Vines to Wines

Wine making had expanded throughout the centuries from Greeks to Egyptians, each having their own technique. In order to produce a good quality wine, they needed to apply the viticulture (grape cultivation) on their land. Vineyards do require certain temperature, moisture, and bacterial community for proper growth. Foguem and Flammang conducted a research in growing a vineyard in China using France’s viticulture technique. In this experiment, it focused on six factors requirement: Geology which is broken down into two categories “macronutrients” and “micronutrients” for soil nutrients supplements requirement, vines (wine quality), climate (vines on different temperature), diseases and treatment (vine disease accumulate), driving mode (vine installment), and irrigation (water stressed condition). In order to compare both countries geographically, graphical software was used for obtaining a glance of China’s biomes that can support the viticulture in soil nutrient supplement and vineyards being able to withstand on different weather conditions. 

Foguem BK and Flammang A. (2014). Knowledge description for their suitability requirements of different geographical regions for growing wine. LPE 38:719-731.

washingtonwinehomes.com

100% Cotton? Yes Please!!!

By: Ashley Garcia

Figure 1. Callewaert et al. (2014). Odor levels of cotton (green) versus polyester (red) based on five odor characterizations ranging in value from 0 (no odor) to 10 (strong odor/intolerable).

Performing aerobic activity has a multitude of health benefits but an aspect individuals may overlook is choice of clothing may encourage the growth of specific microorganisms and enhance the malodor emitted. A study carried out by Callewart et al. analyzed the odor profile of cotton versus polyester t-shirts after an extensive bout of exercise. The researchers found that the polyester t-shirts were more repugnant when compared to their cotton counterparts on all five characteristics analyzed (Figure 1). It was theorized that this finding was based on the fact that polyester is a synthetic fiber, which adsorbs odors less readily and encourages the growth of malodor creating microbes such as Micrococcus spp. This study has several health implications beyond what we find unpleasant due to the growth of these particular microbial species. So the next time you’re thinking of hitting that gym hard, consider reaching for the 100% cotton tee instead of your polyester number.

Original Article:

Callewaert C, Maeseneire ED, Kerchof FM, Verliefde A, Wiele T, Boon N (2014). Microbial odor profile of polyester and cotton clothes after a fitness session. Applied Environmental Microbiology. 88: 6611-6619.

Spooky Time in Airborne Bacteria Haunted Hospital! *o*

It is obvious that a hospital will be one of the most microbial infested places in a community. We tend to think that fomites and ill people are the ones that carry the bacteria around , but what if someone were to show you evidence that most of these bacteria are airborne? In a current study conducted in Setubal, Portugal bacterial counts and fungal loads were performed to identify the variety of bacteria or fungi in specific rooms These rooms were rated from the most prone places to least prone of obtaining contact with a airborne bacteria. The main rooms tested were "the operating theatre, emergency service, and the surgical ward". The samples were taken in different seasons and other protocols were included to provide more specific information.  The bacterial and fungal concentration was more intense in different sampling sites as well as its season. An increase in emergency service increased in summer and surgical ward bacterial counts increased in the winter.  

Verde, Sandra Cabo et. all (2015). Microbial assesments of indoor air quality at different hospital sites. Research in Microbiology

Many different types of bacteria and fungi were found in the air all haunting our existence, so next time you go to the hospital remember its not about what you touch its about what you breathe.

Microbes at the Bay

pictures by google

 

By: EmmaJo Robledo

 

Microbiological organisms in water spread at a faster rate when waters are contaminated. In a study conducted in the Durres bay, researchers studied the microbiological status of the water as compared to the EEA resolution (European Environmental Agency). Another side studied was the improvement ratios seen in the water and identifying risk factors. As far as the detection of the two pollutants, Fecale Coliform (Escherichia Coli FC) and Enterokokut Intestinal (Intestinal Entererococcis –IE), there was improvement in the amount of microorganisms in the water. Fecale Coliform (Escherichia Coli FC) was found only 2 out of 18 monitored results of “bad”. A significant improvement was seen in both microorganisms throughout the bay.

