Unlike H5n1 the other virulent form of avian influenza to emerge in recent years H7n9 produces little signs of illness in birds
#Better methods to detect E coli developedkansas State university diagnosticians are helping the cattle industry save millions of dollars each year by developing earlier and accurate detection of E coli.
and Jianfa Bai assistant professor in the Kansas State Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory are leading a project to improve techniques for detecting pathogenic Shiga toxin-producing E coli O157:
and quantify major genes specific for E coli O157. Developing a method to detect E coli before it can potentially contaminate the food supply benefits the beef industry by preventing costly recalls
but also benefits the consumer by ensuring the safety of the beef supply Noll said. The newly developed test is a molecular assay
or polymerase chain reaction that detects bacteria based on genetic sequences which are the bacteria's fingerprints Nagaraja said.
The test is rapid and less labor-intensive than existing detection methods. The method can be automated
or research laboratory to accurately detect E coli and can help with quality control in cattle facilities.
and more sensitive ways to detect these pathogens of E coli in cattle feces. To develop the diagnostic test Noll
which provides a suitable and feasible means of screening detection and identification with high sensitivity and specificity of the parasite.
Sarcosytis spp are intracellular protozoan parasites acquired upon consumption of undercooked cyst-laden meat from cattle sheep and goats.
PCR provides a feasible means for screening detection and identification with high sensitivity and specificity of the parasite.
and pipetting useful for field works fast accurate and affordable PCR provides a suitable and feasible means for screening detection and identification with high sensitivity and specificity of the parasite.
The research team discovered the killer fungus in their initial attempts to generate microbe-free poison ivy seedlings to use in their studies.
Debris is broken down by bacteria which is consumed in turn by zooplankton: tiny translucent creatures that also feed on algae.
but the new research builds on previous work that showed they also feed on bacteria from forest matter drained into lakes.
Where you have dissolved more forest matter you have more bacteria more bacteria equals more zooplankton;
#Fermentation of cocoa beans requires precise collaboration among two bacteria, and yeastgood chocolate is among the world's most beloved foods
Our studies have unraveled the metabolism of the rather unexplored acetic acid bacteria in the complex fermentation environment says corresponding author Christoph Wittmann of Saarland University Saarbruecken Germanyin the study Wittmann
They mapped metabolic pathway fluxes of the acetic acid bacteria feeding them specific isotopes that could easily be tracked.
These are produced by lactic acid bacteria and yeast respectively during the initial fermentation of cocoa pulp sugars says Wittmann.
The acetic acid bacteria then process these simultaneously via separate metabolic pathways ultimately producing acetate from them.
just as similar tools for bacteria are used now widely in microbial metabolic engineering he said. While scientists have been documenting
Nitrogen-based fertilizers spur greenhouse gas emissions by stimulating microbes in the soil to produce more nitrous oxide.
Legumes such as the common bean and soybean however can form symbiotic relationships with nitrogen-fixing bacteria Understanding how such symbiotic relationships are formed
and were successful in stopping the bacteriaâ##s spread particularly with benzbromarone which halted the bacteria in 80 percent of the infected treesâ##shoots.
The researchers found that benzbromarone targets a specific protein known as Ldtr in the citrus greening bacterium.
and the bacteria were not able to survive inside the phloem of the plant where osmotic pressure from sugar is said highâ Fernando Pagliai a co-author of the study
and leaves behind bacteria. The bacteria then move through the tree via the phloem. The disease starves the tree of nutrients damages its roots
and the tree produces fruits that are green and misshapen unsuitable for sale as fresh fruit or for juice.
#Parasites fail to halt European bumblebee invasion of the UKA species of bee from Europe that has stronger resistance to parasite infections than native bumblebees has spread across the UK according to new research at Royal Holloway
Researchers collected tree bumblebee queens from the wild checked them for parasites and then monitored colony development in a laboratory
and high levels of a nematode parasite that usually castrates other species 25 per cent of the queens were able to produce offspring.
despite high levels of this castrating parasite said researcher Catherine Jones from the School of Biological sciences at Royal Holloway.
The arrival of tree bumblebees could be hugely beneficial to us by absorbing parasite pressure from our native species as well as helping to pollinate wild plants and crops.
When the glands produce too much oil the pores can become blocked and dirt bacteria and dead skin cells can build up in them forming the whiteheads blackheads pimples
The review is published today in the open access journal Parasites and Vectors. In their analysis of animal research and other safety assessments carried out previously the School researchers conclude that there is no evidence of association between severe adverse events and recommended DEET use.
because warmer temperatures increase the activity levels of the decomposer organisms such as microbes that break down dead organic matter.
whether absorbed by the microbes growing on the wood or directly into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide.
