even though all six consumed the same diet and were breed the same gender and age. In another study Durso collaborated with ARS agricultural engineer John Gilley
After a series of simulated rain events the team collected and analyzed samples of field runoff and determined that neither diet nor tillage management significantly affected the transport of fecal indicator bacteria.
But they did note that diet affected the transport of bacteriophages--viruses that invade bacteria--in field runoff.
By virtue of being a direct product of biology the renewable starting materials are a familiar sight for the microbes responsible for biodegradation.
HLB is caused by the bacteria of the genus Candidatus Liberibacter. Symptoms of the disease include blotchy mottled leaves sections of yellow
#Microbes team up to boost plants stress tolerancewhile most farmers consider viruses and fungi potential threats to their crops these microbes can help wild plants adapt to extreme conditions according to a Penn State virologist.
Discovering how microbes collaborate to improve the hardiness of plants is a key to sustainable agriculture that can help meet increasing food demands
in addition to avoiding possible conflicts over scare resources said Marilyn Roossinck professor of plant pathology and environmental microbiology and biology.
The question is can we restore the natural level of microbes in plants and grow them better and more tolerant of environmental stress like heat and drought or pathogens?
However attempts to domesticate wild-growing plants have a downside as it could make the plants more susceptible to any number of plant viruses.
Malmstrom said that plant virus ecology and the study of viral interactions between wild-growing plants and agricultural crops is an expanding field.
Most of what is known about plant viruses comes from studies of crops. To understand the complete ecology of viruses researchers are now studying these tiny organisms in nature too.
The mysteries of how plant viruses can play a role in ecosystem properties and processes in natural ecosystems are emerging more slowly Malmstrom said.
and plants but a study of plant viruses in the wild may point to a more cooperative benevolent role of the microbe according to a Penn State virologist.
In the forest the plants are full of microbes: viruses fungi and bacteria whereas in crops farmers try to eliminate the microbes.
Perhaps there is a connection. Indeed one plant virus that was found frequently in the forest was also found in nearby melon crops.
In the melons it was causing severe disease while in the wild plants there were no symptoms.
and leaving roots nutrients and microorganisms unharmed. These frequent low-intensity fires are what forest managers attempt to mimic
The authors say their results show for the first time that bacteria present in the large intestine in people deconjugate
#Lack of energy an enemy to antibiotic-resistant microbesrice University researchers cured a strain of bacteria of its ability to resist an antibiotic in an experiment that has implications for a longstanding public health crisis. Rice environmental engineer Pedro Alvarez
and his team managed to remove the ability of the Pseudomonas aeruginosa microorganism to resist the antibiotic medication tetracycline by limiting its access to food and oxygen.
Over 120 generations the starving bacteria chose to conserve valuable energy rather than use it to pass on the plasmid--a small
A lot of the antibiotic-resistant bacteria originate in animal agriculture where there is overuse misuse and abuse of antibiotics.
We started with the hypothesis that microbes don't like to carry excess baggage he said. That means they will drop genes they're not using
The Rice researchers tested their theory on two strains of bacteria P. aeruginosa which is found in soil
and E coli which carries resistant genes directly from animals through their feces into the environment.
and/or oxygen through successive generations they found that in the absence of tetracycline both microbes dumped the resistance plasmid though not entirely in the case of E coli.
When a high level of tetracycline was present both microbes retained a level of resistance One long-recognized problem with antibiotics is that they tend to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
If any antibiotic-resistant bacteria are part of a biological mix whether in a person an animal or in the environment the weak microbes will die
and the resistant will survive and propagate; this process is known by biologists as selective pressure.
So there is incentive to eliminate the resistance plasmid from bacteria in the environment as close to the source as possible.
That may not kill the bacteria but it's enough to have bacteria notice a deficiency in their ability to obtain energy from the environment and feel the stress to dump resistant genes.
Alvarez has been chipping away at the problem since moving to Rice from the University of Iowa in 2004 even without American funding for research.
You take into account the soil microbes and environment for these tests. A long-term cropping system trial provided the perfect opportunity to test the extent to which carbon
Our work shows that RNA silencing suppression is a common strategy used by a variety of pathogens--viruses bacteria
A similar motif is found in effectors of animal parasites such as the malaria pathogen Plasmodium suggesting an evolutionarily conserved means for delivering effectors that affect host immunity.
Of 175 very-low-birth-weight infants 23 (13 percent) developed sepsis from gram-positive bacteria such as staphylococci Streptococcus and Enterococcus species and gram-negative bacteria such as Escherichia coli
(E coli) as well as species of Klebsiella Enterobacter Pseudomonas and Serratia. Late-onset sepsis commonly occurs in about 22 percent of very-low-birth-weight babies the United states
Microorganisms in the rumen--the largest chamber in the cow's stomach--modify most of the ingested fats and turn them into saturated fats.
but a genetically altered version of the plant might provide a relatively inexpensive cure for the deadly rabies virus.
