Traditional, Therapeutic Uses and Phytochemistry of Terrestrial European Orchids and Implications for Conservation.

The Orchidaceae family accounts for about 28,000 species, and most of them are mentioned in the folk medicine of nations around the world. The use of terrestrial orchids in European and Mediterranean regions has been reported since ancient times, but little information is available on their medicinal properties, as well as on their phytochemicals and biological activities. However, plant collection for human use is still listed as one of the main threats for terrestrial orchids, alongside other menacing factors such as wrong habitat management and disturbance to symbionts, such as pollinators and mycorrhizal fungi.

Anti-Inflammatory and Wound Healing Properties of Leaf and Rhizome Extracts from the Medicinal Plant Peucedanum ostruthium (L.) W. D. J. Koch.

Peucedanum ostruthium (L.) W. D.

Effect of Non-Lethal Selection on Spontaneous Revertants of Frameshift Mutations: The Escherichia coli hisF Case.

Microorganisms possess the potential to adapt to fluctuations in environmental parameters, and their evolution is driven by the continuous generation of mutations. The reversion of auxotrophic mutations has been widely studied; however, little is known about the reversion of frameshift mutations resulting in amino acid auxotrophy and on the structure and functioning of the protein encoded by the revertant mutated gene. The aims of this work were to analyze the appearance of reverse mutations over time and under different selective pressures and to investigate revertant enzymes' three-dimensional structures and their correlation with a different growth ability.

Carpobrotus edulis (L.) N.E.Br. extract as a skin preserving agent: From traditional medicine to scientific validation.

Objective: Carpobrotus edulis (L.) N.E.

Chemical Composition of Essential Oil from Flowers of Five Fragrant (Orchidaceae).

A detailed chemical composition of essential oil has been only reported for a few main species. This article is the first to evaluate the essential oil composition, obtained by steam distillation, of five Indian species: Lindl., Rchb.

Depigmenting potential of lichen extracts evaluated by in vitro and in vivo tests.

Melanin is the main pigment of human skin, playing the primary role of protection from ultraviolet radiation. Alteration of the melanin production may lead to hyperpigmentation diseases, with both aesthetic and health consequences. Thus, suppressors of melanogenesis are considered useful tools for medical and cosmetic treatments.

Chemical Composition and Biological Activities of Essential Oils from Peels of Three Species.

Background: Fruit peels are generally underutilized byproducts of the food industry, although they are valuable sources of bioactive compounds. The aim of this study is to evaluate a new application for three peel EOs as bio-herbicides.

Methods: After a micro-morphological evaluation of peels by SEM analysis, the phytochemical composition of the EOs of Risso & Poit.

Polyphenol Characterization and Skin-Preserving Properties of Hydroalcoholic Flower Extract from (Orchidaceae).

(Loisel.) P. Delforge is a Mediterranean orchid whose propagation in vitro has been achieved, making it eligible as a source of bioactive substances.

Comparison of Highly and Weakly Virulent Strains, With a View on the Pangenome and Panregulon of This Species.

Bacteria belonging to the genera and are responsible for significant economic losses in a wide variety of crops and ornamentals. During last years, increasing losses in potato production have been attributed to the appearance of . The strains investigated so far share genetic homogeneity, although different virulence levels were observed among strains of various origins.

Creation and Characterization of a Genomically Hybrid Strain in the Nitrogen-Fixing Symbiotic Bacterium Sinorhizobium meliloti.

Many bacteria, often associated with eukaryotic hosts and of relevance for biotechnological applications, harbor a multipartite genome composed of more than one replicon. Biotechnologically relevant phenotypes are often encoded by genes residing on the secondary replicons. A synthetic biology approach to developing enhanced strains for biotechnological purposes could therefore involve merging pieces or entire replicons from multiple strains into a single genome.

Trade, Diplomacy, and Warfare: The Quest for Elite Rhizobia Inoculant Strains.

Rhizobia form symbiotic nitrogen-fixing nodules on leguminous plants, which provides an important source of fixed nitrogen input into the soil ecosystem. The improvement of symbiotic nitrogen fixation is one of the main challenges facing agriculture research. Doing so will reduce the usage of chemical nitrogen fertilizer, contributing to the development of sustainable agriculture practices to deal with the increasing global human population.

Role and Regulation of ACC Deaminase Gene in : Is It a Symbiotic, Rhizospheric or Endophytic Gene?

Plant-associated bacteria exhibit a number of different strategies and specific genes allow bacteria to communicate and metabolically interact with plant tissues. Among the genes found in the genomes of plant-associated bacteria, the gene encoding the enzyme 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate (ACC) deaminase () is one of the most diffused. This gene is supposed to be involved in the cleaving of plant-produced ACC, the precursor of the plant stress-hormone ethylene toning down the plant response to infection.

Metabolic modelling reveals the specialization of secondary replicons for niche adaptation in Sinorhizobium meliloti.

The genome of about 10% of bacterial species is divided among two or more large chromosome-sized replicons. The contribution of each replicon to the microbial life cycle (for example, environmental adaptations and/or niche switching) remains unclear. Here we report a genome-scale metabolic model of the legume symbiont Sinorhizobium meliloti that is integrated with carbon utilization data for 1,500 genes with 192 carbon substrates.

