The Growth Kinetics of RhizoctoniasolaniAfter 1 MeV Electron Irradiation

Crops, especially potatoes, are prone to a wide range of fungal, viral and bacterial diseases, including black scurf caused by Rhizoctoniasolani. This study focused on the radiation treatment of the phytopathogenic fungus RhizoctoniasolaniKuhn, grown from sclerotium irradiated with 1 MeV electrons in the dose range from 20 to 4500 Gy. The doses absorbed by the sclerotia were determined using computer simulation. The growth of the fungus samples was monitored after 24, 48, 72, and 96 hours from the time of seeding. It was found that the dependence of the radial growth velocity of R. solani on the time after irradiation with doses ranging from 20to 1800 Gywas nonlinear. Irradiation at a dose over 4500 Gyled to complete suppression of the germination of R. solani sclerotia. Keywords: radiation treatment, electron radiation, radiation dose, sclerotia of Rhizoctoniasolani, Kuhn, radial velocity of growth

Differential microbial communities in paddy soils between Guiyang plateaus and Chengdu basins drive the incidence of rice bacterial diseases

Southwest China has the most complex rice-growing regions in China. With great differences in topography, mainly consisting of basins and plateaus, ecological factors in above region differ greatly. In this study, bulk paddy soils collected from a long-term rice field in Chengdu (basins) and in Guiyang (plateaus) were used to study the correlation between microbial diversity and the incidence of rice bacterial diseases. Results showed that the microbial community composition in paddy soils and the microbial functional categories differed significantly between basins and plateaus. They shared more than 70% of the dominant genera (abundance > 1%), but the abundance of the dominant genera differed significantly. Functional analysis found that bulk paddy soils from Chengdu were significantly enriched in virulence factor-related genes; soils from Guiyang were enriched in biosynthesis of secondary metabolites especially antibiotics. Correspondingly, Chengdu was significantly enriched in leaf bacterial pathogens Acidovorax, Xanthomonas, and Pseudomonas. Greenhouse experiments and correlation analysis showed that soil chemical properties had a greater effect on microbial community composition and positively related with the higher incidence of rice bacterial foot rot in Guiyang, while temperature had a greater effect on soil microbial functions and positively related with the higher severity index of leaf bacterial diseases in Chengdu. Our results provide a new perspective on how differences in microbial communities in paddy soils can influence the incidence of rice bacterial diseases in areas with different topographies.

Development of Attendance and Temperature Monitoring System using IoT with Wireless Power Transfer Application

Enclosed areas pose a greater risk of transmitting infectious and bacterial diseases. The proposed system helps prevent disease by tracking students’ daily body temperature before entering the school premises. Each student will be provided with a unique QR code containing the student information, such as their name and class. The QR code needs to be scanned first by the camera-equipped smartphone before reading the body temperature. The thermometer will record the student’s body temperature and send the information to the smartphone via Bluetooth. The student’s profile will be updated with the recorded daily temperature. An Android application will be developed to scan the QR code and display the students’ profiles and information. In order to design a battery-less system, the system will be integrated with a wireless power transfer circuit. Based on the simulation results, the wireless power transfer circuit can be used as a wireless charger for the smartphone used in the system or for charging the thermometer’ of the thermometer.

A Humanized Monoclonal Antibody Potentiates Killing by Antibiotics of Diverse Biofilm-Forming Respiratory Tract Pathogens

New strategies to treat diseases wherein biofilms contribute significantly to pathogenesis are needed as biofilm-resident bacteria are highly recalcitrant to antibiotics due to physical biofilm architecture and a canonically quiescent metabolism, among many additional attributes. We, and others, have shown that when biofilms are dispersed or disrupted, bacteria released from biofilm residence are in a distinct physiologic state that, in part, renders these bacteria highly sensitive to killing by specific antibiotics. We sought to demonstrate the breadth of ability of a recently humanized monoclonal antibody against an essential biofilm structural element (DNABII protein) to disrupt biofilms formed by respiratory tract pathogens and potentiate antibiotic-mediated killing of bacteria released from biofilm residence. Biofilms formed by six respiratory tract pathogens were significantly disrupted by the humanized monoclonal antibody in a dose- and time-dependent manner, as corroborated by CLSM imaging. Bacteria newly released from the biofilms of 3 of 6 species were significantly more sensitive than their planktonic counterparts to killing by 2 of 3 antibiotics currently used clinically and were now also equally as sensitive to killing by the 3 rd antibiotic. The remaining 3 pathogens were significantly more susceptible to killing by all 3 antibiotics. A humanized monoclonal antibody directed against protective epitopes of a DNABII protein effectively released six diverse respiratory tract pathogens from biofilm residence in a phenotypic state that was now as, or significantly more, sensitive to killing by three antibiotics currently indicated for use clinically. These data support this targeted, combinatorial, species-agnostic therapy to mitigate chronic bacterial diseases.

