Arthrobacter pokkalii sp nov,a Novel Plant Associated Actinobacterium with Plant Beneficial Properties,Isolated from Saline Tolerant Pokkali Rice,Kerala, India

A novel yellow colony-forming bacterium, strain P3B162^T was isolated from the pokkali rice rhizosphere from Kerala, India, as part of a project study aimed at isolating plant growth beneficial rhizobacteria from saline tolerant pokkali rice and functionally evaluate their abilities to promote plant growth under saline conditions. The novel strain P3B162^T possesses plant growth beneficial traits such as positive growth on 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid (ACC), production of indole acetic acid (IAA) and siderophore. In addition, it also showed important phenotypic characters such as ability to form biofilm and utilization of various components of plant root exudates (sugars, amino acids and organic acids), clearly indicating its lifestyle as a plant rhizosphere associated bacterium. Taxonomically, the novel strain P3B162^T was affiliated to the genus Arthrobacter based on the collective results of phenotypic, genotypic and chemotaxonomic analyses. Moreover, molecular analysis using 16S rRNA gene showed Arthrobacter globiformis NBRC 12137^T, Arthrobacter pascens DSM 20545^T and Arthrobacter liuii DSXY973^T as the closely related phylogenetic neighbours, showing more than 98% 16S rRNA similarity values, whereas the recA gene analysis displayed Arthrobacter liuii JCM 19864^T as the nearest neighbour with 94.7% sequence similarity and only 91.7% to Arthrobacter globiformis LMG 3813^T and 88.7% to Arthrobacter pascens LMG 16255^T. However, the DNA-DNA hybridization values between strain P3B162^T, Arthrobacter globiformis LMG 3813^T, Arthrobacter pascens LMG 16255^T and Arthrobacter liuii JCM 19864^T was below 50%. In addition, the novel strain P3B162^T can be distinguished from its closely related type strains by several phenotypic characters such as colony pigment, tolerance to NaCl, motility, reduction of nitrate, hydrolysis of DNA, acid from sucrose, cell wall sugars and cell wall peptidoglycan structure. In conclusion, the combined results of this study support the classification of strain P3B162^T as a novel Arthrobacter species and we propose Arthrobacter pokkalii sp.nov.as its name. The type strain is P3B162^T (= KCTC 29498^T = MTCC 12358^T).     

Draft genome sequencing and functional annotation and characterization of biofilm-producing bacterium Bacillus novalis PD1 isolated from rhizospheric soil

Antonie van Leeuwenhoek - Biofilm forming bacterium Bacillus novalis PD1 was isolated from the rhizospheric soil of a paddy field. B. novalis PD1 is a Gram-positive, facultatively anaerobic,...     

Synthesis and Biological Activities of Nicotinaldehyde Based 1,4-Dihydropyridinedicarboxylates

Russian Journal of Bioorganic Chemistry - 1,4-Dihydropyridinecarboxylates were prepared by the reaction of nicotinaldehydes with aminocrotonoates in the presence of p-TsOH at room temperature. The...     

Influence of carbon and nitrogen sources on antifungal metabolite production by bacterium associated with entomopathogenic nematode against Penicillium expansum

A specific symbiotic Bacillus sp. isolated from a rhabditid entomopathogenic nematode, Rhabditis (Oscheius) sp. was found to produce large number of bioactive compounds. The present study was conducted to determine the effect of carbon and nitrogen sources for the production of antimicrobial substances by Bacillus sp. The yield of the crude antimicrobial substances and antimicrobial activity against the test micro-organism also differed significantly when carbon and nitrogen sources in the fermentation media were changed. The antifungal activity was significantly high in yeast extract plus fructose (46.5?±?2.12?mm) followed by yeast extract plus maltose, beef extract plus fructose and meat infusion plus glucose. High pressure liquid chromatography analysis of the crude antimicrobial substances revealed different peaks with different retention time indicating that they produced different compounds. When the carbon source was not included in the fermentation media, the antimicrobial production was substantially reduced. The results indicate that carbon source in the fermentation media plays a vital role in the production of antifungal substances. It is concluded that yeast extract and fructose as nitrogen and carbon sources produced maximum activity, which can effectively control the blue mould caused by Penicillium expansum in apples and pears.     

Identification of Penicillin-binding proteins employing support vector machines and random forest

Penicillin-Binding Proteins are peptidases that play an important role in cell-wall biogenesis in bacteria and thus maintaining bacterial infections. A wide class of β-lactam drugs are known to act on these proteins and inhibit bacterial infections by disrupting the cell-wall biogenesis pathway. Penicillin-Binding proteins have recently gained importance with the increase in the number of multi-drug resistant bacteria. In this work, we have collected a dataset of over 700 Penicillin-Binding and non-Penicillin Binding Proteins and extracted various sequence-related features. We then created models to classify the proteins into Penicillin-Binding and non-binding using supervised machine learning algorithms such as Support Vector Machines and Random Forest. We obtain a good classification performance for both the models using both the methods.     

