Arthropod vectors of disease agents: Their role in public and veterinary health in Turkiye and their control measures.

Mosquitoes, sandflies, and ticks are hematophagous arthropods that pose a huge threat to public and veterinary health. They are capable of serving as vectors of disease agents that can and have caused explosive epidemics affecting millions of people and animals. Several factors like climate change, urbanization, and international travel contribute substantially to the persistence and dispersal of these vectors from their established areas to newly invaded areas.

Antiprotozoal activity of different Xenorhabdus and Photorhabdus bacterial secondary metabolites and identification of bioactive compounds using the easyPACId approach.

Natural products have been proven to be important starting points for the development of new drugs. Bacteria in the genera Photorhabdus and Xenorhabdus produce antimicrobial compounds as secondary metabolites to compete with other organisms. Our study is the first comprehensive study screening the anti-protozoal activity of supernatants containing secondary metabolites produced by 5 Photorhabdus and 22 Xenorhabdus species against human parasitic protozoa, Acanthamoeba castellanii, Entamoeba histolytica, Trichomonas vaginalis, Leishmania tropica and Trypanosoma cruzi, and the identification of novel bioactive antiprotozoal compounds using the easyPACId approach (easy Promoter Activated Compound Identification) method.

Natural products from Photorhabdus and Xenorhabdus: mechanisms and impacts.

Insects and fungal pathogens pose constant problems to public health and agriculture, especially in resource-limited parts of the world; and the use of chemical pesticides continues to be the main methods for the control of these organisms. Photorhabdus spp. and Xenorhabdus spp.

Antifungal activity of different Xenorhabdus and Photorhabdus species against various fungal phytopathogens and identification of the antifungal compounds from X. szentirmaii.

Xenorhabdus and Photorhabdus spp. are enteric bacterial symbionts of Steinernema and Heterorhabditis nematodes, respectively. These bacteria produce an extensive set of natural products (NPs) with antibacterial, antifungal, antiprotozoal, insecticidal, or other bioactivities when vectored into insect hemocoel by nematodes.

Evaluation of different sponge types on the survival and infectivity of stored entomopathogenic nematodes.

Sponges are one of the cheapest and most suitable substrates used to formulate and/or store the infective juveniles (IJs) of entomopathogenic nematodes (EPNs). Our study investigated the survival and infectivity of the IJs on five different sponges compared to that in an aqueous suspension (control). The sponges were Oasis® floral, Nanosponge, Scotchbrite, or Lysol® and natural sea sponge.