Cultivating soil continuously for too long destroys the bacteria which convert the organic matter into nutrients says Mary Scholes who is a Professor in the School of Animal Plant and Environmental sciences at Wits University.
the diverse assortment of microbes that thrived in the dark rich soils beneath the grass.
The results showed that a poorly understood phylum of bacteria Verrucomicrobia dominated the microbial communities in the soil.
But even without a full understanding of the microbes the research could bolster tallgrass prairie restoration efforts in the future.
Over time it seems these soil aggregates might physically protect the organic carbon inside them forming a barrier to the microorganisms that could
which causes blood vessels to constrict during bacterial infections. At the same time mammals have evolved immune responses to venom which in some cases escalate into maladaptive allergic reactions.
and Iowa to trace the likely origin of the emergent porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV) to a strain from the Anhui province in China.
and has many similarities with transmissible gastroenteritis virus of swine said Meng who is a faculty member in the Department of Biomedical sciences and Pathobiology.
There is currently no vaccine against porcine epidemic diarrhea virus in the United states . Although some vaccines are in use in Asia we do not know
whether they would work against the U s. strains of the virus. The researchers determined not only that the three U s. strains of the porcine epidemic diarrhea virus are most closely related to the Chinese strains of the virus
and Genotyping of Emergent Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea virus Strains in the United states abstract in the Oct 15 issue of the American Academy of Microbiology's journal mbio.
and Chinese virus strains coincides with a porcine epidemic diarrhea virus outbreak in China back in December of 2010.
whether the U s. strains of the virus diverged in China or in the United states. The sudden emergence of porcine epidemic diarrhea virus
which belongs to the coronavirus family has caused economic and public health concerns in the United states. The ongoing outbreaks of Middle east respiratory syndrome coronavirus in humans from countries in
or near the Arabian peninsula and the historical deadly nature of the 2002 outbreaks of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus create further anxiety about the emergency of PEDV in the United states due to the lack of scientific information about the origin
and evolution of this emerging coronavirus wrote Dr. Yao-Wei Huang the first author of the paper
and a former research assistant professor at the veterinary college who is now a professor at Zhejiang University
They did however come across additional evidence that the U s. strains share several genetic features with a bat coronavirus--findings which point to an evolutionary origin from bats and the potential for cross-species transmission.
#Buying breast milk online is likely to cause illness in infantsresults from a study led by researchers at Nationwide Children's Hospital found more than three-fourths of breast milk samples purchased over the Internet contained bacteria that can cause illness
We were surprised so many samples had such high bacterial counts and even fecal contamination in the milk most likely from poor hand hygiene.
We were surprised also a few samples contained salmonella said Sarah A. Keim Phd principal investigator in the Center for Biobehavioral Health.
Other harmful bacteria may have come from the use of either unclean containers or unsanitary breast milk pump parts.
Because the milk banks pasteurize their milk harmful bacteria are killed before the milk reaches an infant unlike milk purchased online.
Even before pasteurization the milk bank samples were less likely to contain several types of bacteria
and had lower bacterial growth in many instances. Shipping practices also played a role in the levels of bacteria in the milk purchased online.
The longer the shipping time the more contaminated the milk. Nineteen percent of sellers did not include dry ice
Researchers found particularly high levels of one or more types of bacteria in 17 percent of the samples.
but the types of bacteria found in the online samples contained bacteria that could cause illnesses known to be linked to contaminated breast milk.
and the milk is pasteurized limiting the risk of bacterial illness said Dr. Keim. Human breast milk can help strengthen the immune system
Milk sold online and contaminated with bacteria that causes illness can be particularly harmful for premature infants
life-threatening illnesstreating premature infants with probiotics the dietary supplements containing live bacteria that many adults take to help maintain their natural intestinal balance may be effective for preventing a common
The products tested in the study were two genetically different strains of bifidobacteria normal inhabitants of the gastroentestinal tract that inhibit the growth of harmful pathogens and bacteria:
Bifidobacterium longum subspecies infantis (B. infantis) and Bifidobacterium animalis lactis (B. lactis. Laboratory analysis of bacteria of fecal samples from the infants found that B. infantis was more effective at colonizing bifidobacteria the healthy bacteria in the newborns'gastrointestinal tracts than B. lactis.
