Unlocking the molecular realm: advanced approaches for identifying clinically and environmentally relevant bacteria

Rapid, effective, and specific identification of clinical and environmental bacterial pathogens is of major importance for their control. Traditionally, bacteria have been identified by phenotypic methods based on morphological, biochemical, and metabolic properties. While these methods are very useful in clinical practice, they have limitations including a poor ability to differentiate within and between species and time-consuming workflows. Newly developed molecular methods can greatly improve the accuracy of taxonomic characterization, identifying specific strains of medical or environmental importance. However, due to high costs and the need for trained professionals, these methods are not yet routine in diagnostic laboratories. Thus, disseminating knowledge on advances in molecular identification techniques is pivotal to make these methodologies accessible. The objective of this work was to review and discuss current molecular techniques for bacteria identification aiming to track and monitor microbial agents in clinical and environmental samples.

Occurrence of extended-spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL) and carbapenemases among ampicillin-resistant enterobacteriales recovered from a municipal raw sewage in Minas Gerais, Brazil

SUMMARY Introduction: The capacity of resistance to ß-lactam among enterobacteriales is notable, mainly into water environment. Herein, many species of this family have the ability to carrier and produce ß-lactamases enzymes, such as extended-spectrum ß-lactamases (ESBLs) and carbapenemases. However, contrary to clinical settings, where the distribution of resistant bacteria is well documented, the evidence of resistant pathogens in the domestic sewage has been little explored, especially in Brazil. Thus, we aimed to investigate the occurrence of ESBL and carbapenemases between ampicillin-resistant enterobacteriales recovered from a municipal raw sewage in Minas Gerais, Brazil. Methods: Enterobacteriales were isolated from sewage samples on MacConkey agar supplemented with ampicillin. Species identification was performed by biochemical and morphological methods and the resistance profile determined by the Kirby-Bauer test. The production of ESBL and carbapenemase was investigated in all isolates by phenotypic tests. Results and discussion: A total of 45 species of enterobacteriales resistant to ampicillin were recovered (37 Escherichia coli, four Klebsiella pneumoniae, and one Klebsiella oxytoca, Citrobacter freundii and Pantoea agglomerans). Most isolates showed a high ß-lactam susceptibility profile (14/45, 31.1 %), however E. coli with decreased susceptibility to imipenem was detected (2/37; 2.7 %). ESBL-positive isolates were mostly identified as E. coli (10/45; 22.2 %), but no isolates were positive carbapenemase. Conclusion: Domestic sewage is an important source of ß-lactams resistant determinants in Brazil.

Introdução: a capacidade de resistência aos beta-lactâmicos entre enterobacteriales é notável, principalmente no ambiente aquático. Nessa direção, muitas espécies desta família têm a capacidade de transportar e produzir enzimas ß-lactamases, especialmente a ß-lactamases de espectro estendido (ESBL) e as carbapenemases. Porém, ao contrário do cenário clínico, onde a distribuição de bactérias resistentes é bem documentada, as evidências de patógenos resistentes no esgoto doméstico têm sido pouco exploradas, principalmente no Brasil. Assim, objetivamos investigar a ocorrência de ESBL e carbapenemases entre enterobacteriales resistentes à ampicilina recuperadas de um esgoto bruto municipal em Minas Gerais, Brasil. Métodos: enterobacteriales foram isoladas de amostras de esgoto em ágar MacConkey suplementado com ampicilina. A identificação das espécies foi realizada por métodos bioquímicos e morfológicos e o perfil de resistência determinado pelo teste de Kirby-Bauer. A produção de ESBL e carbapenemase foi investigada em todos os isolados por testes fenotípicos. Resultados e discussão: foram recuperadas 45 isolados de enterobacteriales resistentes à ampicilina (37 Escherichia coli, quatro Klebsiella pneumoniae e uma Klebsiella oxytoca, Citrobacter freundii e Pantoea agglomerans). A maioria dos isolados apresentou um perfil de alta susceptibilidade aos ß-lactâmicos (14/45, 31,1 %), porém E. coli com susceptibilidade diminuída ao imipenem foi detectada (2/37; 2,7 %). Os isolados ESBL-positivos foram identificados principalmente como E. coli (10/45; 22,2 %), mas nenhum isolado foi positivo para a carbapenemase. Conclusão: o esgoto doméstico é uma importante fonte de determinantes de resistência aos ß-lactâmicos no Brasil.

