Project description:The increased urban pressures are often associated with specialization of microbial communities. Microbial communities being a critical player in the geochemical processes, makes it important to identify key environmental parameters that influence the community structure and its function.In this proect we study the influence of land use type and environmental parameters on the structure and function of microbial communities. The present study was conducted in an urban catchment, where the metal and pollutants levels are under allowable limits. The overall goal of this study is to understand the role of engineered physicochemical environment on the structure and function of microbial communities in urban storm-water canals. Microbial community structure was determined using PhyoChio (G3)
Project description:The increased urban pressures are often associated with specialization of microbial communities. Microbial communities being a critical player in the geochemical processes, makes it important to identify key environmental parameters that influence the community structure and its function.In this proect we study the influence of land use type and environmental parameters on the structure and function of microbial communities. The present study was conducted in an urban catchment, where the metal and pollutants levels are under allowable limits. The overall goal of this study is to understand the role of engineered physicochemical environment on the structure and function of microbial communities in urban storm-water canals. Microbial community structure was determined using PhyoChio (G3) Water and sediment samples were collected after a rain event from Sungei Ulu Pandan watershed of >25km2, which has two major land use types: Residential and industrial. Samples were analyzed for physicochemical variables and microbial community structure and composition. Microbial community structure was determined using PhyoChio (G3)
Project description:The increased urban pressures are often associated with specialization of microbial communities. Microbial communities being a critical player in the geochemical processes, makes it important to identify key environmental parameters that influence the community structure and its function.In this proect we study the influence of land use type and environmental parameters on the structure and function of microbial communities. The present study was conducted in an urban catchment, where the metal and pollutants levels are under allowable limits. The overall goal of this study is to understand the role of engineered physicochemical environment on the structure and function of microbial communities in urban storm-water canals.
Project description:The increasing rate of antibiotic-resistant bacteria has become a serious health threat. Thus, it is important to discover, characterize, and optimize new molecules to overcome infections caused by these bacteria. It is known that Acinetobacter baumannii has a high capacity to avoid antibacterial drugs. Consequently, these bacteria have emerged as one of responsible for hospital and community-acquired infections. However, how this pathogen infects and survives inside the host cell is unknown. Here we analyze the time-resolved transcriptional profile changes on human epithelial HeLa cells after A. baumannii. Our results show how A.baumannii can survive in host cells and starts replication at 4 hours post infection. We sequenced RNA to obtain a set of differentially expressed gen (DEGs) used for a Gene Ontology (GO) and KEGG pathway analysis. The results show us how host bacteria is altering the host cells environment for their own benefit. We also determine chromosomal regions affected by our set of genes. Furthermore, we obtain protein-protein networks that reveal highly interacted proteins. The combination of these results will pave the way to discover new antimicrobial candidates for multidrug-resistant bacteria.
Project description:The increased urban pressures are often associated with specialization of microbial communities. Microbial communities being a critical player in the geochemical processes, makes it important to identify key environmental parameters that influence the community structure and its function.In this proect we study the influence of land use type and environmental parameters on the structure and function of microbial communities. The present study was conducted in an urban catchment, where the metal and pollutants levels are under allowable limits. The overall goal of this study is to understand the role of engineered physicochemical environment on the structure and function of microbial communities in urban storm-water canals. Water and sediment samples were collected after a rain event from Sungei Ulu Pandan watershed of >25km2, which has two major land use types: Residential and industrial. Samples were analyzed for physicochemical variables and microbial community structure and composition. Functional gene abundance was determined using GeoChip.
Project description:Incomplete antibiotic removal in pharmaceutical wastewater treatment plants (PWWTPs) could lead to the development and spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria (ARBs) and genes (ARGs) in the environment, posing a growing public health threat. In this study, two multiantibiotic-resistant bacteria, Ochrobactrum intermedium (N1) and Stenotrophomonas acidaminiphila (N2), were isolated from the sludge of a PWWTP in Guangzhou, China. The N1 strain was highly resistant to ampicillin, cefazolin, chloramphenicol, tetracycline, and norfloxacin, while the N2 strain exhibited high resistance to ampicillin, chloramphenicol, and cefazolin. Whole-genome sequencing revealed that N1 and N2 had genome sizes of 0.52 Mb and 0.37 Mb, respectively, and harbored 33 and 24 ARGs, respectively. The main resistance mechanism in the identified ARGs included efflux pumps, enzymatic degradation, and target bypass, with the N1 strain possessing more multidrug-resistant efflux pumps than the N2 strain (22 vs 12). This also accounts for the broader resistance spectrum of N1 than of N2 in antimicrobial susceptibility tests. Additionally, both genomes contain numerous mobile genetic elements (89 and 21 genes, respectively) and virulence factors (276 and 250 factors, respectively), suggesting their potential for horizontal transfer and pathogenicity. Overall, this research provides insights into the potential risks posed by ARBs in pharmaceutical wastewater and emphasizes the need for further studies on their impact and mitigation strategies.
Project description:The skin is the human body’s largest organ and is in contact with a diverse community of microorganisms that includes both resident and pathogenic bacteria. Skin immune defenses include the production of antimicrobial proteins that kill bacteria directly. However, we still have an incomplete understanding of how skin antimicrobial proteins promote homeostasis with resident bacterial communities and limit infection. Here, we show that resistin-like molecule α (RELMα) is an antibacterial protein that is produced by keratinocytes and sebocytes in the mouse skin. RELMα expression was induced in mouse skin by resident and pathogenic skin bacteria and was bactericidal for several bacterial species found on the skin, including Streptococcus pyogenes. Mice lacking RELMα had altered resident skin bacterial communities and were more susceptible to bacterial infection, indicating that RELMα controls bacterial colonization of the skin. RELMα expression required dietary vitamin A and could be induced by therapeutic retinoids that protected against bacterial infection in a RELMα-dependent manner. Resistin, another member of the RELM family, was expressed in human skin, required retinoids for expression, and killed skin bacteria, indicating a conserved function for RELM proteins in skin innate immunity. Our findings thus identify members of the RELM family as antibacterial proteins that provide vitamin A-dependent antimicrobial protection of the skin, and provide insight into why skin immunity requires adequate dietary vitamin A.