Mycobacterium avium subsp. hominissuis is an opportunistic human pathogen that has been shown to form biofilm in vitro and
in vivo. Biofilm formation in vivo appears to be associated with infections in the respiratory tract of the host. The reasoning behind
how M. avium subsp. hominissuis biofilm is allowed to...
Nitrogen is one of the major nutrients limiting microbial productivity in the ocean, and as a result, most marine microorganisms
have evolved systems for responding to nitrogen stress. The highly abundant alphaproteobacterium “Candidatus
Pelagibacter ubique,” a cultured member of the order Pelagibacterales (SAR11), lacks the canonical GlnB, GlnD, GlnK, and...
CodY is known to regulate various virulence properties in several Gram-positive bacteria but has not yet been studied in the important histotoxic and intestinal pathogen Clostridium perfringens. The present study prepared an isogenic codY-null mutant in C. perfringens type D strain CN3718 by insertional mutagenesis using the Targetron system. Western...
Ammonia (NH₃)-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) and thaumarchaea (AOA) co-occupy most soils, yet no short-term growth-independent method exists to determine their relative contributions to nitrification in situ. Microbial monooxygenases differ in their vulnerability to inactivation by aliphatic n-alkynes, and we found that NH₃ oxidation by the marine thaumarchaeon Nitrosopumilus maritimus was unaffected...
Microbial adaptation to environmental conditions is a complex process, including acquisition of positive traits through horizontal gene transfer or the modification of existing genes through duplication and/or mutation. In this study, we examined the adaptation of a Pseudomonas fluorescens isolate (R124) from the nutrient-limited mineral environment of a silica cave...
The infection biology of Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis has recently crystallized, with added details surrounding intestinal invasion. The involvement of pathogen-derived effector proteins such as the major membrane protein, oxidoreductase, and fibronectin attachment proteins have been uncovered. Mutations constructed in this pathogen have also shed light on genes needed for...
Enterococci are among the leading pathogens isolated in hospital-acquired infections. Current antimicrobial options for vancomycin-
resistant enterococci (VRE) are limited. Prior data suggest that daptomycin at>6 mg/kg of body weight/day may be used
to treat enterococcal infections. We retrospectively evaluated the effectiveness and safety of high-dose daptomycin (HD-daptomycin)
therapy (>6...
Clostridium difficile is an important nosocomial pathogen that has become a major cause of antibiotic-associated diarrhea.
There is a general consensus that C. difficile spores play an important role in C. difficile pathogenesis, contributing to infection,
persistence, and transmission. Evidence has demonstrated that C. difficile spores have an outermost layer,...
Conjugative plasmids are known to facilitate the acquisition and dispersal of genes contributing to the fitness of Pseudomonas spp. Here, we report the characterization of pA506, the 57-kb conjugative plasmid of Pseudomonas fluorescens A506, a plant epiphyte used in the United States for the biological control of fire blight disease...
Na⁺/H⁺ antiporters are ubiquitous membrane proteins that play a central role in the ion homeostasis of cells. In this study, we examined the possible role of Na⁺/H⁺ antiport in Yersinia pestis virulence and found that Y. pestis strains lacking the major Na⁺/H⁺ antiporters, NhaA and NhaB, are completely attenuated in...