Introducción: la capacidad de resistencia a betalactámicos entre enterobacteriales es notable, principalmente en el medio acuático. En este sentido, muchas especies de esta familia tienen la capacidad de transportar y producir enzimas ß-lactamasas, especialmente ß-lactamasas de espectro extendido (BLEE) y carbapenemasas. Sin embargo, en contraste con el escenario clínico, donde la distribución de bacterias resistentes está bien documentada, la evidencia de patógenos resistentes en las aguas residuales domésticas ha sido poco explorada, especialmente en Brasil. Por lo tanto, nuestro objetivo es investigar la ocurrencia de BLEE y carbapenemasas entre enterobacteriales resistentes a ampicilina recuperadas de un alcantarillado municipal sin tratar en Minas Gerais, Brasil. Métodos: se aislaron enterobacteriales de muestras de aguas residuales en agar MacConkey suplementado con ampicilina. La identificación de las especies se realizó mediante métodos bioquímicos y morfológicos y el perfil de resistencia se determinó mediante la prueba de Kirby-Bauer. La producción de BLEE y carbapenemasa se investigó en todos los aislamientos mediante pruebas fenotípicas. Resultados y discusión: se recuperaron 45 aislamientos de enterobacteriales resistentes a ampicilina (37 Escherichia coli, cuatro Klebsiella pneumoniae y una Klebsiella oxytoca, Citrobacter freundii y Pantoea agglomerans). La mayoría de los aislamientos tenían un perfil de susceptibilidad alto a los (3-lactámicos (14/45, 31,1 %), pero se detectó E. coli con susceptibilidad reducida al imipenem (2/37; 2,7 %). Los aislamientos positivos para BLEE se identificaron principalmente como E. coli (10/45; 22,2 %), pero ningún aislado fue positivo para carbapenemasa. Conclusión: las aguas residuales domésticas son una fuente importante de determinantes de la resistencia a los ß-lactámicos en Brasil.

Detección de Leptospira spp. (Spirochaetales: Leptospiraceae) en muestras ambientales de regiones habitadas por poblaciones vulnerables del norte argentino / Leptospira spp. (Spirochaetales: Leptospiraceae) detection in environmental samples from geographical regions inhabited by vulnerable communities in northern Argentina

Resumen La leptospirosis continúa siendo hoy en día un problema para la salud pública, principalmente en poblaciones de bajos recursos socioeconómicos. En este trabajo se presenta la detección de leptospiras patógenas en muestras ambientales (aguas y barros) provenientes de regiones del norte argentino (provincias de Formosa, Salta, Santiago del Estero, Misiones y Chaco) con variadas características climatológicas habitadas por poblaciones vulnerables. De las 89 muestras analizadas, en el 24,7% fue posible detectar molecularmente la presencia de leptospiras patógenas. La prevalencia por tipo de muestra fue de 27,8% para las aguas y 11,8% para los barros. Todas las localidades muestreadas presentaron al menos una muestra positiva a alguna de las pruebas realizadas, por lo que el presente trabajo refleja la necesidad de profundizar los estudios de la leptospirosis en distintas regiones de la Argentina.

Abstract Leptospirosis remains as a major public health problem nowadays, mainly affecting vulnerable communities with low socioeconomic resources. In this study, the molecular detection of pathogenic leptospires from environmental samples (water and mud) from northern Argentina (Formosa, Salta, Santiago del Estero, Misiones and Chaco provinces) is described. Samples were obtained from regions with varied climatological features, all inhabited by vulnerable communities. From the 89 samples that were analyzed, 24.7% showed molecular evidence of the presence of pathogenic leptospires. Prevalence by sample type was: 27.8% in water samples and 11.8% in mud samples. All the sampled regions showed at least one positive sample. This result highlights the need of further research regarding leptospirosis in different regions of Argentina.

