Using Wastewater Surveillance to Monitor Gastrointestinal Pathogen Infections in the State of Oklahoma.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, wastewater surveillance was widely used to monitor temporal and geographical infection trends. Using this as a foundation, a statewide program for routine wastewater monitoring of gastrointestinal pathogens was established in Oklahoma. The results from 18 months of surveillance showed that wastewater concentrations of , and norovirus exhibit similar seasonal patterns to those observed in reported human cases (F = 4-29, < 0.

Engineering Pseudomonas aeruginosa arylsulfatase for hydrolysis of α-configured steroid sulfates.

Steroid sulfate esters are important metabolites for anti-doping efforts in sports, pathology and research. Analysis of these metabolites is facilitated by hydrolysis using either acid or enzymatic catalysis. Although enzymatic hydrolysis is preferred for operating at neutral pH, no known enzyme is capable of hydrolyzing all steroid sulfate metabolites.

Environmental structure impacts microbial composition and secondary metabolism.

Determining the drivers of microbial community assembly is a central theme of microbial ecology, and chemical ecologists seek to characterize how secondary metabolites mediate these assembly patterns. Environmental structure affects how communities assemble and what metabolic pathways aid in that assembly. Here, we bridged these two perspectives by addressing the chemical drivers of community assembly within a spatially structured landscape with varying oxygen availability.

Predicting COVID-19 cases in diverse population groups using SARS-CoV-2 wastewater monitoring across Oklahoma City.

SARS-CoV-2 was discovered among humans in late 2019 and rapidly spread across the world. Although the virus is transmitted by respiratory droplets, most infected persons also excrete viral particles in their feces. This fact prompted a range of studies assessing the usefulness of wastewater surveillance to determine levels of infection and transmission and produce early warnings of outbreaks in local communities, independently of human testing.

Locating and Quantifying Carbon Steel Corrosion Rates Linked to Fungal B20 Biodiesel Degradation.

Fungi that degrade B20 biodiesel in storage tanks have also been linked to microbiologically influenced corrosion (MIC). A member of the filamentous fungal genus Paecilomyces and a yeast from the genus Wickerhamomyces were isolated from heavily contaminated B20 storage tanks from multiple Air Force bases. Although these taxa were linked to microbiologically influenced corrosion , precise measurement of their corrosion rates and pitting severity on carbon steel was not available.

Using Plate-Wash PCR and High-Throughput Sequencing to Measure Cultivated Diversity for Natural Product Discovery Efforts.

Molecular techniques continue to reveal a growing disparity between the immense diversity of microbial life and the small proportion that is in pure culture. The disparity, originally dubbed "the great plate count anomaly" by Staley and Konopka, has become even more vexing given our increased understanding of the importance of microbiomes to a host and the role of microorganisms in the vital biogeochemical functions of our biosphere. Searching for novel antimicrobial drug targets often focuses on screening a broad diversity of microorganisms.

Builders, tenants, and squatters: the origins of genetic material in modern stromatolites.

Micro-organisms have long been implicated in the construction of stromatolites. Yet, establishing a microbial role in modern stromatolite growth via molecular analysis is not always straightforward because DNA in stromatolites can have multiple origins. For example, the genomic material could represent the microbes responsible for the construction of the stromatolite (i.

Comparison and evaluation of a high volume air sampling system for the collection of Clostridioides difficile endospore aerosol in health care environments.

Background: Environmental contamination of patient rooms and adjacent areas with C. difficile spores is a recognized transmission risk. Previous studies have shown that spores are aerosolized during patient care.

Linkage of Fungal and Bacterial Proliferation to Microbiologically Influenced Corrosion in B20 Biodiesel Storage Tanks.

Renewable fuels hold great promise for the future yet their susceptibility to biodegradation and subsequent corrosion represents a challenge that needs to be directly assessed. Biodiesel is a renewable fuel that is widely used as a substitute or extender for petroleum diesel and is composed of a mixture of fatty acid methyl esters derived from plant or animal fats. Biodiesel can be blended up to 20% v/v with ultra-low sulfur diesel (i.

Cross-resistance profiles of malaria mosquito P450s associated with pyrethroid resistance against WHO insecticides.

