Germ band retraction (GBR) stage is one of the important stages during insect development. It is associated with an extensive epithelial morphogenesis and may also be pivotal in generation of ...morphological diversity in insects. Despite its importance, only a handful of studies report the transcriptome repertoire of this stage in insects. Here, we report generation, annotation and analysis of ESTs from the embryonic stage (16–22 h post fertilization) of laboratory-reared Anopheles stephensi mosquitoes. A total of 1002 contigs were obtained upon clustering of 1140 high-quality ESTs, which demonstrates an astonishingly low transcript redundancy (12.1%). Putative functions were assigned only to 213 contigs (21%), comprising mainly of transcripts encoding protein synthesis machinery. Approximately 78% of the transcripts remain uncharacterized, illustrating a lack of sequence information about the genes expressed in the embryonic stages of mosquitoes. This study highlights several novel transcripts, which apart from insect development, may significantly contribute to the essential biological complexity underlying insect viability in adverse environments. Nonetheless, the generated sequence information from this work provides a comprehensive resource for genome annotation, microarray development, phylogenetic analysis and other molecular biology applications in entomology.
Kumbh Mela is one of the largest religious mass gathering events (MGE) involving bathing in rivers. The exponential rise in the number of devotees, from around 0.4 million in 1903 to 120 million in ...2013, bathing in small specified sites can have a dramatic impact on the river ecosystem. Here, we present the spatiotemporal profiling of bacterial communities in Godavari River, Nashik, India, comprising five sites during the Kumbh Mela, held in 2015. Assessment of environmental parameters indicated deterioration of water quality. Targeted amplicon sequencing demonstrates approximately 37.5% loss in microbial diversity because of anthropogenic activity during MGE. A significant decrease in phyla viz. Actinobacteria, Chloroflexi, Proteobacteria, and Bacteroidetes was observed, while we noted substantial increase in prevalence of the phylum Firmicutes (94.6%) during MGE. qPCR estimations suggested nearly 130-fold increase in bacterial load during the event. Bayesian mixing model accounted the source of enormous incorporation of bacterial load of human origin. Further, metagenomic imputations depicted increase in virulence and antibiotic resistance genes during the MGE. These observations suggest the striking impact of the mass bathing on river ecosystem. The subsequent increase in infectious diseases and drug-resistant microbes pose a critical public health concern.
Antimicrobial resistance is raging, but large size of India limits comprehensive exploration. This demands a sample like sewage, which could represent a large population and is often reported to ...harbor resistant microbes. Here, we did pan-India sewage sampling and studied the antibiotic resistance pattern in the microbial community. We used culture-based antibiotic susceptibility assays and estimated the level of antibiotics present at each site. We found high antibiotic resistance across all cities of India with more diversity of resistance profiles in bigger cities as compared to smaller ones.
Bacillus
and
Pseudomonas
were the most common, predominant resistant genera across Indian cities and many sites harbored multi-drug resistant phenotypes. Antibiotic concentrations were below recommended limits at all sites and thus high resistance is not likely caused solely due to antibiotics. Sewage proved to be a good representative for rapidly studying antibiotic resistance in a big country and for similar epidemiological strides.