The highest fecal levels of bifidobacteria were found in the infants who were fed breastmilk and received the B. infantis probiotic Underwood said.
During periods of administration of B. infantis the diversity of the beneficial microbes inhabiting the breast milk-fed babies'GI TRACT increased.
In addition the harmful bacteria known as Î-Proteobacteria decreased in the breast milk-fed babies who received B. infantis.
and B. lactis did not experience a decline in the Î-Proteobacteria which typically increases at the onset of NEC and can cause serious tissue-damaging infections in the gastrointestinal system lungs and other organs of the body.
and microbes affect the carbon cycle they often underestimate how much animals can indirectly alter the absorption release
and the Museum fuì r Naturkunde Berlin the new study reveals that two bat-infecting parasites are closely related to parasites in rodents that are used commonly to model human malaria in laboratory studies.
Malaria is caused by a handful of species of parasites in the Genus plasmodium through the bite of mosquitos
The parasites'natural hosts are African thicket rats that use shrubs and trees as habitat.
The DNA from several genes of the bat parasites was sequenced at the Museum's Sackler Institute for Comparative Genomics resulting in the most comprehensive evolutionary tree of life for malaria parasites of bats to date.
The authors report that two parasites Plasmodium voltaicum and Plasmodium cyclopsi show patterns of evolutionary jumps from the rodent lineage into bats and then likely a reverse jump with a bat parasite reinfecting rodent hosts.
The authors suggest that the bat hosts which roost in trees may have been exposed to the same mosquito vectors that transfer the parasites between the tree-dwelling rodent hosts.
It is unknown what the physiological effects of the parasites are on the bats but the high diversity of parasites as well as the high proportion of individuals that are infected with the parasites suggest that this may be yet another example of the unusually high tolerance of these flying mammals for pathogens said co-author Juliane Schaer a researcher at the Max Planck Institute
for Infection Biology and the Museum fuì r Naturkunde Berlin. Other work has suggested that the evolution of flight may have triggered parallel strengthening of the immune system of bats
and may explain why they are able to host viruses such as Ebola rabies and the recently discovered Middle east Respiratory system (MERS) virus
#Salt-tolerant bacteria improve crop yieldsuzbek microbiologist Dilfuza Egamberdieva hopes to apply her new agricultural technique soon in Uzbekistan to boost the yield of economically important crops such as wheat cotton tomato and cucumber.
Egamberdieva group leader at the National University of Uzbekistan at Tashkent has isolated salt-tolerant bacterial strains that live in salt-degraded soils where they help the rooting process in plants.
After the selection of potentially root-colonizing bacteria she has tested them in experimental settings on plants'roots obtaining 10-15%yields increase.
and specific bacteria convert the atmospheric nitrogen absorbed by plants into a more usable form (ammonia).
Egamberdieva has been studying soil bacterial communities for more than 10 years. She has noticed that salty soils discourage bacterial growth
and stress plants at the same time. In addition as she has repeatedly proven salty soils often host bacteria that are noxious for humans.
In her investigation Egamberdieva has spotted beneficial soil salt-resistant bacteria that help plants grow better causing no harm to men.
These bacteria are found around the roots of plants. We found that bacteria from the Pseudomonas family in particular Pseudomonas extremorientalis are salt-resistant
and grow close to the roots where they compete with other bacteria for colonization. On the contrary pathogenic bacteria cannot actively colonize the plants'roots.
Here Pseudomonas produce antibiotics that plants use to defend themselves against fungi trigger the rooting process
and produce nodulation-promoting factors thus giving the vegetation better chances to fix nitrogen and grow bigger.
As an exchange for these favours plants secrete exudates useful for the bacteria. To better exploit these useful bacterial strains the Uzbek microbiologist has come up with a technique that allows the selective enrichment of Pseudomonas strains.
Using her technique which has already been patented Egamberdieva is able to isolate from the soil only beneficial root-stimulating bacteria.
