EMbaRC: designing training and e-learning materials for biological resource centres

The European Consortium of Microbial Resource Centres (EMbaRC, www.embarc.eu) is a research infrastructure project gathering together major microbial Biological Resource Centres (BRCs) in Europe. These culture collections have a long and respected tradition in training people that are involved in microbial taxonomy, preservation and management. Advanced and bespoke courses on related topics add high value to the European educational community and create a knowledge-based training network. Under the framework of EMbaRC, the training programmes offered by the consortium were surveyed and schemes were proposed to establish an educational community to create a knowledge-based training network. This would implement lifelong educational and continuing professional development (CPD) schemes for those working within microbial resource centres (MiRC). In parallel, a European Masters Course on MiRC was designed to address the formal education path for strengthening competences in (1) Microbial Preservation Technologies, (2) MiRC: Organisation and Management, (3) QC Standards and International Regulations, (4) Microbial Biosafety and Biosecurity, and (5) IT Technologies and Database Management. Finally, to support these actions, materials for e-learning activities were developed such as videos related to microbial preservation techniques, the Gram-staining technique and, preparing microscopic slides of fungi. All activities developed under this EMbaRC task will support the MIRRI and other EU ESFRI-BMS and EMTRAIN projects

European Consortium of Microbial Resources Centres (EMbaRC): Secure the future of microbial resources at laboratory scale

[Excerpt] EMbaRC is an EU project which aims to improve, coordinate and validate microbial resource centre (MRC) delivery to the European and International researchers. To ensure harmonisation of the quality of MRCs, EMbaRC plans to take the current OECD best practice guidelines and emerging national standards for Biological Resource Centres (BRCs) to the international level. Outreach and training activities will ensure that not only the consortium but that all European collections operate to the standards required to deliver products and services of consistent quality thus meeting customer needs. A one-stop access to the collections of EMbaRC and the wider European BRC community via a searchable web portal building on the outcomes of the CABRI and EBRCN is being developed. (...

Inter-laboratory evaluation, development and validation of fungal preservation regimes used in different European biological resources centres (BRCs)

Successful preservation of fungi relies on the application of optimised preservation protocols that do not compromise the genomic integrity of the organism. Most major European BRCs use lyophilisation and cryopreservation as the methods of choice. Although based on generic principals, protocols can vary between institutions and do not always result in successful recovery. In order to evaluate the efficacy of the methods, a range of fungal strains were circulated around partner collections in the EMbaRC project and the organisms preserved using the standard methods used in each collection. The effectiveness of preservation was assessed using a series of techniques including DNA fingerprinting and sequencing, analysis of culture characteristics, viability assessments and the use of MALDI-TOF. The results showed that when viable cultures were obtained after preservation, they appeared to retain their genomic integrity, but there was evidence of delayed growth and attenuation in some cultures. Not all fungi were successfully preserved by all methods. It was found that a cryopreservation protocol used by the MUCL collection in Belgium, that limited manipulation of the fungus before preservation, was particularly effective in preserving some of the more delicate fungi and this method is being evaluated by the project partners. A further investigation was undertaken to assess the integrity of four specific strains of fungi deposited in different collections. They were compared using culture analysis, sequence analysis, DNA fingerprinting and MALDI-TOF. It was found that some limited variation was observed at the phenotypic level from the analysis of culture characteristics, but this could be expected, especially in organisms such as Aspergillus which can be prone to strain drift. More importantly, molecular integrity remained consistent with no significant differences observed between lines of the same strain. Therefore, despite the strains having been maintained by different methods over the intervening years from their initial deposit, the collections had maintained them in a stable manner. This is indicative of the benefits of applying proven regimes, resulting in high quality operations

Pseudonocardia hispaniensis sp. nov., a novel actinomycete isolated from industrial wastewater activated sludge

A novel actinomycete, designated PA3T, was isolated from an oil refinery wastewater treatment plant, located in Palos de la frontera, Huelva, Spain, and characterized taxonomically by using a polyphasic approach. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that the isolate formed a distinct subclade in the Pseudonocardia tree together with Pseudonocardia asaccharolytica DSM 44247T. The chemotaxonomic properties of the isolate, for example, the presence of MK-8 (H4) as the predominant menaquinone and iso-C16:0 as the major fatty acid are consistent with its classification in the genus Pseudonocardia. DNA:DNA pairing experiments between the isolate and the type strain of P. asaccharolytica DSM 44247T showed that they belonged to separate genomic species. The two strains were readily distinguished using a combination of phenotypic properties. 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Cytotoxic and apoptotic evaluations of marine bacteria isolated from brine-seawater interface of the Red Sea.

BACKGROUND: High salinity and temperature combined with presence of heavy metals and low oxygen renders deep-sea anoxic brines of the Red Sea as one of the most extreme environments on Earth. The ability to adapt and survive in these extreme environments makes inhabiting bacteria interesting candidates for the search of novel bioactive molecules. METHODS: Total 20 i.e. lipophilic (chloroform) and hydrophilic (70% ethanol) extracts of marine bacteria isolated from brine-seawater interface of the Red Sea were tested for cytotoxic and apoptotic activity against three human cancer cell lines, i.e. HeLa (cervical carcinoma), MCF-7 (Breast Adenocarcinoma) and DU145 (Prostate carcinoma). RESULTS: Among these, twelve extracts were found to be very active after 24 hours of treatment, which were further evaluated for their cytotoxic and apoptotic effects at 48 hr. The extracts from the isolates P1-37B and P3-37A (Halomonas) and P1-17B (Sulfitobacter) have been found to be the most potent against tested cancer cell lines. CONCLUSION: Overall, bacterial isolates from the Red Sea displayed promising results and can be explored further to find novel drug-like molecules. The cell line specific activity of the extracts may be attributed to the presence of different polarity compounds or the cancer type i.e. biological differences in cell lines and different mechanisms of action of programmed cell death prevalent in different cancer cell lines