Abundance and distribution of anaerobic protozoa and their contribution to methane production in Lake Cadagno (Switzerland)

Abstract In the uupermost layers of the anoxic sediment in Lake Cadagno, 9 different species of anaerobic protozoa were identified. The total number of these organisms was about 580 cells·ml⁻¹ sediment. Most pf these protozoa contained endosymbiotic methanogenic bacteria which in total amounted to 10⁶ methanogens·ml⁻¹ sediment. In addition to the methanogenic endosymbionts, cells of Metopus setosus and Caenomorpha lata also contained a non-fluorescent bacterial rod inside the cytoplasm. In some individual cells of C. lata this second type of endosymbiotic bacterium was sometimes the only endosymbiont observed. Contrary to earlier suggestions, anaerobic protozoa do not seem to play a major role in methane production at least in Lake Cadagno. No significant methane production due to the anaerobic protozoa and their methanogenic endosymbionts was found in situ. Isolated ciliates and amoebae produced methane at 12°C, but not at 6°C, probably as a result of temperature limitation. In the sediment of Lake Cadagno sulfate reduction seemed to be the dominant terminal degradation process.     

变形鞭毛虫的细胞培养和内共生甲烷菌的变化

一种奇特的变形鞭毛虫（Ｐｓａｌｔｅｒｉｏｍｏｎａｓ ｌａｍｅｒｎａ）从淡水厌氧污泥中分离后,在室内培养成功。其生长适宜条件：ｐＨ６·８,温度１５－２５℃,培养瓶内氧含量ｌ％或少于２·５％,盐含量不超过０．ｌｍｍｏｌ／Ｌ,所需营养物质０．０２％（Ｗ／Ｖ）的　蛋白胨。在无氧条件下生活的细胞产生甲烷。荧光显微镜和电镜揭示在寄主细胞内有内共生的甲烷菌。这些甲烷菌和类似微体的细胞器紧密相连形成球体。带有内共生菌的Ｐ．ｌａｎｔｅｒｎａ＋在厌氧环境中生活较好。当加入１％或少于２·５％氧时·其内共菌消失并转变成无甲烷菌的Ｐ．ｌａｎｔｅｒｎａ－,继续在相似的含氧量下培养时,其鞭毛消失,转变成变形虫。变形虫阶段的细胞仍不含内共生菌。失去内共菌的鞭毛虫和变形虫细胞在厌氧中生长极为缓慢     

Summer mastitis experimentally induced by Hydrotaea irritans exposed to bacteria

Abstract. Summer mastitis is an acute suppurative bacterial infection of the udder in heifers and dry cows. To ascertain the possible role of flies in the transmission of the disease, experimental exposures of recipient heifers to Hydrotaea irritans previously exposed to bacteria were carried out. Flies were allowed to feed on secretions from clinical cases of summer mastitis. The pathogens present were the bacteria Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus dysgalactiae, Actinomyces pyogenes , Stuart-Schwan cocci, Peptococcus indolicus, Fusobacterium necrophorum and Bacterioides species. The teats of eight heifers were exposed to flies with verified pathogen content. Two teats of each animal were deliberately damaged before fly exposure. One teat was cut, another pricked with insect needles to mimic insect bites. Two of the heifers developed summer mastitis in the quarters where teats had been cut. The bacterial species isolated from these quarters corresponded to those that had previously been fed to the flies. For the first time, it is now demonstrated that H.irritans is capable of transmitting summer mastitis pathogens and so causing summer mastitis in recipient heifers. Lesions on the teat orifice may be a predisposing factor in the development of the disease.     

Endosymbiosis in Blastocystis hominis.

Examination of eight strains of axenically grown Blastocystis hominis by Nomarski interference optics revealed the presence in all strains of intracellular bacterialike spheres and rods, which were named alpha. These structures were confirmed by transmission (TEM) and freeze fracture (FEM) electron microscopy. The endosymbiont was spherical to rod-shaped. A limiting membrane was present, but never a cell wall. Alpha could not be grown outside of the B. hominis cell. There was a direct relationship of increasing endosymbiont numbers and B. hominis cell size. Cells containing hundreds of alpha were from 80 to 200 μm in diameter. Conventional B. hominis cells (4–7 μm) contained few or no endosymbiont. B. hominis in fecal specimens contained the endosymbiont.     

