Without these trash bins the Escherichia coli bacteria they serve would die. And thanks to Rice the how is becoming clearer.
One such biomachine is Ftsh a membrane-bound molecule in E coli made of six protein copies that form two connected hexagonal rings.
He said understanding essential motor proteins in bacteria will be important as researchers begin to apply DCA to advance human health.
Another possibility is that commensal bacteria in the gut could offer humans a helping hand in digesting milk.
The team is now assaying Africans'gut bacteria to see if that might be the case.
#Soil microbes shift as shrubs invade remnant hill prairiesperched high on the bluffs of the big river valleys in the Midwest are some of the last remnants of never-farmed prairie grasslands.
A recent University of Illinois study examined the soil microbes on nine patches also called balds that had varying degrees of shrub invasion
The microbes in the shrub soil tend to be different but different parts of the microbial community change in relationship to the shrub to the forest to the prairie.
The shrub bacteria are more like what they found in open prairie than in the forest.
if the shrubs have changed these microbes because that could have an effect on a landowner's ability to restore a heavily encroached hill prairie Yannarell said.
As the environment becomes unfavorable for certain microbes those microbes will die off he said. The shrubs could be driving out grass-loving fungi in favor of shrub-loving fungi.
They found that microbes in the guts of rotation-resistant rootworms help those beetles that stray into soybean fields survive on soybean leaves for a few days--just long enough for the females to lay their eggs in soil that will be planted in corn the following year.
because the product isn't pasteurized it contains good bacteria that can increase lactose absorption.
me because regardless of the bacteria raw milk and pasteurized milk have the same amount of lactose in them Gardner said.
whether their digestive systems adapted to the additional bacteria in raw milk. We brought in focus groups of lactose-intolerant people to get feedback before we started the study
and balances between beneficial and potentially harmful bacteria which characterizes a healthy gut microbiota is disturbed in IBS patients.
Probably the best example of this interaction is the discovery that IBS symptoms develop in up to 10 percent of previously healthy subjects after a single episode of gastroenteritis caused by an infection through bacterial pathogens like Salmonella Shighella or Campylobacter
and treatment we have to identify more of the various functions of the intestinal bacteria.
With regard to clinical applications bacterial functions are even more important than their types. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by American Gastroenterological Association.
#Maize and bacteria: A one-two punch knocks copper out of stamp sandscientists have known for years that together bacteria
and plants can remediate contaminated sites. Ramakrishna Wusirika of Michigan Technological University has determined that how you add bacteria to the mix can make a big difference.
He has also shed light on the biochemical pathways that allow plants and bacteria to clean up some of the worst soils on the planet
while increasing their fertility. Wusirika an associate professor of biological sciences first collected stamp sands near the village of Gay in Michigan's Upper Peninsula.
Then Wusirika and his team planted maize in the stamp sand incorporating bacteria in four different ways:
2. coating seed with bacteria and planting it; 3. germinating seeds and planting them in soil to
which bacteria were added; and4. the conventional method immersing the roots of maize seedlings in bacteria
and planting them in stamp sand. After 45 days the team uprooted the plants and measured their dry weight.
All maize grown with bacteria was significantly more vigorous--from two to five times larger--than the maize grown in stamp sand alone.
The usual technique--applying bacteria to seedlings'roots before transplanting--works fine in the lab
But the mere fact that all the plants grown with bacteria did so well also piqued his curiosity.
When we saw this we wondered what the bacteria were doing to the soil Wusirika said.
The bacteria are also changing copper into a form that the plants can take up. With bacteria the exchangeable copper is increased three times he said.
There's still a lot of copper that's not available but it is moving in the right direction.
By analyzing metabolic compounds the team was able to show that the bacteria enhance photosynthesis
Bacteria also appear to affect the amount phenolics produced by the maize. Phenolics are antioxidants similar to those in grapes and red wine.
Compared to plants grown in normal soil without bacteria plants grown in stamp sand alone showed a fivefold increase in phenolics.
However phenolics in plants grown in stamp sand with bacteria showed a lesser increase. Growing in stamp sand is very stressful for plants
Adding the metal-resistant bacteria enables the plants to cope with stress better resulting in reduced levels of phenolics.
