Collaborative cytometric inter-laboratory ring test for probiotics quantification.

Introduction: Probiotics are live microorganisms that, when administered in adequate amounts, confer a health benefit on the host. From this definition, accurate enumeration of probiotic products is a necessity. Nonetheless, this definition does not specify the methods for assessing such viability.

Definition of an Indoor Air Sampling Strategy for SARS-CoV-2 Detection and Risk Management: Case Study in Kindergartens.

In the last two years, the world has been overwhelmed by SARS-CoV-2. One of the most important ways to prevent the spread of the virus is the control of indoor conditions: from surface hygiene to ventilation. Regarding the indoor environments, monitoring the presence of the virus in the indoor air seems to be promising, since there is strong evidence that airborne transmission through infected droplets and aerosols is its dominant transmission route.

Supranational Assessment of the Quality of Probiotics: Collaborative Initiative between Independent Accredited Testing Laboratories.

Recent acquisitions about the role of the microbiota in the functioning of the human body make it possible to envisage an increasing use of beneficial microbes, and more particularly of probiotics as well as their metabolites, as nutritional supplements. National and EU authorities are engaged in assuring the safety and quality of food supplements and in defining rules to assess and communicate their efficacy on human health. The quality of probiotics, intended as strains' identification, viability, and stability over time, is a crucial factor of credibility with consumers and health professionals.

Evaluation of prebiotic potential of refined psyllium (Plantago ovata) fiber in healthy women.

Goal: To assess the effects of the consumption of psyllium seed husk on fecal bifidobacteria in healthy women and the ability of fecal bifidobacteria to metabolize psyllium seed husk in vitro.

Background: Poor microbiologic evidences are nowadays available concerning the ability of psyllium seed husk to promote the growth of bifidobacteria in human gut.

Study: Eleven healthy women consumed 7.

Survival of yogurt bacteria in the human gut.

Whether Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus can be recovered after passage through the human gut was tested by feeding 20 healthy volunteers commercial yogurt. Yogurt bacteria were found in human feces, suggesting that they can survive transit in the gastrointestinal tract.

The uvrA gene is involved in oxidative and acid stress responses in Lactobacillus helveticus CNBL1156.

The uvrA gene of Lactobacillus helveticus CNBL1156 coding for subunit A of the excinuclease ABC complex involved in the nucleotide excision repair mechanism was identified. Analysis of the uvrA locus revealed the presence of three open reading frames, merR, sat and uvrA, which coded respectively for a MerR-like regulatory protein, a putative protein with homology to streptothricin acetyl transferase and for a UvrA protein. RNA analysis by northern blotting and RT-PCR showed that sat and uvrA were transcriptionally coupled.

Gene transfer of vancomycin and tetracycline resistances among Enterococcus faecalis during cheese and sausage fermentations.

This study assessed the frequency of transfer of two mobile genetic elements coding for virulence determinants and antibiotic resistance factors, into food associated enterococci during fermentation processes. First, the transfer of the pheromone-inducible pCF10 plasmid, carrying tetracycline resistance and aggregation substance (AS) as virulence factor, between clinical and food strains of Enterococcus faecalis, was investigated in models of cheese and fermented sausage. The experiments demonstrated that even in the absence of selective tetracycline pressure, plasmid pCF10 was transferred from E.