ABSTRACT
A new collagenase producing a strain of Bacillus cereus, isolated from the pollen of a bee of Amazon Region (Brazil), had its enzyme characterized and the production medium composition and culture conditions enhanced. A two-level design on three factors, namely initial medium pH, the substrate (gelatin) concentration and agitation intensity, allowed identifying the first two variables as the most significant ones, while a central composite design (CCD) was subsequently used to identify their optimal levels. Statistics highlighted maximized collagenolytic activity when substrate concentration and initial medium pH were selected at their highest levels (positive effects), whereas agitation intensity at the lowest (negative effect). Triplicate runs performed under predicted optimal conditions (pH 7.8 and 1.7% gelatin concentration) yielded a collagenolytic activity (305.39 ± 5.15 U) 4.6- to 15-fold those obtained with the preliminary design. The enzyme displayed optimum activity at 45 °C and pH 7.2, was stable over wide ranges of pH values and temperatures (7.2-11.0 and 25-50 °C, respectively) and was strongly inhibited by 10 mM phenylmethylsulphonyl fluoride. The zymogram showed two prominent bands at 50 and 76 kDa. These results are a first attempt to elucidate the features of this new collagenase, its production conditions, and possible scale-up.
Subject(s)
Bacillus cereus/enzymology , Collagenases/chemistry , Animals , Bacillus cereus/genetics , Bacterial Typing Techniques , Bees , Brazil , Collagenases/isolation & purification , Culture Media , Enzyme Precursors/chemistry , Enzyme Precursors/isolation & purification , Gelatin/metabolism , Hydrogen-Ion Concentration , Matrix Metalloproteinase Inhibitors/chemistry , Pollen/microbiology , RNA, Ribosomal, 16S/genetics , TemperatureABSTRACT
The potential use of CRISPR loci genotyping to elucidate population dynamics and microevolution of 146 Yersinia pestis strains from different biovars and locations was investigated in this work. The majority of strains from the Orientalis biovar presented specific spacer arrays, allowing for the establishment of a CRISPR signature for their respective isolates. Twenty-one new spacers were found in the Y. pestis strains from plague foci in Brazil. Ninety-three (64%) strains were grouped in the G1 genotype, whereas the others were distributed in 35 genotypes. This study allowed observing a microevolutionary process in a group of Y. pestis isolated from Brazil. We also identified specific genotypes of Y. pestis that were important for the establishment of the bacteria in plague foci in Brazil. The data have provided supporting evidence for the diversity and dynamics of CRISPR loci present in the genome of Y. pestis strains from plague foci in Brazil.
Subject(s)
Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats/genetics , DNA, Bacterial/genetics , DNA, Intergenic/genetics , Yersinia pestis/genetics , 5' Untranslated Regions/genetics , Base Sequence , Brazil , DNA, Bacterial/analysis , Evolution, Molecular , Genes, Bacterial , Genetic Variation , Genome, Bacterial , Genotype , Molecular Sequence Data , Phylogeny , Plague/microbiology , Sequence Analysis, DNA , Yersinia pestis/classification , Yersinia pseudotuberculosis/geneticsABSTRACT
This work aimed to assess the clonal distribution among 94 strains of Staphylococcus aureus isolated from cow's milk, raw cheese, and a milking machine in 12 dairy farms in northeast Brazil, by analyzing different typing methods and detecting resistance and toxigenic profiles. For the first time, isolates of this region were assessed simultaneously by the polymorphism of the 3'-end coa gene and 16S-23S rDNA, pulsed-field gel electrophoresis, antibiotic resistance phenotyping, and toxigenic arsenal. Although pulsed-field gel electrophoresis patterns showed a wider variation (discriminatory index 0.83) than the PCR-based methods, the internal transcribed spacer-PCR proved to be a useful and inexpensive procedure for conducting epidemiological surveys of S. aureus on a regional scale. Each dairy farm had its own resistance profile, and in two herds, 63% of the strains were multiresistant, probably due to the indiscriminate use of antibiotics in bovine mastitis treatment. No methicillin-resistant S. aureus strains were detected in this study; however, 93.6% of S. aureus strains harbored variable profiles of staphylococcal enterotoxin genes seg, seh, sei, and sej. Transcriptional analysis revealed that 53.3% of staphylococcal enterotoxin genes actually transcribed, pointing out the food poisoning risk of these dairy products to consumers in the region. Based on the detection of the most prevalent clones in a herd or region, appropriate antibiotic therapy and specific immunization can be used for the treatment and control of staphylococcal mastitis.
