Academic researchers are trying to better understand the microbes that live in the cow digestive system whence cow methane comes.
Or maybe the cow of the future could take probiotic supplements to boost her gut population of non-methane-producing microbes?
#Missiles And Rockets Might Soon Smell Like Pine Treesin an effort to launch things skyward in a more sustainable way researchers have coaxed bacteria to produce a highly combustible compound called pinene.
The new research effort--a joint venture by Georgia Tech and the Department of energy's Joint Bioenergy Institute--builds on the work of the Navy by offloading pinene synthesis to bacteria.
The group genetically engineered E coli bacteria to produce conifer-derived proteins that assemble pinene. Stephen Sarria and Pamela Peralta-Yahya two Georgia Tech researchers who collaborated on the new work published in ACS Synthetic biology broke down the process for Popular Science in four steps:
Second they inserted genes that code for the enzymes into the DNA of E coli (chosen
because it's one of the easiest bacteria to genetically engineer). Third the team grew up the bacteria in large fermenters very similar to how you'd make beer Peralta-Yahya said.
With the brewing of pinene complete they used the Navy-discovered chemicals to dimerize pinene molecules into rocket-ready fuel.*
*This new bacteria-driven method to make pinene is six times better than any other biological process
if any harmful microbes have grown on them. They also check the modules and the plants'leaves for contaminants
New research you see has found that chemicals excreted by microbes in sloth fur had potent activity against a host of human pathogens
The study found that chemicals isolated from fungi in three-toed sloths were deadly for parasites that cause malaria and Chagas disease (Plasmodium falciparum and Trypanosoma cruzi respectively.
The research was only a partial cataloguing of microbes that live in sloth fur which the scientists describe as a potential goldmine for drug discovery.
Cyanobacteria have been known to cover their coats coloring them green and potentially helping them blend into the rainforests of Central america that they call home.
A total of 20 of the chemicals isolated from these microbes were active against at least one bacterial strain
and one had an unusual pattern of bioactivity against Gram-negative bacteria that suggests a potentially new mode of action.
A new invasive plant parasitic nematode in Europefollowing its recent synonymisation with Meloidogyne ulmi a species known to parasitize elm trees in Europe it has become clear that M. mali has been in The netherlands for more than fifty years.
and fed to the likes of livestock poultry and salmon among other uses--has led bacteria to evolve Hollis writes.
Mounting evidence cited in the journal shows resistant pathogens are emerging in the wake of this veritable flood of antibiotics--resulting in an increase in bacteria that is immune to available treatments.
Modern medicine relies on antibiotics to kill off bacterial infections explains Hollis. This is incredibly important. Without effective antibiotics any surgery--even minor ones--will become extremely risky.
Bacteria that can effectively resist antibiotics will thrive Hollis adds reproducing rapidly and spreading in various ways.
Bacteria is spread in the environment; it might wind up on a doorknob. You walk away with the bacteria on you
and you share it with the next person you come into contact with. If you become infected with resistant bacteria antibiotics won't provide any relief.
While the vast majority of antibiotic use has gone towards increasing productivity in agriculture Hollis asserts that most of these applications are of low value.
Resistant bacteria do not respect national borders he says. He adds that such a treaty might have a fair chance of attaining international compliance as governments tend to be motivated by revenue collection.
#Biologists find clues to a parasites inconsistencytoxoplasma gondii a parasite related to the one that causes malaria infects about 30 percent of the world's population.
In their latest paper they analyzed 29 strains of the parasite and found that some of those endemic to South america
while pregnant as the parasite can cause birth defects. In South america there is a much higher incidence of severe symptoms in otherwise healthy people.
Macrophages are one of the parasite's major targets and also a critical part of the host's immune response.
This reveals which genes--both parasite and host--are most active during infection. Most strikingly some South american and some atypical North american strains induced a type of immune reaction usually only seen during viral infection known as the type 1 interferon response.
Paradoxically the parasite only sets off this immune response after the host cell has killed it spilling the parasite's DNA and RNA into the cell.
