New group of soil microorganisms can contribute to their eliminationinra research scientists in Dijon have shown that the ability of soils to eliminate N2o can mainly be explained by the diversity
and abundance of a new group of microorganisms that are capable of transforming it into atmospheric nitrogen (N2).
and abundance of a new group of microorganisms that are capable of transforming it into atmospheric nitrogen (N2).
This elimination can be achieved by microorganisms living in the soil that are able to reduce N2o into nitrogen (N2) the gas that makes up around four-fifths of the air we breathe and
Their work has shown that this variability is linked to a new group of N2o-consuming microorganisms.
and the abundance of this new group of N2o-consuming microorganisms that are important to the ability of soils to eliminate N2o explains Laurent Philippot an INRA researcher in Dijon.
Thanks to a metagenomic approach and the analysis of several hundreds of thousands of DNA sequences the scientists were also able to identify several groups of microorganisms that could act as bioindicators for the capacity of European soils to transform N2o into N2.
The team is currently working on identifying farming practices that could stimulate this new group of N2o-consuming microorganisms
All these findings underline the importance of the biodiversity of soil microorganisms to the functioning of soils
Firstly they were able to show that AMPS fight bacteria effectively in test tubes. Then they showed that two of the investigated AMPS suppressed bacterial growth in liquid preserved semen preparations if combined with a small amount of the antibiotic gentamicin.
The sperm quality was impeded not by this addition. Bacteria are extremely adaptable which can lead to an increasing resistance against antibiotics.
This causes big problems for breeders when using artificial insemination the method most commonly used in assisted reproductive technology in pig production worldwide.
Freshly retrieved boar ejaculates always contain bacteria. These germs are detrimental to the quality as well as the longevity of liquid preserved sperm with dire negative consequences for fertility.
The addition of antibiotics to liquid semen is required by law and facilitates an inhibition of bacterial growth.
However many types of bacteria quickly develop resistances to the usually applied antibiotics. Hence it is important to look for new antimicrobial alternatives.
Scientists from the German Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (IZW) investigated the effect of antimicrobial peptides in cooperation with the Leibniz Institute of Molecular Pharmacology (FMP) and the Institute for Reproduction of Farm animals
These molecules are naturally occurring amino acid compounds are toxic for bacteria and can be found in nearly all organisms as a first defence against germs.
For this study synthetic cationic antimicrobial peptides were produced. Antimicrobial peptides do not offer a complete alternative for traditional antibiotics in liquid sperm preservation
Virus infections after arrival of new parasitic mite in New zealand honeybee colonieshoneybee colonies are dying at alarming rates worldwide.
An article published on August 21st in PLOS Pathogens examines the viral landscape in honeybee colonies in New zealand after the recent arrival of the parasitic Varroa destructor mite.
It also gives scientists new insight into ways to fight parasitic weeds that wreak havoc on food crops in some of the poorest parts of the world.
when he found that during this parasitic interaction there is a transport of RNA between the two species. RNA translates information passed down from DNA
But Westwood found that during this parasitic relationship thousands upon thousands of mrna molecules were being exchanged between both plants creating this open dialogue between the species that allows them to freely communicate.
if other organisms such a bacteria and fungi also exchange information in a similar fashion.
In addition to shedding new light on host-parasite communication Westwood's findings have exciting implications for the design of novel control strategies based on disrupting the mrna information that the parasite uses to reprogram the host.
The beauty of this discovery is that this mrna could be the Achilles hill for parasites Westwood said.
#Bloodsucking parasitic eyeworm a culprit to 2010 quail decline, researchers believein the summer of 2010 the Rolling Plains of West Texas expected a bumper crop of quail.
and discovered large numbers of parasitic eyeworms in many of the birds they sampled. The study part of multi-million-dollar Operation Idiopathic Decline and funded by the private Rolling Plains Quail Research Foundation is titled Evidence of an Oxispirura petrowi Epizootic in Northern bobwhites
and provides evidence of how the parasitic outbreak began. When we first got into this research project
if it's possible for a parasite to move that quickly through a population on a large area said Ron Kendall professor of environmental toxicology at Texas Tech and lead investigator.
and parasite study done in the United states in more than 80 years Snipes said. To date we have invested $4. 3 million In operation Idiopathic Decline
In the paper Live Eyeworm (Oxyspirura petrowi) extraction in-vitro culture and Transfer for Experimental Studies published in the Journal of Parasitology Kendall describes how these parasitic nematodes ingest blood from the quail
If these parasites were in a human and you compared the size of the quail eye to the human eye it would be like having a worm about the size of a toothpick behind your eye.
