Haahrbraun5182
Northern blot analysis of J2s soaked in fusion dsRNA revealed the presence of siRNA of all three target FLPs establishing successful processing of fusion gene dsRNA in the J2s. Further, evaluation of the fusion gene cassette is done through host-delivered RNAi in tobacco. Transgenic plants with fusion gene RNA-expressing vector were generated in which transgene integration was confirmed by PCR, qRT-PCR, and Southern blot analysis. Transcript accumulation of three FLPs constituting the fusion gene was reduced in the M. incognita females collected from the transgenic plants that provided additional evidence for successful gene silencing. Evaluation of positive T1 transgenic lines against M. incognita brought down the disease burden as indicated by various disease parameters that ultimately reduced the nematode multiplication factor (MF) by 85% compared to the wild-type plants. The study establishes the possibility of simultaneous silencing of more than one FLPs gene for effective management of M. incognita.Thraustochytrids are heterotrophic fungus-like protists that can dissolve organic matters with enzymes. Four strains, AP45, ASP1, ASP2, and ASP4, were isolated from the coastal water of Taiwan, and respectively identified as Aurantiochytrium sp., Schizochytrium sp., Parietichytrium sp., and Botryochytrium sp. based on 18S rRNA sequences. Transcriptome datasets of these four strains at days 3-5 were generated using Next Generation Sequencing technology, and screened for enzymes with potential industrial applications. Functional annotations based on KEGG database suggest that many unigenes of all four strains were related to the pathways of industrial enzymes. Most of all four strains contained homologous genes for 15 out of the 17 targeted enzymes, and had extra- and/or intra-cellular enzymatic activities, including urease, asparaginase, lipase, glucosidase, alkaline phosphatase and protease. Complete amino sequences of the first-time identified L-asparaginase and phytase in thraustochytrids were retrieved, and respectively categorized to the Type I and BPPhy families based on phylogenetic relationships, protein structural modeling and active sites. 4ChloroDLphenylalanine Milligram quantities of highly purified, soluble protein of urease and L-asparaginase were successfully harvested and analyzed for recombinant enzymatic activities. These analytical results highlight the diverse enzymes for wide-range applications in thraustochytrids.Successful inter-kingdom relationships are based upon a dynamic balance between defense and cooperation. A certain degree of competition is necessary to guarantee life spread and development. On the other hand, cooperation is a powerful tool to ensure a long lasting adaptation to changing environmental conditions and to support evolution to a higher level of complexity. Bacteria can interact with their (true or potential) parasites (i.e., phages) and with their multicellular hosts. In these model interactions, bacteria learnt how to cope with their inner and outer host, transforming dangerous signals into opportunities and modulating responses in order to achieve an agreement that is beneficial for the overall participants, thus giving rise to a more complex "organism" or ecosystem. In this review, particular attention will be addressed to underline the minimal energy expenditure required for these successful interactions [e.g., moonlighting proteins, post-translational modifications (PTMs), and multitasking signals] and the systemic vision of these processes and ways of life in which the system proves to be more than the sum of the single components. Using an inside-out perspective, I will examine the possibility of multilevel interactions, in which viruses help bacteria to cope with the animal host and bacteria support the human immune system to counteract viral infection in a circular vision. In this sophisticated network, bacteria represent the precious link that insures system stability with relative low energy expenditure.Lantibiotics are a growing class of antimicrobial peptides, which possess antimicrobial activity against mainly Gram-positive bacteria including the highly resistant strains such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus or vancomycin-resistant enterococci. In the last decades numerous lantibiotics were discovered in natural habitats or designed with bioengineering tools. In this study, we present an insight in the antimicrobial potential of the natural occurring lantibiotic nisin H from Streptococcus hyointestinalis as well as the variant nisin H F1I. We determined the yield of the heterologously expressed peptide and quantified the cleavage efficiency employing the nisin protease NisP. Furthermore, we analyzed the effect on the modification via mass spectrometry analysis. With standardized growth inhibition assays we benchmarked the activity of pure nisin H and the variant nisin H F1I, and their influence on the activity of the nisin immunity proteins NisI and NisFEG from Lactococcus lactis and the nisin resistance proteins SaNSR and SaNsrFP from Streptococcus agalactiae COH1. We further checked the antibacterial activity against clinical isolates of Staphylococcus aureus, Enterococcus faecium and Enterococcus faecalis via microdilution method. In summary, nisin H and the nisin H F1I variant possessed better antimicrobial potency than the natural nisin A.Calcium ions (Ca2+) play a pivotal role in eukaryote cell signaling and regulate many physiological functions. Although a similar role for Ca2+ in prokaryotes has been difficult to demonstrate, there is increasing evidence for Ca2+ as a cell regulator in bacteria. The purpose of this study was to investigate Ca2+ signaling and