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Full-Text Articles in Microbiology

Advancing Cyanobacteria Biomass Estimation From Hyperspectral Observations: Demonstrations With Hico And Prisma Imagery, Ryan E. O'Shea, Nima Pahlevan, Brandon Smith, Mariano Bresciani, Todd Egerton, Claudia Giardino, Lin Li, Tim Moore, Antonio Ruiz-Verdu, Steve Ruberg, Stefan G.H. Simis, Richard Stumpf, Diana Vaičiūtė Jan 2021

Advancing Cyanobacteria Biomass Estimation From Hyperspectral Observations: Demonstrations With Hico And Prisma Imagery, Ryan E. O'Shea, Nima Pahlevan, Brandon Smith, Mariano Bresciani, Todd Egerton, Claudia Giardino, Lin Li, Tim Moore, Antonio Ruiz-Verdu, Steve Ruberg, Stefan G.H. Simis, Richard Stumpf, Diana Vaičiūtė

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Retrieval of the phycocyanin concentration (PC), a characteristic pigment of, and proxy for, cyanobacteria biomass, from hyperspectral satellite remote sensing measurements is challenging due to uncertainties in the remote sensing reflectance (∆Rrs) resulting from atmospheric correction and instrument radiometric noise. Although several individual algorithms have been proven to capture local variations in cyanobacteria biomass in specific regions, their performance has not been assessed on hyperspectral images from satellite sensors. Our work leverages a machine-learning model, Mixture Density Networks (MDNs), trained on a large (N = 939) dataset of collocated in situ chlorophyll-a concentrations (Chla), …


Exploring The Niche Of Rickettsia Montanensis (Rickettsiales: Rickettsiaceae) Infection Of The American Dog Tick (Acari: Ixodidae), Using Multiple Species Distribution Model Approaches, Catherine A. Lippi, Holly Gaff, Alexis L. White, Heidi K. St. John, Allen L. Richards, Sadie J. Ryan Dec 2020

Exploring The Niche Of Rickettsia Montanensis (Rickettsiales: Rickettsiaceae) Infection Of The American Dog Tick (Acari: Ixodidae), Using Multiple Species Distribution Model Approaches, Catherine A. Lippi, Holly Gaff, Alexis L. White, Heidi K. St. John, Allen L. Richards, Sadie J. Ryan

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

The American dog tick, Dermacentor variabilis (Say) (Acari: Ixodidae), is a vector for several human diseasecausing pathogens such as tularemia, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, and the understudied spotted fever group rickettsiae (SFGR) infection caused by Rickettsia montanensis. It is important for public health planning and intervention to understand the distribution of this tick and pathogen encounter risk. Risk is often described in terms of vector distribution, but greatest risk may be concentrated where more vectors are positive for a given pathogen. When assessing species distributions, the choice of modeling framework and spatial layers used to make predictions are important. …


Arthropod Transcriptional Activator Protein-1 (Ap-1) Aids Tick-Rickettsial Pathogen Survival In The Cold, Supreet Khanal, Vikas Taank, John F. Anderson, Hameeda Sultana, Girish Neelakanta Jul 2018

Arthropod Transcriptional Activator Protein-1 (Ap-1) Aids Tick-Rickettsial Pathogen Survival In The Cold, Supreet Khanal, Vikas Taank, John F. Anderson, Hameeda Sultana, Girish Neelakanta

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Ixodes scapularis ticks transmit several pathogens to humans including rickettsial bacterium, Anaplasma phagocytophilum. Here, we report that A. phagocytophilum uses tick transcriptional activator protein-1 (AP-1) as a molecular switch in the regulation of arthropod antifreeze gene, iafgp. RNAi-mediated silencing of ap-1 expression significantly affected iafgp gene expression and A. phagocytophilum burden in ticks upon acquisition from the murine host. Gel shift assays provide evidence that both the bacterium and AP-1 influences iafgp promoter and expression. The luciferase assays revealed that a region of approximately 700 bp upstream of the antifreeze gene is sufficient for AP-1 binding to promote …


Better Living Through Chemistry: Addressing Emerging Antibiotic Resistance, Nathan P. Coussens, Ashley L. Molinaro, Kayla J. Culbertson, Tyler Peryea, Gergely Zahoránszky-Köhalmi, Matthew D. Hall, Dayle A. Daines Jan 2018