There's no way for the quail to get these parasites out once they invade the eye.
Most transgenic fruit crop plants have been developed using a plant bacterium to introduce foreign genes and only papaya has been commercialized in part because of stringent regulation in the European union (EU). The researchers say that genetically edited plants modified through the insertion deletion
and other microbes that are sensitive to temperature and moisture. The difference between the absorption of carbon dioxide via photosynthesis by trees and the release of carbon by microbes determines the overall carbon balance of the forest.
Dr Martha Crockatt of Earthwatch said: Saprotrophic fungi control the cycling of carbon and nutrients from wood in forests and their responses to changes in microclimate driven by fragmentation
and the University of Edinburgh have found that an animal's ability to endure an internal parasite strongly influences its reproductive success. Reported in the journal PLOS Biology the finding could provide the groundwork for boosting the resilience of humans and livestock to infection.
and found that sheep with the highest tolerance to nematode infection produced the most offspring while sheep with lower parasite tolerance left fewer descendants.
To measure individual differences in parasite tolerance the researchers used statistical methods that could be extended to studies of disease epidemiology in humans said senior author Andrea Graham an assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology
Medical researchers have understood long that people with similar levels of parasite infection can experience very different symptoms.
if you knew an individual's parasite burden you could perfectly predict its health and survival prospects Graham said.
These sheep provide a unique opportunity to study the effects of parasites weather vegetation changes and other factors on a population of wild animals.
or from the ability to repair damage the parasites cause to the gut Graham said.
The team has not yet been able to detect costs of parasite tolerance in the sheep
and selectively breeding those animals that exhibit a heightened parasite tolerance said David Schneider an associate professor of microbiology and immunology at Stanford university.
This study shows that parasite tolerance can have a profound effect on animal health and breeding success said Schneider who is familiar with the work
In humans and domesticated animals intestinal parasites are becoming increasingly resistant to the drugs used to treat infections Graham said.
If the availability of nutrients even just during the first few months of life impacts lifelong parasite tolerance simple nutritional supplements could be an effective way to promote tolerance in people.
About 2 billion people are infected persistently with intestinal nematode parasites worldwide mostly in developing nations.
As a result there has been a flurry of research on honeybee parasitic mite infestations viral diseases and the direct and indirect impacts of pesticides.
One promising Ebola vaccine is based on a human rabies virus vaccine and is developed by Thomas Jefferson University in collaboration with the National institutes of health (NIH).
and used if another filovirus strain started to spread. The researchers also plan to develop the vaccine into the type of antibody serum therapy used in the first U s. recipients in a platform that could deliver at least 2000 doses of potentially lifesaving serum per month.
It includes the Zaire strain of Ebola virus that is currently spreading across West Africa as well as the Sudan strain and the Marburg virus a virus in the same family as Ebola
which showed good protection in nonhuman primates against the Zaire Ebola virus. Currently the vaccine is being developed with the help of Peter Jahrling at the Integrated Research Facility at the NIH
The experimental therapy that humanitarian aid workers Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol received was purified based on a monoclonal antibodies from mice genetically engineered to produce humanlike antibodies against the Ebola virus.
which we normally use for treatment of Staphylococcus infections. In her Phd project at the National Food Institute Phd student Mette Theilgaard exploited the latest technologies within whole genome sequencing
High-throughput approaches can identify those genes in the total gene pool of the bacteria
of which is advantageous for the bacteria under some given circumstances. Transfer of disease from animals to humansthe fact that MRSA can spread from animals to humans where they may result in infections has caused great concern in recent years.
Thus it is not sufficient to eradicate the bacteria from humans. LA-MRSA ST398 has proven to be particularly successful in colonisation of pigs.
By studying which genes are essential for the bacteria in pigs it may be possible for researchers to identify the factors important for the bacterium to colonise on pigs.
MRSA backgroundmrsa stands for methichillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. When bacteria are exposed to antibiotics they protect themselves by developing resistance.
They do this by changing their genes either by mutating or by transferring resistance genes among themselves.
Staphylococci are bacteria which can be found in humans animals and our surroundings. Staphylococcus aureus is part of the normal nasal and skin flora of approximately 50%of the population.
Staphylococcus aureus may cause various infections ranging from superficial wounds and abscesses to severe infections such as bone inflammation and infection of the heart valve.
