Life Sciences Commons^™

Screening The Cultivable Cave Microbial Mats For The Production Of Antimicrobial Compounds And Antibiotic Resistance, Jerneja Ambrožič Avguštin, Patricia Petrič, Lejla Pašić

International Journal of Speleology

The current work extends the phenotypic characterization of a bacterial culture collection obtained from white, yellow, grey or pink microbial cave wall colonies that are common in the caves of Slovenian Karst. We have determined antibiotic resistance to 22 natural and synthetic antibiotics in 69 isolates from the microbial mats. Thirty-eight isolates (52%) were resistant to 1-5 antibiotics; another 27 isolates (37%) were resistant to 6-10 antibiotics; and 7 isolates (0.1%) were resistant to 11-17 antibiotics. We screened for production of antimicrobial compounds by growing cave isolates on five different media and overlaying individual cultures with ten Gram-positive and Gram …

Incense Burning Is Associated With Human Oral Microbiota Composition, Yvonne Vallès, Claire K. Inman, Brandilyn A. Peters, Laila Abdel Wareth, Abdishakur Abdulle, Habiba Alsafar, Fatme Al Anouti, Ayesha Al Dhaheri, Divya Galani, Muna Haji, Aisha Al Hamiz, Ayesha Al Hosani, Mohammed Al Houqani, Abdulla Aljunaibi, Marina Kazim, Tomas Kirchhoff, Wael Al Mahmeed, Fatma Al Maskari, Abdullah Alnaeemi, Naima Oumeziane, Ravichandran Ramasamy, Ann Marie Schmidt, Henri Vallès, Eiman Al Zaabi, Scott Sherman, Raghib Ali, Jiyoung Ahn, Richard B. Hayes

All Works

© 2019, The Author(s). Incense burning is common worldwide and produces environmental toxicants that may influence health; however, biologic effects have been little studied. In 303 Emirati adults, we tested the hypothesis that incense use is linked to compositional changes in the oral microbiota that can be potentially significant for health. The oral microbiota was assessed by amplification of the bacterial 16S rRNA gene from mouthwash samples. Frequency of incense use was ascertained through a questionnaire and examined in relation to overall oral microbiota composition (PERMANOVA analysis), and to specific taxon abundances, by negative binomial generalized linear models. We found …

Proposed Research Project Regulation Of Human Intestinal Microbes To Treat And Manage Anxiety, Madison Rea

Fall Showcase for Research and Creative Inquiry

This is my proposed research project on the regulation of gut microbiota to help treat anxiety disorders. My proposal talks about using prebiotics and probiotics to regulate anxiety disorders as an alternative to medications that cause horrible side effects.

A Comparison Of Cave Microbial Communities To Cave Roosting Bat Microbiota In El Malpais National Monument, Usa, Nicole A. Caimi

Biology ETDs

The arrival of white-nose syndrome (WNS), a devastating fungal disease, has highlighted the need to better understand bat microbiota and how bats acquire their microbiota. To address this need, we investigated how bat microbiota compare to microbiota from the cave walls in two El Malpais National Monument caves. The external surfaces of six roosting bats from each cave, representing four different bat species, and their associated microbial mats were sampled. One to three air samples were taken in each cave. Samples were sequenced using Illumina MiSeq sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene for bacterial diversity and the ITS region for …

Investigation Of Microbiota In Health And Disease Of Poultry, Bishnu Adhikari

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The microbiotas play vital roles in health and diseases of both humans and animals. 16S rRNA genes sequence analysis is one of the most popular and commonly used methods in the analysis of microbiotas associated with hosts. In this dissertation, the microbiotas of chickens (broilers, breeders, and layers) and turkeys were evaluated by 16S rRNA gene sequencing. Characterization of the culturable subpopulations of Lactobacillus in the chicken gut can serve as a valuable resource for probiotic development. In Chapter 2, Lactobacillus subpopulations recovered on MRS from chicken gut were defined comprehensively for the first time using 16S rRNA gene profiling, …

Staph Bacteria From First Breath The Interweaving Of The Nasal Microbiome With The Intricate And Complex Nose, Alan L. Gillen

Alan L. Gillen

Many microbes live in a mutualistic relationship with the human body, make up the human microbiome, and play a role in our health by stimulating and modulating the immune system. Man’s body is “covered” both inside and outside with millions of microbes that play a role in maintaining normal bodily functions and sustaining life in our changing world. The inner nose in the human body is colonized by millions of microbes during the first week of life. This internal colonization of the upper respiratory system is termed our nasal microbiome. Though we cannot see it, this microbiome is important for …

