Anti-Biofilm Effect of Selected Essential Oils and Main Components on Mono- and Polymicrobic Bacterial Cultures.

Biofilms are surface-associated microbial communities resistant to sanitizers and antimicrobials. Various interactions that can contribute to increased resistance occur between the populations in biofilms. These relationships are the focus of a range of studies dealing with biofilm-associated infections and food spoilage.

Anti-listerial effect of selected essential oils and thymol.

The anti-listerial effect of marjoram, thyme essential oils (EOs) and thymol on Listeria monocytogenes inoculated chicken breast fillets was investigated. Before inoculation the fillets were pretreated by washing or not under running tap water. Inoculated samples were kept at 6 °C for 24 h to allow the growth of L.

Finding needles in haystacks: linking scientific names, reference specimens and molecular data for Fungi.

DNA phylogenetic comparisons have shown that morphology-based species recognition often underestimates fungal diversity. Therefore, the need for accurate DNA sequence data, tied to both correct taxonomic names and clearly annotated specimen data, has never been greater. Furthermore, the growing number of molecular ecology and microbiome projects using high-throughput sequencing require fast and effective methods for en masse species assignments.

Re-mind the gap! Insertion - deletion data reveal neglected phylogenetic potential of the nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacer (ITS) of fungi.

Rapidly evolving, indel-rich phylogenetic markers play a pivotal role in our understanding of the relationships at multiple levels of the tree of life. There is extensive evidence that indels provide conserved phylogenetic signal, however, the range of phylogenetic depths for which gaps retain tree signal has not been investigated in detail. Here we address this question using the fungal internal transcribed spacer (ITS), which is central in many phylogenetic studies, molecular ecology, detection and identification of pathogenic and non-pathogenic species.

Homology modeling and phylogenetic relationships of catalases of an opportunistic pathogen Rhizopus oryzae.

Aims: A homology modeling methodology was developed and used to obtain the 3D structures for four putative catalases of Rhizopus oryzae in order to assess their functionality.

Main Methods: Homology models were built using different modeling strategies using non-protein compounds as steric constraints, a symmetry constraint to force identical chains and an additional loop modeling algorithm. Percent structural overlap values (SO) were calculated for each model-template pair to qualify the homology models.

Data partitions, Bayesian analysis and phylogeny of the zygomycetous fungal family Mortierellaceae, inferred from nuclear ribosomal DNA sequences.

Although the fungal order Mortierellales constitutes one of the largest classical groups of Zygomycota, its phylogeny is poorly understood and no modern taxonomic revision is currently available. In the present study, 90 type and reference strains were used to infer a comprehensive phylogeny of Mortierellales from the sequence data of the complete ITS region and the LSU and SSU genes with a special attention to the monophyly of the genus Mortierella. Out of 15 alternative partitioning strategies compared on the basis of Bayes factors, the one with the highest number of partitions was found optimal (with mixture models yielding the best likelihood and tree length values), implying a higher complexity of evolutionary patterns in the ribosomal genes than generally recognized.

Where is the unseen fungal diversity hidden? A study of Mortierella reveals a large contribution of reference collections to the identification of fungal environmental sequences.

• Estimation of the proportion of undescribed fungal taxa is an issue that has remained unresolved for many decades. Several very different estimates have been published, and the relative contributions of traditional taxonomic and next-generation sequencing (NGS) techniques to species discovery have also been called into question recently. • Here, we addressed the question of what proportion of hitherto unidentifiable molecular operational taxonomic units (MOTUs) have already been described but not sequenced, and how many of them represent truly undescribed lineages.