Viability, Stability and Biocontrol Activity in Planta of Specific Ralstonia solanacearum Bacteriophages after Their Conservation Prior to Commercialization and Use

Ralstonia solanacearum is a pathogen that causes bacterial wilt producing severe damage in staple solanaceous crops. Traditional control has low efficacy and/or environmental impact. Recently, the bases of a new biotechnological method by lytic bacteriophages vRsoP-WF2, vRsoPWM2 and vRsoP-WR2 with specific activity against R. solanacearum were established. However, some aspects remain unknown, such as the survival and maintenance of the lytic activity after submission to a preservation method as the lyophilization. To this end, viability and stability of lyophilized vRsoP-WF2, vRsoP-WM2 and vRsoP-WR2 and their capacity for bacterial wilt biocontrol have been determined against one pathogenic Spanish reference strain of R. solanacearum in susceptible tomato plants in different conditions and making use of various cryoprotectants. The assays carried out have shown satisfactory results with respect to the viability and stability of the bacteriophages after the lyophilization process, maintaining high titers throughout the experimental period, and with respect to the capacity of the bacteriophages for the biological control of bacterial wilt, controlling this disease in more than 50% of the plants. The results offer good prospects for the use of lyophilization as a conservation method for the lytic bacteriophages of R. solanacearum in view of their commercialization as biocontrol agents

Brenneria quercina and Serratia spp. isolated from Spanish oak trees: molecular characterization and PCR development

Brenneria quercina has been reported as one of the causal agents of oak decline in Spain. To investigate the bacterial variability of this pathogen from different Spanish oak forests, a collection of 38 bacterial isolates from seven geographic locations and from different oak species was analysed by sequencing 16S rDNA and rep-PCR fingerprinting. All Spanish isolates of B. quercina were grouped by rep-PCR into a homogenous cluster that differed significantly from B. quercina reference strains from California. 16S rDNA analysis revealed that 34 out of 38 isolates were Brenneria . However, four isolates belonged to the genus Serratia , suggesting that this bacterium could cause cankers in oak trees. The information obtained by rep-PCR fingerprint analysis was used to develop PCR primers for the sensitive and specific detection of B. quercina from infected plant tissues. Pathogenicity tests performed with Brenneria and Serratia isolates showed that both were able to grow and cause cankers in oak trees

Distribución de Brenneria spp. en la Comunidad Valenciana y especies forestales a las que afecta

El género Brenneria agrupa especies bacterianas que producen chancros con lesiones necróticas y exudados en plantas leñosas. En España, en los últimos años, se han identificado varias Brenneria sp. como responsables de chancros bacterianos en quercíneas (B. quercina), nogales (B. nigrifluens y B. rubrifaciens) y chopos (Brenneria sp.). En la Comunidad Valenciana también se han detectado focos de B. quercina en encinas de algunos parajes de importancia medioambiental, pero todavía se dispone de escasa información acerca de la incidencia de esta bacteriosis en nuestra Comunidad. Sin embargo, no existen referencias de la presencia de Brenneria spp. en nogal o chopo en la Comunidad Valenciana, aunque no se puede descartar su presencia o introducción a través de material vegetal. El objetivo del presente trabajo ha sido conocer la incidencia de dichas bacteriosis en nuestra Comunidad. Para ello, se han continuado las prospecciones en masas de quercíneas de distintos orígenes geográficos de la Comunidad Valenciana iniciadas en un estudio anterior, y se han centrado en aquellas zonas o especies del género Quercus en las que la bacteria no había sido detectada previamente. Además, se han iniciado prospecciones en otras especies forestales de interés para nuestra Comunidad, como Juglans regia y Populus spp

Micromón València (Universitat de València)

En Julio de 2017 se creó la red SWI@Spain, auspiciada por el grupo de Docencia y Difusión de la Microbiología (DDM) de la Sociedad Española de Microbiología (SEM), para desarrollar la iniciativa internacional Small World Initiative (SWI) en la península ibérica. En la Universitat de València (UV) se constituyó entonces el grupo de Innovación Docente en Microbiología (IDM) para implementar el proyecto a nivel local. Avalados por el Servei de Formació Permanent i Innovació Educativa (SFPIE) de la UV, el grupo ha llevado a cabo diferentes iniciativas relacionadas con el objetivo fundamental del proyecto: divulgar la problemática actual relacionada con el uso inadecuado de antibióticos, el incremento de bacterias resistentes a éstos y la necesidad de encontrar nuevas moléculas con actividad antibacteriana para combatir las infecciones que provocan

Protective intraoperative ventilation with higher versus lower levels of positive end-expiratory pressure in obese patients (PROBESE): study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

Background: Postoperative pulmonary complications (PPCs) increase the morbidity and mortality of surgery in obese patients. High levels of positive end-expiratory pressure (PEEP) with lung recruitment maneuvers may improve intraoperative respiratory function, but they can also compromise hemodynamics, and the effects on PPCs are uncertain. We hypothesized that intraoperative mechanical ventilation using high PEEP with periodic recruitment maneuvers, as compared with low PEEP without recruitment maneuvers, prevents PPCs in obese patients. Methods/design The PRotective Ventilation with Higher versus Lower PEEP during General Anesthesia for Surgery in OBESE Patients (PROBESE) study is a multicenter, two-arm, international randomized controlled trial. In total, 2013 obese patients with body mass index ≥35 kg/m2 scheduled for at least 2 h of surgery under general anesthesia and at intermediate to high risk for PPCs will be included. Patients are ventilated intraoperatively with a low tidal volume of 7 ml/kg (predicted body weight) and randomly assigned to PEEP of 12 cmH2O with lung recruitment maneuvers (high PEEP) or PEEP of 4 cmH2O without recruitment maneuvers (low PEEP). The occurrence of PPCs will be recorded as collapsed composite of single adverse pulmonary events and represents the primary endpoint. Discussion To our knowledge, the PROBESE trial is the first multicenter, international randomized controlled trial to compare the effects of two different levels of intraoperative PEEP during protective low tidal volume ventilation on PPCs in obese patients. The results of the PROBESE trial will support anesthesiologists in their decision to choose a certain PEEP level during general anesthesia for surgery in obese patients in an attempt to prevent PPCs. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT02148692. Registered on 23 May 2014; last updated 7 June 2016. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13063-017-1929-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