Natural microbe inhibits rice blast fungusa fungus that kills an estimated 30 percent of the world's rice crop may finally have met its match thanks to a research discovery made by scientists at the University of Delaware
and soil sciences in UD's College of Agriculture and Natural resources has identified a naturally occurring microbe living right in the soil around rice plants--Pseudomonas chlororaphis EA105--that inhibits the devastating fungus known as rice blast.
What's more the beneficial soil microbe also induces a system-wide defense response in rice plants to battle the fungus.
As global population continues to grow biocontrol bacteria may be an important key for farmers to overcome crop losses due to plant disease and to produce more food from the same acre of land.
and colleagues Spence Donofrio and Vidhyavathi Raman showed that Pseudomonas chlororaphis EA105 strongly inhibited the formation of the appressorium and that priming rice plants with EA105 prior to infection by rice blast decreased lesion
Thanks to DNA sequencing techniques Bais says that identifying the various microorganisms in soil is easy.
But understanding the role of each of those microorganisms is a continuing story. A natural control for a deadly funguseveryone knows what's there
but we don't know what they are doing Bais says of the microbes. To home in on the source of the antifungal impact Bais
if a single bacterium or a group of different bacteria are at work. In their study reported in BMC Plant Biology the researchers used gene sequencing techniques to identify 11 naturally occurring bacteria isolated from rice plants grown in the field in California.
These bacteria were tested then in the laboratory with Pseudomonas chlororaphis EA105 demonstrating the strongest impact on rice blast.
The soil microbe reduced the formation of the anchor-like appressoria by nearly 90 percent while also inhibiting fungal growth by 76 percent.
Bais points out that although hydrogen cyanide is produced commonly by pseudomonad bacteria the antifungal impact of Pseudomonas chlororaphis EA105 appears to be independent of cyanide production.
Applying a natural soil microbe as an antifungal treatment versus chemical pesticides offers multiple benefits to farmers
and the environment Bais says. Rice blast quickly learns how to get around synthetics--most humanmade pesticides are effective only for about three years Bais says.
Bais who also has conducted multiple studies with beneficial microbes in the Bacillus family envisions a day
when farmers will treat plants with a magic cocktail of microbes naturally found in soil to help boost their immunity and growth.
This summer he and his colleagues will conduct field trials using Pseudomonas chlororaphis EA105 on rice plants grown on the UD farm.
The widespread use of antibiotics in livestock for preventive or curative purposes or as growth promoters directly contributes to the increasing prevalence of resistant strains of bacteria to antibiotics both at local and global levels.
One of these is the bacterium Canditatus Liberibacter asiaticus which infects citrus trees hijacks its odor production
they will not find enough food there as the bacterium has lowered drastically the nutritional quality of infected leaves.
This is a trick that forces the lice to quickly seek out another tree again this time with the bacterium hitching a ride on their body.
In this way the bacterium can infect new citrus trees where it causes the incurable and deadly disease huã¡
The wasps were attracted strongly to the smell of both bacteria-infected and louse-infested citrus plants and also to pure methyl salicylate.
and attack young plant lice on plants infected with the bacterium or on plants that had been treated with methyl salicylate.
This proves that the wasp finds its prey by eavesdropping on the odor signal exchanged between bacteria citrus trees and plant lice.
Bacteria may improve low-fat products, help dairy producersconsumers may have more palatable low-fat products and milk producers a solution to an industry-wide problem through use of a unique strain of lactic acid bacteria according to Ashraf Hassan
associate professor of dairy science at South dakota State university. Low-fat products tend to have inferior texture
After examining bacteria from the dairy environment for more than 15 years Hassan found a strain that mimics fat.
Some bacteria produce polysaccharides which can contain hundreds of sugar molecules such as glucose attached to one another.
Hassan first used the bacteria to make low-fat cheese which the nationally recognized SDSU dairy products judging team could not discern from regular high-fat cheese.
The bacteria's patent-pending application has been licensed to a multinational dairy ingredients company. But that's only the beginning.
but the bacteria encapsulate protein thereby maintaining more of its nutritional value. This unique polysaccharide will also address a longstanding problem in the dairy industry--the formation of biofilm on milk processing equipment Hassan noted.
Milk bacteria attach to contact surfaces and form colonies that can resist traditional cleaning methods. The bacteria Hassan identified interfere with the formation of these biofilms possibly mitigating this industrywide problem.
Because plaque is a classic case of biofilm developing on a person's teeth this discovery may also translate into better human hygiene according to Hassan.