Supplements can boost the productivity of ruminant animals by encouraging microbes in the rumen to grow quickly
#Stricter controls of wastewater reuse on crops needed to meet WHO guidelineswastewater used to irrigate agricultural crops in countries where water is scarce may contribute to significant public health risks such as diarrheal disease in children from rotavirus.
but wastewater carries microorganisms such as viruses bacteria and protozoa that can contaminate food and cause disease.
However normal cooking temperatures and food preservation strategies can reduce the risks posed by microorganisms and viruses.
and a probabilistic rotavirus disease burden model for their consumptionâ#recently appeared in the electronic version of the journal Risk Analysis published by the Society for Risk Analysis. The researchers first determined the volume of water retained by three commonly grown Asian vegetables
and then used a statistical model to estimate rotavirus disease burdens associated with wastewater irrigation. Rotavirus is associated with diarrheal disease in children
and was chosen as the focus of the study because diarrheal disease is associated with 74 percent of wastewater-related deaths 90 percent
The probability of rotavirus infection is affected by uncertainty in virus concentration and variation in vegetable consumption.
The rotavirus infection rates were based on data from an infectivity trial in adults but rotavirus primarily affects children.
Lower doses induce infectivity in children faster than adults so the estimated disease burdens from the researchersâ##statistical model may underestimate the actual risk to children.
Collecting rotavirus infectivity data for children would improve the accuracy of risk assessments of the threat.
and regulations for the reuse of wastewater they present only threshold concentrations for bacteria such as E coli not viruses.
The parasitic nematode Radopholus similis is the invisible nemesis of the banana plant says Professor Dirk De Waele:
#Predators delay pest resistance to Bt cropscrops genetically modified with the bacterium Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) produce proteins that kill pest insects.
Bt is a soil bacterium that produces proteins that are toxic to some species of caterpillars
The first results of the model show that colonies infested with a common parasitic mite (varroa) can be much more vulnerable to food shortages.
In fight against parasites, Barberry sacrifices seeds depending on survival chanceplants appear to be able to make complex decisions.
and the University of GÃ ttingen have concluded from their investigations on Barberry (Berberis vulgaris) which is able to abort its own seeds to prevent parasite infestation.
Scientists compared both species to find a marked difference in parasite infestation: a highly specialized species of tephritid fruit fly whose larvae actually feed on the seeds of the native Barberry was found to have a tenfold higher population density on its new host plant the Oregon grape reports Dr. Harald Auge a biologist at the UFZ.
This parasite punctures the berries in order to lay its eggs inside them. If the larva is able to develop it will often feed on all of the seeds in the berry.
If a seed is infested with the parasite later on the developing larva will feed on both seeds.
If however the plant aborts the infested seed then the parasite in that seed will also die
Using computer model calculations scientists were able to demonstrate how those plants subjected to stress from parasite infestation reacted very differently from those without stress.
and cotton plants genetically engineered to produce proteins from the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt). These proteins kill some key pests
E coli has also been a problem historically and continues to be on an industry-wide basis said James Pettigrew.
Consumer concerns about bacterial resistance to antibiotics have prompted the swine industry to seek additional methods to protect the health of pigs including special feed additives.
The researchers conducted two experiments to test the beneficial effects of adding plant extracts to pig diets to combat PRRS and E coli.
In both experiments half of the pigs in each dietary treatment were challenged with either E coli
E coli a bacterial illness of the gut is marked by diarrhea decrease in appetite decrease in body weight and in some cases a higher mortality rate.
E coli is especially dangerous post-weaning as pigs adapt to new feed and new environments Pettigrew said.
The pigs in the study challenged with E coli that had been fed any of the three plant extracts had a lower frequency of diarrhea (20 percent) than the pigs fed the control diet (40 percent.
The pigs fed plant extracts were more efficient (40 percent) in feed use than the pigs fed the control diet in the E coli-challenged group
because feeding plant extracts reduced the inflammation caused by E coli and the PRRS virus. In production animals inflammation is costly.
The disease is caused by a bacterium Candidatus Liberibacter solanacearum which is transmitted by the psyllid said Dr. Ron French Agrilife Extension plant pathologist in Amarillo.
and by then the insect has transmitted already the bacterium into the plant especially if that psyllid flew into the field.
and transmit the bacterium from plant to plant French said. French is conducting his studies using alternative controls as a part of the U s. Department of agriculture-National Institute of Food
so that any negative impacts the psyllid bacterium disease or pesticide use are having on the plant can translate into improved yields.