A large variation in the rates of synonymous substitution for RNA viruses and its relationship to a diversity of viral infection and transmission modes

RNA viruses successfully adapt to various environments by repeatedly producing new mutants, often through generating a number of nucleotide substitutions. To estimate the degree of variation in mutation rates of RNA viruses and to understand the source of such variation, we studied the synonymous substitution rate because synonymous substitution is exempt from functional constraints at the protein level, and its rate reflects the mutation rate to a great extent. We estimated the synonymous substitution rates for a total of 49 different species of RNA viruses, and we found that the rates had tremendous variation by 5 orders of magnitude (from 1.3 x 10(-7) to 6.2 x 10(-2) /synonymous site/year). Comparing the synonymous substitution rates with the replication frequencies and replication error rates for the RNA viruses, we found that the main source of the rate variation was differences in the replication frequency because the rates of replication error were roughly constant over different RNA viruses. Moreover, we examined a relationship between viral life strategies and synonymous substitution rates to understand which viral life strategies affect replication frequencies. The results show that the variation of synonymous substitution rates has been influenced most by either the difference in the infection modes or the differences in the transmission modes. In conclusion, the variation of mutation rates for RNA viruses is caused by different replication frequencies, which are affected strongly by the infection and transmission modes.     

松材线虫和拟松材线虫体内细菌的透射电镜观察及分离鉴定

【目的】松材线虫是松树萎蔫病的病原,拟松材线虫在形态等方面与松材线虫极其相似。关于两种线虫与细菌的研究多集中于体表伴生细菌。本文要揭示松材线虫和拟松材线虫体内是否存在细菌。【方法】对松材线虫和拟松材线虫进行透射电镜观察;并采用1%升汞和抗菌素混合液对两种线虫虫体进行体表消毒后研磨,制备悬浮液涂布NA平板;通过生理生化测定和16S rDNA序列分析鉴定细菌种类。【结果】松材线虫和拟松材线虫透射电镜照片显示在两种线虫肠道内均发现细菌;体表无菌的松材线虫和拟松材线虫共分离到3株体内细菌;这3株细菌分别属于寡养单胞菌属(Stenotrophomonas)和爱文氏菌属(Ewingella)。【结论】松材线虫和拟松材线虫体内均存在细菌;这些细菌对这两种线虫可能具有一定的生理生态作用。本文是松材线虫和拟松材线虫体内存在细菌的首次报导。     

The extracellular chaperone clusterin potently inhibits human lysozyme amyloid formation by interacting with prefibrillar species

We have studied the effects of the extracellular molecular chaperone, clusterin, on the in vitro aggregation of mutational variants of human lysozyme, including one associated with familial amyloid disease. The aggregation of the amyloidogenic variant I56T is inhibited significantly at clusterin to lysozyme ratios as low as 1:80 (i.e. one clusterin molecule per 80 lysozyme molecules). Experiments indicate that under the conditions where inhibition of aggregation occurs, clusterin does not bind detectably to the native or fibrillar states of lysozyme, or to the monomeric transient intermediate known to be a key species in the aggregation reaction. Rather, it seems to interact with oligomeric species that are present at low concentrations during the lag (nucleation) phase of the aggregation reaction. This behavior suggests that clusterin, and perhaps other extracellular chaperones, could have a key role in curtailing the potentially pathogenic effects of the misfolding and aggregation of proteins that, like lysozyme, are secreted into the extracellular environment.     

医院感染病原菌及耐药性监测报告

从３９０４ 例住院病人标本中分离出医院内感染病原菌７８１ 株,结合临床常用的１４ 种抗菌药物药敏试验结果进行整理分析。结果,革兰阳性球菌所占比例呈上升趋势,革兰阴性杆菌呈下降趋势。引起医院感染的主要病原菌为真菌、大肠埃希菌、克雷伯菌、肠球菌、金黄色葡萄球菌。２ 年间金黄色葡萄球菌对青霉素的耐药率已＞ ９３ ％ ,对第三代喹诺酮类的耐药率下降了１６．６６ ％ ～４０．８３ ％ 。肠球菌对万古霉素的耐药率上升了２７．５９ ％ 。克雷伯菌、沙雷菌、大肠埃希菌对头孢菌素类、第三代喹诺酮类的耐药率呈上升趋势。金黄色葡萄球菌、表皮葡萄球菌、肠杆菌属、铜绿假单胞菌对阿米卡星的耐药率呈下降趋势。     

Diversity analysis of magnetotactic bacteria in Lake Miyun,northern China,by restriction fragment length polymorphism

