Deciphering the mechanisms of action underlying probiotic properties of Shouchella clausii by a functional genomics approach.

Probiotics are widely used for their health promoting effects, though a lot remain to be discovered, particularly on their mechanisms of action at the molecular level. The functional genomic approach is an appropriate method to decipher how probiotics may influence human cell fate and therefore contribute to their health benefit. In the present work, we focused on Shouchella clausii (formerly named Bacillus then Alkalihalobacillus clausii), a spore-forming bacterium that is commercially available as a probiotic for the prevention and the treatment of intestinal dysbiosis and related gastrointestinal disorders, such as diarrhoea.

Complex sporulation-specific expression of transcription termination factor Rho highlights its involvement in Bacillus subtilis cell differentiation.

Termination factor Rho, responsible for the main factor-dependent pathway of transcription termination and the major inhibitor of antisense transcription, is an emerging regulator of various physiological processes in microorganisms. In Gram-positive bacterium Bacillus subtilis, Rho is involved in the control of cell adaptation to starvation and, in particular, in the control of sporulation, a complex differentiation program leading to the formation of a highly resistant dormant spore. While the initiation of sporulation requires a decrease in Rho protein levels during the transition to stationary phase, the mechanisms regulating the expression of rho gene throughout the cell cycle remain largely unknown.

Adaptive Radiotherapy for Carcinoma Endometrium With Lymphocele: A Case Report.

The case report details the adaptive radiotherapy management of a 75-year-old female diagnosed with high-grade endometrial carcinoma. The patient, who was known to be hypertensive with no other comorbidities and no family history of cancer, presented with a complaint of bleeding per vagina for six months. Following extensive investigations, she underwent a laparoscopic radical hysterectomy.

A Multimodality Treatment Approach for the Management of Recurrent Cervical Cancer in an Elderly Female Patient: A Case Report.

Squamous cells in the cervix can develop into a type of cervical cancer. Cervical squamous cells are the cells that line the outside of the cervix. These thin, flat cells have a striking resemblance to fish scales under a microscope.

Identification of hydrogeological and geoelectrical parameters influencing the productivity of boreholes in the commune of Daloa (Central-Western of Côte d'Ivoire).

This study was to determine the hydrogeological and geoelectrical parameters affecting the productivity of water boreholes in the Daloa commune. Using the Schlumberger configuration, we carried out 15 parallel and perpendicular electrical profiling and 40 Vertical Electrical Soundings (VES). We also performed Electrical Resistivity Tomography (ERT) with a pole-dipole configuration at one site.

Combining Fusion of Cells with CRISPR-Cas9 Editing for the Cloning of Large DNA Fragments or Complete Bacterial Genomes in Yeast.

The genetic engineering of genome fragments larger than 100 kbp is challenging and requires both specific methods and cloning hosts. The yeast is considered as a host of choice for cloning and engineering whole or partial genomes from viruses, bacteria, and algae. Several methods are now available to perform these manipulations, each with its own limitations.

What remains from living cells in bacterial lysate-based cell-free systems.

Because they mimic cells while offering an accessible and controllable environment, lysate-based cell-free systems (CFS) have emerged as valuable biotechnology tools for synthetic biology. Historically used to uncover fundamental mechanisms of life, CFS are nowadays used for a multitude of purposes, including protein production and prototyping of synthetic circuits. Despite the conservation of fundamental functions in CFS like transcription and translation, RNAs and certain membrane-embedded or membrane-bound proteins of the host cell are lost when preparing the lysate.

Somatic and Depressive Symptoms Among Children From Latin America and the English-Speaking Caribbean.

Background: The extent to which depression is associated with somatic complaints in children from the English-speaking Caribbean and Latin America is not well established.

Objective: We sought to explore the association between depressive and somatic symptoms among children from the English-speaking Caribbean and Latin America, while accounting for age, sex, socioeconomic status, cultural background, and anxiety score.

