Microbiology Commons^™

An Evaluation Of Host Factors As Novel Therapeutic Targets During Influenza Infection Using Rna Technologies, Michael Ryan Haden Thompson

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Influenza A is a single-stranded, multi-segmented, negative sense RNA virus of the family Orthomyxoviridae and is the causative agent of seasonal Influenza. Influenza viruses cause significant impacts on a global scale regarding public health and economics. Annual influenza virus infections in the United States account for over 200,000 hospitalizations, up to 49,000 deaths, and an $87.1 billion economic burden. Influenza A virus has caused several pandemics since the turn of the 20th century. The effects of Influenza on public health and economics, compounded with low efficacy of the annual vaccine and emerging antiviral resistance, brings to light the need for …

Isolating And Identifying Fungal Endophytes From Roots Of Rare Orchid Cypripedium Arietinum In Grand Sable Dunes, Michigan, Kari Farkas-Lasich

All NMU Master's Theses

Recently the population of Cypripedium arietinum in Grand Sable Dunes, Michigan was estimated at more than 3.5 million plants, greater than 90% of the world’s known population. There is little research on this species’ root associated fungal endophytes. This new population estimate allows the ethical, destructive sampling required to shed light on root associated symbionts and further successful preservation and restoration of the species. Samples were collected of current year’s roots from 75 C. arietinum orchids at 75 locations within 4 jack pine forests in the Grand Sable Dunes, Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, Michigan. Fungal endophyte cultures were obtained from …

Inhibition Of Listeria Monocytogenes By Human Gut Bacteria, Patrycja Sylvia Olesky

Masters

Listeria monocytogenes is a foodborne pathogen, which continues to be problematic to the food industry due to its ability survive within food products and persist within food processing environments. The growing trend towards natural food preservatives and antimicrobial agents increases the need for the development of novel, natural anti-Listeria agents. Evidence presented in the literature suggests that the human gut microbiota is a reservoir of novel antimicrobial agents. It was therefore hypothesized that novel anti-Listeria agents are produced by human gut-derived bacteria. The objective of this study was to isolate and characterize gut bacteria with anti-Listeria monocytogenes activity. A total …

Role Of Tnf Α, Il-6 And Cxcl10 In Dengue Disease Severity, Kiran I. Masood, Bushra Jamil, Maryam Rahim, Muniba Islam, Muhammad Farhan, Zahra Hasan

Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine

Background and objective: Dengue virus infections (Dengue) have become increasingly common in Pakistan and can result in case fatalities if not managed appropriately. Patients with Dengue virus infection may be asymptomatic or present with Dengue fever (DF), Dengue with warning signs (DWS) or severe Dengue (SD). Severity in Dengue is coincident with an exacerbated production of lymphocyte-induced cytokines and chemokines which are associated with plasma leakage. We investigated the association of circulating levels of cytokines such as Interleukin (IL)-6, tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha and CXCL-10 in Dengue patients with differing severity of disease.
Material and methods: Dengue infection was confirmed …

Ms Analysis Of A Dilution Series Of Bacteria: Phytoplankton To Improve Detection Of Low Abundance Bacterial Peptides, Emma Timmins-Schiffman, Molly P. Mikan, Ying Sonia Ting, H. Rodger Harvey, Brook L. Nunn

OES Faculty Publications

Assigning links between microbial activity and biogeochemical cycles in the ocean is a primary objective for ecologists and oceanographers. Bacteria represent a small ecosystem component by mass, but act as the nexus for both nutrient transformation and organic matter recycling. There are limited methods to explore the full suite of active bacterial proteins largely responsible for degradation. Mass spectrometry (MS)-based proteomics now has the potential to document bacterial physiology within these complex systems. Global proteome profiling using MS, known as data dependent acquisition (DDA), is limited by the stochastic nature of ion selection, decreasing the detection of low abundance peptides. …

Arthropod Evs Mediate Dengue Virus Transmission Through Interaction With A Tetraspanin Domain Containing Glycoprotein Tsp29fb, Ashish Vora, Wenshuo Zhou, Berlin Londono-Renteria, Michael Woodson, Michael B. Sherman, Tonya M. Collpitts, Girish Neelakanta, Hameeda Sultana

