A machine learning-based approach to determine infection status in recipients of BBV152 (Covaxin) whole-virion inactivated SARS-CoV-2 vaccine for serological surveys.

Data science has been an invaluable part of the COVID-19 pandemic response with multiple applications, ranging from tracking viral evolution to understanding the vaccine effectiveness. Asymptomatic breakthrough infections have been a major problem in assessing vaccine effectiveness in populations globally. Serological discrimination of vaccine response from infection has so far been limited to Spike protein vaccines since whole virion vaccines generate antibodies against all the viral proteins.

Insights from a Pan India Sero-Epidemiological survey (Phenome-India Cohort) for SARS-CoV2.

To understand the spread of SARS-CoV2, in August and September 2020, the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (India) conducted a serosurvey across its constituent laboratories and centers across India. Of 10,427 volunteers, 1058 (10.14%) tested positive for SARS-CoV2 anti-nucleocapsid (anti-NC) antibodies, 95% of which had surrogate neutralization activity.

Antimicrobial potentiality of actinobacteria isolated from two microbiologically unexplored forest ecosystems of Northeast India.

Background: Actinobacteria are often known to be great producers of antibiotics. The rapid increase in the global burden of antibiotic-resistance with the concurrent decline in the discovery of new antimicrobial molecules necessitates the search for novel and effective antimicrobial metabolites from unexplored ecological niches. The present study investigated the antimicrobial producing actinobacterial strains isolated from the soils of two microbiologically unexplored forest ecosystems, viz.

Quantifying the biases in metagenome mining for realistic assessment of microbial ecology of naturally fermented foods.

Cultivation-independent investigation of microbial ecology is biased by the DNA extraction methods used. We aimed to quantify those biases by comparative analysis of the metagenome mined from four diverse naturally fermented foods (bamboo shoot, milk, fish, soybean) using eight different DNA extraction methods with different cell lysis principles. Our findings revealed that the enzymatic lysis yielded higher eubacterial and yeast metagenomic DNA from the food matrices compared to the widely used chemical and mechanical lysis principles.

Three-phase succession of autochthonous lactic acid bacteria to reach a stable ecosystem within 7 days of natural bamboo shoot fermentation as revealed by different molecular approaches.

Microbial community structure and population dynamics during spontaneous bamboo shoot fermentation for production of 'soidon' (indigenous fermented food) in North-east India were studied using cultivation-dependent and cultivation-independent molecular approaches. Cultivation-dependent analyses (PCR-amplified ribosomal DNA restriction analysis and rRNA gene sequencing) and cultivation-independent analyses (PCR-DGGE, qPCR and Illumina amplicon sequencing) were conducted on the time series samples collected from three independent indigenous soidon fermentation batches. The current findings revealed three-phase succession of autochthonous lactic acid bacteria to attain a stable ecosystem within 7 days natural fermentation of bamboo shoots.

Reliable differentiation of Meyerozyma guilliermondii from Meyerozyma caribbica by internal transcribed spacer restriction fingerprinting.

Background: Meyerozyma guilliermondii (anamorph Candida guilliermondii) and Meyerozyma caribbica (anamorph Candida fermentati) are closely related species of the genetically heterogenous M. guilliermondii complex. Conventional phenotypic methods frequently misidentify the species within this complex and also with other species of the Saccharomycotina CTG clade.

Combination of culture-independent and culture-dependent molecular methods for the determination of bacterial community of iru, a fermented Parkia biglobosa seeds.

In this study, bacterial composition of iru produced by natural, uncontrolled fermentation of Parkia biglobosa seeds was assessed using culture-independent method in combination with culture-based genotypic typing techniques. PCR-denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) revealed similarity in DNA fragments with the two DNA extraction methods used and confirmed bacterial diversity in the 16 iru samples from different production regions. DNA sequencing of the highly variable V3 region of the 16S rRNA genes obtained from PCR-DGGE identified species related to Bacillus subtilis as consistent bacterial species in the fermented samples, while other major bands were identified as close relatives of Staphylococcus vitulinus, Morganella morganii, B.

Distinct differentiation of closely related species of Bacillus subtilis group with industrial importance.

PCR amplification of 16S rRNA gene by universal primers followed by restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis using RsaI, CfoI and HinfI endonucleases, distinctly differentiated closely related Bacillus amyloliquefaciens, Bacillus licheniformis and Bacillus pumilus from Bacillus subtilis sensu stricto. This simple, economical, rapid and reliable protocol could be an alternative to misleading phenotype-based grouping of these closely related species.

Bacterial species associated with traditional starter cultures used for fermented bamboo shoot production in Manipur state of India.

Soidon is a non-salted acidic fermented food prepared from the succulent bamboo shoot tip of Schizostachyum capitatum Munro by using a traditional liquid starter called "soidon mahi" in Manipur state of India. In this study, 163 bacterial isolates associated with this starter samples were identified and their population distribution was investigated by amplified ribosomal DNA restriction analysis (ARDRA), 16S rDNA sequencing and randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) analysis. This acidic starter (pH 4.