Method: 1541 elementary school children, ages 9-12 years, from the English-speaking Caribbean and Latin America completed the Adolescent Depression Rating Scale (ARDS), the Numeric 0-10 Anxiety Self-Report Scale and the Children's Somatic Symptom Inventory-24 (CSSI-24).

Greedy reduction of Bacillus subtilis genome yields emergent phenotypes of high resistance to a DNA damaging agent and low evolvability.

Genome-scale engineering enables rational removal of dispensable genes in chassis genomes. Deviating from this approach, we applied greedy accumulation of deletions of large dispensable regions in the Bacillus subtilis genome, yielding a library of 298 strains with genomes reduced up to 1.48 Mb in size.

Termination factor Rho mediates transcriptional reprogramming of Bacillus subtilis stationary phase.

Transcription termination factor Rho is known for its ubiquitous role in suppression of pervasive, mostly antisense, transcription. In the model Gram-positive bacterium Bacillus subtilis, de-repression of pervasive transcription by inactivation of rho revealed the role of Rho in the regulation of post-exponential differentiation programs. To identify other aspects of the regulatory role of Rho during adaptation to starvation, we have constructed a B.

Arsenate decreases production of methylmercury across increasing sulfate concentration amendments in freshwater lake sediments.

Arsenic (As) and sulfate pollution are often found co-occurring as a result of smelting metal ores. Previous studies showed that sulfate reducing microbes (SRMs) can use As(V) as a terminal electron acceptor, while others reported that SRMs are the main mercury (Hg) methylators in freshwater systems. However, we have yet to fully explore how As(V) can affect methylmercury (MeHg) production.

Four species of bacteria deterministically assemble to form a stable biofilm in a millifluidic channel.

Multispecies microbial adherent communities are widespread in nature and organisms, although the principles of their assembly and development remain unclear. Here, we test the possibility of establishing a simplified but relevant model of multispecies biofilm in a non-invasive laboratory setup for the real-time monitoring of community development. We demonstrate that the four chosen species (Bacillus thuringiensis, Pseudomonas fluorescens, Kocuria varians, and Rhodocyclus sp.

Epidemic Dynamics via Wavelet Theory and Machine Learning with Applications to Covid-19.

We introduce the concept of epidemic-fitted wavelets which comprise, in particular, as special cases the number I(t) of infectious individuals at time in classical SIR models and their derivatives. We present a novel method for modelling epidemic dynamics by a model selection method using wavelet theory and, for its applications, machine learning-based curve fitting techniques. Our universal models are functions that are finite linear combinations of epidemic-fitted wavelets.

A psycho-social analysis of depression, anxiety and student engagement: Effects of parenting practices.

The extent to which students' level of depressive and anxiety symptoms and student engagement were predicted by parental emotional support, monitoring and harsh parenting was investigated using a series of multiple regression analyses. Grade six students from public primary schools ( = 293; 49% females, 51% males; mean age = 10 years) in Barbados completed the Revised Children's Anxiety and Depression Scale, a Parenting Questionnaire and an adapted Student Engagement scale. Students' level of depressive symptoms were predicted by parental emotional support and harsh parenting, but not by parental monitoring.

SppI Forms a Membrane Protein Complex with SppA and Inhibits Its Protease Activity in Bacillus subtilis.

The membrane protease SppA of was first described as a signal peptide peptidase and later shown to confer resistance to lantibiotics. Here, we report that SppA forms octameric complexes with YteJ, a membrane protein of thus-far-unknown function. Interestingly, and deletion mutants exhibited no protein secretion defects.

Extrinsic noise prevents the independent tuning of gene expression noise and protein mean abundance in bacteria.

It is generally accepted that prokaryotes can tune gene expression noise independently of protein mean abundance by varying the relative levels of transcription and translation. Here, we address this question quantitatively, using a custom-made library of 40 strains expressing a fluorescent protein under the control of different transcription and translation control elements. We quantify noise and mean protein abundance by fluorescence microscopy and show that for most of the natural transcription range of , expression noise is equally sensitive to variations in the transcription or translation rate because of the prevalence of extrinsic noise.