the effect of Ca2+ on the Staphylococcus aureus multidrug resistant efflux pump LmrS. We hypothesized that antibiotics act by increasing Ca2+ concentrations, which in turn enhance the efflux activity of LmrS. These Ca2+ transients were measured by luminometry in response to various antibiotics by using the photoprotein aequorin reconstituted within live bacterial cells. Efflux associated with LmrS was measured by the increase in fluorescence due to the loss of ethidium bromide (EtBr) from both S. aureus cells and from E. coli cells in which the lmrs gene of S. aureus was expressed. We found that addition of antibiotics to cells generated unique cytosolic Ca2+ transients and that addition of CaCl2 to cells enhanced EtBr efflux whereas addition of Ca2+ chelators or efflux pump inhibitors significantly decreased EtBr efflux from cells. We conclude that antibiotics induce a Ca2+ mediated response through transients in cytosolic Ca2+, which then stimulates LmrS efflux pump.Phallus indusiatus and Phallus echinovolvatus are edible bamboo mushrooms with pharmacological properties. We sequenced, assembled, annotated, and compared the mitogenomes of these species. Both mitogenomes were composed of circular DNA molecules, with sizes of 89,139 and 50,098 bp, respectively. Introns were the most important factor in mitogenome size variation within the genus Phallus. Phallus indusiatus, P. echinovolvatus, and Turbinellus floccosus in the subclass Phallomycetidae have conservative gene arrangements. Large-scale gene rearrangements were observed in species representing 42 different genera of Basidiomycetes. A variety of intron position classes were found in the 44 Basidiomycete species analyzed. A novel group II intron from the P. indusiatus mitogenome was compared with other fungus species containing the same intron, and we demonstrated that the insertion sites of the intron had a base preference. Phylogenetic analyses based on combined gene datasets yielded well-supported Bayesian posterior probability (BPP = 1) topologies. This indicated that mitochondrial genes are reliable molecular markers for analyzing the phylogenetic relationships of the Basidiomycetes. This is the first study of the mitogenome of the genus Phallus, and it increases our understanding of the population genetics and evolution of bamboo mushrooms and related species.Marine hydrocarbon-degrading bacteria play an important role in natural petroleum biodegradation processes and were initially associated with man-made oil spills or natural seeps. There is no full clarity though on what, in the absence of petroleum, their natural niches are. Few studies pointed at some marine microalgae that produce oleophilic compounds (alkanes, long-chain fatty acids, and alcohols) as potential natural hosts of these bacteria. We established Dansk crude oil-based enrichment cultures with photobioreactor-grown marine microalgae cultures Pavlova lutheri and Nannochloropsis oculata and analyzed the microbial succession using cultivation and SSU (16S) rRNA amplicon sequencing. We found that petroleum enforced a strong selection for members of Alpha- and Gamma-proteobacteria in both enrichment cultures with the prevalence of Alcanivorax and Marinobacter spp., well-known hydrocarbonoclastic bacteria. In total, 48 non-redundant bacterial strains were isolated and identified to represent genera Alcanivorax, Marinobacter, Thalassospira, Hyphomonas, Halomonas, Marinovum, Roseovarius, and Oleibacter, which were abundant in sequencing reads in both crude oil enrichments. Our assessment of public databases demonstrated some overlaps of geographical sites of isolation of Nannochloropsis and Pavlova with places of molecular detection and isolation of Alcanivorax and Marinobacter spp. Our study suggests that these globally important hydrocarbon-degrading bacteria are associated with P. lutheri and N. oculata.Although soil-borne methanogens are known to be highly diverse and adapted to extreme environments, their application as potential (anaerobic) inocula to improve anaerobic digestion has not been investigated until now. The present study aimed at evaluating if soil-derived communities can be beneficial for biogas (methane, CH4) production and endure unfavorable conditions commonly associated with digestion failure. Nine study sites were chosen and tested for suitability as inoculation sources to improve biogas production via in situ measurements (CH4 fluxes, physical and chemical soil properties, and abundance of methanogens) and during a series of anaerobic digestions with (a) combinations of both sterile or unsterile soil and diluted fermenter sludge, and (b) pH-, acetate-, propionate-, and ammonium-induced disturbance. Amplicon sequencing was performed to assess key microbial communities pivotal for successful biogas production. Four out of nine tested soil inocula exerted sufficient methanogenic activity and repeatedly allowed satisfactory CH4/biogas production even under deteriorated conditions. Remarkably, the significantly highest CH4 production was observed using unsterile soil combined with sterile sludge, which coincided with both a higher relative abundance of methanogens and predicted genes involved in CH4 metabolism in these variants. Different bacterial and archaeal community patterns depending on the soil/sludge combinations and disturbance variations were established and these patterns significantly impacted CH4 production. Methanosarcina spp. seemed to play a key role in CH4 formation and prevailed even under stressed conditions. Overall, the results provided evidence that soil-borne methanogens can be effective in enhancing digestion performance and stability and, thus, harbor vast potential for further exploitation.