It's often not the parasite that causes all the damage but it's actually the host immune response that's causing most of the damage Saeij says.
We think that maybe what's happening is these parasites come in and they trigger a hyperinflammatory host immune response that might cause damage to the eyes.
Toxoplasma is one of the few parasites that can infect any warm-blooded animal says Mariane Melo an MIT postdoc and the paper's lead author.
According to the paper the sheep industry has become dependent on drugs to control these parasites. Over time these drugs are less effective as helminths become resistant to the drugs.
and pasture management practises will greatly help to control against production losses due to gastrointestinal parasites.
These toxins were isolated from the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt. These Bt corn hybrids have been adopted widely because they are exceptional for managing ECB--99.9 percent of larvae are expected to die
#Bacteria to aid sutainable sugarcane productionscientists have discovered a bacterium that could reduce the use of fertilizer in sugarcane production
and found a new bacterium Burkholderia australis that promotes plant growth through a process called nitrogen fixation.
Bacteria are used widely in sugar cane production as well as with other crops where they help to break down organic matter in the soil to make vital nutrients available to the growing plants
This variability means that the success of bacterial fertilizers might depend on developing tailor-made versions for different crop cultivars and environments.
and went looking for bacteria that were present in large numbers around the roots of thriving sugar cane plants.
While two of the most abundant bacteria did not have noticeable effects on plant growth Burkholderia australis was doing quite well in competition with other soil bacteria in the environment
The team tested the bacteria checking that they were happy living amongst the roots of growing sugarcane seedlings
Paungfoo-Lonhienne and colleagues are also looking for bacteria that break down waste produces from sugar cane processing
Pikas and rabbits and their gut microbes are the ultimate recycling factory Dearing says. They ingest low-quality food over and over again
and bacteria that create a protective web of cellulose. With this in mind cellulose nanomaterials are inherently renewable sustainable biodegradable and carbon-neutral like the sources from
#No fluke as parasites nuked with innovative toolkittyndall National Institute Ireland has announced the development of a new diagnostic toolkit--Flukeless--to help in the fight against liver fluke in cattle and sheep.
and immunity and DNA testing to tackle the common liver fluke parasite--a scourge that causes annual losses of around. 5billion to the livestock and food industries worldwide.
and policy analysts Flukeless will provide a blueprint for new on-farm parasite control allowing farmers to rapidly intervene
and correct parasite-related animal health issues such as reduced live-weight gain calving rates and milk yield.
Whether from cows goats or sheep raw milk and milk products are a continuing source of bacterial infections that are especially dangerous to pregnant women fetuses the elderly young children
Most of those illnesses were caused by contamination of the product with E coli or with species of Salmonella or Campylobacter.
Infections by such bacteria can cause diarrhea fever cramps nausea and vomiting. Some infections can become systemic.
but Maldonado said that even in healthy herds there are other organisms that can cause serious bacterial infections in children and pregnant women.
In endorsing a raw-milk cheese ban the statement cited scientific evidence that Escherichia coli 0157 a pathogenic strain of the E coli bacteria that can cause particularly severe symptoms
and has been linked to E coli outbreaks. The statement also encourages pediatricians to lobby their state representatives in support of a ban on raw-milk sales in the states where they live.
In addition to many species of bacteria the list includes giardia rabies and norovirus. According to the U S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention norovirus is the most common cause of acute gastroenteritis in the United states causing 19-21 million illnesses
Methane produced when ethanol ferments is degraded often by methanotrophic bacteria which also require oxygen. But fuel blends of 20 to 95 percent ethanol
We want the bacterial activity to eat these vapors before they reach us Alvarez said.
The bacteria will be there but they're not going to do you much good if they run out of oxygen.
The problem is bacteria that eat the methane use up all the oxygen and the ones you want to degrade benzene can't do their job
Alvarez said the paper's lead author Rice graduate student Jie Ma has done extensive work to characterize bacterial activity at spill sites.
and moisture for the microbes to be happy and it's close to high methane concentrations Alvarez said.
