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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
Understanding the gastrointestinal bacteria in pandas will help guide reforestation efforts throughout China's mountainous region.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
The results demonstrate that the bacterial pathogens were inhibited significantly by the use of the antimicrobial films said Catherine Cutter professor of food science.
In the study which was published online in the April issue of the Journal of Food Science researchers determined survivability of bacterial pathogens after treatment with 2 percent oregano essential oil 2 percent rosemary essential oil
and the researchers determined the antimicrobial activity of these films against bacterial pathogens inoculated onto petri dishes.
and poultry products with bacterial pathogens treated them with the pullulan films containing the essential oils
and then evaluated for bacterial growth following refrigerated storage for up to three weeks. The results from this study demonstrated that edible films made from pullulan
because the bacteria-killing action is longer lasting. Liquid applications run off the surface are absorbed not
The pullulan films adhere to the meat allowing the incorporated antimicrobials to slowly dissolve providing immediate and sustained kill of bacteria.
and keep bacteria in meat at bay further research will be aimed at creating what Cutter referred to as active packaging--polyethylene film with antimicrobial properties.
Specifically the so-called MR (mannose receptor) could be a safe door of entry for certain bacteria protozoa parasites and viruses like SRLVS into the target cell
According to a recent study by Kansas State university published in the Applied and Environmental Microbiology journal insects carry antibiotic-resistant bacteria from one point to another including from food animal farms and wastewater treatment
The researchers then genetically analyzed the bacteria in the digestive tract of the insects and compared them to the bacteria present in the animal feces and wastewater.
We found these insects carry the same bacteria found in the animal manure Zurek said.
Then we started sampling insects found in surrounding urban areas including fast food restaurants and again we found house flies with multi-drug resistant bacteria.
The house flies collected from the wastewater treatment plants likewise carried the same bacteria found in the waste itself he said.
House flies collected several miles from the wastewater treatment plants in surrounding urban areas had a lower prevalence of the antibiotic-resistant bacteria than those examined from the facilities themselves
but the bacteria still existed in those urban house flies. The study led the researchers to conclude that insects primarily house flies can pick up antibiotic-resistant bacteria
and disseminate them to surrounding areas. How serious that link is still needs to be investigated
but the potential is clearly there Zurek said. Cockroaches and house flies are highly mobile
They have great potential to move multi-drug resistant bacteria to urban areas. In addition Zurek's team showed that bacteria in the house fly digestive tract can exchange antibiotic resistance by horizontal gene transfer.
The resistant strains multiply in the fly and can be left behind on food by fly regurgitation or spitting and defecation.
Unfortunately because of the intensive use of antibiotics in human medicine we pose high pressure on bacteria
The bacteria that caused the infections are multi-drug resistant. According to a 2013 report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (http://www. cdc. gov/drugresistance/threat-report-2013) at least 2 million people become infected with antibiotic-resistant bacteria
and at least 23000 people die each year as a direct result of these infections in the United states. Currently two places where antibiotics are used most widely are hospitals
At the same time if you use low doses of antibiotics extensively that poses selective pressure on bacteria in the digestive tract of these animals and results in antibiotic resistance.
and crows carry multi-drug antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Wild birds can pick up the antibiotic resistant bacteria from fields where animal manure was used as a fertilizer he said.
We still don't know how significant these birds are as carriers. We just know there are multiple venues where wildlife can acquire resistant strains and move them around in the environment.
Lowering the use of antibiotics in animal industry will be another step to lower prevalence of antibiotic resistant bacteria in the environment
They can carry antibiotic resistant bacteria so they should be taken seriously as a vector. Story Source:
#Bacteria combat dangerous gas leaksbacteria could mop up naturally-occurring and human-made leaks of natural gases before they are released into the atmosphere and cause global warming according to new research from the University of East Anglia.
Findings published today in the journal Nature shows how a single bacterial strain (Methylocella silvestris) found in soil
and other gaseous alkanes such as propane was carried out by different groups of bacteria. This new finding is important
because it means that one type of bacteria can mop up the components of natural gas very efficiently
Researchers studied the bacterium Methylocella which is normally found in peat tundra and forest soils in Northern europe.