 

 Shoshi O, Sulejman SULÇE, Zamira R. (2014). Microbiological Pollution of Water in the Bay of Durrës. Albanian Journal of Agricultural Sciences 13:57–62. 

Beef Carcasses: Breeding Grounds for Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria

By Martha Chapa

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-12-04/meat-beef-carcass-abattoir/5134404
Beef carcasses hanging at a meat processing plant.
 

Foodborne diseases can arise from human contamination, improper cooking, or countless other careless possibilities. Additionally, a antibiotic resistant foodborne illnesses may potentially originate in slaughter houses where beef carcasses are produced and processed. Cattle grown for beef production are often treated with a wide spectrum of antibiotics to prevent illness; ironically, this preventative measure can potentially have worse adverse effects on human health through building antibiotic resistance in these microbes. A study published in Meat Science assessed the meat contaminating bacteria known to be human pathogens and their drug resistance to 17 antimicrobial drugs. Molecular techniques, such as coagulase gene typing, were performed on 70 swabs of beef carcasses and 70 beef meat samples. Results showed that the carcasses commonly contained Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli even after evisceration. More interestingly, this study found that during carcass processing the identified strains of these bacteria were of significantly greater resistant or polyresistant strains. The gene typing performed in this study suggested that these strains likely originated in the meat processing plants tested. While some may believe that antibiotic treatment of livestock is a necessary preventative step in food health, it is important to think of the long term effect this may have on cattle, the bacterial pathogens they carry and ultimately, human health.

 

Schlegelova, J., Napravnikova, E., Dendis, M., Horvath, R., Benedik, J., Babak, V., Klimova, E., Navratilova, P., Sustackova, A. (2002). Beef carcass contamination in a slaughterhouse and prevalence of resistance to antimicrobial drugs in isolates of selected microbial species. Meat Science, 66, 557-565.

Let's Marvin Gaye and Get it On!

By: Priscilla Carlo

 Scientists breed yeast strains to make new beer flavors.
Corbis Images.

In other words, scientists are "setting the mood" for yeasts, all in the name of beer.... and science, of course! Saccharomyces pastorianus is the yeast used to make lager beers. Lager beers tend to differ very little in flavors because there are only two parent strains used for fermentation; Saccharomyces cerevisiae and the cold-tolerant Saccharomyces eubayanus. In order to create a wider flavor spectrum, scientists decided to breed six different strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae with two different strains of Saccharomyces eubayanus in high quantities. This resulted in more than 100 new yeast strains, 31 of which presented faster fermentation and stronger aromas, than the original Saccharomyces pastorianus used in the current market today.

With this information, I present a shout-out to all beer lovers out there. Watch out! NEW FLAVORS COMING YOUR WAY!

Citation: Mertens S, Steensels J, Saels V, De Rouck G, Aerts G, Verstrepen KJ. 2015. A Large Set of Newly Created Interspecific Saccharomyces Hybrids Increases Aromatic Diversity in Lager Beers. Appl Environ Microbiol 81:8202–8214. doi:10.1128/AEM.02464-15

Dieting and Microbes

Most of us have been in diets at one points of our life or “tried to” start eating healthy. However, do we ever thing about how microbes feel about breaking our diet and making it into short-term dieting? Does long-term dieting vs. short-term diets cause a difference between microorganisms found in the gut? It has been reported that long-term diets do influence structure and activity of microorganisms; moreover, there is not much information on short dieting and microbes. The articles proposes to analyze microbial communities in short-term dieting. Two types of short diets will be observed and how each one affects the microbial community: (1) composed of plant consumption or (2) composed on animals. It was shown that those who have an animal diet will have a greater numbers of bile-tolerant microorganisms and a decrease in microorganisms who are responsible of metabolizing dietary plant polysaccharides. Which in fact makes sense because of the lack of consumption of plants. Furthermore, the results showed that a short term dietary animal based diet causes a quick reaction from the microbial community. 