Bacterial growth physiology and RNA metabolism.

Bacteria are sophisticated systems with high capacity and flexibility to adapt to various environmental conditions. Each prokaryote however possesses a defined metabolic network, which sets its overall metabolic capacity, and therefore the maximal growth rate that can be reached. To achieve optimal growth, bacteria adopt various molecular strategies to optimally adjust gene expression and optimize resource allocation according to the nutrient availability.

Differentiation of Vegetative Cells into Spores: a Kinetic Model Applied to Bacillus subtilis.

Spore-forming bacteria are natural contaminants of food raw materials, and sporulation can occur in many environments from farm to fork. In order to characterize and to predict spore formation over time, we developed a model that describes both the kinetics of growth and the differentiation of vegetative cells into spores. The model is based on a classical growth model and enables description of the kinetics of sporulation with the addition of three parameters specific to sporulation.

Passive guided waves measurements using fiber Bragg gratings sensors.

Guided elastic waves are often studied as an effective solution for Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) systems of plate-like structures thanks to the capacity to propagate on large distances. In typical applications such as monitoring delaminations in aircraft fuselage, a network made of piezoelectric transducer (PZT) is used to emit and receive such waves in the structure. Fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensors on optical fibers are a promising alternative to PZT for guided waves measurements in practical applications due to the capacity for dense multiplexing and robustness with respect to the environment.

Validation of the Kutcher Adolescent Depression Scale in a Caribbean student sample.

Background: Research on depression among Caribbean children has been limited by a lack of valid and reliable measures. We addressed this problem by exploring the internal consistency reliability and the concurrent and discriminant validity of the Kutcher Adolescent Depression Rating Scale (KADS) among a wide cross-section of the student population attending elementary schools in Jamaica and Barbados.

Methods: Students enrolled in grade 6 in a cross-section of schools in Jamaica and Barbados were invited to participate in the study.

The logics of metabolic regulation in bacteria challenges biosensor-based metabolic engineering.

Synthetic Biology (SB) aims at the rational design and engineering of novel biological functions and systems. By facilitating the engineering of living organisms, SB promises to facilitate the development of many new applications for health, biomanufacturing, and the environment. Over the last decade, SB promoted the construction of libraries of components enabling the fine-tuning of genetic circuits expression and the development of novel genome engineering methodologies for many organisms of interest.

Molecular and Physiological Logics of the Pyruvate-Induced Response of a Novel Transporter in .

At the heart of central carbon metabolism, pyruvate is a pivotal metabolite in all living cells. is able to excrete pyruvate as well as to use it as the sole carbon source. We herein reveal that (renamed ), the only operon specifically induced in pyruvate-grown cells, encodes a hetero-oligomeric membrane complex which operates as a facilitated transport system specific for pyruvate, thereby defining a novel class of transporter.

Translation elicits a growth rate-dependent, genome-wide, differential protein production in Bacillus subtilis.

Complex regulatory programs control cell adaptation to environmental changes by setting condition-specific proteomes. In balanced growth, bacterial protein abundances depend on the dilution rate, transcript abundances and transcript-specific translation efficiencies. We revisited the current theory claiming the invariance of bacterial translation efficiency.

Quantitative prediction of genome-wide resource allocation in bacteria.

Predicting resource allocation between cell processes is the primary step towards decoding the evolutionary constraints governing bacterial growth under various conditions. Quantitative prediction at genome-scale remains a computational challenge as current methods are limited by the tractability of the problem or by simplifying hypotheses. Here, we show that the constraint-based modeling method Resource Balance Analysis (RBA), calibrated using genome-wide absolute protein quantification data, accurately predicts resource allocation in the model bacterium Bacillus subtilis for a wide range of growth conditions.