A novel Anoxic-Aerobic Process (AnAP) that eliminated the anaerobic process was optimized and operated for the simultaneous remediation of phosphate, nitrate, and chemical oxygen demand (COD) from ...industrial effluents. Two sequential batch reactors (SBR) with AnAP were established for the treatment of effluent from two industries; phosphate fertilizer (AnASBR_PPL) and dairy industry (AnASBR_DW). The adaptability of the bacterial consortium in the SBRs, dominated by denitrifying phosphate accumulating organisms (DNPAOs), facilitates the stable performance of AnAP for simultaneous nutrient and COD removal. Up to 90% and ~80% of COD removal were achieved in AnASBR_PPL and AnASBR_DW, respectively. Nearly complete denitrification was observed along with phosphate removal accounted for ~90% in both the reactors. Granulation of sludge has been widely reported in aerobic reactors; however, interestingly, in this study, partial granulation of the sludge was observed in both the AnASBRs which facilitated the microorganisms to uptake a minimal amount of phosphate and nitrate even under the aerobic condition. The underlying mechanism of DNPAOs and other associated microbes in the consortium were investigated for microbial diversity by 16S rDNA based targeted amplicon sequencing using the Illumina platform and imputed metagenomic analysis. The dominance of Betaproteobacteria, Alphaproteobacteria, Gammaproteobacteria, and Bacteroidia was observed in AnASBRs. At steady-state operation, the identity of the core community members remained largly stable, but their relative abundances changed considerably in both the reactors as a function of varying industrial effluent. However, population of few strains such as Lactobacteriales, Enterobacteriales changed drastically with respect to the influent, as these strains were predominat in AnASBR_DW but not present in AnASBR_PPL. The dominant strains were the vital contributor to the gene pool encoding for denitrification, dephosphatation, TCA cycle, glycolysis, EPS production, and polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) storage, etc. Few less abundant but persistent species were also detected as contributors to these functional groups. It unveiled the TCA cycle remains preferable over conventional glycolysis in both the SBR irrespective of carbon source. The new AnASBR was proved to be an efficient alternative system that is energy efficient with higher ease of operation for the treatment of different industrial effluents without fail.
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•Unique anoxic-aerobic SBR removed nutrient and organics from industrial effluents.•First systematic study of population, metabolism (putative) in anoxic-aerobic SBR.•PAOs and DNPAOs coexists but DNPAOs was dominant in SBRs treatning different WW.•Lactobacteriales, Enterobacteriales present in AnASBR_DW but not in AnASBR_PPL.•Change in effluent (carbon source) didn't alter TCA cycle as the favoured pathway.
Traumatic brain injuries (TBI) manifest into post-traumatic stress disorders such as anxiety comorbid with gut ailments. The perturbations in gut microbial communities are often linked to intestinal ...and neuropsychological disorders. We have previously reported anxiety and abnormalities in gut function in mild TBI (MTBI)-exposed rats. The current study demonstrates the changes in gut microbiome of MTBI-exposed animals and discusses its implications in intestinal health and behaviours. The rats were subjected to repeated MTBI (rMTBI) and microbial composition in jejunum was examined after 6 h, 48 h and 30 days of rMTBI. Significant reduction in bacterial diversity was observed in the rMTBI-exposed animals at all the time points. Principal coordinate analysis based on weighted UniFrac distances indicated substantial differences in gut microbial diversity and abundances in rMTBI-exposed animals as compared to that in healthy controls. The abundance of Proteobacteria increased dramatically with reciprocal decrease in Firmicutes after rMTBI. At the genus level,
Helicobacter, Lactobacillus, Campylobacter,
and
Streptococcus
were found to be differentially abundant in the jejunum of rMTBI-exposed rats as compared to sham controls indicating profound dysbiosis from the healthy state. Furthermore, substantial depletion in butyrate-producing bacterial communities was observed in rMTBI-exposed animals. These results suggest that the traumatic stress alters the gut microbiome with possible implications in gut health and neuropsychopathology.
A gram-stain-negative, endo-spore forming, facultatively anaerobic, motile, rod-shaped bacterial strain SM69
T
, isolated from soil samples of Rohtak, Haryana, India was characterized using ...polyphasic approach. White colonies were 2–3 mm, in diameter and growth occurred between 20 and 55 °C, pH 6.0–10.0 with 0–2.0% (w/v) NaCl. Based on 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity the strain is placed in the genus
Paenibacillus
as it is closely related to ‘
Paenibacillus tyrfis
MSt1
T
’ (99.7%) and
P. elgii
SD17
T
(99.6%). The cell wall peptidoglycan contained
meso-
diaminopimelic acid. The dominant fatty acids included anteiso-C
15: 0
(50%), C
16: 0
(12%) and anteiso-C
17: 0
(10%). Major polar lipids were diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine and phosphatidylglycerol. The size of the draft genome was 7,848,017 bp, with 53.1% G+C content. dDDH (51.6%) and ANI (93.5%) of strain SM69
T
with its close relatives indicates that it represents a novel species, for which the name
Paenibacillus oleatilyticus
sp. nov. (Type strain SM69
T
= MCC 3064
T
= JCM 33981
T
= KACC 21649
T
) is proposed.
