Research Publications (Food Safety)

Our research results have revealed the molecular mechanisms and processes of how the dominant bacterial community in paddy soils, represented by Sphingomonas sp. strain PAH02, responds to the co‐pollution of heavy metals and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons through self‐adaptive cell surface hydrophobicity. We identified key responsive genes and proteins and emphasized that strain PAH02 is a shared core of the microbial community and participates in biogeochemical cycles in paddy soils.

Abstract Phages depend on their bacterial hosts to replicate. The habitat, density and genetic diversity of host populations are therefore key factors in phage ecology, but our ability to explore their biology depends on the isolation of a diverse and representative collection of phages from different sources. Here, we compared two populations of marine bacterial hosts and their phages collected during a time series sampling program in an oyster farm.

Environmental Microbiology, Accepted Article. The comprehension of microbial interactions is one of the key challenges in marine microbial ecology. This study focused on exploring chemical interactions between the toxic dinoflagellate Prorocentrum lima and a filamentous fungal species, Aspergillus pseudoglaucus, which has been isolated from the microalgal culture. Such interspecies interactions are expected to occur even though they were rarely studied.

Environmental Microbiology, Accepted Article. Tuber borchii is an European edible truffle which forms ectomycorrhizas with several soft- and hardwood plants. In this paper the effects of high level of Pb on the in vitro growth of five T. borchii strains and the molecular mechanisms involved in Pb tolerance were studied. Moreover, the effects of the Pb treatment on T.

Environmental Microbiology, Accepted Article. The spatial organization of biofilm bacterial communities can be influenced by several factors, including growth conditions and challenge with antimicrobials. Differential survival of clusters of cells within biofilms has been observed.

Environmental Microbiology, Accepted Article. Despite theoretical expectations, marine microeukaryote population are often highly structured and the mechanisms behind such patterns remain to be elucidated. These organisms display huge census population sizes, yet genotyping usually requires clonal strains originating from single cells, hindering proper population sampling.

Environmental Microbiology, Accepted Article. In deep-sea hydrothermal vent environments, metal-enriched fluids and sediments abound, making these habitats ideal to study metal resistance in prokaryotes.

Environmental Microbiology, Accepted Article. Physiological and gene expression studies of deep-sea bacteria under pressure conditions similar to those experienced in their natural habitat are critical for understanding growth kinetics and metabolic adaptations to in situ conditions. The Campylobacterium (aka Epsilonproteobacterium) Nautilia sp.

Environmental Microbiology, EarlyView. Fusarium graminearum is an important wheat pathogen and a producer of deoxynivalenol (DON). Biosynthesis of DON is suppressed by ammonium and induced by arginine and polyamines. To better understand ammonium repression of DON biosynthesis, in this study, we functionally characterized three ammonium permease (MEP) genes in F. graminearum.

Environmental Microbiology, Accepted Article. The Splendidus clade is the largest clade in Vibrionaceae, and its members are often related to mortality of marine animals with huge economic losses. The molecular bases of their pathogenicity and virulence, however, remain largely unknown.

Environmental Microbiology, Accepted Article. Aspergillus flavus is a ubiquitous saprotrophic soil-borne pathogenic fungus that causes crops contamination with the carcinogen aflatoxins. Although Sirtuin E (SirE) is known to be a NAD-dependent histone deacetylase involved in global transcriptional regulation. Its biological functions in A. flavus are not fully understood.

Environmental Microbiology, Accepted Article. The interactions of parasitic fungi with their phytoplankton hosts in the marine environment is mostly unknown. In this study, we evaluated the diversity of Chytridiomycota in phytoplankton communities dominated by dinoflagellates at several coastal locations in the NW Mediterranean Sea and demonstrated the most prominent interactions of these parasites with their hosts.

Environmental Microbiology, Accepted Article. Bacillus cereus strain CPT56D-587-MTF (CPTF) was isolated from the highly contaminated Oak Ridge Reservation (ORR) subsurface. This site is contaminated with high levels of nitric acid and multiple heavy metals. Amplicon sequencing of the 16S rRNA genes (V4 region) in sediment from this area revealed an amplicon sequence variant (ASV) with 100% identity to the CPTF 16S rRNA sequence.