Eating yogurt made with these bacteria may help reduce plaque and prevent tooth decay. To explore this possibility Hassan is collaborating with a researcher from University of Iowa's School of dentistry to apply for funding from the National institutes of health.
Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by South dakota State university. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length h
#Vines choke a forests ability to capture carbontropical forests are a sometimes-underappreciated asset in the battle against climate change.
How mothers milk protects piglets from parasite infectionsantibodies against C. suis are transferred via the sow's very first milk to the piglets immediately after birth.
and excreted fewer parasites compared to those from non-immunised sows. An infection with Cystoisospora suis causes serious gastrointestinal disease in piglets.
Sows produce antibodies for their offspringto stimulate antibody production against Cystoisospora suis in sows researchers exposed pregnant sows to infectious stages (oocysts) of the parasite two weeks before parturition.
and the parasite colonizes the gut attacking the mucous membrane. The parasites multiply in the body before being excreted
and the cycle starts again. Cystoisospora suis can survive in pigsties for a number of months
Sows also ingest the parasite but due to age resistance they are affected not by this coccidian parasite.
High concentrations of antibodies against the parasites are passed on to the piglets in the first few hours of life through their mother's milk where they enter the blood stream
and the intestines of the newborns who cannot yet produce their own antibodies. These maternal antibodies protect the piglets from infections in the first few weeks of life.
The importance of Cystoisospora suisneonatal porcine coccidiosis caused by Cystosisospora suis is a severe parasitic disease of the intestinal tract of neonatal piglets caused by the unicellular organism Cystoisospora suis.
if secondary bacterial infections are present. For animal welfare considerations as well as for economic reasons there is considerable interest in trying to control the disease.
a miniscule skeleton shrimp from Santa catalina Island in California a single-celled protist that does a credible imitation of a sponge a clean room microbe that could be a hazard during space travel and a teensy fringed fairyfly named Tinkerbell.
The top 10 is designed to bring attention to the unsung heroes addressing the biodiversity crisis by working to complete an inventory of earth's plants animals and microbes.
Discovery on Ice Edwardsiella andrillae Location: Antarctica A species of sea anemone living under a glacier on the Ross Ice shelf in Antarctica raises questions by its very existence.
It ends up looking much like a carnivorous sponge as well as feeding like one extending pseudopods (a protist's version of arms) outside the shell to feed on invertebrates that have become trapped in the spiny structures.
Clean room Microbes: Alien Invaders? Tersicoccus phoenicis Location: Florida U s a. and French guiana There are some things we don't want to send into space
and the newly discovered clean room microbes are among them. Found in rooms where spacecraft are assembled this microbial species could potentially contaminate other planets that the spacecraft visit.
While frequent sterilization reduces the microbes found in clean rooms some resistant species persist that can tolerate extreme dryness;
and the associated runoff will likely lead to a larger-than-average bloom of harmful blue-green algae in Lake erie this summer.
Jeffrey Reutter director of Ohio Sea Grant revealed that he expects a larger-than-average bloom of harmful blue-green algae this year.
Eliminating the blue-green algae that cause the HABS would require a 40 percent reduction in phosphorus
Surprising relationships between diet and hormones that suppress eatingby comparing how gut microbes from human vegetarians
cheeseburger) our digestive systems including our gut bacterial colonies adapted over millennia to process a low-energy nutrient-poor and presumably high fiber diet.
Fermentation of plant fiber in the colon by bacteria can produce these SCFAS so it stands to reason that digestion of a diet high in plant fiber might lead to better appetite suppression.
Gary Frost and his colleagues at Imperial College London in the United kingdom wanted to test that hypothesis in the laboratory using fecal bacterial samples from three human vegetarian volunteers
Getting to the bottom of how our gut bacteria and diets interact to control appetites is vitally important for tackling the problem of obesity said Glenn Gibson co-author on the study based at University of Reading.
and the signals those bacteria produce to release hormones that reduce appetite may give us new insight that we can adapt in the modern world.
The team established gut bacteria cultures in flasks and then'fed'them two different diets--either a predigested potato high-starch diet or a predigested grass high-fiber diet.
Then they tracked changes in the numbers and types of bacteria and measured the metabolites produced by digestion.
A closer cataloguing of all the metabolites produced by the bacterial cultures digesting potato or grass diets showed that as the levels of the amino acids isoleucine
Crops genetically engineered to produce proteins from the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis --or Bt--were introduced in 1996 and planted on more than 180 million acres worldwide during 2013.
and red pandas have different digestive microbes a finding with important implications for conservation efforts and captive animal rearing.
if there were similarities in the microbes that digest this plant-based diet. To investigate the microbes Williams collected fecal samples from two giant pandas and one red panda at the Memphis Zoo.
