Fumigant Activity of Bacterial Volatile Organic Compounds against the Nematodes and .

Plant-parasitic nematodes infect a diversity of crops, resulting in severe economic losses in agriculture. Microbial volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are potential agents to control plant-parasitic nematodes and other pests. In this study, VOCs emitted by a dozen bacterial strains were analyzed using solid-phase microextraction followed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry.

Heat-killed cells of lactobacilli skew the immune response toward T helper 1 polarization in mouse splenocytes and dendritic cell-treated T cells.

It is believed that probiotics play an important role for the health of the host, including modulation of immune responses. Most studies have focused on the immunomodulatory effects of viable cells of lactic acid bacteria; however, we investigated those of heat-killed cells of lactic acid bacteria in this study. We first observed the effects on immune functions via stimulating splenocytes with three heat-killed Lactobacillus strains.