Isolation of an Extract from the Soft Coral Symbiotic Microorganism Salinispora arenicola Exerting Cytoprotective and Anti-Aging Effects

Cells have developed a highly integrated system responsible for proteome stability, namely the proteostasis network (PN). As loss of proteostasis is a hallmark of aging and age-related diseases, the activation of PN modules can likely extend healthspan. Here, we present data on the bioactivity of an extract (SA223-S2BM) purified from the strain Salinispora arenicola TM223-S2 that was isolated from the soft coral Scleronephthya lewinsohni; this coral was collected at a depth of 65 m from the mesophotic Red Sea ecosystem EAPC (south Eilat, Israel). Treatment of human cells with SA223-S2BM activated proteostatic modules, decreased oxidative load, and conferred protection against oxidative and genotoxic stress. Furthermore, SA223-S2BM enhanced proteasome and lysosomal-cathepsins activities in Drosophila flies and exhibited skin protective effects as evidenced by effective inhibition of the skin aging-related enzymes, elastase and tyrosinase. We suggest that the SA223-S2BM extract constitutes a likely promising source for prioritizing molecules with anti-aging properties.

Rapid spread of a symbiotic virus in a major crop pest following wide-scale adoption of Bt-cotton in China

Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) crops have been widely planted and the effects of Bt-crops on populations of the target and non-target insect pests were well studied. However, the effects of Bt-crops exposure on microorganisms that interact with crop pests haven’t previously been quantified. Here, we use laboratory and field data to show that infection of Helicoverpa armigera with a symbiotic densovirus (HaDV2) is associated with its enhanced growth and resistance to Bt-cotton. Moreover, field monitoring showed a much higher incidence of cotton bollworm infection with HaDV2 in regions cultivated with Bt-cotton than in regions without it, with the rate of densovirus infection increasing with increasing use of Bt-cotton. RNA-seq suggested resistance to both baculovirus and Cry1Ac were enhanced via the immune-related pathways. These suggest that the exposure to Bt-crops has selected for beneficial interactions between the target pest and a symbiotic microorganism that enhances its performance on Bt-crops under field conditions.

‘Omics’ approaches for studying the microbiome in Alopecia areata

Nowadays, the involvement of the microbiome in human health and many human diseases, including that strictly related to the scalphas been brought to the light. Indeed, more recently, authors highlighted the presence of a significant microbial shift both in nonscarring (Androgenetic alopecia and Alopecia areata) and scarring Alopecias. The advent of novel technologies together with the effort of many scientists in the microbiome field could provide in the nearest future a clearest framework about the strict relationship between human healthiness and symbiotic microorganism resident on different ecosystem of our body. In this view, the use of Omics approaches has to be considered as no longer negligible when studying the microbiome implication in human health and disease.

The use of biologically active components of plant and animal origin

Preserving health, as well as increasing country population life expectancy, are priority directions of Russian Federation state policy. Human health mainly depends on the usefulness and balance of the nutrition. Ecological factors are the same important, which necessitates increase in the volume and assortment of food products with bifidogenic properties, introduced by phytocomponents of functional purpose systems. The use of natural origin biologically active substances, the source of which are plants, is a promising direction for expanding the range of functional fermented milk products. The research objective is a development of technology for herodietic food product with the addition of a symbiotic microorganism consortium, as well as the introduction of phytocomponent modules Amelanchier rotundifolia. The work was performed at the Department of Engineering and Technology of Food Production FGBOUVPO «Don State Technical University», Rostov-onDon. The objects of research were irgi phyto-extract (Amelanchier), cheese whey, raw cow’s milk, developed product. The functional significance of the irgi phyto-extract, as one of the necessary and significant components in the production of specialized products for herodietetic nutrition, is technically justified and experimentally proved.

UJI AKTIVITAS ANTIBAKTERI DARI ISOLAT CENDAWAN ENDOFIT ASAL TUMBUHAN SENDUDUK (Melastoma malabathricum L.) TERHADAP Escherichia coli DAN Staphylococcus aureus

Endophytic fungi is a symbiotic microorganism which live inside plant tissues and not harm to their host. Several genera from endophytic fungi known to produce secondary metabolite compounds like antibiotics, anticancer, antifungal, antiviral and antimalarial. This study aimed to investigate antibacterial activity of endophytic fungi from senduduk (Melastoma malabathricum L.) against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus. Based on the test result, 11 isolates endophytic fungi from senduduk were known to have antibacterial activities. Isolate code 23 have ability to inhibit the growth of E.coli with diameters zone of inhibition is 22 mm and eight isolate endophytic fungi have ability to inhibit the growth of S.aureus (showed by inhibition zone).

Efficient chemoenzymatic synthesis of lipo-chitin oligosaccharides as plant growth promoters

Lipo-chitin oligosaccharides (LCOs), key molecules in plant-symbiotic microorganism communication, are readily obtained via chemoenzymatic synthesis from chitin, a renewable abundant biopolymer.

Assessment

A book on developmental plasticity needs a chapter on assessment, if only to show that adaptive environmental assessment occurs. Skepticism regarding the ability of nonhuman organisms to assess conditions well enough to make adaptive decisions has a long history in evolutionary biology, and it has been an important barrier to understanding the evolution of adaptive developmental plasticity. It is worth briefly reviewing this history in order to understand certain preconceptions about assessment that still persist. In the nineteenth century, critics of Darwin’s theory of sexual selection (Darwin, 1871) balked at the idea of an “aesthetic sense” in lowly creatures that would enable female choice of mates (representative papers are reprinted and discussed in Bajema, 1984). Later, the barrier persisted for other reasons. Even though naturalists routinely used the condition-appropriate expression of phenotypic traits to support adaptation hypotheses—a practice that assumes adaptive assessment of conditions as it is defined here—theoretically inclined biologists paid little attention to the question of facultatively expressed traits. Part of the difficulty lay in the problem of explaining how adaptive assessment could evolve within the framework of conventional genetics. Theodosius Dobzhansky, one of the twentieth century’s leading evolutionary biologists, acknowledged this unresolved problem in remarks following a lecture by J. S. Kennedy on the phase polyphenisms of migratory locusts (Kennedy, 1961). Dobzhansky referred to the “challenge to a geneticist” of explaining the adaptive switch between the sedentary and the migratory phenotypes of the locusts, which had been shown to be largely independent of genotype. He suggested that an extrachromosomal factor may be involved, a symbiotic microorganism that acts as a “plasmagene” whose multiplication would eventually stimulate phase change. Although Dobzhansky’s proposal was no more preposterous than some of the regulatory devices that have actually been discovered, Kennedy (1961) minced no words in his reply to this suggestion: . . . [W]e need not feel obliged to invoke a second organism to explain [phase polymorphism] unless we are reluctant to concede an important part to the environment as well as to heredity in moulding development. . . .