A new chromosome-level genome assembly and annotation of Cryptosporidium meleagridis.

Cryptosporidium spp. are medically and scientifically relevant protozoan parasites that cause severe diarrheal illness in infants, immunosuppressed populations and many animals. Although most human Cryptosporidium infections are caused by C.

Enriching the future of public health microbiology with hybridization bait capture.

SUMMARYPublic health microbiology focuses on microorganisms and infectious agents that impact human health. For years, this field has relied on culture or molecular methods to investigate complex samples of public health importance. However, with the increase in accuracy and decrease in sequencing cost over the last decade, there has been a transition to the use of next-generation sequencing in public health microbiology.

Occurrence, Sources and Virulence Potential of in Urban Municipal Stormwater Systems.

is an underappreciated emerging global pathogen, despite growing evidence that it is a major contributor of diarrheal illness. Few studies have investigated the occurrence and public health risks that this organism possesses from waterborne exposure routes including through stormwater use. In this study, we assessed the prevalence, virulence potential, and primary sources of stormwater-isolated in fecally contaminated urban stormwater systems.

"Evaluating the Benefits and Limits of Multiple Displacement Amplification with Whole-Genome Oxford Nanopore Sequencing".

Multiple Displacement Amplification (MDA) outperforms conventional PCR in long fragment and whole genome amplification which makes it attractive to couple with long-read sequencing of samples with limited quantities of DNA to obtain improved genome assemblies. Here, we explore the efficacy and limits of MDA for genome sequence assembly using Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT) rapid library preparations and minION sequencing. We successfully generated almost complete genome sequences for all organisms examined, including , , , and , with the ability to generate high-quality data from samples starting with only 0.

A new chromosome-level genome assembly and annotation of .

spp. are medically and scientifically relevant protozoan parasites that cause severe diarrheal illness in infants and immunosuppressed populations as well as animals. Although most human infections are caused by and , there are several other human-infecting species including , which is commonly observed in developing countries.

Long-term gut colonization with ESBL-producing in participants without known risk factors from the southeastern United States.

We evaluated gut carriage of extended spectrum beta lactamase producing (ESBL-E) in southeastern U.S. residents without recent in-patient healthcare exposure.

Improved Equine Fecal Microbiome Characterization Using Target Enrichment by Hybridization Capture.

GITDs are among the most common causes of death in adult and young horses in the United States (US). Previous studies have indicated a connection between GITDs and the equine gut microbiome. However, the low taxonomic resolution of the current microbiome sequencing methods has hampered the identification of specific bacterial changes associated with GITDs in horses.

Land use and rainfall influences on bacterial levels and sources in stormwater ponds.

Urban stormwater runoff is a known source of microbial contamination of stormwater ponds. However, less is known about the influences of land use and rainfall on microbial quality over time in these receiving waters. In this study, two fecal indicator bacteria (FIB), namely Escherichia coli and thermotolerant coliforms, were monitored in three stormwater ponds in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

Escaping the fate of Sisyphus: assessing resistome hybridization baits for antimicrobial resistance gene capture.

Finding, characterizing and monitoring reservoirs for antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is vital to protecting public health. Hybridization capture baits are an accurate, sensitive and cost-effective technique used to enrich and characterize DNA sequences of interest, including antimicrobial resistance genes (ARGs), in complex environmental samples. We demonstrate the continued utility of a set of 19 933 hybridization capture baits designed from the Comprehensive Antibiotic Resistance Database (CARD)v1.

Improved Microbial Community Characterization of 16S rRNA via Metagenome Hybridization Capture Enrichment.

Environmental microbial diversity is often investigated from a molecular perspective using 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) gene amplicons and shotgun metagenomics. While amplicon methods are fast, low-cost, and have curated reference databases, they can suffer from amplification bias and are limited in genomic scope. In contrast, shotgun metagenomic methods sample more genomic regions with fewer sequence acquisition biases, but are much more expensive (even with moderate sequencing depth) and computationally challenging.

Horizontal Gene Transfer and Acquired Antibiotic Resistance in Salmonella enterica Serovar Heidelberg following Incubation in Broiler Ceca.

The chicken gastrointestinal tract harbors microorganisms that play a role in the health and disease status of the host. The cecum is the part of the gut that carries the highest microbial densities, has the longest residence time of digesta, and is a vital site for urea recycling and water regulation. Therefore, the cecum provides a rich environment for bacteria to horizontally transfer genes between one another via mobile genetic elements such as plasmids and bacteriophages.

Light-induced depigmentation in planarians models the pathophysiology of acute porphyrias.

Porphyrias are disorders of heme metabolism frequently characterized by extreme photosensitivity. This symptom results from accumulation of porphyrins, tetrapyrrole intermediates in heme biosynthesis that generate reactive oxygen species when exposed to light, in the skin of affected individuals. Here we report that in addition to producing an ommochrome body pigment, the planarian flatworm Schmidtea mediterranea generates porphyrins in its subepithelial pigment cells under physiological conditions, and that this leads to pigment cell loss when animals are exposed to intense visible light.