Use of Cas9 Targeting and Red Recombination for Designer Phage Engineering.

Bacteriophages (phages) are natural antibiotics and biological nanoparticles, whose application is significantly boosted by recent advances of synthetic biology tools. Designer phages are synthetic phages created by genome engineering in a way to increase the benefits or decrease the drawbacks of natural phages. Here we report the development of a straightforward genome engineering method to efficiently obtain engineered phages in a model bacterial pathogen, Pseudomonas aeruginosa. This was achieved by eliminating the wild type phages based on the Streptococcus pyogenes Cas9 (SpCas9) and facilitating the recombinant generation based on the Red recombination system of the coliphage λ (λRed). The producer (PD) cells of P. aeruginosa strain PAO1 was created by miniTn7-based chromosomal integration of the genes for SpCas9 and λRed under an inducible promoter. To validate the efficiency of the recombinant generation, we created the fluorescent phages from a temperate phage MP29. A plasmid bearing the single guide RNA (sgRNA) gene for selectively targeting the wild type gp35 gene and the editing template for tagging the Gp35 with superfolder green fluorescent protein (sfGFP) was introduced into the PD cells by electroporation. We found that the targeting efficiency was affected by the position and number of sgRNA. The fluorescent phage particles were efficiently recovered from the culture of the PD cells expressing dual sgRNA molecules. This protocol can be used to create designer phages in P. aeruginosa for both application and research purposes.

Systematic review and meta-analysis: the efficiency of bacteriophages previously patented against pathogenic bacteria on food.

Food-borne diseases are a global public health issue with 1 in 10 people falling ill after eating contaminated food every year. In response, the food industry has implemented several new pathogen control strategies, such as biotechnological tools using the direct application of bacteriophages for biological control. We have undertaken a systematic review and meta-analysis that evaluated the efficiency of patented phages as a biological control for food-borne pathogens and determined the physical-chemical characteristics of the antimicrobial effect. Included and excluded criteria was developed. Included criteria: Phage patent files with an application in biological control on food and scientific articles and book chapters that used phages patented for food biological control. Excluded criteria: Patent documents, scientific articles, and book chapters that included phage therapy in humans, animals, and biological control on plants but did not have an application on food were not considered in our study. The systematic analysis identified 77 documents, 46 scientific articles, and 31 documents of patents and 23 articles was included in the meta-analysis. Listeria monocytogenes and Salmonella sp. comprised most of the targets identified in the screening, so that we focused on these strains to do the meta-analysis. There are a total of 383 and 192 experiments for Listeria and Salmonella phages for quantitative data analysis.Indexing databases for the bibliographic search (Scopus, Web of Science (WoS) and PubMed (Medline) were addressed by an automated script written in Python 3 Python Core Team (2015) and deposited on GitHub ( https://github.com/glenjasper ).A random-effects meta-analysis revealed (i) significant antimicrobial effect of Listeria phages in apple, apple juice, pear, and pear juice, (ii) significant antimicrobial effect of Salmonella phages in eggs, apple, and ready-to-eat chicken, (iii) no heterogeneity was identified in either meta-analysis, (iv) publication bias was detected for Listeria phages but not for Salmonella phages. (v) ListShield and Felix01 phages showed the best result for Listeria and Salmonella biological control, respectively, (vi) concentration of phage and bacteria, time and food had significant effect in the biological control of Listeria, (vii) temperature and time had a significant effect on the antimicrobial activity of Salmonella phages. The systematic review and meta-analyses to determine the efficiency of bacteriophages previously patented against pathogenic bacteria on dairy products, meat, fruits and vegetables. Besides, the discovering of key factors for efficacy, so that future applications of phage biotechnology in foods can be optimally deployed.

Molecular Characterization of Salmonella Phage Wara Isolated from River Water in Brazil.