This type of bacterium has also been found among the microbial community following the Deepwater horizon oil spill in 2010.
#How a plant beckons bacteria that will do it harma common plant puts out a welcome mat to bacteria seeking to invade
This signaling system triggers a structure in bacteria that actually looks a lot like a syringe
It's exciting to learn that metabolites excreted by the host can play a role in triggering this system in bacteria said Thomas Metz an author of the paper and a chemist at the Department of energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.
The work focused on bacteria known as Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato DC3000 which can ruin tomatoes as well as Arabidopsis.
The bacteria employ a molecular system known as the Type 3 Secretion System or T3ss to infect plants.
which is resistant to infection by Pseudomonas syringae. The Missouri and PNNL groups compared levels of metabolites in Arabidopsis to those in the mutant mkp1 form of the plant.
The researchers discovered a group of five acids that collectively had the biggest effect on turning on the bacteria's T3ss:
Since the resistant plants don't have high levels of these acids it stops the bacteria from unfurling the syringe in the presence of the plant.
or molecules that the plant uses to recognize the bacteria as a strategy for evading detection said Peck associate professor of biochemistry at the University of Missouri
While Peck's study focused on bacteria known mostly for damaging tomatoes the findings also could have implications for people.
The same molecular machinery employed by Pseudomonas syringae is used also by a host of microbes to cause diseases that afflict people including salmonella the plague respiratory disease and chlamydia.
The work opens the door to new ways to rendering harmful bacteria harmless by modifying plants
Rather than trying to kill the bacteria eliminating the recognition signals in the plant makes the bacteria fairly innocuous giving the natural immune system more time to defend itself.
which is used commonly as a farm soil fertilizer contains a surprising number of newly identified antibiotic resistance genes from the cows'gut bacteria.
The findings reported in mbioâ the online open-access journal of the American Society for Microbiology hints that cow manure is a potential source of new types of antibiotic resistance genes that transfer to bacteria in the soils
when found in harmless bacteria. The real worry is when these genes appear in the types of pathogenic bacteria that cause food-borne illnesses
or hospital infections Since there is a connection between AR genes found in environmental bacteria and bacteria in hospitals we wanted to know what kind of bacteria are released into the environment via this route of manure fertilization says Fabienne Wichmann lead study author and former postdoctoral researcher at Yale university in New haven Connecticut.
Farmers use raw or composted cow manure on some vegetable crops which could lead to a scenario where residual manure bacteria might cling to produce
and they or their genes might move to the human ecosystem. Is this a route for movement of these genes from the barn to the table?
asks Jo Handelsman senior study author and microbiologist at Yale. The first step toward an answer was surveying
The genes made a laboratory strain of Escherichia coli bacteria resistant to one of four types of antibiotics--beta-lactams (like penicillin) aminoglycosides (like kanamycin) tetracycline or chloramphenicol.
That might signal good news that AR genes from cow gut bacteria are not currently causing problems for human patients.
AR genes can enter the human ecosystem by two routes--either the bacteria that contain them colonize humans
or the genes are transferred through a process called horizontal gene transfer to other bacteria that colonize humans.
Research has shown already that bacteria are transferred from farm animals to their human caretakers. Gene transfer enables genes to jump between microorganisms that are related not
and it occurs in most environments that host bacteria. Some manure bacteria might be pathogenic to humans
so if they acquire antibiotic resistance they could pose a problem. Alternatively benign bacteria in manure might transfer resistance genes to pathogens at any point along the path--in manure soil food or humans.
We're hoping this study will open up a larger field of surveillance to start looking at new types of resistance before they show up in the clinic says Handelsman.
when bacteria take advantage of the open vagina and cervix to settle in the uterus. Infected cows suffer fever pain inflammation lack of appetite depression and reduced reproductive abilities.
#Pathogenic E coli binds to fresh vegetablesfood-poisoning outbreaks linked to disease-causing strains of the bacterium Escherichia coli are associated normally with tainted meat products.
