Environmental Isolates of Aeromonas spp. Harboring the cagA-Like Gene of Helicobacter pylori

We investigated the presence of cagA-like gene of Helicobacter pylori in environmental isolates of Aeromonas spp. from different water samples of Calcutta, India, by colony hybridization using a cagA-specific DNA probe and by PCR with cagA-specific primers. Nucleotide sequencing of five PCR products revealed 97 to 98% homology to canonical cagA of H. pylori 26695 as well as to four clinical H. pylori strains from Calcutta. The cagA-like gene of the environmental isolates was unstable in laboratory conditions and tended to be lost upon subculturing.     

Numerical simulation of a glucose sensitive composite membrane closed-loop insulin delivery system

Closed-loop insulin delivery system works on pH modulation by gluconic acid production from glucose, which in turn allows regulation of insulin release across membrane. Typically, the concentration variation of gluconic acid can be numerically modeled by a set of non-linear, non-steady state reaction diffusion equations. Here, we report a simpler numerical approach to time and position dependent diffusivity of species using finite difference and differential quadrature (DQ) method. The results are comparable to that obtained by analytical method. The membrane thickness directly determines the concentrations of the glucose and oxygen in the system, and inversely to the gluconic acid. The advantage with the DQ method is that its parameter values need not be altered throughout the analysis to obtain the concentration profiles of the glucose, oxygen and gluconic acid. Our work would be useful for modeling diabetes and other systems governed by such non-linear and non-steady state reaction diffusion equations.     

Pre-cancer risk assessment in habitual smokers from DIC images of oral exfoliative cells using active contour and SVM analysis

Habitual smokers are known to be at higher risk for developing oral cancer, which is increasing at an alarming rate globally. Conventionally, oral cancer is associated with high mortality rates, although recent reports show the improved survival outcomes by early diagnosis of disease. An effective prediction system which will enable to identify the probability of cancer development amongst the habitual smokers, is thus expected to benefit sizable number of populations. Present work describes a non-invasive, integrated method for early detection of cellular abnormalities based on analysis of different cyto-morphological features of exfoliative oral epithelial cells. Differential interference contrast (DIC) microscopy provides a potential optical tool as this mode provides a pseudo three dimensional (3-D) image with detailed morphological and textural features obtained from noninvasive, label free epithelial cells. For segmentation of DIC images, gradient vector flow snake model active contour process has been adopted. To evaluate cellular abnormalities amongst habitual smokers, the selected morphological and textural features of epithelial cells are compared with the non-smoker (?ve control group) group and clinically diagnosed pre-cancer patients (+ve control group) using support vector machine (SVM) classifier. Accuracy of the developed SVM based classification has been found to be 86% with 80% sensitivity and 89% specificity in classifying the features from the volunteers having smoking habit.     

A single mammalian mitochondrial translation initiation factor functionally replaces two bacterial factors

The mechanism of translation in eubacteria and organelles is thought to be similar. In eubacteria, the three initiation factors IF1, IF2, and IF3 are vital. Although the homologs of IF2 and IF3 are found in mammalian mitochondria, an IF1 homolog has never been detected. Here, we show that bovine mitochondrial IF2 (IF2(mt)) complements E. coli containing a deletion of the IF2 gene (E. coli DeltainfB). We find that IF1 is no longer essential in an IF2(mt)-supported E. coli DeltainfB strain. Furthermore, biochemical and molecular modeling data show that a conserved insertion of 37 amino acids in the IF2(mt) substitutes for the function of IF1. Deletion of this insertion from IF2(mt) supports E. coli for the essential function of IF2. However, in this background, IF1 remains essential. These observations provide strong evidence that a single factor (IF2(mt)) in mammalian mitochondria performs the functions of two eubacterial factors, IF1 and IF2.     

Chemotactic migration of bacteria in porous media

Chemotactic migration of bacteria—their ability to direct multicellular motion along chemical gradients—is central to processes in agriculture, the environment, and medicine. However, current understanding of migration is based on studies performed in bulk liquid, despite the fact that many bacteria inhabit tight porous media such as soils, sediments, and biological gels. Here, we directly visualize the chemotactic migration of Escherichia coli populations in well-defined 3D porous media in the absence of any other imposed external forcing (e.g., flow). We find that pore-scale confinement is a strong regulator of migration. Strikingly, cells use a different primary mechanism to direct their motion in confinement than in bulk liquid. Furthermore, confinement markedly alters the dynamics and morphology of the migrating population—features that can be described by a continuum model, but only when standard motility parameters are substantially altered from their bulk liquid values to reflect the influence of pore-scale confinement. Our work thus provides a framework to predict and control the migration of bacteria, and active matter in general, in complex environments.     

Kinetics of nutrient utilization and photosynthetic enzyme activities during floral versus vegetative differentiation of Spathiphyllum in air-lift bioreactor cultures

The present study reports on the kinetics of nutrient utilization during in vitro flowering of Spathiphyllum in air-lift bioreactor cultures. Levels of electrical conductivity (EC), anions and cations, pH, ethylene, sugar content and photosynthetic enzymes were determined in bioreactor cultures of both flowering (FPs) and non-flowering (NFPs) plantlets over a growth period of 12 weeks. A decrease in ribulose 1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (Rubisco) activity with a corresponding increase in phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase (PEPcase) activity occurred during floral induction of Spathiphyllum in vitro. Sucrose concentration decreased significantly in FPs, while no changes in glucose, fructose and total sugars were observed in both FPs and NFPs up to 8 weeks of culture. There were significant variations in mineral nutrient utilization between FP and NFP cultures. These results provide an insight to the physiological processes involved in inflorescence formation in Spathiphyllum.