Insects as Feed for Companion and Exotic Pets: A Current Trend.

The objective of this review was to carry out a comprehensive investigation of the benefits of incorporating insects as a pet food ingredient and the implications this can have in determining a market demand for insect-based pet foods. Black soldier fly larvae (), mealworm larvae () and adult house crickets () are currently used in pet food. These insects are widely fed to exotic pets, mainly in whole, live or dehydrated formats.

Fluorescence enzymatic assay for bacterial polyphosphate kinase 1 (PPK1) as a platform for screening antivirulence molecules.

Inorganic polyphosphate (polyP) and its metabolic enzymes are important in several cellular processes related with virulence and antibiotic susceptibility. Accordingly, bacterial polyP synthesis has been proposed as a good target for designing novel antivirulence molecules as alternative to conventional antibiotics. In most pathogenic bacteria, polyphosphate kinase 1 (PPK1), in charge of polyP synthesis from ATP, is widely conserved.

Dictyostelium discoideum as a surrogate host-microbe model for antivirulence screening in Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1.

The interest of the pharmaceutical industry in developing new antibiotics is decreasing, as established screening systems which identify compounds that kill or inhibit the growth of bacteria can no longer be used. Consequently, antimicrobial screening using classical minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) measurements is becoming obsolete. The discovery of antimicrobial agents that specifically target a bacterial pathogen without affecting the host and its beneficial bacteria is a promising strategy.