Environmental Microbiology, EarlyView. Overexpression of Staphylococcus aureus efflux pumps is commonly associated with antibiotic resistance, causing conventional antibiotics to be unsuccessful in combating multidrug-resistant bacterial infections. Reducing the activity of the efflux pump is an urgently required to tackle this problem.

Environmental Microbiology, Accepted Article. Dinoflagellates are important aquatic microbes and major harmful algal bloom (HAB) agents that form invasive species through ship ballast transfer. UV-C installations are recommended for ballast treatments and HAB controls, but there is a lack of knowledge in dinoflagellate responses to UV-C.

Environmental Microbiology, Volume 24, Issue 6, Page 2747-2758, June 2022. The in vitro antibacterial efficacy of an in-house designed cell-penetrating peptide (CPP) variant of Cecropin A (1–7)-Melittin (CAMA) (CAMA-CPP) against the characterized multi-drug resistant (MDR) field strains of Salmonella Enteritidis and Salmonella Typhimurium were evaluated and compared with two identified CPPs namely, P7 and APP, keeping CAMA as contr

Environmental Microbiology, EarlyView.

Environmental Microbiology, EarlyView. Exposure to particulate matter (PM), a major component of air pollution, is associated with exacerbation of chronic respiratory disease, and infectious diseases such as community-acquired pneumonia. Although PM can cause adverse health effects through direct damage to host cells, our previous study showed that PM can also impact bacterial behaviour by promoting in vivo colonization.

Environmental Microbiology, Accepted Article. Lysine 2-hydroxyisobutyrylation (Khib) is a recently identified post-translational modifications (PTM) that regulates numerous cellular metabolic processes. In pathogenic microorganism, although glycolysis and fungal virulence are regulated by Khib, its potential roles in fungi remains to be elusive.

Environmental Microbiology, Volume 24, Issue 3, Page 1133-1149, March 2022. Antimicrobials are commonly used in prevention of infections including in aquaculture, agriculture and medicine. Subinhibitory concentrations of antimicrobial peptides can modulate resistance, virulence and persistence effectors in Gram-negative pathogens.

Environmental Microbiology, Accepted Article. Vibrio parahaemolyticus infection in humans is associated with raw oyster consumption. Evaluation of V. parahaemolyticus presence in oysters is of most interest because of the economic and public health issues that it represents. To explore V. parahaemolyticus accumulation and depuration in adult Crassostrea gigas, we developed a GFP-tagged V.

Environmental Microbiology, Accepted Article. Protists are integral to marine food webs and biogeochemical cycles; however, there is a paucity of data describing specific ecological niches for some of the most abundant taxa in marker gene libraries. Syndiniales are one such group, often representing the majority of sequence reads recovered from picoplankton samples across the global ocean.

Environmental Microbiology, Accepted Article. Light serves as a source of information and regulates diverse physiological processes in living organisms. Fungi perceive and respond to light through a complex photosensory system. Fungi have evolved the desensitization mechanism to adapt to the changing light signal in a natural environment. White light exerts multiple essential impacts on the model filamentous fungus P. anserina.

Environmental Microbiology, Volume 24, Issue 2, Page 762-771, February 2022. Organoarsenicals enter the environment from biogenic and anthropogenic sources. Trivalent inorganic arsenite (As(III)) is microbially methylated to more toxic methylarsenite (MAs(III)) and dimethylarsenite (DMAs(III)) that oxidize in air to MAs(V) and DMAs(V).

Environmental Microbiology, Volume 24, Issue 2, Page 752-761, February 2022. Arsenic can be biomethylated to form a variety of organic arsenicals differing in toxicity and environmental mobility. Trivalent methylarsenite (MAs(III)) produced in the methylation process is more toxic than inorganic arsenite (As(III)). MAs(III) also serves as a primitive antibiotic and, consequently, some environmental microorganisms have evolved mechanisms to detoxify MAs(III).