Better Living Through Chemistry: Addressing Emerging Antibiotic Resistance, Nathan P. Coussens, Ashley L. Molinaro, Kayla J. Culbertson, Tyler Peryea, Gergely Zahoránszky-Köhalmi, Matthew D. Hall, Dayle A. Daines

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

The increasing emergence of multidrug-resistant bacteria is recognized as a major threat to human health worldwide. While the use of small molecule antibiotics has enabled many modern medical advances, it has also facilitated the development of resistant organisms. This minireview provides an overview of current small molecule drugs approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use in humans, the unintended consequences of antibiotic use, and the mechanisms that underlie the development of drug resistance. Promising new approaches and strategies to counter antibiotic-resistant bacteria with small molecules are highlighted. However, continued public investment in this area is critical …


Anaplasma Marginale Actively Modulates Vacuolar Maturation During Intracellular Infection Of Its Tick Vector, Dermacentor Andersoni, Foregivemore Magunda, Chelsea Wright Thompson, David A. Schneider, Susan M. Noh Jan 2016

Anaplasma Marginale Actively Modulates Vacuolar Maturation During Intracellular Infection Of Its Tick Vector, Dermacentor Andersoni, Foregivemore Magunda, Chelsea Wright Thompson, David A. Schneider, Susan M. Noh

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

ABSTRACT Tick-borne transmission of bacterial pathogens in the order Rickettsiales is responsible for diverse infectious diseases, many of them severe, in humans and animals. Transmission dynamics differ among these pathogens and are reflected in the pathogen-vector interaction. Anaplasma marginale has been shown to establish and maintain infectivity within Dermacentor spp. for weeks to months while escaping the complex network of vacuolar peptidases that are responsible for digestion ofthe tick blood meal. How this prolonged maintenance of infectivity in a potentially hostile environment is achieved has been unknown. Using the natural vector Dermacentor andersoni, we demonstrated that A. marginale …


Oroya Fever And Verruga Peruana: Bartonelloses Unique To South America, Michael F. Minnick, Burt E. Anderson, Amorce Lima, James M. Battisti, Phillip G. Lawyer, Richard J. Birtles Jul 2014

Oroya Fever And Verruga Peruana: Bartonelloses Unique To South America, Michael F. Minnick, Burt E. Anderson, Amorce Lima, James M. Battisti, Phillip G. Lawyer, Richard J. Birtles

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Bartonella bacilliformis is the bacterial agent of Carrión's disease and is presumed to be transmitted between humans by phlebotomine sand flies. Carrión's disease is endemic to high-altitude valleys of the South American Andes, and the first reported outbreak (1871) resulted in over 4,000 casualties. Since then, numerous outbreaks have been documented in endemic regions, and over the last two decades, outbreaks have occurred at atypical elevations, strongly suggesting that the area of endemicity is expanding. Approximately 1.7 million South Americans are estimated to be at risk in an area covering roughly 145,000 km2 of Ecuador, Colombia, and Peru. Although disease …


Identification Of Novel Small Rnas And Characterization Of The 6s Rna Of Coxiella Burnetii, Indu Warrier, Linda D. Hicks, James M. Battisti, Rahul Raghavan, Michael F. Minnick Jun 2014

Identification Of Novel Small Rnas And Characterization Of The 6s Rna Of Coxiella Burnetii, Indu Warrier, Linda D. Hicks, James M. Battisti, Rahul Raghavan, Michael F. Minnick

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Coxiella burnetii, an obligate intracellular bacterial pathogen that causes Q fever, undergoes a biphasic developmental cycle that alternates between a metabolically-active large cell variant (LCV) and a dormant small cell variant (SCV). As such, the bacterium undoubtedly employs complex modes of regulating its lifecycle, metabolism and pathogenesis. Small RNAs (sRNAs) have been shown to play important regulatory roles in controlling metabolism and virulence in several pathogenic bacteria. We hypothesize that sRNAs are involved in regulating growth and development of C. burnetii and its infection of host cells. To address the hypothesis and identify potential sRNAs, we subjected total RNA …


The Toxavapa Toxin-Antitoxin Locus Contributes To The Survival Of Nontypeable Haemophilus Influenzae During Infection, Dabin Ren, Alexis A. Kordis, Daniel E. Sonenshine, Dayle A. Daines Mar 2014