Gabriel said by having that roadmap of the bacteria genome they will be certain there are no surprises in the Brazilian species
It is spread by a tiny insect called the Asian citrus psyllid that feeds on the trees leaving bacteria that starve the tree of nutrients.
Gabriel's team's work will be outlined in a research paper that will be published in February in the journal Molecular Plant-Microbe Interaction.
To map the bacteria's DNA genome Gabriel's Brazilian colleagues first diced up and crushed tissue from the veins of infected citrus trees where the organism was concentrated most highly.
The team had to separate the tree DNA from that of the bacterium. DNA comprises four nucleotides
Testosterone levels are highly reactive to environmental factors including pathogens parasites and food scarcity. If you get sick at all you see a decrease in testosterone said Trumble.
The Tsimane experience higher exposure to parasites and pathogens and less food security thus they face a tradeoff between investing energy to maintain good immune function
The Pandey lab also showed that G proteins function in soybean roots to affect formation of nitrogen-fixing nodules through a symbiotic relationship with certain beneficial bacteria.
of root tissue that has been attacked by the parasitic nematode Radopholus similis. This local accumulation is crucial for the plant's resistance to this pest organism.
The toxin is stored in lipid droplets in the body of the nematode and the parasite finally dies.
and vitamins B and C. Apart from fungi and insects the parasitic nematode Radopholus similis is considered a major banana pest.
As regards residues of the Type 3 the pesticide was decomposed by bacteria and the carbon contained therein was transported into the microbial biomass.
In the Kafue area a high incidence of Mycobacterium bovis in both cattle and the Kafue lechwe antilope has been detected.
This bacterium can infect humans and has been found in humans in the studied region of Namwala.
Mycobacterium tuberculosis which is the main cause of human tuberculosis has also been detected in cattle in this region.
Human tuberculosis is caused by bacteria belonging to the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex. Sidney Malama's doctoral research shows that Mycobacterium tuberculosis which is the most prevalent tuberculosis bacterium in humans also occurs in cattle in Namwala.
In other words this bacterium is zoonotic. Malama has detected a large degree of genetic variation amongst M. tuberculosis in humans in this area of Zambia
and has also found that M. tuberculosis bacteria isolated from humans and cattle respectively are related.
The fact that this bacterium is found in cattle means that these animals can be a reservoir for human tuberculosis
and that humans can become infected with both M. bovis and M. tuberculosis by drinking unpasteurised milk
because some loci recommended by the European Reference Laboratory (EURL) for M. bovis are not suitable for genotyping the bacterium in Zambia.
and cattle and of M. bovis in humans cattle and Kafue lechwe in Namwala indicate that the same tuberculosis bacteria are circulating between humans and animals.
and this may suggest that the bacterium is transmitted between people and not just between cattle and humans.
#Perfect storm needed for salmonella to spread in postharvest tomatoesuniversity of Florida researchers have gained new insight into produce-associated salmonella that they hope will eventually reduce the number and severity of the illness-causing outbreaks.
what the researchers call a perfect storm for salmonella to proliferate in harvested tomatoes a new study shows.
It remains unclear how much each contributes to salmonella's spread but scientists say understanding the process is key to eventually curbing produce-associated outbreaks.
During the past decade fruits and vegetables have been among the foods most often linked to gastroenteritis outbreaks caused by E coli
and non-typhoidal salmonella the study said. Those outbreaks resulted in public illness and multimillion-dollar losses for the food-crop industry.
Since 2006 at least 16 salmonella outbreaks have been linked to tomatoes cantaloupes sprouts cucumbers mangoes peanut butter and peppers in addition to frozen foods containing plant products.
But UF/IFAS scientists emphasize that less than 1 percent of supermarket produce contains salmonella or E coli and the contamination becomes a problem only when it contaminates other food
or is consumed raw. Gastrointestinal illnesses caused by pathogens such as E coli and salmonella pathogens have been sporadic with scientists struggling to pinpoint exact causes
and their random nature argues for a perfect storm scenario the study said. It is now clear that salmonella
and other human pathogens can contaminate produce at any stage of the production cycle from farm to fork the UF/IFAS study said.