Research presented today at the Society for General Microbiology's Annual Meeting in Liverpool shows that the disease-causing E coli O157:
Researchers from the James Hutton Institute in Scotland have identified that E coli O157: H7 uses whip-link structures on its surface known as flagella--typically used for bacterial motility--to penetrate the plant cell walls.
The team showed that purified flagella were able to directly interact with lipid molecules found in the membranes of plant cells.
E coli bacteria lacking flagella were unable to bind to the plant cells. Once attached the E coli are able to grow on and colonise the surface of the plant.
At this point they can be removed by washing although the researchers showed that a small number of bacteria are able to invade inside the plant where they become protected from washing.
The group have shown that E coli O157: H7 is able to colonise the roots of both spinach and lettuce.
Dr Nicola Holden who led the research says: This work shows the fine detail of how the bacteria bind to plants.
We think this mechanism is common to many food-borne bacteria and shows that they can exploit common factors found in both plants
and animals to help them grow. Our long term aim is to better understand these interactions
The researchers believe that the E coli O157: H7 bacteria use the same method of colonising the surface of plants as they do when colonising the intestines of animals.
The work shows that these bacteria are transported not simply through the food chain in an inert manner
but are actively interacting with both plants and animals. While outbreaks of vegetable-associated E coli outbreaks are rare in the UK
as a result of strict control measures at all stages of the food chain from plough to plate they do still occur as was seen in 2013
By understanding the mechanisms of how the bacteria interact with plants the researchers are hoping to find targeted ways to stop the binding reducing the risk of food contamination.
#Corralling milk microbes that survive pasteurizationcorralling desperados with names like bacillus and paenibacillus will require ingenuity and an arsenal of weapons.
For more than a century milk has been heated to kill any bacteria or pathogens that can affect consumer health and shorten the shelf life of the product.
As the colony expands the layers form a biofilm that feeds and protects the organisms.
Many of these biofilm-embedded organisms cannot be inactivated through conventional cleaning methods. Milk products containing high microbe counts have flavor texture
and his team of eight graduate and 10 undergraduate researchers worked on projects related to thermoduric bacteria and biofilms.
The team then isolates the heat resistant bacteria. South dakota's dairy industry produces 1. 8 billion pounds of milk and 232 million pounds of cheese producing a total economic impact of $1. 28 billion a year.
Knocking out coloniesin addition the team has targeted also microbial biofilms which form on joints plate heat exchangers and filtration membranes within the milk processing equipment.
and cultured to develop single and multi-species biofilms. Under lab conditions a biofilm can takes anywhere from 12 to 48 hours to form he comments.
This process helps the researchers determine under what conditions the biofilms form and ultimately how we can change our cleaning system to remove them more efficiently
and effectively Anand explains. The biofilm embedded microbes are studied not only in a static system but also in bioreactors
which simulate the continuous flow of milk or whey. This is closer to the real system Anand says though the bioreactors are pressurized not like the automatic processing system.
and form biofilms. Through this multipronged approach at lowering thermoduric microbe levels the SDSU researcher hopes to improve the quality safety and shelf life of dairy products.
and cutting boards remain a source of transmission for multi-drug resistant bacteria such as E coli that produce extended-spectrum beta-lactamases (ESBLS).
The spread of multi-drug resistant bacteria has been associated with the hospital setting but these findings suggest that transmission of drug-resistant E coli occurs both in the hospital
and households said Andreas Widmer MD lead author of the study. Our findings emphasize the importance of hand hygiene
These samples were tested for the presence of ESBL-producing Enterobacteriaceae a family of gram-negative bacteria that includes Salmonella E coli and Klebsiella.
In testing the cutting boards researchers found that 6. 5 percent of hospital cutting boards used in preparation of poultry were contaminated with ESBL-producing E coli.
For boards used in households researchers found ESBL-producing E coli on 3. 5 percent of these surfaces.
They also found that 50 percent of the hospital kitchen gloves were contaminated with this drug-resistant E coli.
or fish were contaminated with any ESBL-producing bacteria. They also found that the meat's country of origin did not play a factor in the presence of bacteria on any of the surfaces.
Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America.
and limits photosynthesis. Particular types of bacteria consume methane creating food for grazing insects and consequently the rest of the food web including trout.
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