Publications by authors named "Mahesh S Dhar"

The whole-genome sequences of four multi-drug-resistant strains, namely, DAK02, DAK03, DAK05, and DAK10, are reported here. The strains were isolated from fecal samples of ulcerative colitis patients from Northern India. The size of the draft genome sequence ranged from 4,809 to 5,000 kb.

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Background: Escherichia coli is a Gram-negative commensal of human gut. Surprisingly, the role of E. coli in the pathogenesis of ulcerative colitis (UC) has not been explored until now.

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The whole genome sequence of rare human pathogen strain HAK22 is reported. The HAK22 was isolated from healthy human from Gurugram, Haryana, India. The draft genome has a length of 4.

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During the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, large-scale genome sequencing of SARS-CoV-2 has been useful in tracking its spread and in identifying variants of concern (VOC). Viral and host factors could contribute to variability within a host that can be captured in next-generation sequencing reads as intra-host single nucleotide variations (iSNVs). Analysing 1347 samples collected till June 2020, we recorded 16 410 iSNV sites throughout the SARS-CoV-2 genome.

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Delhi, the national capital of India, experienced multiple severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) outbreaks in 2020 and reached population seropositivity of >50% by 2021. During April 2021, the city became overwhelmed by COVID-19 cases and fatalities, as a new variant, B.1.

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Article Synopsis
  • The B.1.617.2 (Delta) variant of SARS-CoV-2 was first detected in Maharashtra, India, late 2020, and quickly outcompeted earlier variants like B.1.617.1 (Kappa) and B.1.1.7 (Alpha).
  • This variant shows significantly reduced sensitivity to neutralizing antibodies from both recovered individuals and vaccine recipients, with lower protection observed in those vaccinated with the ChAdOx1 serum compared to BNT162b2.
  • Due to its higher replication efficiency and ability to evade the immune response, B.1.617.2's dominance highlights the need for ongoing infection control measures even after vaccination.
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Article Synopsis
  • * A novel mass spectrometric method has been developed to rapidly detect SARS-CoV-2 from naso-oropharyngeal swabs, achieving 100% specificity and 90.5% sensitivity in just 2.3 minutes.
  • * This method can detect SARS-CoV-2 peptides even in recovered patients who test negative by traditional RT-PCR, demonstrating its potential as a valuable tool for diagnosing both symptomatic and asymptomatic cases of COVID-19.
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India first detected SARS-CoV-2, causal agent of COVID-19 in late January 2020, imported from Wuhan, China. From March 2020 onwards, the importation of cases from countries in the rest of the world followed by seeding of local transmission triggered further outbreaks in India. We used ARTIC protocol-based tiling amplicon sequencing of SARS-CoV-2 (n=104) from different states of India using a combination of MinION and MinIT sequencing from Oxford Nanopore Technology to understand how introduction and local transmission occurred.

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Multi-copper oxidases (MCOs) are widely distributed in bacteria, where they are responsible for metal homeostasis, acquisition and oxidation. Using specific primers, yacK coding for MCO was amplified from different serotypes of Yersinia enterocolitica biovar 1A. Homology modeling of the protein followed by docking with five well-known substrates for different MCO's (viz.

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Yersinia enterocolitica is an important gastrointestinal pathogen. Its pathogenicity has been attributed primarily to the plasmid encoded Yersinia outer proteins or Yops that are known to subvert the immune system. This review, however, highlights the role of Yop-independent mechanisms that help Y.

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Yersinia enterocolitica biovar 1A strains have been delineated into two clonal groups (A and B) based on repetitive extragenic palindrome- and enterobacterial repetitive intergenic consensus-PCR genotyping. The present study investigated the interaction of Y. enterocolitica biovar 1A strains with cultured cells in vitro by their ability to adhere, invade and survive within these cells.

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Characterization of newly identified genes is necessary to understand their functions. Phenotypic characterization of isogenic mutants provides good understanding of the functions of the genes in wild type strains. In the present study, we report the use of linear dsDNA as a substrate for homologous recombination in Yersinia enterocolitica.

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Background: Superoxide dismutases (SODs) cause dismutation of superoxide radicals to hydrogen peroxide and oxygen. Besides protecting the cells against oxidative damage by endogenously generated oxygen radicals, SODs play an important role in intraphagocytic survival of pathogenic bacteria. The complete genome sequences of Yersinia enterocolitica strains show presence of three different sod genes.

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