In a new research report appearing in The FASEB Journal scientists produced a monoclonal antibody in transgenic tobacco plants that was shown to neutralize the rabies virus.
The antibody was shown also to be active in neutralizing a broad panel of rabies viruses and the exact antibody docking site on the viral envelope was identified using certain chimeric rabies viruses.
Although treatable by antibodies if caught in time rabies is said bad news Gerald Weissmann M d. Editor-In-chief of The FASEB Journal.
The methane-producing bacteria in the cow's gut thrive on these plants. The more roughage is in the diet of the ruminant animal the more methane is produced by the microbes in the gut of the ruminant
and methane comes out the front end Mitloehner said. In feedlots by contrast cattle eat mostly corn and grains
which the methane-producing bacteria cannot use as effectively. Methane is one of the most important greenhouse gases.
and help hydrolyze the released polysaccharides into sugars that can be fermented by microbes researchers at JBEI
The Ohio State university study also showed that bacteria living in the mouth are responsible for most of the breakdown of these compounds that occurs in saliva.
Our observations suggest that the bacteria within one's oral cavity are a primary mediator of pigment metabolism.
The bacteria are converting compounds that are present in the foods into metabolites Failla said.
or the metabolites produced by bacteria in the mouth and other regions of the gastrointestinal tract.
which bacteria are involved most in the metabolism of anthocyanins and testing the stability of the pigments in berry juices in the mouths of human volunteers rather than in test tubes containing their saliva.
and possibly be contaminated by bacteria according to a study published this month by researchers at the Cummings School of veterinary medicine at Tufts University and the University of Guelph.
and bacterial contamination of these popular items made from the uncooked dried penis of a bull or steer.
All 26 treats were tested for bacterial contaminants. One (4 percent) of the sticks was contaminated with Clostridium difficile;
one (four percent) was contaminated with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) a type of staph bacteria that is resistant to certain antibiotics;
and seven (27 percent) were contaminated with Escherichia coli including one tetracycline-resistant sample. The number of treats sampled was small
and not all of these bacterial strains have been shown to infect humans. However the researchers advise all pet owners to wash their hands after touching such treats as they would with any raw meat or raw meat diets.
The very young elderly pregnant immunocompromised and other high-risk individuals should avoid all contact with raw animal-product based treats
#Parasites of Madagascars lemurs expanding with climate changerising temperatures and shifting rainfall patterns in Madagascar could fuel the spread of lemur parasites
and the diseases they carry. By combining data on six parasite species from ongoing surveys of lemur health with weather data and other environmental information for Madagascar as a whole a team of Duke university researchers has created probability
maps of likely parasite distributions throughout the island today. Then using climate projections for the year 2080 they estimate what parasite distributions might look like in the future.
We can use these models to figure out where the risk of lemur-human disease transmission might be highest
and use that to better protect the future of lemur and human health said lead author Meredith Barrett who conducted the study while working as a graduate student at Duke.
what these changes could mean for lemur health by taking a cue from the parasites they carry.
The parasites are identified in lemur fur and feces. Some species--such as pinworms whipworms and tapeworms--cause diarrhea dehydration and weight loss in human hosts.
When the researchers compared their present-day maps with parasite distributions predicted for the future they found that lemur parasites could expand their range by as much as 60 percent.
Warmer weather means that parasites could grow and reproduce more quickly or spread to higher latitudes
As lemur parasites become more prevalent the diseases they carry could show up in new places.
Shifting parasite distributions could have ripple effects on people too. As human population growth in Madagascar drives people and their livestock into previously uninhabited areas wildlife-human disease transmission becomes increasingly likely.
#Bacterial supplement could help young pigs at weaning age fight diseasea common type of bacteria may help pigs stay healthy during weaning.
In a study of 36 weanling-age pigs researchers found that a dose of lipid-producing Rhodococcus opacus bacteria increased circulating triglycerides.
We could potentially strengthen the immune system by providing this bacterium to animals at a stage
Donaldson and other researchers tested R. opacus because the bacterium naturally makes large amounts of triglycerides.
Even if pigs ate less feed they would still have access to the triglycerides produced by these bacteria.
She said the bacteria could be provided to pigs through existing watering systems. The next step in the experiment is to test how pigs given R. opacus react to an immune challenge such as Salmonella.