The team also obtained samples from a red panda at the National Zoo. Williams used advanced genetic sequencing techniques to determine what gastrointestinal bacteria were present.
The procedure revealed all microbes in the fecal matter including some that were known not Johnson said.
Study of these microbes may have unrealized potential for agriculture biomass digestion for bioenergy crops or other discovery research applications.
Fecal samples from both species were dominated by plant material which impeded identification of the microbes.
A student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison developed a method to remove this plant material allowing the digestive microbes to be identified clearly.
Our results revealed significant differences between the microbes found in the two panda species Johnson said.
While they have some similar microbes in their digestive tracts each panda species has a different dominant microbe present.
Understanding the gastrointestinal bacteria in pandas will help guide reforestation efforts throughout China's mountainous region.
The Chinese government has established 50 panda reserves within the animals'home range. Additionally China has banned logging to preserve the habitat of the declining species. With gastrointestinal disease causing the greatest natural mortality of red
and giant pandas a greater understanding of the digestive microbes will assist in maintaining captive panda populations housed at zoos Williams said.
From the production of milk to the ripening of cheeses in different environments a wide range of microorganisms have an opportunity to develop.
Indeed raw milk already contains nearly 300 species of bacteria and 70 species of yeasts which are subsequently found to differing degrees in the cheeses.
Microorganisms native to raw milk whose metabolic potentials differ from those of commercial strains may enable the more intense and complex development of aromatic compounds.
The research team showed that the microbial combinations present in traditional cheeses were able to to protect them--both in the paste and on the surface--from dangerous pathogens notably Listeria monocytogenes.
and ripen certain raw milk cheeses also appeared to be protected by a complex microbial biofilm limiting contamination by redoubtable pathogens such as Salmonella Listeria monocytogenes Escherichia coli o157/H7 and Staphylococcus aureus.
Concerned hunters and foresters sent the carcasses to the University of Veterinary medicine Vienna for analysis. Extensive investigations have revealed now that the animals died of bacterial pneumonia caused by two strains of bacteria that are highly unusual in chamois.
The researchers performed autopsies investigating various tissues and testing for the presence of bacteria viruses and parasites.
The causes of the pneumonia turned out to be bacteria with the evocative names Mannheimia glucosida (in honour of the German biologist Walter Mannheim nothing to do with the German town) and Bibersteinia trehalosi.
The bacteria had previously been detected only in cattle and sheep. That they can cause deadly and epidemic pneumonia in chamois was unknown.
So why were the bacteria so harmful at that time? Posautz believes that It was probably a combination of several factors.
and the animals were suffering from parasite infestation. The combination of these two factors weakened their immune systems and probably led to the deaths.
or decomposed by microorganisms. To reduce losses and prevent pollution farmers can more carefully target fertilizer application to plants'needs using soil measurements.
The sediment operates as a chemical filter in that microbes in the sand gravel and mud gobble up compounds such as oxygen
The role of root infection by insect-carried bacterial pathogens has been underestimated greatly said Evan Johnson a research assistant scientist with UF's Institute of food and agricultural sciences.
and leaves behind bacteria that spread through the tree. Johnson said the bacteria travel quickly to the roots where they replicate damage the root system and spread to the rest of the host tree's canopy.
The disease starves the tree of nutrients leaving fruits that are green and misshapen unsuitable for sale as fresh fruit or juice.
We are still trying to determine how the bacteria are killing the roots Johnson said.
or parasites as a result of exposure to pesticides the new study found that bees in the hives exhibiting CCD had almost identical levels of pathogen infestation as a group of control hives most
Only one of the control colonies was lost--thousands of dead bees were found inside the hive--with what appeared to be symptoms of a common intestinal parasite called Nosema ceranae.
and fresh water and be acutely toxic to aquatic microorganisms and fish. It is not only the cigarette ingredients that harm the environment
and its symbiotic bacteria work together to make up a single organismal system. The study titled Aphid amino acid transporter regulates glutamine supply to intracellular bacterial symbionts is published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS.
The findings show how a simple mechanism allows an insect the pea aphid to regulate the manufacturing of essential nutrients supplied by its symbiotic bacteria called Buchnera aphidicola.
We've identified the key regulator of this symbiosis said Alex C. C. Wilson associate professor of Biology in the College of Arts and Sciences and corresponding author of the study.
but the rest it must get from beneficial bacteria that live inside aphid cells. In turn the symbiotic bacteria can't produce amino acids that the aphid can make so the partners exchange insect-produced amino acids for symbiont-produced amino acids.
