Publications by authors named "Comerci D"

Growth rate is a key prokaryotic trait that allows for estimating fitness and understanding cell metabolism. While it has been well studied in model organisms, there is limited data on slow-growing bacteria. In particular, there is a lack of quantitative studies on Brucella species.

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Shiga toxin-producing (STEC) are the main etiological agents of hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS). Good clinical management of STEC infections and HUS depends on early, rapid, and accurate diagnosis. Here, we have developed and evaluated the first multiplex and glycoprotein-based immunochromatographic test for the detection of IgM antibodies against the O-polysaccharide of the lipopolysaccharide of O157 and O145 in human serum samples.

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Background: Cyclic β-1,2-glucans (CβG) are bacterial cyclic homopolysaccharides with interesting biotechnological applications. These ring-shaped molecules have a hydrophilic surface that confers high solubility and a hydrophobic cavity able to include poorly soluble molecules. Several studies demonstrate that CβG and many derivatives can be applied in drug solubilization and stabilization, enantiomer separation, catalysis, synthesis of nanomaterials and even as immunomodulators, suggesting these molecules have great potential for their industrial and commercial exploitation.

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The α-Proteobacteria belonging to Bradyrhizobium genus are microorganisms of extreme slow growth. Despite their extended use as inoculants in soybean production, their physiology remains poorly characterized. In this work, we produced quantitative data on four different isolates: B.

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Members of the genus Brucella are the causative agents of brucellosis, a worldwide zoonosis affecting wild and domestic animals and humans. These facultative intracellular pathogens cause long-lasting chronic infections by evolving sophisticated strategies to counteract, evade, or subvert host bactericidal mechanisms in order to establish a secure replicative niche necessary for their survival. In this review, we present recent findings on selected Brucella effectors to illustrate how this pathogen modulates host cell signaling pathways to gain control of the vacuole, promote the formation of a safe intracellular replication niche, alter host cell metabolism to its advantage, and exploit various cellular pathways to ensure egress from the infected cell.

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Article Synopsis
  • Bacteria from the genus Brucella cause brucellosis, a serious disease affecting both animals and humans, and have been controversially merged with other unrelated bacterial species based on genomic findings.
  • Researchers argue this merger is inappropriate due to lack of thorough phylogenetic analysis and exclusion of expert opinions in brucellosis.
  • They warn that combining these groups could lead to confusion and risks in public health, particularly impacting those dealing with brucellosis in under-resourced regions, and call for keeping the Brucella genus distinct.
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Brucellosis remains one of the most worldwide distributed zoonosis inflicting serious economical and human health problems in many areas of the world. The disease is caused by different species of the genus Brucella that have different tropisms towards different mammals being the most relevant for human health Brucella abortus, Brucella melitensis and Brucella suis that infect cows, goats/sheep, and swine respectively. For B.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study examines how the positional arrangement of ribosomal protein genes, specifically the S10 locus, affects the growth and adaptability of Vibrio cholerae, revealing that distance from the replication origin impacts fitness and infectivity.
  • Over 1,000 generations, the bacteria evolved, showing that while growth rates improved for all populations, those with S10 closer to the replication origin were the most fit, indicating that gene order plays a critical role in evolution.
  • The findings suggest that altering the genomic location of important genes could be a viable strategy for genetic engineering, as gene order significantly influences cellular physiology despite the plastic nature of genomic content in bacteria.
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Article Synopsis
  • Bovine brucellosis is a significant zoonotic disease that affects cattle and poses economic and public health challenges, highlighting the need for effective diagnostic tools.
  • A new immunochromatographic test, called Brucella GlycoStrip, was developed to detect IgG antibodies in bovine serum and showed high sensitivity and specificity (96.9% and 100%, respectively) for diagnosing the disease.
  • This rapid (10-minute) test can differentiate between infected and vaccinated animals, making it a valuable tool for controlling bovine brucellosis in field settings.
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Rhomboids are intramembrane serine proteases highly conserved in the three domains of life. Their key roles in eukaryotes are well understood but their contribution to bacterial physiology is still poorly characterized. Here we demonstrate that , the etiological agent of the zoonosis called brucellosis, encodes an active rhomboid protease capable of cleaving model heterologous substrates like Gurken and TatA.

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The intestinal mucosa is lined by epithelial cells, which are key cells to sustain gut homeostasis. Food allergy is an immune-mediated adverse reaction to food, likely due to defective regulatory circuits. is a non-pathogenic bacterium with immunomodulatory properties.

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Background: In fast-growing bacteria, the genomic location of ribosomal protein (RP) genes is biased towards the replication origin (oriC). This trait allows optimizing their expression during exponential phase since oriC neighboring regions are in higher dose due to multifork replication. Relocation of s10-spc-α locus (S10), which codes for most of the RP, to ectopic genomic positions shows that its relative distance to the oriC correlates to a reduction on its dosage, its expression, and bacterial growth rate.