Chitosan-Nanoconjugated Hormone Nanoparticles for Sustained Surge of Gonadotropins and Enhanced Reproductive Output in Female Fish

A controlled release delivery system helps to overcome the problem of short life of the leutinizing hormone releasing hormone (LHRH) in blood and avoids use of multiple injections to enhance reproductive efficacy. Chitosan- and chitosan-gold nanoconjugates of salmon LHRH of desired size, dispersity and zeta potential were synthesized and evaluated at half the dose rate against full dose of bare LHRH for their reproductive efficacy in the female fish, Cyprinus carpio. Whereas injections of both the nanoconjugates induced controlled and sustained surge of the hormones with peak (P<0.01) at 24 hrs, surge due to bare LHRH reached its peak at 7 hrs and either remained at plateau or sharply declined thereafter. While the percentage of relative total eggs produced by fish were 130 and 67 per cent higher, that of fertilised eggs were 171 and 88 per cent higher on chitosan- and chitosan-gold nanoconjugates than bare LHRH. Chitosan nanoconjugates had a 13 per cent higher and chitosan gold preparation had a 9 per cent higher fertilization rate than bare LHRH. Histology of the ovaries also attested the pronounced effect of nanoparticles on reproductive output. This is the first report on use of chitosan-conjugated nanodelivery of gonadotropic hormone in fish.     

Cecal Ligation and Puncture Results in Long-Term Central Nervous System Myeloid Inflammation

Survivors of sepsis often experience long-term cognitive and functional decline. Previous studies utilizing lipopolysaccharide injection and cecal ligation and puncture in rodent models of sepsis have demonstrated changes in depressive-like behavior and learning and memory after sepsis, as well as evidence of myeloid inflammation and cytokine expression in the brain, but the long-term course of neuroinflammation after sepsis remains unclear. Here, we utilize cecal ligation and puncture with greater than 80% survival as a model of sepsis. We found that sepsis survivor mice demonstrate deficits in extinction of conditioned fear, but no acquisition of fear conditioning, nearly two months after sepsis. These cognitive changes occur in the absence of neuronal loss or changes in synaptic density in the hippocampus. Sepsis also resulted in infiltration of monocytes and neutrophils into the CNS at least two weeks after sepsis in a CCR2 independent manner. Cellular inflammation is accompanied by long-term expression of pro-inflammatory cytokine and chemokine genes, including TNFα and CCR2 ligands, in whole brain homogenates. Gene expression analysis of microglia revealed that while microglia do express anti-microbial genes and damage-associated molecular pattern molecules of the S100A family of genes at least 2 weeks after sepsis, they do not express the cytokines observed in whole brain homogenates. Our results indicate that in a naturalistic model of infection, sepsis results in long-term neuroinflammation, and that this sustained inflammation is likely due to interactions among multiple cell types, including resident microglia and peripherally derived myeloid cells.     

How Do Urban Indian Private Practitioners Diagnose and Treat Tuberculosis? A Cross-Sectional Study in Chennai

Setting

Private practitioners are frequently the first point of healthcare contact for patients with tuberculosis (TB) in India. Inappropriate TB management practices among private practitioners may contribute to delayed TB diagnosis and generate drug resistance. However, these practices are not well understood. We evaluated diagnostic and treatment practices for active TB and benchmarked practices against International Standards for TB Care (ISTC) among private medical practitioners in Chennai.

Design

A cross-sectional survey of 228 practitioners practicing in the private sector from January 2014 to February 2015 in Chennai city who saw at least one TB patient in the previous year. Practitioners were randomly selected from both the general community and a list of practitioners who referred patients to a public-private mix program for TB treatment in Chennai. Practitioners were interviewed using standardized questionnaires.

Results

Among 228 private practitioners, a median of 12 (IQR 4–28) patients with TB were seen per year. Of 10 ISTC standards evaluated, the median of standards adhered to was 4.0 (IQR 3.0–6.0). Chest physicians reported greater median ISTC adherence than other MD and MS practitioners (score 7.0 vs. 4.0, P<0.001), or MBBS practitioners (score 7.0 vs. 4.0, P<0.001). Only 52% of all practitioners sent >5% of patients with cough for TB testing, 83% used smear microscopy for diagnosis, 33% monitored treatment response, and 22% notified TB cases to authorities. Of 228 practitioners, 68 reported referring all patients with new pulmonary TB for treatment, while 160 listed 27 different regimens; 78% (125/160) prescribed a regimen classified as consistent with ISTC. Appropriate treatment practices differed significantly between chest physicians and other MD and MS practitioners (54% vs. 87%, P<0.001).

Conclusion

TB management practices in India’s urban private sector are heterogeneous and often suboptimal. Private providers must be better engaged to improve diagnostic capacity and decrease TB transmission in the community.