We have completed already some experiments both in protected greenhouses and in open fields working in close contact with local farmers said Egamberdieva who is engaged also in promotion campaigns with the government and in outreach campaigns among farmers.
Crops treated with the bacterial fertilizers give yields 12-15%higher than normal when bacteria are administered to tomatoes and cucumber.
Soon Egamberdieva hopes she will be given the green light to test her findings on real fields
thus helping farmers achieve better products. Her research has been supported mostly by international organizations and funding agencies.
Egamberdieva has been invited to present her results at the TWAS's 24th General Meeting in Buenos aires where she has been awarded one of the TWAS Prizes.
This insects alongside some fungi bacteria and viruses cause annual loses of between four and ten percent of all the stored grains worldwide mainly corn wheat sorghum rice and beans.
#Biochar in soils cuts greenhouse gas emissionsuniversity of TÃ bingen microbiologists show soil microbe communities can be influenced to decrease nitrous oxide emissions.
and activity of microorganisms in a way that emissions of nitrous oxide--also known as laughing gas (N2o)--are reduced significantly according to researchers Johannes Harter and Hans-Martin Krause.
Nitrous oxide is produced by nitrogen-transforming microorganisms in the soil and these emissions increase with the use of nitrogen fertilizers.
and activity of microorganisms in the soil which form complex biological communities involving plants and animals.
Many bacterial fungal and oomycete pathogens deliver protein effectors--molecules the pathogens secrete--into the cells of hosts to manipulate
and soil microorganisms. It can be absorbed by roots used by the plants to grow and released back to the atmosphere.
and bacteria can help break down the rest but adds nitrogen shifts the ability of bacteria to compete
so we are hoping to find out more about the role of fungi in the decomposition of organic matter in soil.
#Biochar quiets microbes, including some plant pathogensin the first study of its kind Rice university scientists have used synthetic biology to study how a popular soil amendment called biochar can interfere with the chemical signals that some microbes
and Technology is the first to examine how biochar affects the chemical signaling that's routinely used by soil microorganisms that interact with plants.
Microbes talk to microbes. Microbes talk to plants. Plants talk to microbes. And they each make decisions about their behavior based on those conversations.
When we started talking about these results my first thought was'You're probably interfering with a conversation.'
'There was no practical way to isolate the conversation that was likely being interfered with in the previous experiment
but Silberg thought of a way to create engineered microbes to test the idea of
and cell biology at Rice to make use of two tailored forms of E coli bacteria created by Rice graduate student Chen Ye.
One strain spoke with a type of chemical communication commonly used by soil microbes and the other listened.
Unlike the fungi that use this communication method in soil the E coli could be grown in clear agar gels in a petri dish
which meant the E coli on that side had trouble hearing the sender Silberg said. That upheld our hypothesis which was that biochar could interfere with cell signaling most likely by binding with the fatty-acid molecules that the speakers were using to broadcast their message.
Silberg added Some microbes help plants and others are harmful. That means there's good communication
when confronted with an invasive but beneficial bacteria known as rhizobia bacteria. When the bacteria interact correctly with a crop the bacteria receive some food from the plant and simultaneously produce nitrogen that most plants need.
In his study Stacey found that many other crops recognize the bacteria but do not attempt to interact closely with them.
The problem is that corn tomatoes and other crops have a different response and don't support an intimate interaction with the rhizobia
since these other plants recognize the bacteria. It's a good first step. When legumes like soybeans sense a signal from the bacteria they create nodules where the bacteria gather
and produce atmospheric nitrogen that the plants can then use to stimulate their growth. This reaction doesn't happen in other plants.
Meanwhile corn tomatoes and other crops are still trying to defend themselves against this bacteria.
when exposed to the chemical signal from the rhizobia bacteria. They found that the plants did receive the signal and like legumes inhibited the normal plant immune system.
However soybeans corn and these other plants don't complete the extra step of forming nodules to allow the bacteria to thrive.
The important finding was that these other plants didn't just ignore the rhizobia bacteria Stacey said.
and get them to activate a different mechanism that will produce the nodules that attract the bacteria instead of trying to fight them.
