Phenotypic and genotypic characteristics of Pseudomonas aeruginosa strains isolated from hospitals in the north-west region of Poland.

A total of 90 Pseudomonas aeruginosa strains isolated from 4 hospitals in the west-north region of Poland were studied by arbitrarily primed polymerase chain reaction (AP-PCR). AP-PCR results revealed the presence of 11 main groups of patterns (A-K) and 5 unique patterns among isolates. Generally, they were characterized by high resistance to antibiotics tested and significant differences in serogroups and types of growth on Cetrimide Agar medium.

Effects of massaging on hardness, rheological properties, and structure of four wild boar muscles of different fibre type content and age.

Histochemistry (percentage number of three type fibres and their cross-sectional area) and changes in hardness, rheological properties (elastic and viscous moduli), and structural elements (mean fibre cross-sectional area and thickness of endomysium) of four wild boar muscles of different ages: biceps femoris (BF), semimembranosus (SM), quadriceps femoris (QF), and longissimus (L) subjected to effective massaging for 1, 2, 3, and 4h were evaluated. BF, with the high percentage of type I fibres, higher mean fibre cross-sectional area, thicker endomysium as compared with QF, SM and L, was harder, more elastic, and more viscous than the other three muscles. Muscles of older boars were found to contain higher percentages of type I fibres, lower percentages of type IIB fibres, bigger muscle fibre cross-sectional areas, thicker endomysium and higher values of hardness than the same muscles of young boars, whereas the percentage of type IIA fibres was about the same in the muscles of both groups.

Classical and molecular analyses to characterize commercial dry yeasts used in wine fermentations.

Aims: The aim of the work was to apply PCR-temperature gradient gel electrophoresis (PCR-TGGE) and restriction enzyme analysis (RE) assays to identify commercially available starters of Saccharomyces cerevisiae sensu stricto complex.

Methods And Results: To characterize an analysed pool of 62 active dry yeasts of different brands used in wine fermentation practices, classical microbiological tests were also performed as well as evaluation of contamination with lactic acid bacteria and non-Saccharomyces yeasts. PCR-TGGE and RE were used in order to provide fast and reliable methods to identify and differentiate enological yeasts.

The possible effect of a sanitization program on intraspecies differentiation of Listeria monocytogenes strains isolated from a fish processing plant.

Forty-seven Listeria monocytogenes strains isolated during a year in a selected Polish fish-processing plant as well as 7 L. monocytogenes strains of different origins (including a reference strain) were analyzed in our studies. Strains were isolated from raw fish fillets (flounder), frozen coated flounder fillets, coating ingredients, and the processing environment.

Optimisation of AP-PCR fingerprinting discriminatory power for clinical isolates of Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

Recently methods based on analysis of arbitrarily amplified target sites of microorganism genomes have been extensively applied in microbiological studies. The range of their applications is limited by problems with discrimination and reproducibility resulting from lack of standardised and reliable methods of optimisation. By orthogonal-array optimisation most advantageous and optimal parameters for highly discriminatory primers (CagA2+CMVin2) were selected and efficient AP-PCR (arbitrarily primed-polymerase chain reaction) fingerprinting conditions for Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolates were set up.