Fine focus Pub Date : 2024-05-13 DOI: 10.33043/ff.10.1.74-89

William Little, Andrea Lopez, Eleanna Carris, Allie Smith

{"title":"Polymicrobial Conditions Aﬀect Antibiotic Susceptibility in Clinically Relevant Bacterial Species","authors":"William Little, Andrea Lopez, Eleanna Carris, Allie Smith","doi":"10.33043/ff.10.1.74-89","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.33043/ff.10.1.74-89","url":null,"abstract":"Chronic wounds, deﬁned as those which remain open and inﬂamed for greater than six weeks, are a major area of clinical concern. Resulting in thousands of amputations per year and billions of dollars spent globally in treatment, chronic wounds are notoriously diﬃcult to successfully treat. Two hallmarks of chronic wounds are that they are thought to harbor bioﬁlm-associated bacteria and tend to be polymicrobial. While the research literature has repeatedly demonstrated the eﬀects of bioﬁlms on wound persistence and the changes to the eﬃcacy of antibiotics, few studies have demonstrated what eﬀect the polymicrobial condition has on the antibiotic tolerance of bacteria. To further explore this, four species of clinically relevant wound pathogens (Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Acinetobacter baumanii, Staphylococcus aureus, and Enterococcus faecalis) were tested in mono- and polymicrobial conditions using the current gold-standard clinical methods for determining antibiotic susceptibility. Noticeable diﬀerences in antibiotic tolerance were observed in the polymicrobial condition, including both increased and decreased susceptibility, depending on the antibiotic used. Our data demonstrate that the current clinical methods used for testing antibiotic susceptibility can generate results that are not representative of the infection environment, which may contribute to treatment failure and persistence of polymicrobial infections.","PeriodicalId":87255,"journal":{"name":"Fine focus","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-05-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140983776","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Investigation of the Effects of Mutating Iron-Coordinating Residues in Rieske Dioxygenases 研究雷斯克二氧化酶中铁配位位点突变的影响

Fine focus Pub Date : 2024-05-13 DOI: 10.33043/ff.10.1.90-108

Jordan Froese, Phillip Betts

{"title":"Investigation of the Effects of Mutating Iron-Coordinating Residues in Rieske Dioxygenases","authors":"Jordan Froese, Phillip Betts","doi":"10.33043/ff.10.1.90-108","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.33043/ff.10.1.90-108","url":null,"abstract":"Rieske dioxygenases are multi-component enzyme systems, naturally found in many soil bacteria, that have been widely applied in the production of fine chemicals, owing to the unique and valuable oxidative dearomatization reactions they catalyze. The range of practical applications for these enzymes in this context has historically been limited, however, due to their limited substrate scope and strict selectivity. In an attempt to overcome these limitations, our research group has employed the tools of enzyme engineering to expand the substrate scope or improve the reactivity of these enzyme systems in specific contexts. Traditionally, enzyme engineering campaigns targeting metalloenzymes have avoided mutations to metal-coordinating residues, based on the assumption that these residues are essential for enzyme activity. Inspired by the success of other recent enzyme engineering reports, our research group investigated the potential to alter or improve the reactivity of Rieske dioxygenases by altering or eliminating iron coordination in the active site of these enzymes. Herein, we report the modification of all three iron-coordinating residues in the active site of toluene dioxygenase both to alternate residues capable of coordinating iron, and to a residue that would eliminate iron coordination. The enzyme variants produced in this way were tested for their activity in the cis-dihydroxylation of a small library of potential aromatic substrates. The results of these studies demonstrated that all three iron-coordinating residues, in their natural state, are essential for enzyme activity in toluene dioxygenase, as the introduction of any mutations at these sites resulted in a complete loss of cis-dihydroxylation activity.","PeriodicalId":87255,"journal":{"name":"Fine focus","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-05-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140986149","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Daily Case Trends of COVID-19 COVID-19 的每日病例趋势