Antimicrobial resistance is increasing despite new treatments being employed, so novel strategies are required to ensure that bacterial infections remain treatable. Bacteriophages (phages; bacteria viruses) have the potential to be used as natural antimicrobial methods to control bacterial pathogens such as Salmonella spp. A Salmonella phage, Wara, was isolated from environmental water samples at the Subaé River Basin, Salvador de Bahia, Brazil. The basin has environmental impacts in its main watercourses arising from the dumping of domestic and industrial effluents and agricultural and anthropological activities. The phage genome sequence was determined by Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT) MinION and Illumina HiSeq sequencing, and assembly was carried out by Racon (MinION) and Unicycler (Illumina, Illumina + MinION). The genome was annotated and compared to other Salmonella phages using various bioinformatics approaches. MinION DNA sequencing combined with Racon assembly gave the best complete genome sequence. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that Wara is a member of the Tequintavirus genus. A lack of lysogeny genes, antimicrobial resistance, and virulence genes indicated that Wara has therapeutic and biocontrol potential against Salmonella species in healthcare and agriculture.

Hybrid Genomic Analysis of Salmonella enterica Serovar Enteritidis SE3 Isolated from Polluted Soil in Brazil.

In Brazil, Salmonella enterica serovar Enteritidis is a significant health threat. Salmonella enterica serovar Enteritidis SE3 was isolated from soil at the Subaé River in Santo Amaro, Brazil, a region contaminated with heavy metals and organic waste. Illumina HiSeq and Oxford Nanopore Technologies MinION sequencing were used for de novo hybrid assembly of the Salmonella SE3 genome. This approach yielded 10 contigs with 99.98% identity with S. enterica serovar Enteritidis OLF-SE2-98984-6. Twelve Salmonella pathogenic islands, multiple virulence genes, multiple antimicrobial gene resistance genes, seven phage defense systems, seven prophages and a heavy metal resistance gene were encoded in the genome. Pangenome analysis of the S. enterica clade, including Salmonella SE3, revealed an open pangenome, with a core genome of 2137 genes. Our study showed the effectiveness of a hybrid sequence assembly approach for environmental Salmonella genome analysis using HiSeq and MinION data. This approach enabled the identification of key resistance and virulence genes, and these data are important to inform the control of Salmonella and heavy metal pollution in the Santo Amaro region of Brazil.

Stress induced biofilm formation in Propionibacterium acidipropionici and use in propionic acid production.

Propionibacterium acidipropionici produces propionic acid from different sugars and glycerol; the production can be improved by high cell density fermentations using immobilized cells that help to overcome the limitations of the non-productive lag phase and product inhibition. In this study, the use of stress factors to induce P. acidipropionici to form biofilm and its use as an immobilization procedure in fermentations in bioreactors for producing propionic acid was investigated. Citric acid and sodium chloride increased exopolysaccharide production, biofilm forming capacity index and trehalose production. Analysis of the expression of trehalose synthesis-related genes otsA and treY by RT-qPCR showed significantly increased expression of only treY during log phase with citric acid, while FISH analysis showed expression of treY and luxS under the influence of both stress factors. The stress factors were then used for development of microbial biofilms as immobilization procedure on Poraver® and AnoxKaldnes® carriers in recycle batch reactors for propionic acid production from 20 g/L glycerol. Highest productivities of 0.7 and 0.78 g/L/h were obtained in Poraver® reactors, and 0.39 and 0.43 g/L/h in AnoxKaldnes® reactors with citric acid and NaCl, respectively.

Diseño y evaluación de primers in silico del gen E1 del virus de chikungunya para real-time PCR (qPCR) / Design and evaluation of primers in silico of the E1 gene of chukungunya virus for real -time PCR (q PCR)

El diseño de primers es una parte sustancial dentro de los ensayos de PCR, el mismo es aplicado en la caracterización de microorganismos, secuenciación, cuantificación, etc. En los últimos años se ha incrementado herramientas para este fin, se realizaron nuevas variantes, crearon nuevos enfoques, muchas de estas herramientas son de licencia comercial y otros de acceso libre y código abierto permiten al usuario mejorar o modificar según requerimiento el diseño de primers. En este trabajo comparamos las características básicas dentro del diseño de primers, empleando 2 tipos de herramientas web de acceso libre y código abierto: Primer-BLAST y Primer3Plus, se realizó el diseño in silico, análisis de estructuras secundarias y verificación de la especificidad de los primers obtenidos. Los resultados mostraron que el uso de variables adicionales o uso de penaltis mediante el software Primer3Plus afectan en la especificidad, formación de estructuras secundarias de los primers y de los amplicones. Además, se determinó que los parámetros que tienen muchos software por defecto, no aseveran el diseño de primers convenientes y/o específicos, en este sentido es importante realizar el uso de penaltis. Asimismo, se identificó que el uso de Primer3Plus ha permitido disminuir la formación de estructuras secundarias, sin afectar la especificidad de amplificación del marcador seleccionado.

