In this work an attempt was performed to investigate the in vitro ability of Lucilia sericata maggots to control fungi involved in superficial fungal infections. A novel GFP-modified yeast culture to enable direct visualization of the ingestion of yeast cells by maggot larvae as a method of control was used. The obtained results showed that the GFP-modified yeasts were successfully ingested by Lucilia sericata maggots and 1mg/ml of Lucilia sericata maggots excretions/ secretions (ES) showed a considerable anti-fungal activity against the growth of Trichophyton terrestre mycelium, the radial growth inhibition after 10 days of incubation reached 41.2 ±1.8 % in relation to the control, these results could lead to the possible application of maggot therapy in the treatment of wounds undergoing fungal infection.
The outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has quickly developed into a worldwide pandemic. Mutations in the SARS-CoV-2 genome may affect various aspects of the disease including fatality ratio. In this study, 553,518 SARS-CoV-2 genome sequences isolated from patients from continents for the period 1 December 2020 to 15 March 2021 were comprehensively analyzed and a total of 82 mutations were identified concerning the reference sequence. In addition, associations between the mutations and the case fatality ratio (CFR), cases per million and deaths per million, were examined. The mutations having the highest frequencies among different continents were Spike_D614G and NSP12_P323L. Among the identified mutations, NSP2_T153M, NSP14_I42V and Spike_L18F mutations showed a positive correlation to CFR. While the NSP13_Y541C, NSP3_T73I and NSP3_Q180H mutations demonstrated a negative correlation to CFR. The Spike_D614G and NSP12_P323L mutations showed a positive correlation to deaths per million. The NSP3_T1198K, NS8_L84S and NSP12_A97V mutations showed a significant negative correlation to deaths per million. The NSP12_P323L and Spike_D614G mutations showed a positive correlation to the number of cases per million. In contrast, NS8_L84S and NSP12_A97V mutations showed a negative correlation to the number of cases per million. In addition, among the identified clades, none showed a significant correlation to CFR. The G, GR, GV, S clades showed a significant positive correlation to deaths per million. The GR and S clades showed a positive correlation to number of cases per million. The clades having the highest frequencies among continents were G, followed by GH and GR. These findings should be taken into consideration during epidemiological surveys of the virus and vaccine development.
Abstract. Alnaimat S, Shattal SA, Althunibat O, Alsbou E, Amasha R. 2017. Iron (II) and other heavy-metal tolerance in bacteria isolated from rock varnish in the arid region of Al-Jafer Basin, Jordan. Biodiversitas 18: 1250-1257. This study deals with enumeration, identification and molecular characterization of bacterial species tolerant of iron (II) and other heavy metals that isolated from rock varnish collected from the arid region of Al-Jafer Basin, Jordan. Based on conventional culture-dependent methods, six isolates exhibited a high degree of tolerance to iron (II) and other heavy metals with a minimum inhibitory concentration (550-600 mg/L) to iron, (500-550 mg/L) to lead, (350 mg/L) to copper, (400-450 mg/L) to chromium, (150-200 mg/L) to silver, and (150-200 mg/L) to mercury, in solid media. The results showed that all isolates could tolerate 2000 mg/L Fe 2+ expressed as maximum tolerance concentration (MTC). The multiple metal resistances of these isolates were also associated with multiple antibiotic resistances. These iron tolerant isolates were shown to be capable of growth at temperatures ranging from 30 to 40°C and pH values ranging from 5 to 9 with some differences between the six isolates. On the basis of morphology and of 16S rDNA gene sequencing and phylogeny analysis, the iron-tolerant isolates were identified as Bacillus zhangzhouensis (DVCr1), Staphylococcus warneri (DVCr6), Bacillus cereus (DVCr7), Staphylococcus pasteuri (DVCu2), Brevibacterium frigoritolerans (DVPb) and Bacillus altitudinis (DVCr10). The 16S rDNA sequences from five of the six strains were submitted to GenBank and are available under the accession numbers KX781139, KX781140, KX781141, KX781145 and KX781148. The results highlight the high potential of a non-polluted habitat like rock varnish to provide new microbial communities that could be used for enhanced bioremediation of heavy metals from a contaminated site.
Metagenomic analysis of stone microbiome from samples collected in New England, USA and Tamil Nadu, India identified numerous Actinobacteria including
Geodermatphilaceae
. A culture-dependent approach was performed as a companion study with this culture-independent metagenomic analysis of these stone samples and resulted in the isolation of eleven
Geodermatphilaceae
strains (2
Geodermatophilus
and 9
Blastococcus
strains). The genomes of the 11
Geodermatphilaceae
strains were sequenced and analyzed. The genomes for the two
Geodermatophilus
isolates, DF1-2 and TF2-6, were 4.45 and 4.75 Mb, respectively, while the Blastococcus genomes ranged in size from 3.98 to 5.48 Mb. Phylogenetic analysis, digital DNA:DNA hybridization (dDDH), and comparisons of the average nucleotide identities (ANI) suggest the isolates represent novel
Geodermatophilus
and
Blastococcus
species. Functional analysis of the
Geodermatphilaceae
genomes provides insight on the stone microbiome niche.
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