Fine focus Pub Date : 2024-05-13 DOI: 10.33043/ff.10.1.38-57

Lillia Marble, John McKillip

{"title":"Daily Case Trends of COVID-19","authors":"Lillia Marble, John McKillip","doi":"10.33043/ff.10.1.38-57","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.33043/ff.10.1.38-57","url":null,"abstract":"The COVID-19 pandemic has caused immense and immeasurable disruption to billions of lives worldwide, and the strain on healthcare workers and facilities will undoubtedly be seen for years to come. Many factors impact the incidence and prevalence of COVID-19 in states, such as policies and legislation, funding, partisanship of the statehouse, vaccination rates, and rurality. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the differences in the daily positive cases between Indiana and Washington State and examine the respective ways each state tried to mitigate the morbidity and mortality of the virus. Indiana and Washington State were chosen as the states have similar populations in different geographical locations in the country and varying responses to the pandemic. Data was obtained from the respective state health departments over a period of two and a half years from March 2020 to December 2022. Independent t-tests were used for the analysis of the data between Indiana and Washington. Overall, Indiana had a higher daily positive case rate when compared to Washington. Indiana had a lower vaccination rate and had more hospitalizations and deaths compared to Washington and the US population as a whole. The difference in the findings of each state could be attributed to the partisanship of the state and the ways in which partisanship influences the enacting of legislation and policies intended to mitigate disease, as well as public health funding allocated by the state.","PeriodicalId":87255,"journal":{"name":"Fine focus","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-05-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140981947","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Borrelia burgdorferi Borrelia burgdorferi

Fine focus Pub Date : 2024-05-13 DOI: 10.33043/ff.10.1.9-37

Andrew Gaetano, Elizabeth Danka

引用次数: 0

Positive effects of Moringa oleifera and Moringa stenopetala seed and leaf extracts against selected bacteria 辣木籽和叶提取物对某些细菌的积极作用

Fine focus Pub Date : 2024-05-13 DOI: 10.33043/ff.10.1.58-73

Grace J. Miller, Kaley Necessary, Robert Burchell, Yui Iwase, N. Lautensack, Blake Russell, Erik Holder, Emma Knee, Matthew Sattley

{"title":"Positive effects of Moringa oleifera and Moringa stenopetala seed and leaf extracts against selected bacteria","authors":"Grace J. Miller, Kaley Necessary, Robert Burchell, Yui Iwase, N. Lautensack, Blake Russell, Erik Holder, Emma Knee, Matthew Sattley","doi":"10.33043/ff.10.1.58-73","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.33043/ff.10.1.58-73","url":null,"abstract":"Moringa oleifera is hailed as the “miracle tree” for its impressive catalog of nutritional, medicinal, and water purification benefits. A (sub)tropical plant with a rapid growth rate (3–5 m in a single season), Moringa has proven beneficial in multiple ways in developing regions around the world. In addition to its high nutrient content and water clarifying properties, Moringa seed and leaf extracts have shown potential as natural antibacterial agents. Based on this, we anticipated that extracts from multiple species of Moringa would exhibit potentially useful antibacterial properties against a range of bacterial species. To explore this, both disk diffusion and minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) culture techniques were employed to assess the inhibitory effects of seed and leaf extracts from M. oleifera and M. stenopetala against species of bacteria commonly used in research and teaching laboratories. Aqueous seed extracts from both Moringa species showed broad-spectrum activity but were especially effective at inhibiting the growth of Gram-positive bacteria, including species of Staphylococcus, Streptococcus, and Bacillus. Moringa leaf extracts also exhibited antibacterial activity, with ethanolic leaf extracts showing greater efficacy than aqueous leaf extracts in disk-diffusion assays. Temporary acidification (1 h at pH 2) of Moringa seed and leaf extracts had a detrimental effect on their antibacterial activity. MIC assays using Moringa leaf extracts also showed more pronounced inhibition of Gram-positive bacteria (MIC = 12.5% v/v) versus Gram-negative species (MIC = 25% v/v). These results are of particular relevance in tropical areas where pharmaceutical drugs are scarce but Moringa is widely available and often used as a nutritional supplement. Moreover, the rising threat of multi-drug resistant pathogens lends greater importance to the study of antibacterial plant products that ultimately may find application in the clinical setting.","PeriodicalId":87255,"journal":{"name":"Fine focus","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-05-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140983275","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Parisa Ebrahimbabaie’s Academic Sojourn at Bethune-Cookman University 帕里萨-易卜拉欣巴比在白求恩-库克曼大学的学术生涯

Fine focus Pub Date : 2024-05-13 DOI: 10.33043/ff.10.1.6-8

Parisa Ebrahimbabie

引用次数: 0

Elevational Gradient Effects on Microbial Distribution in Crude Oil Polluted Sites 海拔梯度对原油污染场地微生物分布的影响

