Estimation of Personal Environment Via Fingertip Microbiome and Mobile Phone Surfaces.

BACKGROUND: Fingerprints can serve to identify individuals, but fingerprint quality may be deteriorated, even to the point of eliminating fingerprints, due to the external environment. OBJECTIVE: Poor fingerprint quality cannot be effectively used to identify individuals; hence, the need for other methods. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We investigated the utility of bacterial communities and the only microorganisms present in the sample to identify internal and external factors in individuals. Samples included eight participants' fingerprints and their mobile phone surfaces. Bacterial DNA in the samples was sequenced using next-generation sequencing to target the V3-V4 region in the 16S ribosomal RNA gene. The QIIME program was used to perform a taxonomic assignment and alpha diversity and beta diversity analyses based on the sequence data. RESULTS: Until now, personal identification has only relied on microbial communities. However, this study identified microbial differences according to Korean mobile phones, fingertips, or gender, and confirmed the possibility of characterization of samples when it was difficult to identify individuals by the microbial community. The biodiversity and composition of individual bacterial communities were affected by internal and external environments. Bacteria from individuals and mobile phones were shared due to contact between mobile phone surfaces and fingertips. Of the eight Koreans, six of the fingertips and mobile phone samples matched each other for personal identification. CONCLUSIONS: This study confirmed that the bacteria from an individual could be matched with the contact object and could be used as forensic evidence. Such bacterial profiling of individuals may confer forensic evidence and serve as a basis for improving the accuracy of forensic verification.

Impacts and characteristics of antimicrobial resistance of Escherichia coli isolates by administration of third-generation cephalosporins in layer hatcheries.

We investigated the characteristics and persistence of Escherichia coli resistant to third-generation cephalosporins (3GCs) by early administration of ceftiofur or gentamicin and to analyze the impact of 3GC use in hatcheries. We studied 10 ceftiofur-treated flocks (CTFs) and 10 gentamicin-treated flocks (GTFs) of layers. Fecal samples were collected at 1, 2, 4, 8, 18, and 30 weeks of age for all flocks. Among the 446 E. coli isolates, 58 (29.0 %) of 200 isolates in CTFs were identified as 3GC-resistant E. coli and 28 (11.4 %) of 246 isolates in GTFs were identified as 3GC-resistant E. coli. The presence of 3GC-resistant E. coli isolates at 1, 2, and 4 weeks was significantly higher in CTFs than in GTFs (p < 0.05). Moreover, the rate of resistance to 3GCs gradually decreased from 83.3 % at 1 week of age to 4.4 % at 30 weeks of age in CTFs. Of the 86 3GC-resistant E. coli isolates, 32 isolates had ß-lactamase-encoding gene: blaCTX-M-14 (ten isolates), blaCTX-M-15 (three isolates), blaCMY-2 (five isolates), and blaTEM-1 (twenty-five isolates) genes. Plasmid replicon typing revealed that blaCTX-M-14, blaCTX-M-15, blaCMY-2, and blaTEM-1 were located on F, F and FIB, I1 and K, and I1 and FII, respectively. Furthermore, 18 isolates carried class 1 integrons, with four different gene cassettes. These results revealed that ceftiofur used in hatcheries can lead to an increase in the number of 3GC-resistant E. coli with many characteristics. A voluntary ban must be imposed on the use of 3GCs for 1-day-old chicks in poultry industry.

Three new decenynol glucosides from Artemisia scoparia (Asteraceae).

Three new decenynol glucosides were isolated from the aerial parts of Artemisia scoparia. Their structures were determined to be 6E,8Z-decadien-4-yn-ol 1-O-ß-d-glucopyranoside, 6E,8E-decadien-4-yn-ol 1-O-ß-d-glucopyranoside, and 6E-decen-4-yn-ol 1-O-ß-d-glucopyranoside based on extensive spectroscopic (NMR and MS) analysis. [Formula: see text].