Screening of biofouling activity in marine bacterial isolate from ship hull

Biofouling is the undesirable accumulation of microorganisms, plants, algae and animals on submerged structures especially ship hulls. Biofouling also occurs on the surface of living marine organisms. It is also found on membrane systems such as membrane bioreactors and reverse osmosis spiral wound membranes. In the same manner, it is found in cooling water cycles of large industrial equipments and power stations. In the present study, totally 11 isolates were obtained from three ships from Royapuram harbour, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. Among the 11 isolates only DR4 showed maximum biofouling activity in the microtiter plate assay with a significant OD of 0.596. Also an attempt was made to characterize the different biofouling bacterial isolates analyzing their morphological, biochemical and molecular characteristics. The results of the present study based on the above characteristics revealed that the isolate DR4 was similar to Bacillus sp. This study also highlights the need for a safe and natural antifouling agent to control the biofouling bacteria in the marine environment

Bacteriological studies on pathogenic microorganisms of blood, sputum, wound, and corneal samples from Indian patients

The present work aim to study the various pathogenic microorganisms from blood, wound, corneal and sputum samples from patients hosted in Tiruchirappalli area, Tamilnadu, India, during the month of February 2007 to June 2007. A total of 1031 samples were collected from patients. They include 195 blood samples, 310 sputum samples, 414 pus samples from wounds and 112 corneal swabs. The samples were inoculated into different culture media. Various bacterial and fungal colonies were isolated and identified by relevant staining methods and various biochemical utilization tests and also their antibiotics sensitivity were analyzed. Based on their antibiotic sensitivity pattern, bacterial and fungal pathogens were identified as sensitive and resistant strains. Mostly single pathogen was isolated from all the samples. Gram positive bacteria were found as common causative agent than gram negative bacteria. S. aureus and Klebsiella spp., were frequently isolated from all the samples. In blood samples, Klebsiella spp., E. coli, and Salmonella species were predominantly isolated, p-haemolytic Streptococci and S. aureus were predominantly isolated from sputum samples and Mycobacterium tuberculosis was isolated only in few samples. In wound samples S. aureus, Proteus mirabilis and P. vulgaris were predominantly isolated than E. coli, Enterobacter spp., P. aeruginosa, Serratia marcescens and Citrobacter divergens. Pseudomonas spp., Fusarium spp., Aspergillus Niger and A.flavus isolated from the corneal swabs. Antibiotic sensitivity tests were analyzed in those bacteria and fungal strains. The bacterial strains particularly S. aureus and Klebsiella spp., were highly resistant to 9 antibiotics where as E. coli, Enterobacter spp., and Streptococcus spp., were highly resistant to 10 antibiotics. The widespread uses of antibiotics are strongly associated with the development of bacterial drug resistance and also emerging of multidrug resistant strains