Role of Guinea Pigs (Cavia porcellus) Raised as Livestock in Ecuadorian Andes as Reservoirs of Zoonotic Yeasts.

Guinea pigs (Cavia porcellus) have been reared for centuries in the Andean region for ceremonial purposes or as the main ingredient of traditional foods. The animals are kept in close proximity of households and interact closely with humans; this also occurs in western countries, where guinea pigs are considered pets. Even though it is acknowledged that domestic animals carry pathogenic yeasts in their tissues and organs that can cause human diseases, almost nothing is known in the case of guinea pigs.

Climate change, melting cryosphere and frozen pathogens: Should we worry…?

Unlabelled: Permanently frozen environments (glaciers, permafrost) are considered as natural reservoirs of huge amounts of microorganisms, mostly dormant, including human pathogens. Due to global warming, which increases the rate of ice-melting, approximately 4 × 10 of these microorganisms are released annually from their frozen confinement and enter natural ecosystems, in close proximity to human settlements. Some years ago, the hypothesis was put forward that this massive release of potentially-pathogenic microbes-many of which disappeared from the face of the Earth thousands and even millions of years ago-could give rise to epidemics.

Perspectives for using glacial and periglacial microorganisms for plant growth promotion at low temperatures.

Even though they are among the most extreme environments in which life can develop, glaciers are colonized by metabolically active microbes, some of which thrive-in their own particular way-under the prevailing harsh conditions. Glacial or periglacial microbes are often psychrophiles since they are able to grow optimally at low temperatures. This ability has evolved through a series of adaptations, both molecular and physiological, some of which have been exploited by the biotechnological industry to develop useful products and processes.

Bioprospecting cold-adapted plant growth promoting microorganisms from mountain environments.

Mountain soils are challenging environments for all kinds of living things, including plants and microorganisms. Many cold-adapted microorganisms colonizing these extreme soils play important roles as promoters of plant growth and development; for that reason, they are called collectively plant growth-promoting microorganisms (PGPM). Even though there is seldom doubt concerning the usefulness of PGPM to develop eco-friendly bioinoculants, including biofertilizers and biocontrollers, a series of aspects need to be addressed in order to make this technology field-applicable.

Diversity of culturable bacteria recovered from Pico Bolívar's glacial and subglacial environments, at 4950 m, in Venezuelan tropical Andes.

Even though tropical glaciers are retreating rapidly and many will disappear in the next few years, their microbial diversity remains to be studied in depth. In this paper we report on the biodiversity of the culturable fraction of bacteria colonizing Pico Bolívar's glacier ice and subglacial meltwaters, at ∼4950 m in the Venezuelan Andean Mountains. Microbial cells of diverse morphologies and exhibiting uncompromised membranes were present at densities ranging from 1.