Microbiome analysis and bacterial isolation from Lejía Lake soil in Atacama Desert

Extremophiles - As a consequence of the severe climatic change affecting our entire world, many lakes in the Andes Cordillera are likely to disappear within a few decades. One of these lakes is...     

Veterinary medicinal product usage among food animal producers and its health implications in Central Ethiopia

Background

Antimicrobials and anthelmintics are the most commonly used veterinary drugs to control animal diseases. However, widespread use of these drugs could contribute to the emergence of drug resistance. Information on the practice of antimicrobial usage among food animal raising communities in Central Ethiopia is scarce. We used a standardised questionnaire survey to assess knowledge, awareness, and practices related to drug use and resistance in food animals among the farmers in and around Bishoftu town.

Results

Of the total of 220 livestock owners interviewed, around 80% of the respondents were not able to define what antimicrobials are and for what purposes they are used. Only 14.1% (n?=?31) of the respondents had awareness about antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and its consequences; and 35.5% (n?=?11/31) and 9.7% (n?=?3/31) of them agreed that the irrational use of antimicrobials in animals could lead to AMR in animals and humans. Oxytetracycline was the most commonly available antibiotic in veterinary drug shops/pharmacies and the most widely used drug in the area. However, 43.3% of the respondents did not see clinical improvements after using antibiotics. Similarly, the respondents explained that no response was observed in 73.3, 70.8 and 52.5% of the cases after medication with anthelmintics, antiprotozoal and acaricides, respectively. About 56.7% of the respondents considered traditional medicines equally important to modern medicines. It was also noted that there were illegal drug vendors, dispensing medicines under unfavourable conditions which include a direct exposure to sunlight, which practice violates the drug handling and storage recommendations given by WHO.

Conclusion

The study revealed that there is a general lack of awareness among food animal owners about the correct use of antibiotics and anthelmintics. The widespread misuse and improper drug dispensing and handling practices observed in this study can affect the drug quality and can also contribute to the development of drug resistance in central Ethiopia.

     

Decomposition of Phragmites australis rhizome in a shallow lake

Decomposition of Phragmites australis (Cav. Trin ex Steudel) rhizome was studied at Lake Fert?/Neusiedler See using the litter bag technique. Samples were analysed for rhizome dry mass, fibre (cellulose, hemicellulose, lignin) and nutrient content (C, N, P and S), litter-associated fungal biomass, potential microbial respiration (electron transport activity: ETS) and cellulolitic bacteria. The mass loss of decomposing rhizome was rapid in the initial period and only 13.6% of the dry mass remained at the end of the experiment during 953 days. Substantial quantities of C, N, S and P were lost during 99 days; only 18% C, 19% N, 14% S and 6.4% of the P remained after 953 days. Hemicellulose degraded more rapidly than the other fibres whilst the lignin had the slowest rate of decomposition. Bacteria were found to be the primary colonizers of plant detritus, which was followed by fungal growth. An antagonistic relationship was observed between bacteria and fungi. Fungal biomass as determined by ergosterol concentrations ranged between 4.1 and 420 μg g⁻¹ and peaked every year in September. The number of cellulolitic bacteria varied from 0 to 22 MPN g⁻¹ with higher values in summer. The ETS-activity ranged between 0.1 and 1.6 mg O₂ g⁻¹ h⁻¹. The changes in ETS-activity varied almost in parallel with the in situ temperature of the lake water.     

Pyramid Screening: Combining Three Genetic Screens into One Efficient Screen for Shoot Regeneration Mutants in Arabidopsis thaliana

Gain-of-function genetic mutants are typically found by creating a non-permissive condition and screening for plants that overcome the stress. Separate genetic screens are conducted for each condition, a potentially time-consuming effort. In severed Arabidopsis thaliana leaves, high light, suboptimal hormone exposure and old age were each independently found to reduce frequency of shoot regeneration. Rather than conducting three separate mutant screens to dissect these three pathways, a laborious process, we hypothesized that we could undertake a single economical screen to retrieve mutations specific for each trait as well as cross-talk alleles between pathways. Instead of creating non-permissive conditions for each of our three traits of interest, we combined the three suboptimal stress conditions such that only when combined was shoot regeneration abolished. No one stress was primarily responsible for loss of our trait, thus ensuring that we could recover mutant alleles in any of the three pathways of interest. Screening of 18,000 mutagenized plants resulted in 12 SHOOTING UP (stu) mutants. Secondary screening revealed that we had recovered alleles that were both specific for a pathway (light, hormones or age) and which acted through multiple pathways. Our approach, which we refer to as pyramid screening, represents an economical method for mutant screening of multiple pathways in parallel (three screens in one) and has the potential to recover alleles that cross-talk between multiple pathways that underlie a complex trait such as organ regeneration. Pyramid screening should be widely applicable across species.

