Analysis of a Pool of Small Plasmids from Soil Heterotrophic Cultivable Bacterial Communities.

In this work the analysis of the plasmid presence on soil aerobic cultivable heterotrophic bacterial communities was carried out checking a panel of 1,200 isolates, in order to establish the frequency of plasmid presence as well as the degree of plasmid flow between strains affiliated to the same or different taxon. Bacterial communities were isolated from two different sites of a 13-year experimental field with a clay-silt texture. Plasmid molecules were detected at low frequency (27 isolates, 2%) with a size ranging between 2 Kb and 40 Kb.

Soil bacterial community response to differences in agricultural management along with seasonal changes in a Mediterranean region.

Land-use change is considered likely to be one of main drivers of biodiversity changes in grassland ecosystems. To gain insight into the impact of land use on the underlying soil bacterial communities, we aimed at determining the effects of agricultural management, along with seasonal variations, on soil bacterial community in a Mediterranean ecosystem where different land-use and plant cover types led to the creation of a soil and vegetation gradient. A set of soils subjected to different anthropogenic impact in a typical Mediterranean landscape, dominated by Quercus suber L.

Origin, duplication and reshuffling of plasmid genes: Insights from Burkholderia vietnamiensis G4 genome.

Using a computational pipeline based on similarity networks reconstruction we analysed the 1133 genes of the Burkholderia vietnamiensis (Bv) G4 five plasmids, showing that gene and operon duplication played an important role in shaping the plasmid architecture. Several single/multiple duplications occurring at intra- and/or interplasmids level involving 253 paralogous genes (stand-alone, clustered or operons) were detected. An extensive gene/operon exchange between plasmids and chromosomes was also disclosed.

Draft genomes of three Antarctic Psychrobacter strains producing antimicrobial compounds against Burkholderia cepacia complex, opportunistic human pathogens.

Herein we present the draft genomes of three Psychrobacter strains isolated from Antarctic sponges and able to inhibit the growth of bacteria belonging to the Burkholderia cepacia complex, responsible for infections of the respiratory system in patients affected by Cystic Fibrosis. The comparative analysis of the annotated genomes of these Psychrobacter strains highlighted their differences in terms of overall genomic content (e.g.

Genomic analysis of three sponge-associated Arthrobacter Antarctic strains, inhibiting the growth of Burkholderia cepacia complex bacteria by synthesizing volatile organic compounds.

In this work we analyzed the ability of three Arthrobacter strains (namely TB23, TB26 and CAL618), which were isolated from the Antarctic sponges Haliclonissa verrucosa and Lyssodendrix nobilis, to specifically inhibit the growth of a panel of 40 Burkholderia cepacia complex strains, representing a major cause of infections in patients that are affected by Cystic Fibrosis. The inhibitory activity was due to the synthesis of antimicrobial compounds, very likely volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and was partially dependent on the growth media that were used for Antarctic strains growth. The phylogenetic analysis revealed that two of them (i.