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Shiga toxin (Stx)-producing (STEC) is the main cause of postdiarrheal hemolytic-uremic syndrome (HUS), a life-threatening clinical complication characterized by hemolytic anemia, thrombocytopenia, and acute renal failure that mainly affects children. A relevant feature of STEC strains is the production of Stx, and all of them express Stx1 and/or Stx2 regardless of the strain serotype. Therefore, Stx detection assays are considered the most suitable methods for the early detection of STEC infections.

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l-Serine is a nonessential amino acid and a key intermediate in several relevant metabolic pathways. In bacteria, the major source of l-serine is the phosphorylated pathway, which comprises three enzymes: d-3-phosphoglycerate dehydrogenase (PGDH; SerA), phosphoserine amino transferase (PSAT; SerC), and l-phosphoserine phosphatase (PSP; SerB). The genome encodes two PGDHs (SerA-1 and SerA-2), involved in the first step in l-serine biosynthesis, and one PSAT and one PSP, responsible for the second and third steps, respectively.

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Pathogenic microorganisms confront several proteolytic events in the molecular interplay with their host, highlighting that proteolysis and its regulation play an important role during infection. Microbial inhibitors, along with their target endogenous/exogenous enzymes, may directly affect the host's defense mechanisms and promote infection. Omp19 is a spp.

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In the last decades bacterial glycoengineering emerged as a new field as the result of the ability to transfer the Campylobacter jejuni N- glycosylation machinery into Escherichia coli for the production of recombinant glycoproteins that can be used as antigens for diagnosis, vaccines, and therapeutics. However, the identification of critical parameters implicated in the production process and its optimization to jump to a productive scale is still required. In this study, we developed a dual expression glycosylation vector for the production of the recombinant glycoprotein AcrA-O157, a novel antigen that allows the serodiagnosis of the infection with enterohemorrhagic E.

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Background: Providing proof of presence of Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC) infection forms the basis for differentiating STEC-hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) and atypical HUS. As the gold standard to diagnose STEC-HUS has limitations, using ELISA to detect serum antibodies against STEC lipopolysaccharides (LPS) has proven additional value.

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Cyclic β-1,2-D-glucans (CβG) are natural bionanopolymers present in the periplasmic space of many Proteobacteria. These molecules are sugar rings made of 17 to 25 D-glucose units linked exclusively by β-1,2-glycosidic bonds. CβG are important for environmental sensing and osmoadaptation in bacteria, but most importantly, they play key roles in complex host-cell interactions such as symbiosis, pathogenesis, and immunomodulation.

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The liver is frequently affected in patients with active brucellosis. The present study demonstrates that infection induces the activation of the autophagic pathway in hepatic stellate cells to create a microenvironment that promotes a profibrogenic phenotype through the induction of transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1), collagen deposition, and inhibition of matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9) secretion. Autophagy was revealed by upregulation of the LC3II/LC3I ratio and Beclin-1 expression as well as inhibition of p62 expression in infected cells.

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Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) is the major etiologic agent of hemolytic-uremic syndrome (HUS). The high rate of HUS emphasizes the urgency for the implementation of primary prevention strategies to reduce its public health impact. Argentina shows the highest rate of HUS worldwide, being E.

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Although inhalation of infected aerosols is a frequent route for infection in humans, it rarely causes pulmonary clinical manifestations, suggesting a mild or nearly absent local inflammatory response. The goal of this study was to characterize the early innate immune response to intratracheal infection with in mice and to evaluate whether it is modulated by this pathogen. After infection with 10 CFU of , the pulmonary bacterial burden at 7 days post-infection (p.

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Brucellosis is a widespread zoonotic disease caused by Brucella spp. Brucella canis is the etiological agent of canine brucellosis, a disease that can lead to sterility in bitches and dogs causing important economic losses in breeding kennels. Early and accurate diagnosis of canine brucellosis is central to control the disease and lower the risk of transmission to humans.

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, the causative agent of bovine brucellosis, invades and replicates within cells inside a membrane-bound compartment known as the containing vacuole (BCV). After trafficking along the endocytic and secretory pathways, BCVs mature into endoplasmic reticulum-derived compartments permissive for bacterial replication. Type IV Secretion System (VirB) is a major virulence factor essential for the biogenesis of the replicative organelle.

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Brucellosis is a bacterial infectious disease affecting a wide range of mammals and a neglected zoonosis caused by species of the genetically homogenous genus . As in most studies on bacterial diseases, research in brucellosis is carried out by using reference strains as canonical models to understand the mechanisms underlying host pathogen interactions. We performed whole genome sequencing analysis of the reference strain 2308 routinely used in our laboratory, including manual curated annotation accessible as an editable version through a link at https://en.

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Brucellosis is a highly zoonotic disease that affects animals and human beings. Brucella suis is the etiological agent of porcine brucellosis and one of the major human brucellosis pathogens. Laboratory diagnosis of porcine brucellosis mainly relies on serological tests, and it has been widely demonstrated that serological assays based on the detection of anti O-polysaccharide antibodies are the most sensitive tests.

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