Marvasi said the tomato industry follows strict protocols to prevent microbial food hazards in fresh fruits and vegetables.
Faculty members Max Teplitski George Hochmuth Jerry Bartz and Marvasi all of UF's Institute of food and agricultural sciences wanted to find out which crop production factors are associated with tomato salmonella outbreaks.
and crop and pathogen genotypes affect salmonella's ability to multiply in the fruit. They grew three types of tomatoes--Bonny Best Florida-47 and Solar Fire during three production seasons over two years in Live oak and Citra.
and injected with seven strains of salmonella Marvasi said. Researchers chose those three varieties because in preliminary greenhouse experiments they showed varying degrees of salmonella resistance said Max Teplitski a UF associate professor of soil and water science.
Bonny Best is an heirloom variety often used as a control variety in plant pathogen experiments he said.
The study published by the journal PLOS One showed that particular cultivars combined with drier sunnier conditions work together to increase the chances that salmonella will spread.
Changing irrigation patterns caused little change in the potential for salmonella researchers found. Tomato maturity and cultivar particular strains of salmonella and seasonal differences were the strongest factors affecting proliferation.
And ripe tomatoes were more vulnerable than green tomatoes. Salmonella infection ranks among the most common foodborne illnesses often spread by raw
or undercooked meat poultry or eggs but sometimes results from eating contaminated produce. Symptoms can include abdominal pain fever nausea and vomiting.
In 2008 federal health officials erroneously blamed a salmonella outbreak on domestically grown tomatoes but later said imported contaminated peppers were responsible.
and examine the parasites which accompany them as stowaways in the bumblebee intestines. The findings show that the European buff-tailed bumblebee spread southwards from central Chile along the Andes at a rate of around 200 kilometres a year--faster than the ecologists would ever have expected.
One possible reason for its extinction is the protozoan parasite Crithidia bombi which lives in the intestines of the buff-tailed bumblebee.
This parasite causes intestinal infections in the European and native bumblebee species in South america. It modifies the behaviour of the workers increases their mortality rate
However in an article in the Journal of Economic Entomology called Evaluation of Tolerance to Bacillus thuringiensis Toxins Among Laboratory-Reared Western Bean Cutworm (Lepidoptera:
which is controlled not by commercial transgenic hybrids that express Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) Cry1ab but partial control has been observed by corn varieties that express Cry1 F toxins.
and is estimated to contain up to 500000 species. This is a tiny parasitic wasp it's the smallest fossil wasp found in this particular deposit
Suitable and sufficient food sources for the hungry larvae and protection against predators and parasites are important selection criteria for the best oviposition substrates.
because there the larvae are protected better against parasites. These research results provide important information about the criteria that insects use to select an oviposition site that guarantees the improved development of their offspring.
In addition to causing direct injury to the plant feeding can also provide the opportunity for infection by rot-inducing bacteria and fungi.
Vampire bats transmit rabies virus throughout Latin america causing thousands of livestock deaths each year as well as occasional human fatalities.
Developing effective control strategies for vampire bat-transmitted rabies virus in Latin america requires an understanding of the mechanisms that have allowed the highly virulent pathogen to persist
and the most successful models demonstrated that a single isolated vampire bat colony cannot maintain the rabies virus over time Frequent movement of infectious bats between colonies is needed to keep the rabies virus at levels consistent with the field observations.
or haphazardly implemented are unlikely to eliminate VBRV (vampire bat-transmitted rabies virus) the researchers said. While programs targeting specific colonies may limit local spillover from bats to humans
The bat study's other main finding is that the vast majority of rabies virus exposures among vampire bats--in
and sustain the virus. The probability of a vampire bat developing a lethal infection upon exposure to rabies is around 10 percent much lower than the 50-to-90 percent mortality rate seen in previous experimental challenges studies that involved inoculating vampire bats with rabies virus
Known as Bt corn because the proteins are derived from a bacterium called Bacillus thuringiensis these plants have been grown widely by farmers.
and bacteria be sequenced to inform research on perennial plant growth ecosystem function and plant microbe interactions.