Magnetotactic bacteria (MTB) synthesize intracellular nano-scale crystals of magnetite or greigite within magnetosomes. MTB are ubiquitous in limnic and marine environments. In order to understand the diversity of MTB better, sediment samples were examined from Lake Miyun near Beijing by restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP). First, in silico analysis was used to evaluate the effectiveness of 12 sets of restriction endonucleases for distinguishing MTB sequences retrieved from the GenBank database. It was found that the tested restriction endonucleases had different power in the ability to differentiate the operational taxonomic units (OTUs) of MTB. Specifically, of the 12 sets of enzymes, MspI plus RsaI was found to be the most effective for correctly differentiating the OTUs of selected MTB sequences and it could detect 16 OTUs with appropriate OTUmin and OTUmax values (96.7% and 97.7%, respectively). The MspI plus RsaI RFLP analysis was then utilized to investigate the diversity of MTB in Lake Miyun sediment and it identified 8 OTUs (74.5% of the whole library) as MTB. Among these, 5 were affiliated to Alphaproteobacteria, while the rest belonged to the Nitrospira phylum. Interestingly, OTUs C, D and I displayed 91.8–98.4% similarity to “Magnetobacterium bavaricum”. Together, these results demonstrated that the MspI plus RsaI RFLP analysis was useful for studying the diversity and change in community composition of uncultivated MTB from environmental samples.     

医院内感染的病原菌分布及其耐药谱的分析

本文统计了我院１９９２年８月—１９９４年７月两车间医院内感染病原菌的分离结果,分离出病原菌２５种７５８株,其中革兰氏阳性菌１６３株（占２１．５１％）,革兰氏阴性菌３７８株（占４９．８７％）,真菌２１７株（占２８．６２％）。院感病原菌依次为,白色念珠菌、绿脓假单胞菌表、葡菌、肺炎克雷伯氏菌、酵母菌及大肠艾希氏菌等,显示了真菌及表葡菌在院内感染中已经上升到不可忽略的地位。用１８种常用抗生素,对除真菌外的上述病原菌５４１株做耐药谱测定,并发现除了表葡菌及多数革兰氏阴性菌对喹谱酮类及少数头孢三代抗生素尚属敏感外,大部分均具有越来越广泛的耐药性。     

268例难治性下呼吸道感染的细菌学分析

通过本组２６８ 例难治性呼吸道感染病人标本培养结果分析,阳性２４６ 例占９１．８ ％ ,有１５４ 例检出厌氧菌,占５７ ％ ,１０４ 例检出需氧菌,占３９ ％ ,混合感染１３３ 例,占５０ ％ 。试验结果证实,厌氧菌感染在难治性下呼吸道感染病例中占了很大比例,这一结果为难治性下呼吸道感染的治疗提供了有价值的参考数据。     

Direct non-insect-vector transmission of Leishmania parasites in mice

Animal to animal non-vector transmission of Leishmania major was investigated in Balb/c mice, a strain known for its susceptibility to this parasite. Both overt or inapparent infection (documented by positive spleen cultures) was possible after prolonged contact with infected animals. Similarly transmission of infection from infected mothers to their offspring was documented.     

植物内生细菌对植物健康的作用

植物内生菌是一个多样性十分丰富的微生物类群,存在于没有外在感染症状的健康植物组织内,并与宿主植物协同进化.随着研究领域的不断拓宽和研究方法的不断更新,植物内生菌与植物健康的关系以及应用逐渐成为研究热点.本文主要综述了内生细菌的多样性、进入植物组织内的机制以及内生细菌的主要功能及应用,提出了现阶段内生菌研究存在的问题,并展望了内生菌研究的前景.     

Metabolic symbiosis and the birth of the plant kingdom

Eukaryotic cells are composed of a variety of membrane-bound organelles that are thought to derive from symbiotic associations involving bacteria, archaea, or other eukaryotes. In addition to acquiring the plastid, all Archaeplastida and some of their endosymbiotic derivatives can be distinguished from other organisms by the fact that they accumulate starch, a semicrystalline-storage polysaccharide distantly related to glycogen and never found elsewhere. We now provide the first evidence for the existence of starch in a particular species of single-cell diazotrophic cyanobacterium. We provide evidence for the existence in the eukaryotic host cell at the time of primary endosymbiosis of an uridine diphosphoglucose (UDP-glucose)-based pathway similar to that characterized in amoebas. Because of the monophyletic origin of plants, we can define the genetic makeup of the Archaeplastida ancestor with respect to storage polysaccharide metabolism. The most likely enzyme-partitioning scenario between the plastid's ancestor and its eukaryotic host immediately suggests the precise nature of the ancient metabolic symbiotic relationship. The latter consisted in the export of adenosine diphosphoglucose (ADP-glucose) from the cyanobiont in exchange for the import of reduced nitrogen from the host. We further speculate that the monophyletic origin of plastids may lie in an organism with close relatedness to present-day group V cyanobacteria.