The disease is caused by a parasite that enters the animals'blood as a result of the bite of the Tsetse fly.
thus better able to fight the parasite than that of other breeds. In other words the cattle seem to have a natural tolerance against the parasite.
A method to detect different trypanosomeskatja Silbermayr from the Institute of Parasitology of the University of Veterinary medicine Vienna (Vetmeduni) together with an international research team collected blood samples from three cattle types.
The scientists have developed a method that can identify the parasites responsible for trypanosomosis the trypanosomes and can even detect three different forms of the parasite in a single step.
The information is extremely valuable to veterinarians and farmers as each type of trypanosome causes a slightly different disease progression
Nevertheless the highest amounts of the parasite were found in some Baoul s. Baoul s are infected less often than Zebus
and seem able to tolerate higher amounts of the parasite. We only studied healthy animals
and Zebus with such high parasite levels would have been too ill to be included in our study says Silbermayr.
It seems that the Baoul's immune system can tolerate higher levels of the blood parasite The Baoul gene pool should be preserveda number of international research projects are attempting to breed trypanosome-tolerant cattle
#Microbes facilitate the persistence, spread of invasive plant species by changing soil chemistryinvasive species are among the world's greatest threats to native species and biodiversity.
Clearly both native and exotic plants form intimate relationships with bacteria in the soil that facilitate the extraction and conversion of elements to biologically usable forms.
and take over communities they may not come alone--many plant species are host to a whole suite of microorganisms that not only live in plant cells
These microbes form close often mutualistic associations with their plant hosts. Some convert atmospheric nitrogen into bioavailable forms that are exchanged then for carbon from the plant.
Since changes in the soil nitrogen cycle are driven by microbes could bacteria associated with invasive species not only be observed responsible for the changes in soil nutrient concentrations
Subsequent literature searches led to the discovery that sugar cane an agriculturally important crop is a nitrogen fixer that contains bacterial endophytes
if the microbes she and her colleague Tom Chrzanowski (The University of Texas Arlington) discovered in invasive Sorghum might be providing similar benefits to this invasive plant.
whether the differences in soil nutrient concentrations found in an invaded prairie could be due to metabolic processes of the bacterial microbiome associated with the invasive grass
By isolating five bacterial strains of endophytes found inside S. halepense rhizomes (subterranean stems used for storage
and vegetative reproduction) and growing them in the lab in different mixtures of substrates the authors determined that these microbes were able to fix
--and may even inhibit establishment of native species. Furthermore the authors were able to show that not only can this invasive plant acquire microbes from the environment
or nitrogen-augmented soils and slurries with different suites of soil microbes Rout and colleagues showed that these microbes enabled the grass to produce 5-fold increases in rhizomes a primary mechanism driving invasions
By acquiring soil bacteria S. halepense increases the bioavailable nitrogen and phosphorus in the soil and has increased rhizome production and aboveground biomass
and ecosystem functions like nutrient cycling are connected more intimately to micro-scale influences than we might expect summarizes Rout Rout's fascination with bacterial endophytes continues;
The new findings indicate that the bacterial disease interferes with starch and sugar metabolism in young
and the bacteria are resistant to being grown in the laboratory the only option for halting transmission of citrus greening has been to apply chemical pesticides to control the insect that spreads the bacteria Dandekar said.
It is caused by three species of the Candidatus Liberibacter bacteria including Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus which is known by the acronym Calas.
These bacteria are carried from tree to tree by two species of the citrus psyllid a winged insect that is about one-eighth inch long
As the citrus psyllid feeds on a leaf it can pick up the bacteria from a diseased tree
and introduce the bacteria to a non-infected tree. These disease-causing bacteria reside in the tree's phloem--the vascular tissue that carries vital nutrients throughout the tree.
The disease affects most citrus species causing yellowing of shoots blotchy and mottled leaves lopsided and poorly colored fruit and loss of viable seeds.
However the citrus psyllid that transmits the bacteria was first found in California in 2008
Earlier sequencing of the Calas bacteria genome showed that there were no toxins or enzymes that would destroy plant cell walls
The researchers anticipate that these discoveries will lead the way to new tests for detecting the bacteria and thus the presence of HLB in orchard trees.