Fine focus Pub Date : 2023-05-08 DOI: 10.33043/ff.9.1.26-45

Israel Edamkue, C. Chikere, Chidinma Okafo

{"title":"Elevational Gradient Effects on Microbial Distribution in Crude Oil Polluted Sites","authors":"Israel Edamkue, C. Chikere, Chidinma Okafo","doi":"10.33043/ff.9.1.26-45","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.33043/ff.9.1.26-45","url":null,"abstract":"Crude oil is a major environmental pollutant in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria due to heightened operations of the petroleum industry in this location. This comparative study of two different petroleum hydrocarbon-polluted soils from the Bodo and Tombia communities in Rivers State was carried out to determine microbial abundance (distribution) in relation to the depth and soil texture of the polluted sites. Soil samples were collected at 15 cm and 30 cm from each site. Baseline physicochemical parameters and microbial counts were determined using standard methods. Hydrocarbon utilizing bacteria were screened with 2,6-dichlorophenol indophenol (DCPIP) for crude oil degradation efficiency. The average total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH) collected from the areas values are higher than the intervention value of 5000 mg/kg as stipulated by the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) in the Environmental Guidelines and Standards for the Petroleum Industry in Nigeria (EGASPIN). Microbial distribution patterns were not significantly different (p=0.08) between the topsoil and subsoil in the sites investigated. There was no significant variance in the relationship between soil texture and microorganism distribution (p=0.998). An interaction of the effects between the two independent variables produced an insignificant variance (p=0.411). Average viable culturable heterotrophic and hydrocarbon utilizing microbial counts for the sites varied considerably between 105 and 106 colony forming units per gram of soil (cfu/g) at both depths. A consortium of Pseudomonas spp., Proteus spp., Sphingobacterium spp., and Bacillus spp. isolated from the sites efficiently degraded crude oil, showing a 100% decolourization of DCPIP in Bushnell-Haas-crude oil broth. This study demonstrated that soil texture and depth affect microbial diversity and their function in crude oil contaminated sites.","PeriodicalId":87255,"journal":{"name":"Fine focus","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-05-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85193149","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Genomic Evolution in Pseudomonas fluorescens as a Result of Gradual Temperature Changes 温度逐渐变化对荧光假单胞菌基因组进化的影响

Fine focus Pub Date : 2023-05-08 DOI: 10.33043/ff.9.1.84-96

Spencer Lee, R. Jonas

引用次数: 0

Embracing Ignorance and Failure Promotes Research Excellence 拥抱无知和失败促进卓越研究

Fine focus Pub Date : 2023-05-08 DOI: 10.33043/ff.9.1.18-24

Hanna Dery, Chase Holland, J. Baker

引用次数: 0

Effects of Vermicompost and Beneficial Microbes on Biomass and Nutrient Density in Purple Lady Bok Choy (Brassica rapa var. chinensis) in A Vertical Hydroponic Grow Tower System 蚯蚓堆肥和有益微生物对垂直水培塔式紫菜生物量和养分密度的影响

Fine focus Pub Date : 2023-05-08 DOI: 10.33043/ff.9.1.46-64

Chelsea Pearson, Rochelle Gawel, Donna Maki

{"title":"Effects of Vermicompost and Beneficial Microbes on Biomass and Nutrient Density in Purple Lady Bok Choy (Brassica rapa var. chinensis) in A Vertical Hydroponic Grow Tower System","authors":"Chelsea Pearson, Rochelle Gawel, Donna Maki","doi":"10.33043/ff.9.1.46-64","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.33043/ff.9.1.46-64","url":null,"abstract":"Indoor food production in vertical hydroponic systems can be done year-round in any climate, has less negative environmental impacts compared to industrial agriculture and is a way of increasing the nutritional value of crops. Indoor hydroponic systems make it easy to control the precision of additives and amendments, such as fertilizers and vermicompost tea, to nutrient solution reservoirs. Vermicompost tea is known to contain beneficial microorganisms and can help increase the biomass, nutrient density, and overall health of the plants. Microorganisms and plants have co-evolved and is an essential relationship that deserves recognition and further research. The goal of the research presented in this paper was to better understand if vermicompost tea and its associated microorganisms, such as bacteria, fungi, nematodes, and protozoa, would increase biomass and nutrient density of Purple Lady Bok Choy (Brassica rapa var. chinensis) in vertical hydroponic systems. Statistical analyses were performed to compare the biomass and macro- and micronutrients of three different treatments to one another and a control. There was a significant difference between the mean leaf and root biomass among varying concentrations of vermicompost tea solutions and added inorganic hydroponic fertilizer. The nutrient density for both macro- and micronutrients also differed significantly due to different concentrations of vermicompost tea, suggesting that beneficial microbes may help plants uptake and absorb nutrients in a more efficient manner depending on the concentration of vermicompost tea and hydroponic fertilizer.","PeriodicalId":87255,"journal":{"name":"Fine focus","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-05-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"81561942","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 1

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