The Toxavapa Toxin-Antitoxin Locus Contributes To The Survival Of Nontypeable Haemophilus Influenzae During Infection, Dabin Ren, Alexis A. Kordis, Daniel E. Sonenshine, Dayle A. Daines

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae (NTHi) is an opportunistic pathogen that is a common cause of acute and recurrent mucosal infections. One uncharacterized NTHi toxin-antitoxin (TA) module, NTHI1912-1913, is a host inhibition of growth (higBA) homologue. We hypothesized that this locus, which we designated toxAvapA, contributed to NTHi survival during infection. We deleted toxAvapA and determined that growth of the mutant in defined media was not different from the parent strain. We tested the mutant for persistence during long-term in vitro co-culture with primary human respiratory tissues, which revealed that the DeltatoxAvapA mutant was attenuated for survival. We then …


Regulation Of The Vapbc-1 Toxin-Antitoxin Locus In Nontypeable Haemophilus Influenzae, Susan D. Cline, Sehresh Saleem, Dayle A. Daines Mar 2012

Regulation Of The Vapbc-1 Toxin-Antitoxin Locus In Nontypeable Haemophilus Influenzae, Susan D. Cline, Sehresh Saleem, Dayle A. Daines

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae (NTHi) are human-adapted commensal bacteria that can cause a number of chronic mucosal infections, including otitis media and bronchitis. One way for these organisms to survive antibiotic therapy and cause recurrent disease is to stop replicating, as most antimicrobials target essential biosynthetic pathways. Toxin-antitoxin (TA) gene pairs have been shown to facilitate entry into a reversible bacteriostatic state. Characteristically, these operons encode a protein toxin and an antitoxin that associate following translation to form a nontoxic complex, which then binds to and regulates the cognate TA promoter. Under stressful conditions, the labile antitoxin is degraded and the …


Characterization Of Photochromogenic Mycobacterium Spp. From Chesapeake Bay Striped Bass Morone Saxatilis, D. T. Gauthier, A. M. Helenthal, M. W. Rhodes, W. K. Vogelbein, H. I. Kator Jan 2011

Characterization Of Photochromogenic Mycobacterium Spp. From Chesapeake Bay Striped Bass Morone Saxatilis, D. T. Gauthier, A. M. Helenthal, M. W. Rhodes, W. K. Vogelbein, H. I. Kator

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

A large diversity of Mycobacterium spp. has been isolated from striped bass Morone saxatilis in Chesapeake Bay, USA. The new species M. shottsii and M. pseudoshottsii are the dominant isolates, while the classical fish pathogen M. marinum is found much less frequently. M. fortuitum and M. chelonae, other Mycobacterium spp. known to commonly infect fishes, have not yet been aseptically isolated from striped bass within Chesapeake Bay. While M. pseudoshottsii and M. shottsii have been phenotypically and genotypically characterized, other less common mycobacterial isolates have not. In the present study, we describe 17 photochromogenic isolates from Chesapeake …


Quantitative Pcr Assay For Mycobacterium Pseudoshottsii And Mycobacterium Shottsii And Application To Environmental Samples And Fishes From The Chesapeake Bay, D. T. Gauthier, K. S. Reece, J. Xiao, M. W. Rhodes, H. I. Kator, R. J. Latour, C. F. Bonzek, J. M. Hoenig, W. K. Vogelbein Jan 2010

Quantitative Pcr Assay For Mycobacterium Pseudoshottsii And Mycobacterium Shottsii And Application To Environmental Samples And Fishes From The Chesapeake Bay, D. T. Gauthier, K. S. Reece, J. Xiao, M. W. Rhodes, H. I. Kator, R. J. Latour, C. F. Bonzek, J. M. Hoenig, W. K. Vogelbein

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Striped bass (Morone saxatilis) in the Chesapeake Bay are currently experiencing a very high prevalence of mycobacteriosis associated with newly described Mycobacterium species, Mycobacterium pseudoshottsii and M. shottsii. The ecology of these mycobacteria outside the striped bass host is currently unknown. In this work, we developed quantitative real-time PCR assays for M. pseudoshottsii and M. shottsii and applied these assays to DNA extracts from Chesapeake Bay water and sediment samples, as well as to tissues from two dominant prey of striped bass, Atlantic menhaden (Brevoortia tyrannus) and bay anchovy (Anchoa mitchilli). Mycobacterium …