     

Application of Artificial Neural Network for predicting biomass growth during domestic wastewater treatment through a biological process

The biological treatment process is responsible for removing organic and inorganic matter in wastewater. This process relies heavily on microorganisms to successfully remove organic and inorganic matter. The aim of the study was to model biomass growth in the biological treatment process. Multilayer perceptron (MLP) Artificial Neural Network (ANN) algorithm was used to model biomass growth. Three metrics: coefficient of determination (R²), root mean squared error (RMSE), and mean squared error (MSE) were used to evaluate the performance of the model. Sensitivity analysis was applied to confirm variables that have a strong influence on biomass growth. The results of the study showed that MLP ANN algorithm was able to model biomass growth successfully. R² values were 0.844, 0.853, and 0.823 during training, validation, and testing phases, respectively. RMSE values were 0.7476, 1.1641, and 0.7798 during training, validation, and testing phases respectively. MSE values were 0.5589, 1.3551, and 0.6081 during training, validation, and testing phases, respectively. Sensitivity analysis results showed that temperature (47.2%) and dissolved oxygen (DO) concentration (40.2%) were the biggest drivers of biomass growth. Aeration period (4.3%), chemical oxygen demand (COD) concentration (3.2%), and oxygen uptake rate (OUR) (5.1%) contributed minimally. The biomass growth model can be applied at different wastewater treatment plants by different plant managers/operators in order to achieve optimum biomass growth. The optimum biomass growth will improve the removal of organic and inorganic matter in the biological treatment process.     

Selection of a stable clone of the MVPK-1 fetal porcine kidney cell for assays of foot-and-month disease virus.

The MVPK-1 cell line, derived from fetal porcine kidney cells, supports the replication of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) virus. The cell line was adapted to grow in medium containing 5% bovine serum. The susceptibility of the adapted cells decreased as they aged at 37 degrees C. Various clones were isolated from the adapted cells and their growth characteristics and sustained susceptibility to FMD virus were compared. Clone 7 maintained uniform susceptibility to FMD virus over a 3-day period at 37 degrees C and proved superior to other clones in the characteristics studied. The clone has maintained satisfactory susceptibility to FMD virus through 40 subcultures. Clone 7 can replace primary bovine kidney cells for routine viral assays, but cannot detect as much FMD virus in animal specimens as primary bovine kidney, bovine thyroid, or swine kidney cells.     

Emergency contraception: can we benefit from lessons learned?

The aim of the paper was to evaluate current emergency contraception (EC) methods and policies in order to implement lessons learned and maximize potential population impact while introducing dedicated EC pills in Croatia. Literature search for potential reasons for EC failing to show positive population impact and detecting actionable points to be implemented in national guidelines. Six potential reasons for ECs failure to show population impact were evaluated and four actionable points were detected: low use of EC compared to the numbers of risk events, low awareness on EC in general population, differences in efficacy of EC methods and EC vailability. In order to ensure EC's population impact in Croatia it is of a critical relevance to establish continuous education programs for population of women at risk. When recommending an EC method, superior efficacy must be a key decision-making criteria therefore cooper IUD and ulipristal acetate should be our primary options. Counseling is a critical step to ensure maximal efficacy of the EC method, but also to encourage future use of regular contraceptives. Finally, national ECP dispension protocol is needed to close the loop from effective women screening, prompt yet appropriate ECP administration/dispensing towards structured follow up after EC pills intake.     

Functional gap junctions facilitate melanoma antigen transfer and cross-presentation between human dendritic cells

Previously, we found that human dendritic cells (hDCs) pulsed with a melanoma cell lysate (MCL) and stimulated with TNF-alpha (MCL/TNF) acquire a mature phenotype in vitro and are able to trigger tumor-specific immune responses when they are used in melanoma immunotherapy in patients. In this study, we describe that MCL/TNF induces gap junction (GJ)-mediated intercellular communications and promotes melanoma Ag transfer between ex vivo produced hDCs from melanoma patients. hDCs also exhibit increased expression of the GJ-related protein connexin 43, which contributes to GJ plaque formation after MCL/TNF stimulation. The addition of GJ inhibitors suppresses intercellular tumor Ag transfer between hDCs, thus reducing melanoma-specific T cell activation. In summary, we demonstrate that MCL/TNF-stimulated hDCs can establish functional GJ channels that participate in melanoma Ag transfer, facilitating Ag cross-presentation and an effective dendritic cell-mediated melanoma-specific T cell response. These results suggest that GJs formed between hDCs used in cancer vaccination protocols could be essentials for the establishment of a more efficient antitumor response.