Extensive use of pyrethroids for malaria control in Africa has led to widespread pyrethroid resistance in the two major African vectors of malaria An. gambiae and An. funestus.

Evolving a lipase for hydrolysis of natural triglycerides along with enhanced tolerance towards a protease and surfactants.

In the accompanying paper, we described evolving a lipase to the point where variants were soluble, stable and capable of degrading C8 TAG and C8 esters. These variants were tested for their ability to survive in an environment that might be encountered in a washing machine. Unfortunately, they were inactivated both by treatment with a protease used in laundry detergents and by very low concentrations of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS).

Draft Genome Sequence of Filamentous Fungus , Isolated from Diesel Fuel.

D216 is a filamentous fungus isolated from contaminated diesel fuel. The genome size is 40.3 Mbp with a G+C content of 54.

Draft Genome Sequence of sp. Strain ML, Cultivated from Mono Lake, California.

The microscopic alga Picocystis sp. strain ML is responsible for recurrent algal blooms in Mono Lake, CA. This organism was characterized by only very little molecular data, despite its prominence as a primary producer in saline environments.

Metabolic Capability and Phylogenetic Diversity of Mono Lake during a Bloom of the Eukaryotic Phototroph Picocystis sp. Strain ML.

Algal blooms in lakes are often associated with anthropogenic eutrophication; however, they can occur without the human introduction of nutrients to a lake. A rare bloom of the alga sp. strain ML occurred in the spring of 2016 at Mono Lake, a hyperalkaline lake in California, which was also at the apex of a multiyear-long drought.

Environmental and Biological Influences on Carbonate Precipitation Within Hot Spring Microbial Mats in Little Hot Creek, CA.

Microbial mats are found in a variety of modern environments, with evidence for their presence as old as the Archean. There is much debate about the rates and conditions of processes that eventually lithify and preserve mats as microbialites. Here, we apply novel tracer experiments to quantify both mat biomass addition and the formation of CaCO.

Microscale Biosignatures and Abiotic Mineral Authigenesis in Little Hot Creek, California.

Hot spring environments can create physical and chemical gradients favorable for unique microbial life. They can also include authigenic mineral precipitates that may preserve signs of biological activity on Earth and possibly other planets. The abiogenic or biogenic origins of such precipitates can be difficult to discern, therefore a better understanding of mineral formation processes is critical for the accurate interpretation of biosignatures from hot springs.

Genome Sequence of a Byssochlamys sp. Strain Isolated from Fouled B20 Biodiesel.

sp. strain AF001 is a filamentous fungus isolated from fouled B20 biodiesel. Its growth on B20 biodiesel results in the degradation and fouling of the fuel and higher rates of corrosion in affected storage tanks.

Finished Genome Sequence of a Polyurethane-Degrading Pseudomonas Isolate.

sp. strain WP001 is a laboratory isolate capable of polyurethane polymer degradation and harbors a predicted lipase precursor gene. The genome of strain WP001 is 6.

Carbonate-rich dendrolitic cones: insights into a modern analog for incipient microbialite formation, Little Hot Creek, Long Valley Caldera, California.

Ancient putative microbial structures that appear in the rock record commonly serve as evidence of early life on Earth, but the details of their formation remain unclear. The study of modern microbial mat structures can help inform the properties of their ancient counterparts, but modern mineralizing mat systems with morphological similarity to ancient structures are rare. Here, we characterize partially lithified microbial mats containing cm-scale dendrolitic coniform structures from a geothermal pool ("Cone Pool") at Little Hot Creek, California, that if fully lithified, would resemble ancient dendrolitic structures known from the rock record.

Unique amalgamation of primary and secondary structural elements transform peptaibols into potent bioactive cell-penetrating peptides.

Mass-spectrometry-based metabolomics and molecular phylogeny data were used to identify a metabolically prolific strain of that was obtained from a deep-water Great Lakes sediment sample. An investigation of the isolate's secondary metabolome resulted in the purification of a 22-mer peptaibol, gichigamin A (1). This peptidic natural product exhibited an amino acid sequence including several β-alanines that occurred in a repeating motif, causing the compound to adopt a unique right-handed 3 helical structure.