Identification And Characterization Of A Nontypeable Haemophilus Influenzae Putative Toxin-Antitoxin Locus, Dayle A. Daines, Justin Jarisch, Arnold L. Smith Jan 2004

Identification And Characterization Of A Nontypeable Haemophilus Influenzae Putative Toxin-Antitoxin Locus, Dayle A. Daines, Justin Jarisch, Arnold L. Smith

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Background: Certain strains of an obligate parasite of the human upper respiratory tract, nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae (NTHi), can cause invasive diseases such as septicemia and meningitis, as well as chronic mucosal infections such as otitis media. To do this, the organism must invade and survive within both epithelial and endothelial cells. We have identified a facilitator of NT(Hi) survival inside human cells, virulence-associated protein D (vapDHi, encoded by gene H10450). Both vapDHi and a flanking gene, H10451, exhibit the genetic and physical characteristics of a toxin/antitoxin ( TA) locus, with VapDHi serving as the …


Ultrastructure Of Mycobacterium Marinum Granuloma In Striped Bass Morone Saxatilis, D. T. Gauthier, W. K. Vogelbein, C. A. Ottinger Jan 2004

Ultrastructure Of Mycobacterium Marinum Granuloma In Striped Bass Morone Saxatilis, D. T. Gauthier, W. K. Vogelbein, C. A. Ottinger

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

An emerging epizootic of mycobacteriosis currently threatens striped bass Morone saxatilis populations in Chesapeake Bay, USA. Several species of mycobacteria, including Mycobacterium marinum, species resembling M. avium, M. gordonae, M. peregrinum, M. scrofulaceum and M. terrae, and the new species M. shottsii have been isolated from diseased and healthy bass. In this study, we describe the ultrastructure of developing M. marinum granulomas in experimentally infected bass over a period of 45 wk. The primary host response to injected mycobacteria was formation of large macrophage aggregations containing phagocytosed bacilli. M. marinum were always contained within phagosomes. Close …


Isolation And Characterization Of Mycobacteria From Striped Bass Morone Saxatilis From The Chesapeake Bay, Martha W. Rhodes, Howard Kator, Ilsa Kaattari, David Gauthier, Wolfgang Vogelbein, Christopher A. Ottinger Jan 2004

Isolation And Characterization Of Mycobacteria From Striped Bass Morone Saxatilis From The Chesapeake Bay, Martha W. Rhodes, Howard Kator, Ilsa Kaattari, David Gauthier, Wolfgang Vogelbein, Christopher A. Ottinger

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Mycobacteriosis in striped bass Morone saxatilisof Chesapeake Bay, USA, was first diagnosed in 1997 based on the presence of granulomatous inflammation and acid-fast bacteria in skin and spleen. To confirm histopathology, bacteriological detection and identification of mycobacteria were begun using splenic tissue from fish with and without skin ulcerations. On the basis of initial studies using a variety of selective and nonselective media, decontamination, homogenization and incubation conditions, a simple and quantitative recovery method using aseptic necropsy of splenic tissue was developed. Optimal recovery was obtained by spread-plating homogenates on Middlebrook 7H10 agar with incubation for 3 mo at …


Experimental Mycobacteriosis In Striped Bass Morone Saxatilis, D. T. Gauthier, M. W. Rhodes, W. K. Vogelbein, H. Kator, C. A. Ottinger Jan 2003

Experimental Mycobacteriosis In Striped Bass Morone Saxatilis, D. T. Gauthier, M. W. Rhodes, W. K. Vogelbein, H. Kator, C. A. Ottinger

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Striped bass Morone saxatilis were infected intraperitoneally with approximately 105 Mycobacterium marinum, M. shottsii sp. nov., or M. gordonae. Infected fish were maintained in a flow-through freshwater system at 18 to 21°C, and were examined histologically and bacteriologically at 2, 4, 6, 8, 17, 26, 36 and 45 wk post-infection (p.i.). M. marinum caused acute peritonitis, followed by extensive granuloma development in the mesenteries, spleen and anterior kidney. Granulomas in these tissues underwent a temporal progression of distinct morphological stages, culminating in well-circumscribed lesions surrounded by normal or healing tissue. Mycobacteria were cultured in high numbers from …