In hospitals Staphylococcus aureus is the most frequent cause of infections following surgery. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Technical University of Denmark (DTU.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length h
#Crowdsourcing may help dieters lose weightcrowdsourcing may help dieters stick to healthy foods and lose weight as participants are trained as good as experts at correctly rating the healthiness of foods
Vierstra previously determined the structure of a similar phytochrome from light-sensing bacteria which guided his work in plants.
Resistant starch is fermented readily by gut microbes to produce beneficial molecules called short-chain fatty acids such as butyrate she added.
porcine epidemic diarrhea virus and porcine deltacoronavirus both of which were detected in China in the same time frame prior to the U s. Both porcine epidemic diarrhea virus
because more ticks and parasites occur in curly hair than in short straight hair. These are the first results of the large 1000 Bull Genomes project on
Animals release methane as a result of microorganisms that are involved in their digestive processes and nitrous oxide from decomposing manure.
#Fecal transplants let packrats eat poisonwoodrats lost their ability to eat toxic creosote bushes after antibiotics killed their gut microbes.
Woodrats that never ate the plants were able to do so after receiving fecal transplants with microbes from creosote-eaters University of Utah biologists found.
bacteria in the gut--and not just liver enzymes--are crucial in allowing herbivores to feed on toxic plants says biologist Kevin Kohl a postdoctoral researcher
Could interspecies transplants of gut microbes help livestock expand their dining menu? Kohl says he'd like to transplant woodrat gut microbes into sheep
or goats to find out if that increases their tolerance to toxic foods. Juniper is expanding its range
Researchers previously isolated toxin-degrading microbes from herbivores but Kohl and Dearing say that until now scientists have lacked strong evidence for
Gut microbes also help some herbivores eat toxic plants. The study involved desert woodrats (Neotoma lepida)--grayish rodents native to western North american deserts.
Woodrats somehow acquired novel toxin-degrading gut microbes to adapt to climate and vegetation changes that began 17000 years ago.
but scientists believe microbes sped up their dietary adjustment. Though slow evolutionary genetic changes in herbivores play an important role in adapting to new diets.
Transfer of toxin-degrading microbes from one organism to the other is much more rapid Dearing says.
How do woodrats get their tiny but valuable bacterial helpers today? Mammals acquire microbes during birth through contact with their mother's vaginal and fecal microbes Kohl says.
Other possible places to get microbes include leaf surfaces the soil or feces that woodrats collect from other animals.
Speeding Up Dietary Evolution with Fecal Transplantsin an earlier study the Utah researchers showed that the creosote-eating woodrats from the Sonoran
and Mojave deserts had higher proportions of gut microbes that might detoxify creosote while juniper-eating woodrats from the Great Basin had a different set of gut bacteria.
In the new study Dearing and colleagues performed three experiments using two kinds of woodrats â juniper eaters from the Great Basin desert
In the first experiment the scientists studied the relative abundances of gut-microbe genes in two groups of the creosote-eating Mojave woodrats.
Gut microbes were removed from the foreguts of both woodrat groups. DNA was isolated from the microbes to identify genes involved in detoxification.
The scientists found that a woodrat's diet determines the composition of its gut microbes.
Mammals are adapted to the plant toxins they eat Kohl says. The guts of creosote-fed woodrats were teeming with microbes that may degrade creosote
while the guts of creosote-free woodrats had only one-fourth the levels of the same gut microbes.
In the second experiment the researchers experimentally removed gut microbes to highlight their dietary role in woodrats.
Antibiotics kill about 90 percent of the gut microbes in animals severely impairing their ability to consume toxic foods.
Two groups of woodrats were pretreated with the antibiotic neomycin in their drinking water. One group was placed on a diet of rabbit chow and creosote resin.
With their gut microbes killed by the antibiotic they were unable to feed on creosote and lost 10 percent of their body weight within 13 days.
and didn't lose weight showing that killing their gut microbes didn't harm them because they weren't eating toxic creosote.
In the third experiment the biologists essentially sped up evolution by using fecal transplants to quickly change populations of microbes living in the woodrats'guts.
and showed that acquiring new microbes indeed helped woodrats adopt new diets. Woodrats naturally eat their own and other woodrats'feces.
--and thus gut microbes--from creosote eaters juniper eaters persisted for 11 days on the creosote diet without losing much weight.
Yet 65 percent of the juniper eaters that ate feces of other juniper eaters didn't gain microbes that detoxify creosote
They ate as much as the woodrats that were fed feces with creosote-detoxifying microbes. Instead Kohl and co-authors found that
when woodrats didn't get transplants of creosote-detoxifying microbes their urine was more acidic suggesting their livers expended a lot of energy to degrade creosote toxins.