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Dengue virus (DENV) is a mosquito-borne flavivirus that causes dengue fever in humans, worldwide. Using in vitro cell lines derived from Aedes albopictus and Aedes aegypti, the primary vectors of DENV, we report that DENV2/DENV3-infected cells secrete extracellular vesicles (EVs), including exosomes, containing infectious viral RNA and proteins. A full-length DENV2 genome, detected in arthropod EVs, was infectious to naïve mosquito and mammalian cells, including human-skin keratinocytes and blood endothelial cells. Cryo-electron microscopy showed mosquito EVs with a size range from 30 to 250 nm. Treatments with RNase A, Triton X-100, and 4G2 antibody-bead binding assays showed that infectious …

Identification Of A Tola Protein Binding Site For Bacterial Toxins, Monica Ferrante

Honors Projects

Group A colicins are proteinaceous bacteriocins encoded by plasmids that exploit the cellular envelope protein TolA to translocate the cell wall barrier and cellular envelope of the bacterium Escherichia coli. These colicins offer protocols for studying certain protein-protein interactions involved in such membrane transport functions. Previous experimentations suggest the carboxyl-terminal domain of TolA protein contains specific amino acid binding regions required for the translocation of group A colicins into E. coli. The amino acid sequence of this domain varies between E. coli and other gram-negative bacterial species. It has been suggested that this diversity could be utilized to …

The Evolution Of Molecular Compatibility Between Bacteriophage Φx174 And Its Host, Alexander Kula, Joseph Saelens, Jennifer Cox, Alyxandria M. Schubert, Michael Travisano, Catherine Putonti

Biology: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Viruses rely upon their hosts for biosynthesis of viral RNA, DNA and protein. This dependency frequently engenders strong selection for virus genome compatibility with potential hosts, appropriate gene regulation and expression necessary for a successful infection. While bioinformatic studies have shown strong correlations between codon usage in viral and host genomes, the selective factors by which this compatibility evolves remain a matter of conjecture. Engineered to include codons with a lesser usage and/or tRNA abundance within the host, three different attenuated strains of the bacterial virus ФX174 were created and propagated via serial transfers. Molecular sequence data indicate that biosynthetic …

The Evolution Of Molecular Compatibility Between Bacteriophage Φx174 And Its Host, Alexander Kula, Joseph Saelens, Alyxandria M. Schubert, Michael Travisano, Catherine Putonti

Bioinformatics Faculty Publications

Viruses rely upon their hosts for biosynthesis of viral RNA, DNA and protein. This dependency frequently engenders strong selection for virus genome compatibility with potential hosts, appropriate gene regulation and expression necessary for a successful infection. While bioinformatic studies have shown strong correlations between codon usage in viral and host genomes, the selective factors by which this compatibility evolves remain a matter of conjecture. Engineered to include codons with a lesser usage and/or tRNA abundance within the host, three different attenuated strains of the bacterial virus ФX174 were created and propagated via serial transfers. Molecular sequence data indicate that biosynthetic …

Functions Of Ecosystems: Stream Metabolism As An Efficient And Effective Means To Gage The Health And Understand The Interworking Of Urban Streams In A Watershed Of Rock Island, Il, Ryan Johnson, Dr. Kevin Geedey

Celebration of Learning

Stream metabolism is a critical functional measure of stream health that integrates physical parameters like slope and discharge, with ecosystem functions like photosynthesis and respiration. Stream metabolism is widely studied; however, urban stream metabolism remains poorly understood. Stream metabolism was measured for five streams ranging from 1^st to 5^th orders from October 11^th to October 18^th 2017 and four streams ranging from 1^st to 4^th order from October 22^nd to 25^th 2017 located within an approximately 9.3 square kilometer watershed of Rock Island, IL that has an urban to suburban type of …

Delivering Entrapped Lactobacillus Plantarum Ncimb 8826 With Cereal-Legume Infant-Weaning Food To Improve Children's Gastrointestinal Health, Emmanuel Kyereh