Primer design is a substantial part of PCR assays, which is used in characterization of microorganisms, sequencing, quantification, etc. In recent years, new tools have been added for this purpose, new variants and approaches have been created, many of these tools are commercial and others are free including open source, giving the possibility to improve or modify as required. In this work, we compared the basic characteristics of the primers design, using 2 types of free and open source web tools, PrimerBLAST and Primer3Plus, in this sense the in silico design, analysis of secondary structures and verification of primers designed. The results showed that the use of additional variables or use of penalties using the software Primer3Plus affect in specificity, secondary structures formation in primers and in the products of amplification. In addition, default parameters, that many software have, do not imply that suitable and / or specific primers can be obtained, meaning the importance of the use of penalties. Therefore, the use of Primer3Plus has allowed to decrease the formation of secondary structures without affecting the amplification specificity of the selected marker.

Establecimiento y evaluación de dos métodos de pre tratamiento de muestras de suelo para la extracción de ADN para el estudio de la diversidad bacteriana / Establishment and evaluation of two methods of pre-treatment of soil samples for the extraction of DNA for the study of bacterial diversity

La necesidad de ampliar los conocimientos respecto a los mecanismos bioquímicos y fisiológicos desarrollados por los microorganismos presentes en suelos requiere de una descripción completa de la diversidad microbiana, para lo cual en las últimas décadas se han desarrollado diferentes técnicas moleculares (qPCR, DGGE, T-RFLP, RAPD.) las mismas que requieren una adecuada técnica de extracción de ADN que aseguren el éxito de la descripción de la diversidad microbiana, considerando las características de las muestras de suelos a ser estudiadas. Los protocolos de extracción de ADN generalmente utilizados están basados en la separación de los microorganismos de la matriz antes de la extracción de ADN mediante lisis física o química y por otro lado, la extracción directa del ADN microbiano a partir de muestras de suelo, sin embargo la presencia de sustancias húmicas y fenólicas afectan la calidad del ADN extraído, lo que repercuten en el desarrollo de posteriores estudios moleculares. La finalidad de este estudio fue la de establecer procedimientos de pre tratamientos de 3 tipos de nuestras de suelo (arenoso, arcilloso y francos) para posteriormente describir la riqueza y diversidad bacteriana de las muestras en estudio mediante PCR DGGE. De esta manera se determinó que la adición de CaCO3 en muestras de suelos francos permite la identificación de una mayor diversidad y riqueza bacteriana (10 bandas). Asimismo, la adición de PVPP a suelos arenosos (8 bandas) y arcillosos (3 bandas) también permite obtener las características descritas anteriormente utilizando el método PCR-DGGE. Lo cual indica que los procedimientos de pre tratamiento con CaCO3 y PVPP son específicos para la extracción de ciertas comunidades microbianas.

The knowledge about biochemical and physiological mechanisms by microorganisms in soils are required for a complete description of microbial diversity, lately different molecular techniques have been developed to study this feature (qPCR, DGGE, T- RFLP, RAPD). DNA extraction techniques ensure the description of the microbial diversity success, according the soil samples characteristics. Generally, DNA extraction protocols used for separation of microorganism of matrix soil before DNA extraction by physical and chemical lysis. Other protocol is direct extraction of microbial DNA from soil samples, humic acids and phenolic substances affect the quality of DNA, which affect the development of subsequent molecular studies. The purpose of this study was to establish pretreatment procedures for different kind of soil samples (frank, sandy and clayey) in order to describe richness and bacterial diversity by PCR DGGE. In this sense, we determined the addition of CaCO3 in frank soils samples allows the identification of greater diversity and bacterial richness (10 bands) than the other method. Besides, PVPP pretreatment is no only useful to obtain bacterial diversity in sandy soil (8 bands), but also in clayey soils (3 bands) soils by PCR-DGGE method. This indicates that the pretreatment procedures with CaCO3 and PVPP are specific for soil microbial community's isolation.