But in juniper eaters that consumed the feces of creosote eaters their newly acquired gut microbes likely detoxified most of the creosote taking the burden off of liver enzymes.
With cinnamonseeking ways to prevent some of the most serious foodborne illnesses caused by pathogenic bacteria two Washington state University scientists have found promise in an ancient but common cooking spice:
In the study the essential oil killed several strains of Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (E coli) known to the U s. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as non-O157 STEC.
The cinnamon cassia oil is effective in low concentrations she said--about 10 drops diluted in a liter of water killed the bacteria within 24 hours.
or vegetables to eliminate microorganisms. Cassia cinnamon is produced primarily in Indonesia and has a stronger smell than the other common cinnamon variety Ceylon.
In addition to Cinnamomum cassia oil Sheng plans to take a look at another natural source to kill bacteria. She and her coworkers will study the potential of dandelions to inhibit bacteria related to bovine mastitis an infection in the mammary glands of dairy cows.
Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Washington state University. The original article was written by Rachel Webber.
Unfortunately bees all over the world are under pressure from pesticides mites viruses bacteria fungi and environmental changes among other things.
Lactic acid-producing bacteria ate away at her bones after death possibly liberating the phosphate ions used to make vivianite Fisher said.
#Beloved crape myrtle in nurseries now susceptible to bacterial leaf spotit's enough to send gardeners into conniptions.
Through genetic testing scientists identified the disorder as being caused by the bacterium Xanthomonas axonopodis. The disease is most likely spread by wind-driven rain
They believe it is the first report of the bacterium causing leaf spot in crape myrtle.
Bacterial leaf spot doesn't kill the ornamental tree but creates spots on its leaves that eventually turn yellow and drop.
The bad news is that the bacterium is widespread. I think you can safely say that nearly every crape myrtle producer would have the disease at this point Knox said.
Most bacterial diseases can be spread in wind-driven rain and in Florida we know there's no shortage of that said Mathews Paret an assistant professor of plant pathology who led the study.
The varieties Natchez Osage Fantasy Basham's Party Pink and Miami have proven highly resistant to bacterial leaf spot
or between insecticides and pathogenic agents--the effects of the insecticides being exacerbated in bees already weakened by viruses or parasites.
When people think about food-borne pathogens normally they list bacteria viruses and maybe parasites. Fungal pathogens are considered not as food-borne pathogens.
These investigations represent a diversity of subject matter from bacteria to tadpole shrimp and locations from Massachusetts to Arizona.
Other student groups focused on fungus and bacteria. A team from Brookhaven Academy in Mississippi will determine
whether the bacteria Ralstonia eutropha maintains its ability to produce polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) in microgravity. A biodegradable polyester created by bacterial fermentation PHA can be used to make things such as skin grafts and valve replacements
which would come in handy up in space. Eighth graders at Pennsauken Phifer Middle school in New jersey will examine the growth rate in microgravity of penicillium which future astronauts could grow as an antibiotic to treat infections.
Montachusett Regional Vocational Technical school in Massachusetts has a team monitoring the effect of microgravity on the growth of Bacillus subtilis also useful as an antibiotic.
These protect maize against a range of insects bacteria and fungi pests yet some species have developed resistance against these toxins
#Developing better vaccine for mutating virus in cowsbovine viral diarrhea virus infections result in one of the most costly diseases among cattle with losses in U s. herds estimated at $2 billion per year according to professor Christopher
and attacks it as it would normally do with a bacterium or a virus. This causes symptoms like swelling rashes pain and even life-threatening anaphylactic shocks.
when our immune system produces antibodies to destroy enemy molecules like those from bacteria and viruses.
and they may also experience bacterial infections such as'joint ill'or'navel ill'.'However the long-term consequences of these early life challenges are understood not well.
#Foodborne bacteria can cause disease in some breeds of chickens after allcontrary to popular belief the foodborne pathogen Campylobacter jejuni is not a harmless commensal in chickens
The main implication is that Campylobacter is not always harmless to chickens. This rather changes our view of the biology of this nasty little bug says Paul Wigley of Institute for Infection and Global Health at the University of Liverpool an author on the study.
Campylobacter jejuni is the most frequent cause of foodborne bacterial gastroenteritis in the world and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate it affects approximately 1 3 million people per year in the United states. Chicken is the most common source of infections.
and the bacteria were thought to be part of the normal microbiota of the birds. In the study Wigley and his colleagues experimentally infected birds from four commercial breeds of broiler chickens.
while levels of the bacteria in the intestines did not differ by breed immune response and inflammation did to the extent that one breed showed damage to the gut mucosa and developed diarrhea.
