Endophytic Beauveria bassiana promotes drought tolerance and early flowering in corn.

Beauveria bassiana (Bals.) Vuillemin (B. bassiana) is an entomopathogenic fungus that establishes endophytic symbiosis with plants. In the present study, the effects of B. bassiana strains colonization in growing Zea mays L. (Z. mays), crop production, and drought tolerance were evaluated. Z. mays seeds were inoculated with B. bassiana strains (GHA, PTG4, and PTG6), using 1 × 106 blastospores/mL and methyl cellulose (MC) or cornstarch (CS) as adherents. Colonization was determined by B. bassiana recovery from plant tissues plated on PDA medium. Plant height, fresh and dry weight, and flowering time were analyzed to assess plant performance. Drought tolerance was evaluated by stopping watering for 10 days, watering again, and determining vigor recovery after 24 h. Results showed 100% endophytic roots colonization, regardless of adherent type or strain tested. Colonization was variable in shoots and leaves, but GHA strain achieved the highest inoculation rates, including 88% in stems and 50% in leaves, which did not depend on adherent type used; for PTG4 strain, adherent type had an important effect (MC = 100% stems and leaves; CS = 63% stems and 25% leaves). For PTG6 strain, the best adherent type was CS (71% stems and 75% leaves), whereas MC showed variable inoculation percentage (25% stems and 75% leaves). Interestingly, only MCPTG4 treatment showed consistent positive effects on germination percentage (day 5 = 46 ± 2%; day 14 = 87 ± 7%) compared with controls (CC = 63 ± 4%, CMC = 50 ± 3%, CCS = 47 ± 0%). In addition, the other treatments showed low germination percentages at day 5 (7 ± 7% to 46 ± 2%), which recovered at day 14 (53 ± 0% to 73 ± 8%), except for MCPTG6 treatment with 23 ± 10% germination. About plant performance, not significant effects on plant height and fresh/dry weight in all the treatments were observed. However, B. bassiana-treated plants, using either GHA, PTG4 or PTG6 strains, and MC as adherent, showed tolerance to drought and flowered one to two weeks earlier, providing evidence supporting further applications of these seed treatments in agricultural systems, for abiotic stress sustainable management practices.

Immunoinformatics Approach to Design a Novel Epitope-Based Oral Vaccine Against Helicobacter pylori.

Helicobacter pylori is an infectious agent that colonizes the gastric mucosa of half of the population worldwide. This bacterium has been recognized as belonging to group 1 carcinogen by the World Health Organization for the role in development of gastritis, peptic ulcers, and cancer. Due to the increase in resistance to antibiotics used in the anti-H. pylori therapy, the development of an effective vaccine is an alternative of great interest, which remains a challenge. Therefore, a rational, strategic, and efficient vaccine design against H. pylori is necessary where the use of the most current bioinformatics tools could help achieve it. In this study, immunoinformatics approach was used to design a novel multiepitope oral vaccine against H. pylori. Our multiepitope vaccine is composed of cholera toxin subunit B (CTB) that is used as a mucosal adjuvant to enhance vaccine immunogenicity for oral immunization. CTB fused to 11 epitopes predicted of pathogenic (UreB170-189, VacA459-478, CagA1103-1122, GGT106-126, NapA30-44, and OipA211-230) and colonization (HpaA33-52, FlaA487-506, FecA437-456, BabA129-149, and SabA540-559) proteins from H. pylori. CKS9 peptide (CKSTHPLSC) targets epithelial microfold cells to enhance vaccine uptake from the gut barrier. All sequences were joined to each other by proper linkers. The vaccine was modeled and validated to achieve a high-quality three-dimensional structure. The vaccine design was evaluated as nonallergenic, antigenic, soluble, and with an appropriate molecular weight and isoelectric point. Our results suggest that our newly designed vaccine could serve as a promising anti-H. pylori vaccine candidate.

Molecular diagnosis of microbial copathogens with influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 in Oaxaca, Mexico.

BACKGROUND: Multiple factors have been associated with the severity of infection by influenza A(H1N1)pdm09. These include H1N1 cases with proven coinfections showing clinical association with bacterial contagions. PURPOSE: The objective was to identify H1N1 and copathogens in the Oaxaca (Mexico) population. A cross-sectional survey was conducted from 2009 to 2012. A total of 88 study patients with confirmed H1N1 by quantitative RT-PCR were recruited. METHODS: Total nucleic acid from clinical samples of study patients was analyzed using a TessArray RPM-Flu microarray assay to identify other respiratory pathogens. RESULTS: High prevalence of copathogens (77.3%; 68 patients harbored one to three pathogens), predominantly from Streptococcus, Haemophilus, Neisseria, and Pseudomonas, were detected. Three patients (3.4%) had four or five respiratory copathogens, whereas others (19.3%) had no copathogens. Copathogenic occurrence with Staphylococcus aureus was 5.7%, Coxsackie virus 2.3%, Moraxella catarrhalis 1.1%, Klebsiella pneumoniae 1.1%, and parainfluenza virus 3 1.1%. The number of patients with copathogens was four times higher to those with H1N1 alone (80.68% and 19.32%, respectively). Four individuals (4.5%; two males, one female, and one infant) who died due to H1N1 were observed to have harbored such copathogens as Streptococcus, Staphylococcus, Haemophilus, and Neisseria. CONCLUSION: In summary, copathogens were found in a significant number (>50%) of cases of influenza in Oaxaca. Timely detection of coinfections producing increased acuity or severity of disease and treatment of affected patients is urgently needed.