Distribución de "Brenneria" spp. en la Comunidad Valenciana y especies forestales a las que afecta

El género Brenneria agrupa especies bacterianas que producen chancros con lesiones necróticas y exudados en plantas leñosas. En España, en los últimos años, se han identificado varias Brenneria sp. como responsables de chancros bacterianos en quercíneas (B. quercina), nogales (B. nigrifluens y B. rubrifaciens) y chopos (Brenneria sp.). En la Comunidad Valenciana también se han detectado focos de B. quercina en encinas de algunos parajes de importancia medioambiental, pero todavía se dispone de escasa información acerca de la incidencia de esta bacteriosis en nuestra Comunidad. Sin embargo, no existen referencias de la presencia de Brenneria spp. en nogal o chopo en la Comunidad Valenciana, aunque no se puede descartar su presencia o introducción a través de material vegetal. El objetivo del presente trabajo ha sido conocer la incidencia de dichas bacteriosis en nuestra Comunidad. Para ello, se han continuado las prospecciones en masas de quercíneas de distintos orígenes geográficos de la Comunidad Valenciana iniciadas en un estudio anterior, y se han centrado en aquellas zonas o especies del género Quercus en las que la bacteria no había sido detectada previamente. Además, se han iniciado prospecciones en otras especies forestales de interés para nuestra Comunidad, como Juglans regia y Populus spp

Implementation of antibiotic discovery by student crowdsourcing in the Valencian Community through a service learning strategy

Antibiotic misuse is a public health problem due to the appearance of resistant strains in almost all human pathogens, making infectious diseases more difficult to treat. The search for solutions requires the development of new antimicrobials as well as novel strategies, including increasing social awareness of the problem. The Small World Initiative (SWI) and the Tiny Earth (TE) network are citizen science programs pursuing the discovery of new antibiotics from soil samples and the promotion of scientific culture. Both programs aim to bring scientific culture and microbiological research closer to pre-university students through a crowdsourcing strategy and a Service Learning (SL) educational approach, with a 2-fold objective: to encourage students to pursue careers in science and to involve them in the discovery of soil microorganisms producing new antimicrobials. SWI and TE projects were put into practice in Spain under the common name MicroMundo. MicroMundo@Valencia was implemented at the Universitat de València (UV) during the academic years 2017-2018 and 2018-2019. It trained 140 university students to disseminate this initiative into 23 high/secondary schools, and one primary school, involving about 900 people (teachers and students) as researchers. A total of 7,002 bacterial isolates were obtained from 366 soil samples and tested for antibiosis at UV and high/secondary school centers. About 1 or 7% of them produced inhibition halos for the Escherichia coli or Bacillus cereus target strains, respectively. Geolocation of sampling sites by an application developed ad hoc and Kriging analysis also allowed detection of soil foci of antibiotic-producing bacteria. Evaluation of the project by university, high/secondary, and primary school students revealed their strong positive perception and their increased interest in science, as a consequence of acquiring new scientific and pedagogical concepts and skills that they were able to pass on to other classmates, younger students, or relatives. To further expand the dissemination of the project in the Valencian Community, diverse extramural activities deemed to include a gender perspective and aimed at different age groups, were also carried out, obtaining very satisfactory results, increasing sensitivity and awareness to the global antibiotic crisis

IBER-XYFAS - Ibero-American network for the surveillance of Xylella fastidiosa

Trabajo presentado en el Congress of Microbiology and Biotechnology (Microbiotec 19), celebrado en Coimbra del 5 al 7 de diciembre de 2019.Xylella fastidiosa is the causal agent of various plant diseases that continuously challenge agroforestry production causing significant losses to European and American countries. IBER-XYFAS is an international network of research groups, agrofood companies and regional governments, financed by CYTED that aims gather all available data on the bacterium, on its vectors, on the crops affected in Ibero-American countries and on the prevention and control activities that are being carried out. The specific objectives of the network will focus on the following work packages: P1) Information on the bacterium; P2) Information on transmission vectors; P3) Information on the interaction of the bacteria with the plant; P4) Information on therapies; P5) Information on remote sensing methodologies; P6) Information on the environmental, social and economic impact of diseases and control measures. The purpose of the information exchange is to generate knowledge that will contribute to the development of a technological alert and surveillance system that will enable local or national governments to take the necessary measures to continue, contain and ultimately eradicate the disease. The main outputs of IBER-XYFAS are: to promote the scientific and technological integration of the Ibero-American region and the effective transfer of knowledge and technologies; to encourage the participation of researchers from the Ibero-American region in other programs and the active participation of different actors in the control of the disease; to promote the development of effective transfer activities to small producers and vulnerable sectors; to contribute to the improvement of the social perception of R+D+I and its results; to promote the improvement of production through the integration of technological and economic aspects; to design technological protocols for the control of the disease