David, L., Maurice, C., Carmody, R., Gootenberg, D., Button, J., Wolfe, B., . . . Turnbaugh, P. (2013). Diet rapidly and reproducibly alters the human gut microbiome. Nature, 559-563.

Fungus is Among Us...and Making it Rain!

FineArtAmerica.com:  Mushroom releasing its spores 

              There are billions of fungi spores drifting in the wind, invisible to the human eye. Researchers now believe that these spores could be assist in cloud formation above the fungi, resulting in rainfall. this in turn forms a positive feedback loop, where the additional rain helps the mushrooms to propel more spores up into the atmosphere, and thus induce more rain. The spores are discharged from the underside of the mushroom, area known  as the gills. A drop of fluid called Buller's drop accumulates over the spor surface (Hasset et al, 2015). Once the spore is airborne, the fluid evaporates. This can cause a positive loop where the spore creates the clouds, which lead to rain, which lead to more nutrients for the mushroom, which result in more mushroom that produce more spores to create clouds. I think that California should invest in more mushroom!

By: Bezait Anbesse

Hassett MO, Fischer MWF, Money NP (2015) Mushroom as Rainmakers: How Spores Act as Nuclei for Raindrops. PLoS ONE 10(10): e0140407. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0140407

The Invasion of Algal Viruses in Mammalian Cells!

By Nathan Campos

Historically, chloroviruses were thought to be very limited in their range of hosts for infection.  More specifically, green algae was thought to be the only suitable hosts for chloroviruses.  In 2014, a study conducted by John Hopkins University and University of Nebraska-Lincoln yielded a major surprise - gene sequences resembling those of the pathogen Acanthocystis turfacea chlorella virus 1, also referred to as ACTV-1, were discovered in the throat swabs of human participants.  In a new study, ACTV-1 tagged with fluorescent dye was introduced to macrophage cells that play a detrimental role in the immune responses of humans, mice, and other mammals.  After putting together a 3-D image of the mouse cells, researchers concluded that ACTV-1 was successful in its infection of the mammal cells.  Before eventual apoptosis, the macrophages displayed various signs of evident viral infection.  A three-fold increase of ATCV-1 was detected within the first 24 hours of introduction, suggesting that the chlorovirus could replicate within the macrophage cells.  A post viral spike in interleukin 6, a cellular protein linked to particular neurological diseases and decreased spatial spatial learning, was recorded.  An increase in nitric oxide, a signal molecule known to result in memory impairment when overproduced, was also observed.        




(Credit: University of Communications/University of Nebraska-Lincoln) The optical image above shows a cell (blue) infected with ACTV-1 (pink dots).

Thomas M. Petro, Irina V. Agarkova, You Zhou, Robert H. Yolken, James L. Van Etten, David D. Dunigan.  Response of mammalian macrophages to challenge with the chlorovirus ACTV-1. Journal of Virology, 2015; JVI.01254-15 DOI: 10.1128/JV1.0154-15

I Need Bacteria to Breathe!

By: Mason Alexander-Hawk

It is a common misconception within our society that all bacteria are nasty, little, microscopic worms squirming around all over the McDonald’s playgrounds. Well… that’s not entirely wrong, but the part that is wrong is the word ALL. Not ALL bacteria is bad, there is actually “good” bacteria we as humans need. A prime example of this was displayed using 3 month old infants. The study showed that the use of antibiotics during the infant stage of life could lead to early onset asthma. More than 300 babies at 3 months of age had their stool collected and the microbial DNA in the sample sequenced. The study targeted four types of common gut bacteria: Lachnospira, Veillonella, Faecalibacterium, and Rothia. The results showed that 100% of the infants with low or absent levels of these bacteria would suffer with early signs of asthma (wheezing and skin allergies) by 1 year of age. The infants who contained high levels of the bacteria in the stool samples did not develop the symptoms. So although antibiotics kills the bad, yucky bacteria making us sick it ALSO kills the good bacteria keeping us healthy! 