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Diarrhea remains the second leading cause of death among children under five globally, about one in five children’s deaths are attributable to it. In recent years,’ probiotics have been used as an alternative therapy measure to manage the situation. A promising delivery method that entraps probiotics in infant formula may help prevent or reduce diarrhea. The overall objectives of this study were to deliver entrapped Lactobacillus Plantarum NCIMB 8826 with maize-legume fortified complementary weaning food to reduce diarrhea and improve the gut microbiota. Both in vitro and in vivo models were used in this study and a mouse (C57BL/6 mice …

Screening For The Novel Cariogenic Pathogen Scardovia Wiggsiae Among Orthodontic Patients, Adam Whiteley

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Screening for the Novel Cariogenic Pathogen Scardovia wiggsiae among Orthodontic Patients

by

Adam Whiteley

Dr. Karl Kingsley, Examination Committee Chair Professor of Biomedical Sciences University of Nevada, Las Vegas School of Dental Medicine

The recent discovery of a novel cariogenic pathogen Scardovia wiggsiae has led many scientists and oral health researchers to re-evaluate and re-examine existing saliva repositories to determine the prevalence among patient populations. Recent efforts at this institution have used existing saliva samples to determine the prevalence among both adults and pediatric patients. These studies have revealed this organism may be found in approximately one-quarter of all samples …

Transcriptional Silencing And Anti-Silencing Of Virulence Genes In The Bacterial Pathogen Shigella Flexneri: Virb, Dna Supercoiling, And The Histone-Like Nucleoid Structuring Protein, Michael Adam Picker

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Transcriptional silencing and anti-silencing affect many aspects of bacterial physiology, including virulence in bacterial pathogens. In Shigella species, a group of gram-negative pathogens that cause bacillary dysentery in humans, the histone-like nucleoid structuring protein (H-NS) transcriptionally silences virulence genes found on the large virulence plasmid while VirB anti-silences these genes. However, the mechanistic details of their interplay are not fully understood. To elucidate their regulatory mechanisms, I use the icsP virulence locus, which shares a long intergenic region with the divergently transcribed ospZ gene (1535 bp from TSS to TSS). Prior to this work, two discrete H-NS binding regions had …

Assembly-Hub Function Of Er-Localized Snare Proteins In Biogenesis Of Tombusvirus Replication Compartment, Zsuzsanna Sasvari, Nikolay Kovalev, Paulina Alatriste Gonzalez, Kai Xu, Peter D. Nagy

Plant Pathology Faculty Publications

Positive-strand RNA viruses assemble numerous membrane-bound viral replicase complexes within large replication compartments to support their replication in infected cells. Yet the detailed mechanism of how given subcellular compartments are subverted by viruses is incompletely understood. Although, Tomato bushy stunt virus (TBSV) uses peroxisomal membranes for replication, in this paper, we show evidence that the ER-resident SNARE (soluble NSF attachment protein receptor) proteins play critical roles in the formation of active replicase complexes in yeast model host and in plants. Depletion of the syntaxin 18-like Ufe1 and Use1, which are components of the ER SNARE complex in the ERAS (ER …

Antibiotic Resistance Of Bacteria Isolated From Soils, Jessica Vaughan

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

After the discovery of antibiotics, antibiotics have been increasingly implemented into human and veterinary medicine. In addition, antibiotics are inserted into animal feed for non-therapeutic purposes, which potentially leads to the development of antibiotic-resistant pathogens. When the livestock excrete waste onto the soil, the antibiotic resistant bacteria are introduced to the environment. With soil collected from different farms throughout the Bowling Green area, the microbial communities were analyzed to determine its bacterial compositions and their resistances to common antibiotics through a modified agar dilution technique. Once resistant colonies were isolated, they underwent more testing to determine if the colonies could …

Microbiological Safety Assessment Of Fresh Fruits And Vegetables Collected From Main Markets Of Multan, Pakistan, Bina Rida, Farah Deeba