Metabarcoding advances for ecology and biogeography of Neotropical protists: what do we know, where do we go? / Ecologia e biogeografia de protistas Neotropicais usando metabarcoding: O que sabemos? Para onde iremos?

Abstract: The Neotropics is one of the most diverse regions of the globe in terms of plants and animal species. Regarding the microbial world, however, little is known about the diversity and biogeography patterns of microorganisms in the Neotropics. The biogeography of several microbial taxonomic groups is still missing and/or incomplete, such as the protists. Despite the hard taxonomic identification of protists, the advance of molecular techniques (e.g., metabarcoding) have allowed to better explore the distribution of several protistan groups. Our goal here was to summarize the available information of Neotropical protists, focusing on metabarcoding studies, to explore what these data evidence on their ecology and biogeography. For this, we reviewed the findings from all articles that focused on or included the terrestrial protists using a metabarcoding approach and identified the gaps and future perspectives in this research field. We found that Neotropical protistan diversity patterns seem to be, at least in part, congruent with that of macro-organisms and, different than plants and bacteria, just weakly explained by environmental variables. We argue that studies with standardized protocols including different ecoregions are necessary, such as temperate forests, grasslands, and savannas from Southern of South America and Northern Atlantic Forest, to fully characterize the ecology and biogeography on Neotropical protists. Furthermore, dismembering evolutionary lineages and functional guilds of protists are important to better understand the relationship between diversity, dispersal abilities, and functionality of particular taxa of protists in their habitats.

Resumo: A região Neotropical é uma das mais diversas regiões do globo em termos de espécies vegetais e animais. Em relação ao mundo microbiano, entretanto, pouco se sabe sobre a diversidade e os padrões biogeográficos dos microrganismos no Neotrópico. Nesse contexto, a biogeografia de diversos grupos taxonômicos microbianos ainda é escasso e/ou incompleto como os protistas, devido à difícil identificação taxonômica de tais microscópicos organismos. Neste contexto, o avanço dos dados moleculares de amostras ambientais (por exemplo, metabarcoding) permitiu explorar a distribuição de vários grupos de protistas. Nosso objetivo aqui foi resumir as informações disponíveis dos protistas neotropicais, com foco em metabarcoding, para explorar o que esses dados evidenciam sobre sua ecologia e biogeografia. Para isso, revisamos os resultados de todos os artigos que enfocavam ou incluíam os protistas terrestres usando uma abordagem de metabarcoding e identificamos as lacunas e as perspectivas futuras neste campo de pesquisa. Os padrões de diversidade dos protistas Neotropicais parecem ser, pelo menos em parte, congruentes com os de macroorganismos e, diferentes das plantas e bactérias, sendo pouco explicados por variáveis ambientais. Estudos com protocolos padronizados incluindo diferentes Ecorregiões são necessários, como em florestas temperadas, campos nativos e savanas no sul da América do Sul e no norte da Mata Atlântica, para melhor caracterizar a ecologia e biogeografia de protistas Neotropicais. Além disso, é importante diferenciar linhagens evolutivas e guildas funcionais de protistas para entender melhor a relação entre diversidade, capacidade de dispersão e funcionalidade de determinados táxons de protistas em seus habitats.

Phenotypic & genotypic study of antimicrobial profile of bacteria isolates from environmental samples

