Cost-Effective Method to Perform SARS-CoV-2 Variant Surveillance: Detection of Alpha, Gamma, Lambda, Delta, Epsilon, and Zeta in Argentina.

SARS-CoV-2 variants with concerning characteristics have emerged since the end of 2020. Surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 variants was performed on a total of 4,851 samples from the capital city and 10 provinces of Argentina, during 51 epidemiological weeks (EWs) that covered the end of the first wave and the ongoing second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in the country (EW 44/2020 to EW 41/2021). The surveillance strategy was mainly based on Sanger sequencing of a Spike coding region that allows the identification of signature mutations associated with variants.

Screening assay for inhibitors of a recombinant Streptococcus pneumoniae UDP-glucose pyrophosphorylase.

The UDP-glucose pyrophosphorylase of Streptococcus pneumoniae (GalU) is absolutely required for the biosynthesis of capsular polysaccharide, the sine qua non virulence factor of pneumococcus. Since the eukaryotic enzymes are completely unrelated to their prokaryotic counterparts, we propose that the GalU enzyme is a critical target to fight the pneumococcal disease. A recombinant GalU was overexpressed and purified.

Rich bacterial assemblages from Maritime Antarctica (Potter Cove, South Shetlands) reveal several kinds of endemic and undescribed phylotypes.

Bacterial richness in maritime Antarctica has been poorly described to date. Phylogenetic affiliation of seawater free-living microbial assemblages was studied from three locations near the Argentinean Jubany Station during two Antarctic summers. Sixty 16S RNA cloned sequences were phylogenetically affiliated to Alphaproteobacteria (30/60 clones), Gammaproteobacteria(19/60 clones), Betaproteobacteria and Cytophaga-Flavobacteriia-Bacteroides (CFB), which were (2/60) and (3/60) respectively.

Genetically engineered horseradish peroxidase for facilitated purification from baculovirus cultures by cation-exchange chromatography.

An engineered horseradish peroxidase isozyme C (HRP C) gene was constructed by the addition of a 6xArg fusion tail to 6xHis-HRP C by the PCR strategy. The 6xHis-6xArg-HRP C cDNA was expressed in the Sf9 insect cell line from Spodoptera frugiperda infected with Autographa californica nuclear polyhedrosis virus. The recombinant peroxidase isoelectric point was 9.