#Model to study human response to bacteria that cause peptic ulcers developedresearchers at the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute at Virginia Tech have developed a new large animal model to study how the immune system interacts with the stomach bacterium Helicobacter pylori the leading
Although the bacterium is found in more than half the world s population most people do not develop diseases.
In addition to its role as a pathogen the bacteria have beneficial effects preventing certain chronic inflammatory and metabolic diseases including Type 2 diabetes and obesity.
When bacteria reside within host cells the immune system typically recruits a type of white blood cell called T cells#in this case CD8+cytotoxic T cells#to destroy the infected cells.
Biotech companies have inserted mutated forms of a similar gene from microbes into crop plants producing#oeroundup Ready#corn
Bt maize and resistance developmentgenetically engineered maize is created by introducing a gene into the plant genome that expresses a toxic protein from a bacterium i e.
Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt. Both the leaves and stems of Bt maize produce this toxin which destroys the gut of any moth larvae eating the plant.
Such perspectives could include a more diverse array of toxins for the control of pest populations possibly supplemented with a biological component such as pathogenic fungi or parasitic wasps.
#More and more Danes infected with MRSA bacteriain 2012 1556 Danes were found positive with methicillin-resistant staphylococci--MRSA.
MRSA bacteria are resistant to antimicrobial agents that are essential for treatment of treating life-threatening infections in humans.
The problem with people who are carrying MRSA is that the bacteria can spread at hospitals if not discovered in time.
FACTSMRSA bacteria MRSA is short for Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus. When bacteria are exposed to antimicrobial agents they protect themselves by developing resistance.
They do so by altering their DNA--either through mutation or by transferring resistance genes between bacteria.
It is therefore important to only use antimicrobial agents as required to prevent overuse. Staphylococci are bacteria found in humans animals and in our surrounding environment.
Staphylococcus aureus is part of the normal nasal and skin flora in approx. 50%of the population.
Staphylococcus aureus can cause a wide range of infections ranging from superficial wounds and abscesses to serious infections such as Osteitis and Endocarditis.
In hospitals Staphylococcus aureus is the most frequent cause of post-surgery infections. In 2012 MRSA was identified in 1556 people.
This represents an increase of 20%on 2011 when 1292 people were infected. Only 67 people were infected at hospitals
of which are parasites. Animals plants and fungi are all eukaryotes; that is they have complex cells with organelles such as a nucleus and mitochondria.
By isolating formerly unexamined anaerobic protists--a diverse group of unicellular microorganisms --and looking at the independent ways they have formed different types of mitochondria the researchers hope to reveal essential commonalities among all eukaryotes perhaps even clues that explain their origin.
#Vaccinating cattle against E coli could cut human cases of infection by 85 percentvaccinating cattle against the E coli O157 bacterium could cut the number of human cases of the disease by 85%according to scientists.
The bacteria which cause severe gastrointestinal illness and even death in humans are spread by consuming contaminated food and water or by contact with livestock feces in the environment.
Cattle are the main reservoir for the bacterium. The vaccines that are available for cattle are used rarely
The research was lead by a team of researchers at the University of Glasgow in collaboration with the University of Edinburgh the Royal Veterinary College Scotland's Rural College Health Protection Scotland and the Scottish E coli O157/VTEC
and molecular data to examine the risks of E coli O157 transmission from cattle to humans
The risk of E coli O157 infection is particularly significant when the cattle are'super-shedding'--excreting extremely high numbers of bacteria in their feces for a limited period of time.
Vaccines against the bacteria exist that can reduce super-shedding. As a consequence the researchers predict that vaccinating cattle could reduce human cases by nearly 85 percent far higher than the 50 percent predicted by studies simply looking at the efficacy of current vaccines in cattle.
These figures provide strong support for the adoption of vaccines by the livestock industry and work is now underway to establish the economic basis for such a program of vaccination.
E coli O157 is a serious gastrointestinal illness. The economic impact is also serious--for instance studies in the US suggest that healthcare lost productivity
and food product recalls due to E coli O157 can cost hundreds of millions of dollars each year. Treating cattle in order to reduce the number of human cases certainly makes sense from a human health perspective
In Scotland an average of 235 culture positive cases of E coli O157 infection per year (i e. people who had the organism in their stools) were notified to Health Protection Scotland from 2008 to 2012.