That conversion of going from a diet with an inappropriate nutritional profile to an appropriate profile occurs in collaboration between the bacteria
and the host Wilson said. The question is whether the production of nutrients changes with supply
To help answer this question the researchers looked at amino acids that are fundamental to the pea aphid-Buchnera symbiotic function.
which is made in Buchnera and it's deficient in the pea aphid's diet. Glutamine is ferried across a membrane that surrounds the cells where the bacteria lives by an amino acid transporter named Apglnt1.
To study this transport mechanism the researchers used a procedure that uses frog eggs (called oocytes) to manufacture Apglnt1.
Since glutamine is a precursor for amino acids the bacteria's synthesis of arginine is reduced in turn.
Since Apglnt1 localizes to the membrane of aphid cells where the bacteria resides and because of other features peculiar to aphid metabolism transporter Apglnt1 not only regulates arginine biosynthesis
Wilson's lab may find the answer by looking at other sap-feeding insects with intracellular bacteria based on an understanding that emerged from another study from her lab. The study titled Dynamic recruitment of amino acid transporters to the insect
Save threatened species by giving them treated cotton for nestswhen University of Utah biologists set out cotton balls treated with a mild pesticide wild finches in the Galapagos islands used the cotton to help build their nests killing parasitic
because there currently are no other methods to control this parasite bloodsucking maggots of the nest fly Philornis downsi says University of Utah biology doctoral student Sarah Knutie the study's first author.
Clayton says the parasitic nest fly may have invaded Ecuador's Galapagos islands via ships and boats from the mainland at an unknown time and showed up in large numbers in the 1990s.
There are other species of birds that are hurt by parasites and so if the birds can be encouraged to incorporate fumigated cotton into their nests then they may be able to lessen the effects of the parasites Knutie says.
Examples: Hawaiian honeycreepers infested with feather lice birds in Puerto rico afflicted by Philornis flies and the endangered Florida scrub jay parasitized by fleas.
and often infected by fleas with plague bacteria Knutie says. Permethrin has been sprayed in burrows but that is labor-intensive so it might be used on vegetation the animals drag into their burrows.
Parasitic nest flies lay their eggs in finch nests which have shaped dome roofs of woven plant fibers.
After birds in a given nest finished breeding (within three weeks) and left the nest the scientists collected the nest dissected it counted the number of parasitic fly maggots
The researchers write that their study found self-fumigation had a significant negative effect on parasites killing at least half the fly maggots.
but the more treated cotton the fewer the parasites. Of eight nests with at least 1 gram of cotton (one 28th of an ounce) seven had no maggots
A separate follow-up experiment--and earlier studies by others--showed killing the parasites with sprayed permethrin increases baby bird survival.
Benign bug beats salmonella; tomato eaters winscientists from the U s. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have identified a benign bacterium that shows promise in blocking Salmonella from colonizing raw tomatoes.
Their research is published ahead of print in the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology. When applied to Salmonella-contaminated tomato plants in a field study the bacterium known as Paenibacillus alvei significantly reduced the concentration of the pathogen compared to controls.
Outbreaks of Salmonella traced to raw tomatoes have sickened nearly 2000 people in the US from 2000-2010 killing three.
Since the millennium this pathogen has caused 12 multistate outbreaks of food-borne illness--more than one each year.
which Salmonella thrives says coauthor Eric W. Brown also of FDA but we knew that
if we could block Salmonella from infecting the tomato plant we could reduce its risk of infecting the person who eats the tomato.
Many innocuous bacterial species thrive within the tomato-growing environment. We hypothesized that such an organism could be found that possessed the ability to outcompete
or chemically destroy Salmonella says Zheng. After screening many hundreds of potential biocontrol strains of bacteria that were isolated from farms
and natural environments in the Mid-atlantic region we found about 10 isolates of bacteria representing very different genera
and species that could curb the growth and/or destroy Salmonella in our test assays.
Many of these were as pathogenic to humans as is Salmonella but two isolates belonging to the environmentally friendly species P. alvei strongly inhibited growth of Salmonella.
This bacterium also has known no history of human pathology making it a great candidate as a biological control agent says Zheng.
While farmers and agricultural scientists have used long microbes to prevent plant diseases we now have the opportunity to add a naturally-occurring microbe to a crop in the field with the goal of preventing human disease says Zheng.
Our ambitions are now to extend this microbial approach to cantaloupe leafy greens and other crops that have lately been responsible for outbreaks of food-borne Salmonella and E coli.
Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by American Society for Microbiology. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
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