SSU rRNA reveals major trends in oomycete evolution

Oomycetes are a group of heterokonts that have a huge impact on the environment as well as on human welfare, due the parasitic nature of many species. However, their evolutionary patterns are still not well understood, due in part to the lack of molecular markers suited to resolve the deep phylogeny of this group. Here, we propose a phylogeny of the whole clade based on the nuclear ribosomal small subunit gene, that comprises both culture and environmental studies derived sequences. Our analysis shows notably that i) plant pathogenesis occurred only rarely in oomycete evolution in comparison to animal parasitism ii) obligate symbiosis happened only in a few derived groups and iii) transitions from soil/freshwater to marine environment (and viceversa) are common unlike for most eukaryotic groups. This study illustrates the complexity of evolutionary patterns and will help to better understand the emergence of pathogenicity in the different oomycete group

Binary Quantizer

One-bit quantization is a general tool to execute a complex model,such as deep neural networks, on a device with limited resources,such as cell phones. Naively compressing weights into one bityields an extensive accuracy loss. One-bit models, therefore, re-quire careful re-training. Here we introduce a class functions de-vised to be used as a regularizer for re-training one-bit models. Us-ing a regularization function, specifically devised for binary quanti-zation, avoids heuristic touch of the optimization scheme and savesconsiderable coding effort

Complete Genome Sequence of Aneurinibacillus migulanus E1, a Gramicidin S- and d-Phenylalanyl-l-Propyl Diketopiperazine-Deficient Mutant

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This work was supported by the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme grant 245268 (ISEFOR; to L.B.). Further support came from the SwissBOL project (the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment, to L.B.) and the Sciex-Scientific Exchange Programme NMS.CH (to L.L. and L.B.).Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Multi-Loci Sequence Typing (MLST) for Two Lacto-Acid Bacteria (LAB) Species: Pediococcusparvulus and P.damnosus

The control of wine microbial population during and beyond fermentation is of huge importance for wine quality. Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) in wine are responsible for malolactic fermentation (MLF) which can be desired in some cases and undesirable in others. Some LAB do not perform MLF and their uncontrolled growth could contribute to severe wine spoilage such as undesired flavours. Their identification and detection is considered crucial for numerous biotechnological applications in food fermentations, where, through acidification and secretion of bacteriocins, they contribute to reduce food spoilage and growth of pathogenic microorganisms. LAB have traditionally been classified using morphological or biochemical features. Primary isolation, biochemical identification and phenotypic analysis are laborious, time consuming and inaccurate and often lead to misidentification within some genera such as Pediococcus. Molecular identification based on suitable marker genes could be an attractive alternative to conventional morphological and biochemical methods. We assessed here the applicability of four housekeeping genes recA, rplB, pyrG and leuS in combination with the mle gene in multi-loci sequence typing (MLST) of Pediococcus parvulus and Pediococcus damnosus. Sequencing and comparative analysis of sequence data were performed on 19 strains collected during wine fermentation. A combination of these five marker genes allowed for a clear differentiation of the strains analysed, indicating their applicability in molecular typing. Analysis of the observed nucleotide polymorphisms allowed designing highly discriminative primers for a multi-loci sequence typing (MLST) method that proved successful in detecting a particular isolate or sequence type of P.parvulus when using either conventional PCR or Real Time PC

Increased Biological Activity of Aneurinibacillus migulanus Strains Correlates with the Production of New Gramicidin Secondary Metabolites

Acknowledgments This project was funded by the Government of Kuwait (to FA) and the European Union Seventh Framework Programme under grant agreement 245268 (ISEFOR; to LB and SW). Further support came from the SwissBOL project, financed by the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment (grant holder LB) and the Sciex–Scientific Exchange Programme (http://nms.ch/) (NMS.CH; to LL and LB). LL is indebted to the Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport of the Slovak Republic for financial support in the frame of the project “VEGA 1/0061/16” and “VEGA 1/0046/16”. Funding This project was funded by the Government of Kuwait (to FA) and the European Union Seventh Framework Programme under grant agreement 245268 (ISEFOR; to LB and SW). Further support came from the SwissBOL project, financed by the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment (grant holder LB) and the Sciex–Scientific Exchange Programme NMS.CH (to LL and LB). LL is indebted to the Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport of the Slovak Republic for financial support in the frame of the project “VEGA 1/0061/16.”Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Phoenix dactylifera L. sap enhances wound healing in Wistar rats : Phytochemical and histological assessment

Acknowledgment Financial support of the Tunisian Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research is gratefully acknowledged.Peer reviewedPostprin