The improvised filter should trap any bacteria producing fresh uncontaminated water. In fact an MIT team has discovered that this low-tech filtration system can produce up to four liters of drinking water a day--enough to quench the thirst of a typical person.
In a paper published this week in the journal PLOS ONE the researchers demonstrate that a small piece of sapwood can filter out more than 99 percent of the bacteria E coli from water.
while blocking most types of bacteria. Co-author Rohit Karnik an associate professor of mechanical engineering at MIT says sapwood is a promising low-cost
Membrane-based filters while able to remove microbes are expensive require a pump and can become easily clogged.
It's the same problem with water filtration where we want to filter out microbes but maintain a high flow rate.
Picking the right plantfinally the team flowed inactivated E coli-contaminated water through the wood filter.
When they examined the xylem under a fluorescent microscope they saw that bacteria had accumulated around pit membranes in the first few millimeters of the wood.
Counting the bacterial cells in the filtered water the researchers found that the sapwood was able to filter out more than 99 percent of E coli from water.
Karnik says sapwood likely can filter most types of bacteria the smallest of which measure about 200 nanometers.
or a busy airport where cold viruses and other germs circulate freely flowers are common gathering places where pollinators such as bees
and butterflies can pick up fungal bacterial or viral infections that might be as benign as the sniffles
As major hubs of plant-animal interactions throughout the world flowers are ideal venues for the transmission of microbes among plants and animals.
In total we found eight major groups of animal pathogens that are transmitted potentially at flowers including a trypanosomatid fungi bacteria
and RNA VIRUSES they note. Their paper Arranging the bouquet of disease: Floral traits and the transmission of plant and animal pathogens was featured in the publisher's News Round up of most newsworthy research.
It showed that deformed wing virus (DWV) and the fungal parasite Nosema ceranae--both of which have major negative impacts on honeybee health--can infect worker bumblebees
and screened for the presence of the parasites. Both parasites were widespread in bumblebees and honeybees across the UK.
Dr FÃ rst explained: One of the novel aspects of our study is that we show that deformed wing virus
Three factors suggest that honeybees are spreading the parasites into wild bumblebees: honeybees have higher background levels of the virus and the fungus than bumblebees;
We have known for a long time that parasites are behind declines in honeybees said Professor Brown. What our data show is that these same pathogens are circulating widely across our wild
While recent studies have provided anecdotal reports of the presence of honeybee parasites in other pollinators this is the first study to determine the epidemiology of these parasites across the landscape.
Also although they are small enough to grow in many environments unlike biofuel-producing microbes duckweed plants are large enough to harvest easily.
These coatings included significant amounts of soil organic carbon microbes and pathogens. After the coatings dried they were incorporated into the topsoil layer of the alluvial soils using tillage equipment. â#oebecause the flooding occurred during the non-growing season for corn
The team analyzed a dataset with more than 80000 gene sequences representing the global diversity of the Influenza a virus
The Influenza a virus is subdivided into 17 so-called HA subtypes--H1 through H17--and 10 subtypes of NA N1-N10.
These mix and match for example H1n1 H7n9 with the greatest diversity seen in birds. Using the new family tree of the flu virus as a map showed
Epidemic typhus is caused an infectious disease by a bacterium transmitted between people by body lice. The disease spreads where conditions are crowded and unsanitary.
Chocolate Safetythe roasting process kills bacteria on the cocoa seeds. Because of the high fat low moisture content chocolate generally does not spoil.
How our gut bacteria metabolize complex carbohydrates from fruits, vegetableswe are all aware of the health benefits of dietary fiber.
and institutions in Canada and Sweden has begun to uncover how our gut bacteria metabolize the complex dietary carbohydrates found in fruits and vegetables.
Trillions of bacteria live in human intestines--there are about ten times more bacterial cells in the average person's body than human ones.
Known as microbiota these bacteria have a vital role to play in human health: they are central to our metabolism and well-being.
The research team has uncovered how one group of gut bacteria known as Bacteroidetes digest complex sugars known as xyloglucans.
They show that about 92 per cent of the population harbors bacteria with a variant of the gene sequence according to a survey of public genome data from 250 adult humans.
Understanding how these bacteria digest complex carbohydrates informs studies on a wide range of nutritional issues.