Carroll said he is also curious to see if R opacus can help calves stay healthy during transport.
or African trypanosomiasis is in reality a potentially fatal parasitic infection that has ravaged populations in Sub-saharan africa for decades
The scientists at UGA's Center for Tropical and Emerging Global Diseases discovered a specific receptor tucked away in an organelle inside the disease-causing trypanosome parasite that regulates the release of calcium
which is responsible for numerous critical cell functions required for parasite growth and replication. This receptor is an attractive drug target said Roberto Docampo Barbara
The mechanisms we have identified are critical for the survival of the parasite so if we can manipulate them we can stop the infection.
The calcium receptor identified by the researchers serves as a kind of messenger within the parasite telling it
They hypothesized that disrupting this system would leave the parasites incapable of growing and replicating within their human and animal hosts.
Docampo and his colleagues tested their hypothesis by watching genetically modified versions of the parasitic cell both in laboratory cultures and in mice.
In both cases the genetically altered parasites with dysfunctional calcium receptors were unable to replicate
The parasite is transmitted through the bite of the tsetse fly a large flying insect found throughout the midcontinent of Africa that survives by drinking blood from human and animal hosts.
Although the cells within humans and animals are more complex than trypanosomes they do carry organelles that function in similar ways to the ones they hope to block in the parasite.
#Poultry vaccination responsible for dramatic fall in Salmonella infectionsmass poultry vaccination programmes introduced to combat Salmonella infections have led to a dramatic fall in the number of cases since the late 1990s according to a researcher at the University of Liverpool.
Salmonella are borne important food pathogens worldwide causing diarrhea vomiting nausea fever and abdominal pain. There are currently around 6 million cases of illness from Salmonella across the EU each year the majority
of which are linked to food items such as eggs chicken beef pork salad vegetables and dairy products. Between 1981 and 1991 the number of salmonella infections rose by 170%in the UK driven primarily by an epidemic of Salmonella enteritidis
which peaked in 1993. A raft of control measures were introduced into the poultry industry including movement restrictions compulsory slaughter
Code of Practicelegislation requiring compulsory slaughter of poultry infected with Salmonella has now been revoked but the mass vaccination of poultry has continued by those breeders subscribing to the Lion Quality Code of Practice
The code of practice requires mandatory vaccination of all young hens destined to lay Lion eggs against Salmonella as well as traceability of hens eggs
Sarah O'brien Professor of Epidemiology and Zoonoses from the University's Institute of Infection and Global Health attributes a dramatic fall in the number of Salmonella cases in humans to this mass vaccination programme in poultry.
We have seen a marked decline in the number of incidents of Salmonella infection shown by two significant studies conducted 10 years apart.
It is probable that no single measure contributed to the decline in Salmonella cases but the relationship between vaccination programmes and the reduction in human disease is compelling
Laboratory reports of human Salmonella cases in the UK 1981 to 2010--Health Protection Agency;
Breksa also noted that the profiles may reveal clues to mechanisms underlying the microbe's mostly unknown mode of attack.
Researchers then insert the modified gene back into the plant using a bacterium. The role of the bacterium is to act as a sort of shuttle service for the modified gene.
Producing more biomassthe principle is transferable and could be used on other kinds of plants; at the moment the scientists are working also on potato plants on behalf of a Japanese chemical company.
Microbes can then be used to produce various chemicals such as bioethanol from the sugars. Lignocellulosic biomass contains substantial amounts of lignin
Which type of bacteria causes severe lung disease in European brown hare? Molecular biological analyses of tissue samples always confront scientists with the same problem:
In fact entire mitochondrial genomes and almost the entire genome sequence of a bacterium were obtained when specifically tested for the efficiency of the by-catch principle.
As their next task his team wants to retrieve simple and well characterised DNA VIRUSES such as the elephant herpes virus.
From the intestinal bacterium Escherichia coli contained in a human urine sample the scientists retrieved 90 per cent of the genome in one go.
#Fermented milk made by lactococcus lactis H61 improves skin of healthy young womenthere has been much interest in the potential for using probiotic bacteria for treating skin diseases and other disorders.
Probiotics have been defined by the Food and agriculture organization-World health organization as live microorganisms which when administered in adequate amounts confer a health benefit to the host.
Although many reports have addressed the effect of lactic acid bacteria on skin properties in subjects with skin diseases such as atopic dermatitis few studies have involved healthy humans explains lead investigator Hiromi Kimoto-Nira Phd
The investigators conducted a randomized double-blind trial to evaluate the effects of fermented milk produced using Lactococcus lactis strain H61 as a starter bacterium (H61-fermented milk) on the general health and various skin properties
#How deadly MERS virus enters human cellscornell University researchers have uncovered details of how the deadly Middle east respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-Cov) enters host cells and offer possible new avenues
Coronaviruses have a spike protein that is activated by a protease and mediates membrane fusion and entry into a host cell.