This image (FLICKR, Justin Schuck) displays the precious feet of an infant baby.

Original Article: Arrieta, Marie-Claire, Steimsma, Leah T., Dimitriu, Pedro A., et al. (2015). Early infancy microbial and metabolic alterations affect risk of childhood asthma. Science Translational Medicine, doi: 10.1126/scitransimed.aab2271

SPREADING OF "SUPERBUG" GENES BY AMERICAN CROWS!

Mr. T in D.C.- American crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos) eating bread, themedes.org http://themedes.org/?p=605

By: Alan Garcia

Vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) are a group of enterococci bacteria which are part of our normal flora (gut and skin) which have developed resistance to many antibiotics including vancomycin. Harmless if under normal conditions but when antibiotic resistance is developed and if introduced and spread into bloodstream or directly into a wound they acquire the ability to cause a serious or even fatal infection! Although VRE infections are one of the most common infections acquired in healthcare settings, not many antibiotic treatments are available for treatment.  A study done by a group of researchers shows the American crow as possible carriers and disperser of antibiotic resistance genes in enterococci bacteria.  American crows can be migratory and can be found across North America at high densities in urban areas. This is a danger not only due to spreading of VRE into the environment but also because bacteria have the ability to transfer and spread these genes between different species including other pathogenic bacteria and the number and movement of American crows can potentially amplify this process. Fecal samples from crows were collected from roosting places around the United States.  Samples were then cultured selectively for VRE and were tested for presence of vanA VRE gene, ability of  horizontal transfer VRE gene, and identification of VRE bacteria present.  VRE was found present in 15 out of 590 samples (2.5%) and 22 different isolates were obtained with a very high gene transfer range. Some strains were even found to have resistance to antibiotics used for treatment of VRE infections. Crows often feed from garbage dumps therefore VRE may spread by wastewater and waste from health-care facilities were antibiotic resistance is common. Future research on additional pathways of dispersion to environment and better management strategies for prevention of VRE dispersion from hospitals is greatly needed.  It is everyone's job to stop the spread of "superbug" genes into the environment so don't blame the birds!

Oravcova, V., Zurek, L., Townsend, A., Clark, A. B., Ellis, J. C., Cizek, A. and Literak, I. (2014), American crows as carriers of vancomycin-resistant enterococci with vanA gene. Environmental Microbiology, 16: 939–949. doi: 10.1111/1462-2920.12213

How the Environment Affects a Small Community

By: Oscar D. Gonzalez

Protists are the most abundant and diverse group within the domain eukarya. Protists represent one of the key groups in soil communities and hold a crucial role both below and above the ground. They represent an essential driver of the microbial food web by shaping bacterial communities, enhancing nutrient recycling, and stimulating microbial turnover and plant production. This research investigated the influence of land use types on protist communities in grasslands by applying quantitative and qualitative cultivation-independent methods. Soil samples were collected from three grassland plots found in three different geographical sites: low-mountain, lowland, and a fen site. The study found that site was an important determinant affecting protistan community composition, and are also influence by geography. It was also shown that soil water can also determine community composition and abundance of cultivable soil protists. The study also showed that grazing by sheep had an indirect effect on the microbial community compared to grazing by other animals. This study will aid further research on how to improve the agricultural methods used throughout the world. 

 

(Glaser et al, 2015) This figure illustrates two factors that affect protistan community, (N) nitrogen found in soil and grazing by animals.

  Glaser, K., Duppardt, A.,  Boenigk, J., et al. (2015) The influence of environmental factors on protistan microorganisms in grassland soil along a land-use gradient. Science of the Total Environment. 527: 33-42