These include probiotics (the consumption of'beneficial'microorganisms as a food supplement) and prebiotics (the consumption of foods or supplements intended to stimulate the production of healthy bacteria in the gut).
Its been appreciated for a long time that our symbiotic gut bacteria provide us with greatly expanded abilities to digest dietary fiber.
However the precise details of how this happens remain largely unexplored says co-corresponding author Eric Martens Ph d. an assistant professor in the Department of Microbiology & Immunology at the U-M Medical school.
Large-scale genome sequencing efforts like the Human Microbiome Project have focused on the community of microorganisms that live in the human gut.
In this study we took an empirical approach to decipher how one model gut bacterium digests one type of fiber that is abundant in the foods we eat.
and vegetables and how and why the good bacteria do what they do. Professor Gideon Davies who led the research at York University says
for this we rely on our gut bacteria. This work is helping us to understand the science of that process.
and medicinesbright pink-orange microalgae found in salt lakes and coastal waters could become a renewable source of food plastics health products
and businesses from eight countries including world leading experts in the biochemistry of Dunaliella in large-scale cultivation of microalgae in novel harvesting technologies and in bioprocessing development.
Together they aim to set a world benchmark for a biorefinery based on microalgae. Plans include the largest commercial cultivation of the single-cell organisms in water raceways lakes and photobioreactors.
The project hopes to demonstrate the business case for global investment in algae biorefineries and in large-scale production of microalgae within three years in order to raise investment for the first prototype D-Factory in Europe.
The high salinity and light intensity turns the microalgae orange by producing protective carotenoids. The pink-orange of many salt lakes containing Dunaliella is intensified by the presence of archaea fellow single-celled organisms.**
***Seaweed could be next new biofuelnew research to turn seaweed into liquid biofuel aims to overcome two main barriers to the plant becoming a major source of renewable energy.
IOTA is studying the biochemical pathways that produce Dunaliella's essential metabolites--small chemicals synthesised by the microalgae that can form the building blocks of more complex therapeutically useful natural products.
Bovine TB caused by a bacterium called Mycobacterium bovis not only infects cattle but other livestock and wildlife.
various environmental factors as well as differences in the TB bacteria may also affect susceptibility. If we can choose animals with better genotypes for TB resistance then we can apply this information in new breeding programs alongside other control strategies.
Roberts is also planning to study how the body's natural gut bacteria impact the digestion of berry-based compounds.
In fact the bees emerged parasite-free suggesting plastic nests may physically impede parasites the study said.
and the University of California Berkeley has discovered that a process that turns on photosynthesis in plants likely developed On earth in ancient microbes 2. 5 billion years ago long before oxygen became available.
This research concerns methane-forming archaea a group of microbes known as methanogens which live in areas where oxygen is absent.
This innovative work demonstrates the importance of a new global regulatory system in methanogens said William Whitman a professor of microbiology at the University of Georgia who is familiar with the study
Understanding this system will provide the tools to use these economically important microorganisms better. Methanogens play a key role in carbon cycling.
When plants die some of their biomass is trapped in areas that are devoid of oxygen such as the bottom of lakes.
Methanogens help convert the residual biological material to methane which other organisms convert to carbon dioxide--a product that can be used by plants.
Methanogens also play an important role in agriculture and human health They live in the digestive systems of cattle
Efforts to control methanogens in specific ways may improve feed utilization and enhance the production of meat
Methanogens are additionally a factor in human nutrition. The organisms live in the large intestine where they enhance the breakdown of food.
Some have proposed that restricting this activity of methanogens could help alleviate obesity. The team investigated an ancient type of methanogen Methanocaldococcus jannaschii
which lives in deep-sea hydrothermal vents or volcanoes where environmental conditions mimic those that existed on the early Earth.
Since methanogens developed before oxygen appeared on earth the evidence raises the possibility that thioredoxin-based metabolic regulation could have come into play for managing anaerobic life long before the advent of oxygen.
Herbivorous mammals are able to digest plant materials extremely efficiently thanks to certain microorganisms in their gastrointestinal system.
whether samples taken from the stool of a patient contain genetic DNA from the parasite that causes the disease.
Parasites such as cryptosporidium are more common causes of prolonged diarrhea. Current laboratory tests are not sensitive are time-consuming
A rapid affordable accurate point-of-care test could greatly enhance care for the underserved populations who are affected most by parasites that cause diarrheal illness.