This is the first characterization of a natural coronavirus with a spike protein containing two furin cleavage sites said Millet the paper's first author.
This study shows how flexible coronaviruses are in terms of cleavage activation strategies said Millet. They are extremely adaptable.
#Potential of autochthonous bacteria for use as biofertilizersneiker-Tecnalia the Basque Institute for Agricultural Research and development is working to select autochthonous bacteria with a biofertilizing potential
because bacteria-based biofertilizers constitute an alternative to conventional chemical fertilizers that are expensive and less sustainable from the environmental point of view.
The final goal in selecting autochthonous bacteria with a biofertilizing potential is to create a bacterial strain bank to be used subsequently in biofertilizing formulations.
These bacteria have the capacity to increase the bioavailability of nutrients present in the soil
Another of their advantages is that they even combat other microorganisms in the soil that cause plant diseases.
In this respect the bacteria used in biofertilizer formulations encourage plants to absorb on their own a greater quantity of nutrients
By contrast the bacteria containing biofertilizing formulations compete with other microorganisms in the soil and can hamper the appearance of crop pests
Neiker-Tecnalia researchers isolated autochthonous bacterial strains belonging to soil samples and plant tissue. They then selected the best candidates by means of in vitro analysis
One of the aims of this experiment is to test the capability of the bacteria with a biofertilizing potential
if we are to tackle the problem of antimicrobial resistant bacteria senior researcher Yvonne Agersã¸from the National Food Institute says.
Facts about antimicrobial resistancetreatment with antimicrobials is intended to kill pathogenic bacteria. Unfortunately antimicrobials also cause the bacteria to protect themselves by developing resistance to the type of antimicrobials that are used to treat them.
Resistant bacteria can be transmitted between humans and bacteria can infect each other with resistance. However resistant bacteria are poor at surviving
if antimicrobials are not present. Therefore it is important to have an overall focus on using as few antimicrobials as possible for the treatment of both animals and humans.
Bacteria know no borders therefore antimicrobial resistance in one country can cause problems outside of its borders.
As such the use of antimicrobials in both animals and humans is a global problem. Not all antimicrobials are the same.
Some are narrow spectrum and affect only individual groups of bacteria. They are used when you know which bacteria are causing the disease.
Others are broad spectrum and affect numerous groups of bacteria at the same time. They can therefore be used to treat a disease before knowing which bacteria are the cause.
However they often also kill useful and harmless bacteria such as bacteria from the intestine which may lead to the emergence of resistant bacteria.
Not all antimicrobials are equally important in the treatment of humans. WHO has declared a number of antimicrobials to be'critically important
'because they are the only or one of only a few antimicrobials which can be used to treat serious
or life-threatening infections in humans These types include carbapenems third and fourth generation cephalosporins fluoroquinolones and macrolides.
Find the DANMAP report on DANMAP's website: http://www. danmap. org/Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Technical University of Denmark (DTU.
Pellett adds that Further scientific significance arises from the discovery of 12 new herpesviruses and identification of some new wrinkles in our understanding of herpesvirus diversity and evolution.
and subtypes of EEHVS are ancient viruses that evolved separately from all other known subfamilies of mammalian herpesviruses within the ancestor of modern elephants beginning about 100 million years ago.
pregnant women against heavy metal poisoningyogurt containing probiotic bacteria successfully protected children and pregnant women against heavy metal exposure in a recent study.
and distributed a special yogurt containing Lactobacillus rhamnosus bacteria and observed the outcomes against a control group.
and Probiotics led by Dr. Gregor Reid studied how microbes could protect against environmental health damage in poor parts of the world.
As fast growing microbes fungi adapt rapidly to antifungal treatments and so we need to develop new fungicides all the time.
and Genomics (CBGP UPM-INIA) has shown that by the contact of a plant with a strain of the Colletotrichum tofieldiae microorganism previously isolated this plant can increase the number size
n from CBGP focuses her work on these microorganism-plant symbiotic relationships. Researchers have found that by applying a composition that contains Colletotrichum tofieldiae a non-pathogenic fungus for the Arabidopsis thaliana model plant this plant can produce bigger seeds without substantially affecting its vegetative growth.
In other words the application of this microorganism can produce an efficient usage of the plant resources.
#Microbes in Central park soil: If they can make it there, they can make it anywheresoil microbes that thrive in the deserts rainforests prairies
and forests of the world can also be found living beneath New york city's Central park according to a surprising new study led by Colorado State university and the University of Colorado Boulder.
and Sciences later this month said Ramirez's work uncovered another melting pot of diversity in New york city--within the soil of Central park. The soil microbes in Central park benefit us benefit soil health
But microbes appear to be concerned more about the environment in the soil such as the acidity
But that doesn't seem to be true for the microbes living in the soil.
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