This long passage is outlined in an earlier publication in New Phytologist. Rhizophagus irregularis is the next in this linage to be released by the DOE JGI it follows the ectomycorrhizal fungal symbiont Laccaria the poplar rust pathogen Melampsora and dozens of bacterial genomes.
Obligate parasites often have broken metabolism missing some genes in critical metabolic pathway which make them dependent on their host Grigoriev said.
R. irregularis has retained much of its metabolic machinery unlike many other obligate parasitic organisms. It leads a double-life extracting minerals from the soil
However the beekeepers can see their production affected by the attack of a parasite the Varroa acari
and turmeric root (a spice used in Indian curry) before settling upon six#Curcumin known as tumeric Isoflavone from soybeans Indo-3-Carbinol from cruciferous plants C-phycocyanin from spirulina Reservatrol from grapes and Quercetin
#New vaccine against lung diseases in goats and sheepan intranasal spray was developed using local isolated bacterium in Malaysia
and it was found to provide better protection against infections by Mannheimia haemolytica bacterium than imported vaccines.
or respiratory diseases of goats and sheep caused by bacteria. It was developed and produced using sophisticated recombinant technology
which unlike the imported vaccines has been demonstrated to provide protection against bacterium infection in the small ruminants like goats and sheep.
Therefore STVAC7 was developed using local isolated bacterium that was found to be able to provide protection against infections by Mannheimia haemolytica bacterium A2 A7 and A9.
Prof Zamri said the pneumonic diseases brought about by the bacterium usually caused a mortality rate of 30%during the rainy season
#Poultry probiotics coat clues to ability to battle bugsifr researchers have characterized the coat of a potential poultry probiotic giving the first clues of how it may be used to exclude pathogenic bacteria from chickens.
Lactobacillus johnsonii has previously been shown to exclude Clostridium perfringens from the guts of poultry opening the door to it being developed as a way of reducing necrotic enteritis in poultry and food poisoning in humans.
and Biological sciences Research Council found that the bacteria make coats for themselves that play important roles in colonization in this strain.
and help in the development of these bacteria as a way of combatting C. perfringens.
which are long sugar-containing molecules that many bacteria use to encapsulate themselves. This capsule may help the bacteria to cope with environmental stress or aid colonisation and adhesion.
Different bacterial strains have different EPS structures and understanding this is important as they represent a key way bacteria interact with the world around them.'
'Characterising the EPS structures in the L. johnsonii strain is the first step to explaining how it might outcompete C. perfringens.'
'said Dr Arjan Narbad. Previous studies had identified potential genes in L. johnsonii for producing EPS giving the researchers tools to probe how the bacteria synthesise these molecules.
Knocking out the whole cluster of EPS genes meant the bacteria produced no capsule. Further analysis of the genes by IFR Phd student Enes Dertli uncovered their potential roles in the capsule biosynthesis process
but more research is needed to fully understand the system and also how it is regulated. The structures of these two EPS molecules appear to be unique to this strain.
Structural features such as the phosphorylation patterns are likely to be a major influence on how well bacteria adhere.
Other structural modifications such as acetylation are thought to help protect the EPS from the enzymes produced by gut bacteria.
This strain of Lactobacillus johnsonii is now being taken through farm-scale trials to assess its potential use to combat pathogenic infections of poultry by bacteria such as C. perfringens.
and eliminate spoilage by microorganisms milk is heated usually in a process well known as pasteurization. Hereby cold milk is preheated first
and then further heated in a separate section for a few seconds up to 72°C. The major microorganisms present in the milk are destroyed during this process
and microbes) in conjunction with the nonliving components of their environment (things like air water and mineral soil) interacting as a system.
