Effectiveness of TRIzol in Inactivating Animal Pathogens.

Introduction: Safe handling of biological samples sourced from wild ecosystems is a pressing concern for scientists in disparate fields, including ecology and evolution, OneHealth initiatives, bioresources, geography, veterinary medicine, conservation, and many others. This is especially relevant given the growing global research community and collaborative networks that often span international borders. Treatments to inactivate potential pathogens of concern during transportation and analysis of biospecimens while preserving molecular structures of interest are necessary.

Assessing urinary odours across the oestrous cycle in a mouse model using portable and benchtop gas chromatography-mass spectrometry.

For female mammals, communicating the timing of ovulation is essential for reproduction. Olfactory communication via volatile organic compounds (VOCs) can play a key role. We investigated urinary VOCs across the oestrous cycle using laboratory mice.

Genetic evidence of widespread variation in ethanol metabolism among mammals: revisiting the 'myth' of natural intoxication.

Humans have a long evolutionary relationship with ethanol, pre-dating anthropogenic sources, and possess unusually efficient ethanol metabolism, through a mutation that evolved in our last common ancestor with African great apes. Increased exposure to dietary ethanol through fermenting fruits and nectars is hypothesized to have selected for this in our lineage. Yet, other mammals have frugivorous and nectarivorous diets, raising the possibility of natural ethanol exposure and adaptation in other taxa.

Platyrrhine color signals: New horizons to pursue.

Like catarrhines, some platyrrhines show exposed and reddish skin, raising the possibility that reddish signals have evolved convergently. This variation in skin exposure and color combined with sex-linked polymorphic color vision in platyrrhines presents a unique, and yet underexplored, opportunity to investigate the relative importance of chromatic versus achromatic signals, the influence of color perception on signal evolution, and to understand primate communication broadly. By coding the facial skin exposure and color of 96 platyrrhines, 28 catarrhines, 7 strepsirrhines, 1 tarsiiform, and 13 nonprimates, and by simulating the ancestral character states for these traits, we provide the first analysis of the distribution and evolution of facial skin exposure and color in platyrrhini.

A Method for Comprehensive Proteomic Analysis of Human Faecal Samples to Investigate Gut Dysbiosis in Patients with Cystic Fibrosis.

Background: This chapter reports the evaluation of two shotgun metaproteomic workflows. The methods were developed to investigate gut dysbiosis via analysis of the faecal microbiota from patients with cystic fibrosis (CF). We aimed to set up an unbiased and effective method to extract the entire proteome, i.

Faecal proteomics: A tool to investigate dysbiosis and inflammation in patients with cystic fibrosis.

Background: Several microbial studies reported gut microbiota dysbiosis in patients with cystic fibrosis (CF). The functional consequences of this phenomenon are poorly understood. Faecal metaproteomics allows the quantitative analysis of host and microbial proteins to address functional changes resulting from this dysbiosis.

Photobacterium sanctipauli sp. nov. isolated from bleached Madracis decactis (Scleractinia) in the St Peter & St Paul Archipelago, Mid-Atlantic Ridge, Brazil.

Five novel strains of Photobacterium (A-394T, A-373, A-379, A-397 and A-398) were isolated from bleached coral Madracis decactis (scleractinian) in the remote St Peter & St Archipelago (SPSPA), Mid-Atlantic Ridge, Brazil. Healthy M. decactis specimens were also surveyed, but no strains were related to them.

Vibrio madracius sp. nov. isolated from Madracis decactis (Scleractinia) in St Peter & St Paul Archipelago, Mid-Atlantic Ridge, Brazil.

Three novel isolates (A-354(T), A-328, and A-384) were retrieved from apparently healthy scleractinian Madracis decactis in the remote St Peter & St Paul Archipelago, Mid-Atlantic Ridge, Brazil. The novel isolates formed a distinct lineage based on the phylogenetic reconstruction using the 16S rRNA and pyrH gene sequences. They fell into the Mediterranei clade and their closest phylogenetic neighbour was V.

Amoxicillin-clavulanic acid resistance in fecal Enterobacteriaceae from patients with cystic fibrosis and healthy siblings.

Background: The present study set out to detect and identify amoxicillin-clavulanic acid (AMC)-resistant Enterobacteriaceae in fecal samples of two patients with cystic fibrosis (CF) and their respective siblings.

Methods: Fecal Enterobacteriaceae were enumerated onto EMB agar containing amoxicillin (AMX). A total of 173 CF isolates and 41 sibling isolates were grouped into seven Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption Ionization-Time of Flight Mass Spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) clusters and identified through 16S rRNA and rpoB sequence analysis.

Dysbiosis of bifidobacteria and Clostridium cluster XIVa in the cystic fibrosis fecal microbiota.

Background: Recurrent antimicrobial interventions and disease-related intestinal dysfunction are suspected to contribute to the dysbiosis of the gastrointestinal microbial ecosystem in patients with cystic fibrosis (CF). The present study set out to detect and identify microbial discriminants in the gut microbiota composition that are associated with CF-related intestinal dysbiosis.

Methods: An in-depth description of CF-associated gut dysbiosis was obtained by screening denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) fingerprints for potentially discriminating bacterial species, and quantification by means of real-time PCR analyses using group-specific primers.

Cross-sectional and longitudinal comparisons of the predominant fecal microbiota compositions of a group of pediatric patients with cystic fibrosis and their healthy siblings.

Although only poorly documented, it can be assumed that intensive antibiotic treatments of chronic lung infections in patients with cystic fibrosis (CF) also affect the diversity and metabolic functioning of the gastrointestinal microbiota and potentially lead to a state of dysbiosis. A better knowledge of the differences in gut microbiota composition and stability between patients with CF and healthy subjects could lead to optimization of current antibiotic therapies and/or development of add-on therapies. Using conventional culturing and population fingerprinting by denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) of 16S rRNA amplicons, we compared the predominant fecal microbiota of 21 patients with CF and 24 healthy siblings in a cross-sectional study.