Zosteric acid (ZA) is a secondary metabolite of the seagrass with antibiofilm activity against fungi. Information concerning its mechanisms of action is lacking and this limits the development of more potent derivatives based on the same target and activity structure. The aim of this work was to investigate the ZA mode of action by analyzing the metabolic status of biofilm and its protein expression profile upon ZA treatment.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMater Sci Eng C Mater Biol Appl
September 2021
Antimicrobial Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) was obtained by covalent bonding of zinc oxide nanoparticles, which have gained important achievements in antimicrobial fields because of their auspicious properties. This was achieved by grafting mercaptopropyltrimethoxysilane onto PVC, followed by the growth of zinc oxide nanoparticles covalently bonded on the polymer surface. In this study, the relationship between the physicochemical features of modified-surface PVC and antimicrobial activity on Staphylococcus aureus and Candida albicans was investigated.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRibosomal RNA in fungi is encoded by a series of genes and spacers included in a large operon present in 100 tandem repeats, normally in a single locus. The multigene nature of this locus was somehow masked by Sanger sequencing, which produces a single sequence reporting the prevalent nucleotide of each site. The introduction of next generation sequencing led to deeper knowledge of the individual sequences (reads) and therefore of the variants between the same DNA sequences located in different tandem repeats.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFYeast taxonomy was introduced based on the idea that physiological properties would help discriminate species, thus assuming a strong link between physiology and taxonomy. However, the instability of physiological characteristics within species configured them as not ideal markers for species delimitation, shading the importance of physiology and paving the way to the DNA-based taxonomy. The hypothesis of reconnecting taxonomy with specific traits from phylogenies has been successfully explored for Bacteria and Archaea, suggesting that a similar route can be traveled for yeasts.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn yeast engineering, metabolic burden is often linked to the reprogramming of resources from regular cellular activities to guarantee recombinant protein(s) production. Therefore, growth parameters can be significantly influenced. Two recombinant strains, previously developed by the multiple δ-integration of a glucoamylase in the industrial 27P, did not display any detectable metabolic burden.
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