Clostridium massiliamazoniense sp. nov., New Bacterial Species Isolated from Stool Sample of a Volunteer Brazilian.

The study of the gut microbiota by the "culturomics concept" permitted us to isolate, from human stool sample, an unknown anaerobic bacterium within the genus Clostridium for which we propose the name Clostridium massiliamazoniense sp. nov. It was isolated from the fecal flora of a healthy 49-year-old Brazilian male. Here, we describe the characteristics of this organism and its complete genome sequencing and annotation. Clostridium massiliamazoniense sp. nov., ND2T (= CSURP1360 = DSMZ 27309) is a Gram-positive, obligate anaerobic member of Firmicutes with a 3,732,600 bp-long genome and a G+C content of 27.6%.

Infectious disease symptoms and microbial carriage among French medical students travelling abroad: A prospective study.

BACKGROUND: In France, no previous studies have focused specifically on health problems among medical students during internships abroad including the clinical symptoms suggestive of infectious diseases and the acquisition of pathogen carriage. METHODS: Clinical follow up and qPCR based respiratory, gastrointestinal and vaginal pathogen carriage before and after travel were prospectively assessed in a cohort of medical students departing from Marseille, France. RESULTS: 134 students were included. 73.9%, 38.8% and 5.0% of students reported gastrointestinal, respiratory and vaginal symptoms, respectively. The acquisition rate of Enteroaggregative Escherichia coli (EAEC) and Enteropathogenic E. coli (EPEC) was 53% and 41%, respectively. The acquisition of respiratory viruses was low but associated with persisting symptoms, while bacterial acquisition ranged from 3.3% for Streptococcus pyogenes to 15.0% for Haemophilus influenzae. Gardnerella vaginalis and Atopobium vaginae acquisition rates were 7.7% and 14.3% respectively. Five students (5.1%) had molecular quantification criteria for bacterial vaginosis on return. CONCLUSION: This preliminary study demonstrates that besides the known risk of gastrointestinal and respiratory infections and associated changes in intestinal and respiratory microbiota, medical students abroad may also experience changes in vaginal microbiota leading, in some cases, to clinical symptoms or the acquisition of bacterial vaginosis, which may be asymptomatic.

Mitochondrial diversity and phylogeographic analysis of Pediculus humanus reveals a new Amazonian clade "F".

Pediculus humanus is an obligate and highly intimate bloodsucking insect parasite of humans that has two ecotypes, head louse and body louse. This study analyzed genetic diversity at three mitochondrial genes (cytochrome b [cytb], cytochrome oxidase subunit 1 [cox1] and 12S ribosomal RNA [12S]) in 98 head lice collected from an isolated Native American population from the Wayampi community in Trois-Sauts, French Guiana. These results are integrated with all prior data of P. humanus (1402 cytb, 743 cox1 and 344 12S) from other parts of the world. The phylogenetic analysis revealed six highly divergent and well-supported monophyletic clades. Five clades corresponded to the previously recognized mitochondrial clades A, D, B, C and E, while the sixth (clade F) was novel, as it exhibited 5.4%, 3.7% and 3.6% divergence at cytb, cox1 and 12S, respectively, from its nearest neighbor clade B. Interestingly, the clade F has only been recovered in a few lice sequences from Mexico and Argentina, while it was the most common lineage in the Amazonian lice, which hints its association with the Native American region. Furthermore, Pediculus mjobergi, a New World monkeys' louse, which is thought to be transmitted to monkeys from the first humans that had reached the American continent thousands of years ago, also belonged to this clade, suggesting that this louse may not be a separate species but an evolutionary lineage of P. humanus. The discovery of new Amazonian clade F with the recovery of additional haplotypes within each of the five clades demonstrates that the levels of genetic diversity in P. humanus are higher than previously thought.