Background & objectives: The resistance to antibiotics in pathogenic bacteria has increased at an alarming rate in recent years due to the indiscriminate use of antibiotics in healthcare, livestock and aquaculture. In this context, it is necessary to monitor the antibiotic resistance patterns of bacteria isolated from the environmental samples. This study was conducted to determine the phenotypic and genotypic profile of antimicrobial resistance in Gram-negative bacteria isolated from environmental samples. Methods: Two hundred and fifty samples were collected from different sources, viz. fish and fishery products (99), livestock wastes (81) and aquaculture systems (70), in and around Mangaluru, India. Isolation, identification and antimicrobial profiling were carried out as per standard protocols. The isolates were screened for the presence of resistance genes using PCR. Results: A total of 519 Gram-negative bacteria comprising Escherichia coli (116), Salmonella spp. (14), Vibrio spp. (258), Pseudomonas spp. (56), Citrobacter spp. (26) and Proteus spp. (49) were isolated and characterized from 250 samples obtained from different sources. A total of 12 antibiotics were checked for their effectiveness against the isolates. While 31.6 per cent of the isolates were sensitive to all the antibiotics used, 68.4 per cent of the isolates showed resistance to at least one of the antibiotics used. One-third of the isolates showed multidrug resistance. Maximum resistance was observed for ampicillin (43.4%), followed by nitrofurantoin (20.8%). Least resistance was seen for carbapenems and chloramphenicol. PCR profiling of the resistant isolates confirmed the presence of resistance genes corresponding to their antibiotic profile. Interpretation & conclusions: This study results showed high rate of occurrence of antimicrobial resistance and their determinants in Gram-negative bacteria isolated from different environmental sources.

Comparative analysis of current diagnostic PCR assays in detecting pathogenic Leptospira isolates from environmental samples

Objective: To compare the efficiency of routine diagnostic PCR assays in detecting pathogenic Leptospira isolated from water and soils. Methods: Seven routine assays targeting six genes (lipL32, flaB, gyrB, lfb1, secY and ligB) were evaluated and compared on the cultures of two groups of pathogenic Leptospira from different sources. One group included 19 described reference strains recovered from infected human or animals, and another group included 22 environmental isolates from recreational and residential sites in Malaysia. The latter have been confirmed for presence of pathogenic Leptospira DNA. PCR positivity or detection sensitivity of each assay was determined and compared between the two groups. Results: Validation on reference strains showed 100.0% PCR sensitivity for all assays except ligB-PCR (95.0%) that failed to amplify Leptospira interrogans serovar Pomona. In marked contrast, there was a notable decline in sensitivity in the environmental isolates (lipL32-PCR, 95.5%;flaB-PCR, 90.9%; gyrB-PCR, 77.3%; lfb1-PCR, 59.1%; secY-PCRs, 40.9% G1/G2-PCR, 36.4%; ligB-PCR, 13.6%), implying a large genetic distance between the two groups, as well as nucleotide polymorphism among environmental isolates. Conclusions: High proportion of false-negative PCR results suggests a need of prudent selection of primers in detecting environmental pathogenic Leptospira. These findings offer valuable insights on the extensive biodiversity of genus Leptospira and its impact on the efficacy and development of molecular detection tool.

Comparative analysis of current diagnostic PCR assays in detecting pathogenic Leptospira isolates from environmental samples

Objective: To compare the efficiency of routine diagnostic PCR assays in detecting pathogenic Leptospira isolated from water and soils. Methods: Seven routine assays targeting six genes (lipL32, flaB, gyrB, lfb1, secY and ligB) were evaluated and compared on the cultures of two groups of pathogenic Leptospira from different sources. One group included 19 described reference strains recovered from infected human or animals, and another group included 22 environmental isolates from recreational and residential sites in Malaysia. The latter have been confirmed for presence of pathogenic Leptospira DNA. PCR positivity or detection sensitivity of each assay was determined and compared between the two groups. Results: Validation on reference strains showed 100.0% PCR sensitivity for all assays except ligB-PCR (95.0%) that failed to amplify Leptospira interrogans serovar Pomona. In marked contrast, there was a notable decline in sensitivity in the environmental isolates (lipL32-PCR, 95.5%;flaB-PCR, 90.9%; gyrB-PCR, 77.3%; lfb1-PCR, 59.1%; secY-PCRs, 40.9% G1/G2-PCR, 36.4%; ligB-PCR, 13.6%), implying a large genetic distance between the two groups, as well as nucleotide polymorphism among environmental isolates. Conclusions: High proportion of false-negative PCR results suggests a need of prudent selection of primers in detecting environmental pathogenic Leptospira. These findings offer valuable insights on the extensive biodiversity of genus Leptospira and its impact on the efficacy and development of molecular detection tool.