This is problematic because E coli O157 does not harm cattle and assessing the impact of treatment involves coordination between human and veterinary health practitioners.
and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public health have for the first time found an association between living in proximity to high-density livestock production and community-acquired infections with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus commonly known as MRSA.
and applied to crop fields contains antibiotic-resistant bacteria resistance genes and about 75 percent of the antibiotics consumed by the animals.
which could be applied to other honeybee diseases such as European foulbrood and the Varroa parasite. As well as modelling how bee infections spread the method also allows scientists to simulate various disease control interventions in order to measure their efficacy.
American foulbrood is caused by the bacterium Paenibacillus larvae which affects the larval stage of honeybees.
They also believe the same technique can be applied to the Varroa parasite. Dr Datta said:
and a carbo-loading bacteria may determine how well tropical forests can absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere according to a Princeton university-based study.
The legumes'secret is a process known as nitrogen fixation carried out in concert with infectious bacteria known as rhizobia
Legumes use secretions to invite rhizobia living in the soil to infect their roots and the bacteria signal back to initiate nodule growth.
The single-celled amoebas crawl through the soil eating bacteria until food becomes scarce. Then the amoebas gather by the tens of thousands to form a multicellular slug
All Dicty eat bacteria but some clones (genetically identical amoebas) also farm them --or at any rate they gather up the bacteria carry them to new sites and harvest them prudently.
The farmer clones also carry bacteria that secrete chemicals to fend off amoebae that don't bother to do their own farming.
Not only do these defensive companions inhibit the growth of nonfarmers they somehow stimulate the growth of the farmers.
I saw that some of them carried bacteria in their sorae which were supposed to be sterile.
A simple assay confirmed that the sorae from these clones seeded new patches of bacterial growth
while those from clones that did not have did bacteria not. It looked like the amoebas were carrying the bacteria around to make sure they would always have food.
But other scientists weren't convinced. After all the amoebas are grown on bacteria in the lab;
perhaps they had picked just up these bacteria by accident. At first it was an uphill battle Brock said.
But by isolating new clones from the wild that also carried edible bacteria in their sorae
and running the clones through assays that showed for example that farmers cleansed of bacteria would pick them up again the scientists eventually made their case.
As the researchers said in a Nature paper published in 2011 about a third of the wild clones carry seed and prudently harvest edible bacteria qualifying as farmers albeit primitive ones.
Amoebas carrying chemical weaponsbut the situation was actually more complex than this. Brock quickly realized that some of the bacteria found in association with the Dicty weren't edible.
I was sending the BACTERIAL DNA out to be sequenced and looking up the sequence when it came back.
Sometimes the bacteria were similar to human pathogens. Again it wasn't clear what was going on Brock said.
Were these bacteria parasites on the amoebas? Were they free riders the amoebas picked up accidentally
when they picked up the food bacteria? Were they pathogens that were making the amoebas sick?
But the amoebas carrying these bacteria seemed to be thriving rather than sick. And she also knew that in other systems farmers carry defensive symbionts.
Leafcutter ants for example carry bacteria that help prevent other fungi from contaminating their fungal gardens.
Could the inedible bacteria on the Dicty be defensive symbionts? Sure enough assays showed that when farmers carried certain nonedible strains nonfarmer spore production was reduced in some cases by more than half.
Supernatants (washings) from bacterial cultures had similar effects suggesting that the bacteria were secreting biomolecules that poisoned nonfarmers preventing them from eating the farmers'crops.
and the bacteria are cross feeding. They're probably providing something for those bacteria and the bacteria are providing something for them.
I'm currently trying to figure that out she said. Does it pay to farm?
The big question for the team all evolutionary biologists was why is farming evolutionarily stable among Dicty?
Farmers save roughly half the bacteria available to them forgoing considerable food to save some for dispersal at a new site.
when you start looking at the natural history of things even microbes which people don't study very much you discover that amazing things are going on Queller said.
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