Study of microbiocenosis of fish gills and intestines in their cultivation using preparations based on bacteriophages

Nowadays bacteriophages are widely used in veterinary medicine, bio-technology, agriculture and in particular in aquaculture. Narrow specificity affecting the bacterial microflora and selective influence on the pathogenic and opportunistic microorganisms allow using the bacteriophages for diagnosing, preventing and treating the diseases of farm animals and fish. The emergence of antibiotic-resistant strains of microorganisms involves the search for new drugs to combat them. In this regard, phage therapy is an alternative to antimicrobial treatment of bacterial diseases of animals and fish. Despite the lack of data on the bacteriophage-based drugs applications in aquaculture, this direction is found to be promising and relevant. There is given a comparative analysis of the microbiocenosis of the gills and intestines of two-year-olds of red tilapia farmed in the water with adding the poly-valence pyobacteriophage and fed by compound feed treated by the preparation. It has been found that the dominant position in the intestinal microbiocenosis of red tilapia belongs to Micrococcus bacteria, whose share made 45.7% of all isolates of the gastrointestinal tract. By the frequency of occurrence, the second place is taken by the Bacterium species (33.2%), the third place - Staphylococcus (16.1%) species. The remaining groups of intestinal microorganisms are presented by a significantly number of isolates. It has been stated that the gills microflora was represented by a smaller species composition compared to the digestive tract microbiota. Isolates of the Bacterium and Staphylococcus bacteria were dominating, while the Actinomycetales and Bacillus microorganisms were represented in smaller numbers (1-2 colonies). The addition of a bacteriophage to water and its processing of compound feed helps to reduce the contamination of gills and reduce pathogenic microflora in the intestines of fish.

The Bacteriophage Pf-10—A Component of the Biopesticide “Multiphage” Used to Control Agricultural Crop Diseases Caused by Pseudomonas syringae

Phytopathogenic pseudomonads are widespread in the world and cause a wide range of plant diseases. In this work, we describe the Pseudomonas phage Pf-10, which is a part of the biopesticide “Multiphage” used for bacterial diseases of agricultural crops caused by Pseudomonas syringae. The Pf-10 chromosome is a dsDNA molecule with two direct terminal repeats (DTRs). The phage genomic DNA is 39,424 bp long with a GC-content of 56.5%. The Pf-10 phage uses a packaging mechanism based on T7-like short DTRs, and the length of each terminal repeat is 257 bp. Electron microscopic analysis has shown that phage Pf-10 has the podovirus morphotype. Phage Pf-10 is highly stable at pH values from 5 to 10 and temperatures from 4 to 60 °C and has a lytic activity against Pseudomonas strains. Phage Pf-10 is characterized by fast adsorption rate (80% of virions attach to the host cells in 10 min), but has a relatively small number of progeny (37 ± 8.5 phage particles per infected cell). According to the phylogenetic analysis, phage Pf-10 can be classified as a new phage species belonging to the genus Pifdecavirus, subfamily Studiervirinae, family Autographiviridae, order Caudovirales.

Bacteriophages: Combating Antimicrobial Resistance in Food-Borne Bacteria Prevalent in Agriculture

Through recent decades, the subtherapeutic use of antibiotics within agriculture has led to the widespread development of antimicrobial resistance. This problem not only impacts the productivity and sustainability of current agriculture but also has the potential to transfer antimicrobial resistance to human pathogens via the food supply chain. An increasingly popular alternative to antibiotics is bacteriophages to control bacterial diseases. Their unique bactericidal properties make them an ideal alternative to antibiotics, as many countries begin to restrict the usage of antibiotics in agriculture. This review analyses recent evidence from within the past decade on the efficacy of phage therapy on common foodborne pathogens, namely, Escherica coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Salmonella spp., and Campylobacter jejuni. This paper highlights the benefits and challenges of phage therapy and reveals the potential for phages to control bacterial populations both in food processing and livestock and the possibility for phages to replace subtherapeutic usage of antibiotics in the agriculture sector.

CRISPR-Powered Microfluidics in Diagnostics: A Review of Main Applications

In the past few years, the CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats) applications in medicine and molecular biology have broadened. CRISPR has also been integrated with microfluidic-based biosensors to enhance the sensitivity and selectivity of medical diagnosis due to its great potentials. The CRISPR-powered microfluidics can help quantify DNAs and RNAs for different diseases such as cancer, and viral or bacterial diseases among others. Here in this review, we discussed the main applications of such tools along with their advantages and limitations.

Treating Bacterial Infections With a Protein From a Virus

Harmful bacteria are microscopic organisms that can sometimes make you very sick. Usually, when harmful bacteria enter our bodies, they are rapidly detected by the immune system, which kills these invaders. However, some bacteria can trick the immune system by coating themselves with substances that make them invisible to the immune system. These disguises are called capsules. However, there are some proteins called capsular depolymerases that can remove the capsules from these harmful bacteria, exposing the bacteria to the immune system, which can then kill them. Therefore, capsular depolymerases can help the immune system to kill harmful bacteria. In this article, we explain where capsular depolymerases are found in nature, how they are different from antibiotics, and how they could be used to treat bacterial diseases.