Determination of α-radionuclides in environmental samples by large area grid ionization chamber / 中华放射医学与防护杂志

Objective To develop the method of analyzing α-radionuclides using large area grid ionization chamber.Methods Ultrasonic dispersion and vacuum drying system was used to prepare sample source,large standard thin source and plutonium plane source were used to optimize the working condition of spectrometer,and calibrate the instrument for analyzing α emitters.The certified reference materials (GBW04127) were used to verify the accuracy of the method.Results The non-linearity of calibration curve for standard thin sources of neptunium,plutonium and americium was less than 0.2％,and the resolution were 112,84 and 106 keV,respectively.The counting efficiency was 31.2％ for the large standard thin source.The values of specific activity measured in this way were in good agreement with those of the certified reference materials.232Th,238U,230Th,234U/226Ra,210Po,222Rn and 218Po were analyzed in a uranium mineral sample,and their specific radioactivity values were 5.3,3.8,35.6,21.4,27.0,19.6 and 11.1 Bq/g,respectively.Conclusions The method can be used to analyze α spectrum quickly in low-level radioactive environmental samples.

Biotechnology of polyketides: new breath of life for the novel antibiotic genetic pathways discovery through metagenomics

The discovery of secondary metabolites produced by microorganisms (e.g., penicillin in 1928) and the beginning of their industrial application (1940) opened new doors to what has been the main medication source for the treatment of infectious diseases and tumors. In fact, approximately 80 years after the discovery of the first antibiotic compound, and despite all of the warnings about the failure of the "goose that laid the golden egg," the potential of this wealth is still inexorable: simply adjust the focus from "micro" to "nano", that means changing the look from microorganisms to nanograms of DNA. Then, the search for new drugs, driven by genetic engineering combined with metagenomic strategies, shows us a way to bypass the barriers imposed by methodologies limited to isolation and culturing. However, we are far from solving the problem of supplying new molecules that are effective against the plasticity of multi- or pan-drug-resistant pathogens. Although the first advances in genetic engineering date back to 1990, there is still a lack of high-throughput methods to speed up the screening of new genes and design new molecules by recombination of pathways. In addition, it is necessary an increase in the variety of heterologous hosts and improvements throughout the full drug discovery pipeline. Among numerous studies focused on this subject, those on polyketide antibiotics stand out for the large technical-scientific efforts that established novel solutions for the transfer/engineering of major metabolic pathways using transposons and other episomes, overcoming one of the main methodological constraints for the heterologous expression of major pathways. In silico prediction analysis of three-dimensional enzymatic structures and advances in sequencing technologies have expanded access to the metabolic potential of microorganisms.

Voltammetric reduction behaviour and analysis of dichlone.

The voltammetric reduction behaviour of Dichlone has been carried out by d.c.polarography, cyclic voltammetry (CV), a.c.polarography and differential pulse polarography (DPP) in methanolic Britton-Robinson buffer of pH ranging 2.0-12.0. The nature of electrode process was studied, the number of electrons was evaluated and the reduction mechanism was proposed. Quantitive determination was carried out in the concentration range 1.0×10-5 M to 2.5×10-8 M using a DPP method with a lower detection limit of 2.0×10-8 M. The proposed method was successfully applied in the determination of Dichlone in grains, soils and water samples.

Microarray Application in Environmental Microbial Community Research / 微生物学通报

Microarray technology, used in microorganisms detection with its advantages of rapid detection, high sensitivity, high-throughput and low cost, has been applied in environmental microbial community research widely in past few years. It focuses on investigation of structure, diversity, function, dynamics of microbial populations within complex environmental samples. Furthermore, it also reveals their responses and adaptation to environmental perturbations such as climate change, toxic contaminants. According probe design patterns, several types of microarrays, such as phylogenetic oligonucleotide arrays (POAs), functional gene arrays (FGAs), metagenomic array(MGA) and community genome arrays (CGAs) have been constructed for environmental studies. This review discusses applications of microarrays to environmental microbial populations research along with its potential for screening of specific microorganisms, gene or expression functional gene representing different environmental microbial populations.