Mixed Nodule Infection in Sinorhizobium meliloti-Medicago sativa Symbiosis Suggest the Presence of Cheating Behavior.

In the symbiosis between rhizobia and legumes, host plants can form symbiotic root nodules with multiple rhizobial strains, potentially showing different symbiotic performances in nitrogen fixation. Here, we investigated the presence of mixed nodules, containing rhizobia with different degrees of mutualisms, and evaluate their relative fitness in the Sinorhizobium meliloti-Medicago sativa model symbiosis. We used three S.

Evolution of Intra-specific Regulatory Networks in a Multipartite Bacterial Genome.

Reconstruction of the regulatory network is an important step in understanding how organisms control the expression of gene products and therefore phenotypes. Recent studies have pointed out the importance of regulatory network plasticity in bacterial adaptation and evolution. The evolution of such networks within and outside the species boundary is however still obscure.

Cell Cycle Control by the Master Regulator CtrA in Sinorhizobium meliloti.

In all domains of life, proper regulation of the cell cycle is critical to coordinate genome replication, segregation and cell division. In some groups of bacteria, e.g.

Draft Genome Sequence of a Highly Virulent Strain of the Plant Pathogen Dickeya solani, IFB0099.

Dickeya solani is an important bacterial pathogen of potato cultivars in Europe. Here, we present the draft genome of D. solani strain IFB0099 isolated from potato in Poland that shows a high level of pectinolytic activity and a high virulence.

Evaluation of the Performances of Ribosomal Database Project (RDP) Classifier for Taxonomic Assignment of 16S rRNA Metabarcoding Sequences Generated from Illumina-Solexa NGS.

Here we report a benchmark of the effect of bootstrap cut-off values of the RDP Classifier tool in terms of data retention along the different taxonomic ranks by using Illumina reads. Results provide guidelines for planning sequencing depths and selection of bootstrap cut-off in taxonomic assignments.

Exploring the dynamics of bacterial community composition in soil: the pan-bacteriome approach.

We performed a longitudinal study (repeated observations of the same sample over time) to investigate both the composition and structure of temporal changes of bacterial community composition in soil mesocosms, subjected to three different treatments (water and 5 or 25 mg kg(-1) of dried soil Cd(2+)). By analogy with the pan genome concept, we identified a core bacteriome and an accessory bacteriome. Resident taxa were assigned to the core bacteriome, while occasional taxa were assigned to the accessory bacteriome.

Mapping contigs using CONTIGuator.

Obtaining bacterial genomic sequences has become a routine task in today's biology. The emergence of the comparative genomics approach has led to an increasing number of bacterial species having more than one strain sequenced, thus facilitating the annotation process. On the other hand, many genomic sequences are now left in the "draft" status, as a series of contigs, mainly for the labor-intensive finishing task.

Permanent draft genome sequences of the symbiotic nitrogen fixing Ensifer meliloti strains BO21CC and AK58.

Ensifer (syn. Sinorhizobium) meliloti is an important symbiotic bacterial species that fixes nitrogen. Strains BO21CC and AK58 were previously investigated for their substrate utilization and their plant-growth promoting abilities showing interesting features.

Biogeography of Sinorhizobium meliloti nodulating alfalfa in different Croatian regions.

Sinorhizobium meliloti is a nitrogen-fixing rhizobium symbiont of legumes, widespread in many temperate environments the high genetic diversity of which enables it to thrive as a symbiont of host legumes and free-living in soil. Soil type, together with geographic differences and host plant genotype, seem to be prominent factors in shaping rhizobial genetic diversity. While a large body of research supports the idea that the genetic structure of free-living microbial taxa exhibits a clear biogeographic pattern, few investigations have been performed on the biogeographic pattern of S.

DuctApe: a suite for the analysis and correlation of genomic and OmniLog™ Phenotype Microarray data.

Addressing the functionality of genomes is one of the most important and challenging tasks of today's biology. In particular the ability to link genotypes to corresponding phenotypes is of interest in the reconstruction and biotechnological manipulation of metabolic pathways. Over the last years, the OmniLog™ Phenotype Microarray (PM) technology has been used to address many specific issues related to the metabolic functionality of microorganisms.

StreamingTrim 1.0: a Java software for dynamic trimming of 16S rRNA sequence data from metagenetic studies.

Next-generation sequencing technologies are extensively used in the field of molecular microbial ecology to describe taxonomic composition and to infer functionality of microbial communities. In particular, the so-called barcode or metagenetic applications that are based on PCR amplicon library sequencing are very popular at present. One of the problems, related to the utilization of the data of these libraries, is the analysis of reads quality and removal (trimming) of low-quality segments, while retaining sufficient information for subsequent analyses (e.

The DivJ, CbrA and PleC system controls DivK phosphorylation and symbiosis in Sinorhizobium meliloti.

Sinorhizobium meliloti is a soil bacterium that invades the root nodules it induces on Medicago sativa, whereupon it undergoes an alteration of its cell cycle and differentiates into nitrogen-fixing, elongated and polyploid bacteroid with higher membrane permeability. In Caulobacter crescentus, a related alphaproteobacterium, the principal cell cycle regulator, CtrA, is inhibited by the phosphorylated response regulator DivK. The phosphorylation of DivK depends on the histidine kinase DivJ, while PleC is the principal phosphatase for DivK.