A new understanding of somatic coliphages belonging to the Microviridae family in urban wastewater.

Somatic coliphages (SC) and F-specific RNA coliphages (FRNAPH) have been included in regulations or guidelines by several developed countries as a way of monitoring water safety and the microbiological quality of shellfish harvesting waters. SC are highly diverse in their morphology, size and genome. The Microviridae family contains three genera of phages (Alphatrevirus, Gequatrovirus, and Sinsheimervirus), all having a capsid of similar morphology (icosahedral) and size (25-30 nm in diameter) to that of common pathogenic enteric viruses.

Toward better monitoring of human noroviruses and F-specific RNA bacteriophages in aquatic environments using bivalve mollusks and passive samplers: A case study.

Monitoring pathogenic enteric viruses in continental and marine water bodies is essential to control the viral contamination of human populations. Human Noroviruses (NoV) are the main enteric viruses present in surface waters and foodstuff. In a context of global change, it is currently a challenge to improve the management of viral pollutions in aquatic environments and thereby limit the contamination of vulnerable water bodies or foodstuffs.

Quality of life of cutaneous leishmaniasis suspected patients in the Ecuadorian Pacific and Amazon regions: a cross sectional study.

Background: Yearly, up to 1 million patients worldwide suffer from cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL). In Ecuador, CL affects an estimated 5000 patients annually. CL leads to reduced Health Related Quality of Life (HRQL) as a result of stigma in the Asian and Mediterranean contexts, but research is lacking for Ecuador.

Identification of antibiotics triggering the dissemination of antibiotic resistance genes by SXT/R391 elements using a dedicated high-throughput whole-cell biosensor assay.

Background: Mobile genetic elements (MGEs) are widely involved in the dissemination of antibiotic resistance genes and some of them, such as the integrative and conjugative element SXT, are even induced by specific antibiotics at sub-lethal concentrations.

Objectives: This work explores collateral effects of a broad range of antibiotics on the mobility of the SXTMO10 element using a specifically designed high-throughput screening test.

Methods: Twenty-five promoters involved in the mobility of SXT and six artificial constitutive promoters were transcriptionally fused to luxCDABE bioluminescent genes and introduced into Escherichia coli strains with or without SXT to build whole-cell biosensors for a large-scale screening involving 48 antibiotics.

EpicPCR 2.0: Technical and Methodological Improvement of a Cutting-Edge Single-Cell Genomic Approach.

EpicPCR (Emulsion, Paired Isolation and Concatenation PCR) is a recent single-cell genomic method based on a fusion-PCR allowing us to link a functional sequence of interest to a 16S rRNA gene fragment and use the mass sequencing of the resulting amplicons for taxonomic assignment of the functional sequence-carrying bacteria. Although it is interesting because it presents the highest efficiency for assigning a bacterial host to a marker, epicPCR remains a complex multistage procedure with technical difficulties that may easily impair the approach depth and quality. Here, we described how to adapt epicPCR to new gene targets and environmental matrices while identifying the natural host range of SXT/R391 integrative and conjugative elements in water microbial communities from the Meurthe River (France).

Abundance and environmental host range of the SXT/R391 ICEs in aquatic environmental communities.

Mobile genetic elements (MGEs) such as plasmids or integrative conjugative elements (ICEs) are widely involved in the horizontal transfer of antibiotic resistant genes (ARGs), but their environmental host-range and reservoirs remain poorly known, as mainly assessed through the analysis of culturable and clinical bacterial isolates. In this study, we used a gradual approach for determining the environmental abundance and host-range of ICEs belonging to the SXT/R391 family, otherwise well known to bring ARGs in Vibrio spp. epidemic clones and other pathogens.