Microbiol Resour Announc
November 2024
Wildflower is a cluster O mycobacteriophage with a siphoviral morphotype that displays lytic activity in . It was isolated from soil in Johannesburg, South Africa. The double-stranded genome consists of 69,364 base pairs with a GC content of 65.
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December 2023
Ongoing SARS-CoV-2 infections are driven by the emergence of various variants, with differential propensities to escape immune containment. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the RNA genome result in altered protein structures and when these changes occur in the -gene, encoding the spike protein, the ability of the virus to penetrate host cells to initiate an infection can be significantly altered. As a result, vaccine efficacy and prior immunity may be diminished, potentially leading to new waves of infection.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWith the onset of COVID-19, the development of ex vivo laboratory models became an urgent priority to study host-pathogen interactions in response to the pandemic. In this study, we aimed to establish an ex vivo mucosal tissue explant challenge model for studying SARS-CoV-2 infection and replication. Nasal or oral tissue samples were collected from eligible participants and explants generated from the tissue were infected with various SARS-CoV-2 strains, including IC19 (lineage B.
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September 2023
Introduction: Oral and/or tongue swabs have demonstrated ability to detect in adults with pulmonary tuberculosis (TB). Swabs provide useful alternative specimens for diagnosis of TB using molecular assays however, the diagnostic pickup by culture requires further improvement and development. Several studies identified the presence of differentially culturable tubercle bacilli (DCTB) populations in a variety of clinical specimens.
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October 2023
Azrael100, a cluster V siphoviral mycobacteriophage, was isolated from a garden in Johannesburg, South Africa. It can infect and lyse mc155. The double-stranded DNA genome contains 78,063 base pairs with a GC content of 56.
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January 2023
COVID-19 has resulted in nearly 598 million infections and over 6.46 million deaths since the start of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic in 2019. The rapid onset of the pandemic, combined with the emergence of viral variants, crippled many health systems particularly from the perspective of coping with massive diagnostic loads.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPenicillin binding proteins (PBPs) are the target of numerous antimicrobial agents that disrupt bacterial cell wall synthesis. In mycobacteria, cell elongation occurs through insertion of nascent cell wall material in the sub-polar region, a process largely driven by High Molecular Weight PBPs. In contrast, the function of DD-carboxypeptidases (DD-CPases), which are Low Molecular Weight Class 1C PBPs, in mycobacteria remains poorly understood.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDisruption of peptidoglycan (PG) biosynthesis in the bacterial cell wall by β-lactam antibiotics has transformed therapeutic options for bacterial infections. These antibiotics target the transpeptidase domains in penicillin binding proteins (PBPs), which can be classified into high and low molecular weight (LMW) counterparts. While the essentiality of the former has been extensively demonstrated, the physiological roles of LMW PBPs remain poorly understood.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTuberculosis (TB) is the leading cause of death from an infectious bacterial disease. Poor diagnostic tools to detect active disease plague TB control programs and affect patient care. Accurate detection of live (Mtb), the causative agent of TB, could improve TB diagnosis and patient treatment.
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