The Wonderfully Made Design Of The Skin And Its Microbiome, Alan L. Gillen

Alan L. Gillen

Many microbes live in a mutualistic relationship with the human body, make up the human microbiome, and play a role in our health by modulating the immune system. Man is “covered” inside and outside his body with millions of microbes to maintain normal bodily functions and sustain life in our changing world. The skin is the largest organ in the human body and is colonized by millions of microbes. This external colonization of the integumentary system is termed our skin microbiome. Man cannot see it (except with a microscope), but we need it for normal functioning, certainly in a pathogenic …

Exploring The Effects Of Gut Microbiota With The Association Of Parkinson’S Disease, Kristina Babic

BIO 410 Spring 2019 Research Papers

Parkinson’s disease is a common neurodegenerative disorder. It is associated with the central nervous system that affects movement, it often includes tremors, stiffness, and inability to plan and think. Nerve cell damage in the brain causes lower production of dopamine leading to those symptoms. There is no cure for Parkinson’s disease, but there are medications that can help control the symptoms. Researchers are suggesting that dysbiosis in gut microbiota could lead to the development of a protein called alpha synuclein in the intestines, and through intestinal leakage, this protein could possibly spread pathologically to the brain by the central nervous …

Assessment Of Presumed Sterility Of The Human Placenta And Maternal Bladder, Ali Alhousseini

Wayne State University Dissertations

Introduction

Preterm birth is the number one cause of neonatal morbidity and mortality. A causal link has been established between infection and preterm birth. Urinary tract infection is the number one infection in pregnancy. Evaluating the existence of a placental and maternal bladder microbiome is a major scientific and clinical milestone in perinatal medicine.

Methodology and Results

Chapter 2: This is a prospective case control study. 69 placentas were collected in a sterile fashion from six groups of women without infection: Term cesarean not in labor (n=18), term cesarean in labor (n=9), term vaginal (n=21), preterm cesarean not in labor …

Assessing The Temporal Dynamics Of The Lower Urinary Tract Microbiota And The Effects Of Lifestyle, Travis Kyle Price

Dissertations

Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are among the most common bacterial infections in humans, accounting for $3.5 billion in health care expenditures yearly in the United States alone. Yet, treatments for UTI have seen little innovation over the past decade. As demonstrated in other body sites, such as the vagina and gastrointestinal (GI) tract, acute and infectious diseases often have indirect microbial contributions which serve as intriguing new targets for therapies. The recent discovery of the existence of a resident community of bacteria (i.e., microbiota) in the bladders of both women and men, represents a novel avenue for targeting UTIs. However, …

Longitudinal Urinary Microbiome Studies: A Need To Transition To Voided Urine, Baylie Hochstedler

Master's Theses

It is now established that the bladder is not sterile; it contains communities of microbes (microbiota). While the healthy bladder microbiota have been defined using expanded quantitative urine culture (EQUC) and urines obtained by transurethral catheterization (TUC), longitudinal and population studies have not previously been possible. These studies cannot be done using TUC urines, as it would be impractical to catheterize participants daily. Instead, we must transition to using voided urines.In order to make this switch, we have addressed three main issues raised by using voided urine. First, we showed that EQUC out performs standard urine culture on voided urines …

Prebiotics, Probiotics, And Bacterial Infections, Christina C. Tam, Kirkwood M. Land, Luisa W. Cheng

College of the Pacific Faculty Books and Book Chapters

Bacterial pathogens have developed exquisite virulence mechanisms to survive in the host cells. These virulence mechanisms help them bind and internalize into host cells, replicate, and evade the host immune response. The mammalian host itself has developed its own repertoire of weapons to prevent this from happening. One important component of host response in preventing infections in the gut lumen is the diverse commensal microbiota present. Dysbiosis of the gut microbiota has been implicated in the development of many gastrointestinal diseases. A potential therapeutic pathway to solve these diseases would be by providing probiotics and/or prebiotics to help stimulate growth …

Novel Approaches To Evaluate And Enhance Neonatal Calf Gastrointestinal Health And Development, Fernanda Trindade Da Rosa

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Physiological adaptations of the gastrointestinal tract (GIT) epithelial cells as well as methods to manipulate early life GIT microbiota colonization during the neonatal stage, is of great importance to the dairy industry. The first objective of this research was to optimize a method based on evaluation of bovine transcripts in fecal RNA via RTqPCR using L-selectin (SELL) as a marker for polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMNL), keratin 8 (KRT8) and fatty acid binding protein 2 (FABP2) for GIT enterocytes, and tight junctions in fecal RNA and GIT sections in dairy calves. To test the reliability of the fecal RNA method, fecal and …