Interestingly the breeds did not differ in the levels of bacteria we found in their intestines after infection even
This suggests that chicken breed has little direct effect on the risk of Campylobacter entering the food chain
The most important finding says Wigley is that Campylobacter infection directly impacts broiler chicken health and welfare.
As Campylobacter is common or even endemic in these industries then the scale of the impact on animal health is clear to see.
Water from canals may have carried also harmful protozoa bacteria and viruses. But groups to the northeast would have been able to expand maize production into new areas as their populations grew he said.
These can include parasitic infections chronic skin conditions or congenital hairlessness. Â In some cases exposure to the sun can worsen an existing condition.
at the 2014 Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) Annual Meeting & Food Expoâ in New orleans. The 28-state listeria outbreak in a Colorado melon crop
While produce farmers have optimized procedures to prevent the spread of salmonella E coli and other common pathogens and illnesses the listeria outbreak really opened the eyes of a lot of people in produce that sanitation is a very important step
and has to be taken very seriously said Schneider. Contamination can occur during the planting growing harvesting washing storage and/or transportation of produce.
Understanding the genetics mechanisms underlying the pig parasite may aid to modify the human immune response that could result in better treatments for autoimmune diseases including inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and multiple sclerosis.
and other autoimmune disorders trying to figure out a way for parasite-derived therapies. Li Hu Project Manager from BGI said The constructed pig whipworm genome sequence provides us a genetic resource for deeply investigating the mechanisms underlying human autoimmune diseases.
#Oldest ever schistosomiasis egg found may be first proof of early human technology exacerbating disease burdenthe discovery of a schistosomiasis parasite egg in a 6200-year-old grave at a prehistoric
Schistosomiasis is caused a disease by several species of flatworm parasites that live in the blood vessels of the bladder and intestines.
The individual who contracted the parasite might have done so through the use of irrigation systems that were starting to be introduced in Mesopotamia around 7500 years ago.
The parasite spends part of its life cycle in snails that live in warm fresh water before leaving the snail to burrow through the skin of people wading
It shows that the parasite infected humans there at least a thousand years earlier than has been found in Egypt.
and foot areas of the grave contained no parasitic eggs suggesting that the gravesite was contaminated not with the parasite more recently.
and batsa researcher at Georgia State university is studying a new biological treatment for bacterial and fungal pathogens that are killing honeybees and bats in record numbers.
Dr. Christopher Cornelison a postdoctoral researcher is testing how effective Rhodococcus rhodochrous a species of bacteria is in fighting pathogens affecting honeybees and bats.
Cornelison grows the bacteria under certain conditions that enable them to inhibit the growth of fungi responsible for these diseases.
because the bacteria do need not to make physical contact unlike many probiotics. It's also nontoxic allowing the honey to be edible for human consumption.
Our bacteria produce a volatile chemical that's dispersed through the air and tremendously inhibits the growth of fungal and bacterial pathogens Cornelison said.
Honeybees and bats are key to the ecosystem. One of every three bites of food in America is related to honeybee pollination according to the United states Department of agriculture.
In honeybees no negative effects were found in toxicity trials exposing bees to the bacteria in the air or in their honey.
In bats Cornelison found the bacteria slow fungal growth and permanently eliminated spore germination. In collaboration with University of California-Davis he found the bacteria prevented the spread of fungi on bat skin without touching the skin.
Cornelison's research is funded by the U s. Forest Service and Bat Conservation International. Story Source:
#Livestock gut microbes contributing to greenhouse gas emissionsincreased to levels unprecedented is how the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) described the rise of carbon dioxide methane and nitrous oxide emissions in their report on the physical science basis
and specialized analysis techniques to explore the contents of the rumens of sheep in collaboration with NZ's Agresearch Limited to see what role ruminant microbiomes (the microbes living in the rumen) play in this process.
if there was a correlation between the proportions of methanogens in the eight sheep with the highest and lowest recorded methane emissions.
In sheep with low methane emissions they found elevated levels of one particular species of methanogen (Methanosphaera)
while sheep with high methane emissions had elevated levels of another group of methanogens (Methanobrevibacter gottschalkii).
and methanogen abundance across sheep were rather subtle the team reported that the expression levels of genes involved in methane production varied more substantially across sheep suggesting differential gene regulation perhaps controlled by hydrogen concentration in the rumen
--but mostly transcriptional regulation within the existing microbes that makes the difference which is a concept that is relatively new in metagenomic studies Rubin said.
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