A. Clinton White director of the Infectious disease Division at UTMB asked Richards-Kortum to help develop a diagnostic test for the parasite.
The parasite is common in the United states he said but less than 5 percent of an estimated 750000 cases are diagnosed every year.
While current tests might catch the disease in samples with thousands of the pathogens the Rice technique detects the presence of very few--even one--parasite in a sample.
The research team's goal is to produce a low-cost diagnostic that may also test for the presence of several other parasites including giardia the cause of another intestinal disease.
and sequenced the RNA genome of Barley Stripe Mosaic virus (BSMV) in a 750-year-old barley grain found at a site near the River Nile in modern-day Egypt.
Using the new medieval RNA to calibrate estimates of the rate of mutations the researchers were able to trace the evolution of the Barley Stripe Mosaic virus to a probable origin of around 2000 years ago but potentially much further back to the domestication
The medieval RNA from Qasr Ibrim gives us a vital clue to unlock the real age of the Barley Stripe Mosaic virus.
#Bacterial fibers critical to human, avian infectionescherichia coli--a friendly and ubiquitous bacterial resident in the guts of humans and other animals--may occasionally colonize regions outside the intestines.
and her colleagues examine one such bacterial adversary Avian pathogenic Escherichia coli (APEC). The research conducted in collaboration with scientists at the University of Florida Gainesville appears in the current issue of the journal PLOS ONE.
The researchers targeted a specific group of threadlike fibers known as E coli common pilus (ECP) which adorn bacterial cell surfaces.
In the first study of its kind they analyzed the way these structures contribute to APEC's ability to cause infection
and form dense cell aggregates known as biofilms. APEC infections are a serious threat to poultry causing both systemic and localized infections collectively known as colibacillosis.
Avian Pathogenic E coli (APEC) belong to a broad group of extraintestinal pathogenic E coli (Expec) strains. Colibacillosis caused by APEC in birds leads to serious illness often attacking the avian respiratory system producing systemic
Many types of bacteria produce extracellular surface fibers like ECP enabling them to adhere to one another as well as to various surfaces.
But such fibers or pili perform other vital functions particularly in the case of pathogenic bacteria Pili including those projecting from the surfaces of E coli are capable of recognizing specific host cell receptors during their initial phase of colonization.
Bacteria make further use of their pili to form cellular biofilms. Such bacterial aggregates are of clinical importance as they provide reservoirs for pathogenic organisms to persist in the host and often display increased resistance to antibiotics.
E coli common pilus (ECP) was identified originally in an Expec form known to cause neonatal meningitis in humans
but was recognized later as a component in all classes of E coli--both pathogenic and benign.
While E coli bacteria exist primarily as beneficial residents of the human intestine extraintestinal variants are responsible for diarrheal diseases like hemorrhagic colitis as well as urinary tract infections neonatal meningitis sepsis and pneumonia.
The toll of such diseases--particularly in the developing world--is substantial claiming some 2. 5 million lives per year.
and evaluate its contribution in the early stage of biofilm formation and host cell recognition.
which was associated previousely with human pathogenic E coli. The authors stress that the results confirm that APEC and human pathogenic E coli strains share virulence traits.
They further speculate that ecpa may permit the persistence of E coli bacteria in the intestine where they exist in a non-threatening state before migrating to alternate extraintestinal sites becoming pathogenic.
Environmental conditions including low ph low growth temperature and high acetate concentration have been shown to upregulate the expression of ECP in human E coli strains that cause urinary tract infections meningitis and diarrheal diseases.
In the current study an APEC strain was found to adhere to human cervical cells in a manner similar to human Expec infections.
Further the results showed that adorning APEC with anti-ECP antibodies--a process known as opsonization--could significantly inhibit bacterial adherence.
The formation of biofilms is a common bacterial property including in E coli where the adaptation increases survivability inside
Bacteria forming biofilms frequently display antibiotic resistance and can be tenacious foes to combat medically.
Deletion of ECP-related genes was shown to reduce biofilm production. Finally the study attempted to evaluate APEC virulence in baby chicks using strains with deleted ECP genes.
although the gene of ECP was found in a large number of APEC these bacteria express this gene differently
or in biofilm Mellata says. Elucidating how the expression of some genes is turned on or off by different factors will help us understand how these bacteria cause disease.
Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Arizona State university. The original article was written by Richard Harth.
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