#Probiotics reduce piglet pathogenspiglets fed probiotic Enterococcus faecium showed reduced numbers of potentially pathogenic Escherichia coli strains in their intestines according to a team of German researchers.
We found a clear reduction of E coli strains possessing typical genes for extra-intestinal pathogenic E coli (Expec) says Bednorz.
but reduced infections by Chlamydia spp. and pathogenic E coli according to the report. In the study Bednorz and her collaborators compared piglets fed with E. faecium to those in a control group.
They collected more than 1400 samples of E coli from piglets of different ages and from different parts of the intestine.
While a number of strains of E coli are pathogenic non-pathogenic E coli contributes to the maintenance of the microbial gut balance according to the report.
which did not influence the overall intestinal E coli diversity corroborating previous data according to the report.
Thus the researchers conclude the results suggest that E. faecium inhibits pathogenic E coli from becoming attached to the intestinal mucosa.
#Researcher finds potential new use for old drugsa class of drugs used to treat parasitic infections such as malaria may also be useful in treating cancers
The drug has a long history of use in serious parasitic diseases such as malaria African sleeping sickness and PCP a common infection in HIV/AIDS.
Weakens the immune systemtick-bites in sheep may result in the disease tick-borne fever (TBF) induced by the bacterium Anaplasma phagocytophilum (A. ph). TBF causes high fever
It is estimated that approximately 300000 lambs are exposed to this bacteria each year However they do not necessarily die from the infection says tick researcher Lise Grã¸va at Bioforsk Organic at Tingvoll in Norway.
The direct cause of death due to TBF is often an acute pasteurella infection--a bacterial disease
It prevents new bacteria from entering the bloodstream. Bacteria can survive in the body for a long time
and can attack and cause disease if the immune system is weakened. There are no exact figures as to how many lives ticks take compared to predators.
Could infect humansthe A. ph bacteria can also infect humans through tick bites. However there is little knowledge of the occurrence and the consequences of this.
The bacterium is absorbed not through the gut and it will not survive freezing treatment or boiling.
The method published under the title Transmitting Plant viruses Using Whiteflies is applicable to such at-risk crops as tomatoes and common bean plants.
and her colleagues write that numerous genera of whitefly-transmitted plant viruses (such as Begomovirus Carlavirus Crinivirus Ipomovirus Torradovirus) are part of an emerging and economically significant group of pathogens affecting important food
Instead the hardy Norsemen and early inhabitants of Russia and Canada have called microorganisms cyanobacteria to mostly thank for abundant grasses that attracted game to hunt
Discovering that cyanobacteria in the floodplains were responsible for nitrogen fixation--that is taking it from the atmosphere
whether farmers today might reduce fertilizer use by taking advantage of cyanobacteria that occur not just in the floodplains studied
In these uplands feather mosses create a microhabitat for cyanobacteria which fix a modest amount of nitrogen that mostly stays on site in soils trees and shrubs.
On the floodplains high rates of nitrogen fixation occur in thick slimy black mats of cyanobacteria growing in seasonably submerged sediments and coating the exposed roots and stems of willows and sedges.
'because there are almost impenetrable tangles of willow tree roots in places like a micro version of the tropical and subtropical mangroves that are known to harbor highly active colonies of cyanobacteria Deluca said.
in spite of the dark cold snowy winters of Northern Sweden the cyanobacteria there fix nitrogen at rates similar to those living the life in the toasty sun-warmed Florida Everglades.
The amount of nitrogen provided by the cyanobacteria to unharvested willows and sedges is perhaps a quarter of
Meanwhile cyanobacteria naturally occurring in farm soils aren't fixing nitrogen at all in the presence of all that fertilizer they just don't expend the energy
Although modest in comparison to modern fertilization the observation that cyanobacteria could drive the productivity of these boreal floodplain systems so effectively for so long makes one question
whether cyanobacteria could be used to maintain the productivity of agricultural systems without large synthetic nitrogen fertilizer inputs he said.
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