Journal of Bioresource Management

Most of the research related to food-borne human pathogens is conducted on the transmission of pathogens from foods of animal origin. However, recent studies showed that fruits and vegetables are the sources of many disease outbreaks. This study was carried out to assess the current knowledge and future developments for the microbial safety of fresh fruits and vegetables. The eight different fruits and vegetables, Grape (Vitis vinifera), Banana (Musa acuminate), Orange (Citrus sinensis), Apple (Malus domestica Borkh), Carrott (Daucus carota), Cucumber (Cucumis sativus), Green chili (Capsicum annuum …

Evaluation Of The Antimicrobial Activity Of Endophytic Bacterial Populations From Chinese Traditional Medicinal Plant Licorice And Characterization Of The Bioactive Secondary Metabolites Produced By Bacillus Atrophaeus Against Verticillium Dahliae, Osama A. A. Mohamad, Li Li, Jin-Biao Ma, Shaimaa Hatab, Lin Xu, Jian-Wei Guo, Bakhtiyor A. Rasulov, Yong-Hong Liu, Brian P. Hedlund, Wen-Jun Li

Life Sciences Faculty Research

Endophytic bacteria associated with medicinal plants possess unique strategies that enhance growth and suvival of host plants, many of which are mediated by distinctive secondary metabolites. These bacteria and their secondary metabolites are important subjects for both basic and applied research aimed at sustainable agriculture. In the present study, 114 endophytic strains isolated from the wild ethnomedicinal plant Glycyrrhiza uralensis (licorice) were screened for their in vitro antimicrobial activities against common fungal pathogens of tomato (Fusarium oxysporum f. sp., Fulvia fulva, Alternaria solani), cotton (Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. Vesinfectum, Verticillium dahliae), pomegranite (Ceratocystis fimbriata), Cymbidinium (Colletotrichum gloeosporioides), and Tsao-ko (Pestalotiopsis …

Cloning And Characterization Of A Pyrethroid Pesticide Decomposing Esterase Gene, Est3385, From Rhodopseudomonas Palustris Psb-S, Xiangwen Luo, Deyong Zhang, Xuguo Zhou, Jiao Du, Songbai Zhang, Yong Liu

Entomology Faculty Publications

Full length open reading frame of pyrethroid detoxification gene, Est3385, contains 963 nucleotides. This gene was identified and cloned based on the genome sequence of Rhodopseudomonas palustris PSB-S available at the GneBank. The predicted amino acid sequence of Est3385 shared moderate identities (30–46%) with the known homologous esterases. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that Est3385 was a member in the esterase family I. Recombinant Est3385 was heterologous expressed in E. coli, purified and characterized for its substrate specificity, kinetics and stability under various conditions. The optimal temperature and pH for Est3385 were 35 °C and 6.0, respectively. This enzyme could …

Till Death Do Us Part: The Marriage Of Autophagy And Apoptosis., Katrina F Cooper

Rowan-Virtua School of Osteopathic Medicine Departmental Research

Autophagy is a widely conserved catabolic process that is necessary for maintaining cellular homeostasis under normal physiological conditions and driving the cell to switch back to this status quo under times of starvation, hypoxia, and oxidative stress. The potential similarities and differences between basal autophagy and stimulus-induced autophagy are still largely unknown. Both act by clearing aberrant or unnecessary cytoplasmic material, such as misfolded proteins, supernumerary and defective organelles. The relationship between reactive oxygen species (ROS) and autophagy is complex. Cellular ROS is predominantly derived from mitochondria. Autophagy is triggered by this event, and by clearing the defective organelles effectively, …

Fine Grained Compositional Analysis Of Port Everglades Inlet Microbiome Using High Throughput Dna Sequencing, Lauren M. O'Connell, Song Gao, Donald S. Mccorquodale Jr., Jay M. Fleisher, Jose Lopez

Marine & Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles

Background

Similar to natural rivers, manmade inlets connect inland runoff to the ocean. Port Everglades Inlet (PEI) is a busy cargo and cruise ship port in South Florida, which can act as a source of pollution to surrounding beaches and offshore coral reefs. Understanding the composition and fluctuations of bacterioplankton communities (“microbiomes”) in major port inlets is important due to potential impacts on surrounding environments. We hypothesize seasonal microbial fluctuations, which were profiled by high throughput 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing and analysis.

Methods & Results

Surface water samples were collected every week for one year. A total of four samples …