Methylophaga lonarensis strain MPL(T) is a haloalkaliphilic methylotroph isolated from Lonar Lake, a saline and alkaline lake in Maharashtra, India. Strain MPL(T) utilizes methanol as its sole carbon ...and energy source. Here, we present the draft genome sequence of M. lonarensis MPL(T) (VKM B-2684(T) = MCC 1002(T)).
Ayurveda is one of the ancient systems of medicine which is widely practised as a personalized scientific approach towards the general wellness. Ayurvedic
prakriti
is broadly defined as the ...phenotypes which are determined on the basis of physical, psychological and physiological traits irrespective of their social, ethnic, dietary and geographical stature.
Prakriti
is the constitution of a person, which comprises
vata, pitta,
and
kapha
and is a key determinant of how one individual is different from the other. Human microbiome is considered the ‘latest discovered’ human organ and microbiome research reiterates the fundamental principles of Ayurveda for creating a healthy gut environment by maintaining the individual-specific microbiome. Hence, it is important to understand the association of human microbiome with the Ayurvedic
prakriti
of an individual. Here, we provide a comprehensive analysis of human microbiome from the gut, oral and skin samples of healthy individuals (n=18) by 16S rRNA gene-based metagenomics using standard QIIME pipeline. In the three different
prakriti
samples differential abundance of
Bacteroides, Desulfovibrio, Parabacteroides, Slackia,
and
Succinivibrio
was observed in the gut microbiome. Analysis also revealed
prakriti
-specific presence of
Mogibacterium, Propionibacterium, Pyramidobacter, Rhodococcus
in the
kapha prakriti
individuals
Planomicrobium, Hyphomicrobium, Novosphingobium
in the
pitta prakriti
individuals and
Carnobacterium, Robiginitalea, Cetobacterium, Psychrobacter
in the
vata prakriti
individuals. Similarly, the oral and skin microbiome also revealed presence of
prakriti
-specific differential abundance of diverse bacterial genera.
Prakriti
-specific presence of bacterial taxa was recorded and only 42% microbiome in the oral samples and 52% microbiome in the skin samples were shared. Bacteria known for preventing gut inflammation by digesting the resistant starch were abundant in the
pitta prakriti
individuals, who are more prone to develop gut-inflammation-related disorders. In summary, human gut, oral and skin microbiome showed presence or high abundance of few bacterial taxa across three
prakriti
types, suggesting their specific physiological importance.
Indian lotus (Nelumbo nucifera) is one of the dominant aquatic plants cultivated in Dal Lake, situated at 1586 m above mean sea level (MSL) in the northeast of Srinagar, Kashmir. Despite their ...economic and ecological role, the microbial communities associated with the lotus plant are still unexplored. In this study, we investigated the prokaryotic communities on surfaces of different lotus microhabitats (roots, rhizome, leaves, flowers, and fruits), lake water, and sediments using 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing. Overall, prokaryotic diversity decreased significantly on the surface of lotus microhabitats in comparison to the lake water and sediments. Among the microhabitats of lotus, roots and leaves harbored more diverse communities in comparison to rhizomes, fruits, and flowers. A total of 98 genera were shared by lotus and the Dal Lake sediments and water. However, significant differences were found in their relative abundance; for example, Pseudomonas was the most dominant genus on the majority of lotus microhabitats. On the other hand, Flavobacterium was highly abundant in the lake water, while a higher abundance of Acinetobacter was recorded in sediments. Additionally, we also noted the presence of potential human pathogenic genera including Escherichia-Shigella, Enterobacter, Pantoea, Raoultella, Serratia, and Sphingomonas on the lotus microhabitats. Predicted functions of prokaryotic communities revealed a higher abundance of genes associated with nutrient uptake in the microhabitats of the lotus. This study offered first-hand information on the prokaryotic communities harbored by lotus plants and water and sediments of the Dal Lake and demonstrated the adaptation of diverse communities to microhabitats of lotus.
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