Detection of Multi-drug Resistant \u3cem\u3eEscherichia coli\u3c/em\u3e in the Urban Waterways of Milwaukee, WI

Urban waterways represent a natural reservoir of antibiotic resistance which may provide a source of transferable genetic elements to human commensal bacteria and pathogens. The objective of this study was to evaluate antibiotic resistance of Escherichia coli isolated from the urban waterways of Milwaukee, WI compared to those from Milwaukee sewage and a clinical setting in Milwaukee. Antibiotics covering 10 different families were utilized to determine the phenotypic antibiotic resistance for all 259 E. coli isolates. All obtained isolates were determined to be multi-drug resistant. The E. coli isolates were also screened for the presence of the genetic determinants of resistance including ermB (macrolide resistance), tet(M) (tetracycline resistance), and β-lactamases (blaOXA, blaSHV, and blaPSE). E. coli from urban waterways showed a greater incidence of antibiotic resistance to 8 of 17 antibiotics tested compared to human derived sources. These E. coli isolates also demonstrated a greater incidence of resistance to higher numbers of antibiotics compared to the human derived isolates. The urban waterways demonstrated a greater abundance of isolates with co-occurrence of antibiotic resistance than human derived sources. When screened for five different antibiotic resistance genes conferring macrolide, tetracycline, and β-lactam resistance, clinical E. coli isolates were more likely to harbor ermB and blaOXA than isolates from urban waterway. These results indicate that Milwaukee’s urban waterways may select or allow for a greater incidence of multiple antibiotic resistance organisms and likely harbor a different antibiotic resistance gene pool than clinical sources. The implications of this study are significant to understanding the presence of resistance in urban freshwater environments by supporting the idea that sediment from urban waterways serves as a reservoir of antibiotic resistance

On the isolation of TI-plasmid from Agrobacterium tumefaciens

An efficient lysis method for Agrobacterium cells was developed, which allows a reproducible isolation of the tumor inducing (TI)-plasmid. The lysis method is based on the sensitivity of this bacterium to incubation with lysozyme, n-dodecylamine,EDTA, followed by Sarkosyl, after growth in the presence of carbenicillin. We also present a procedure for the isolation of the TI-plasmid on a large scale, that might be used for the mass isolation of other large plasmids which like the TI-plasmid, can not be cleared with earlier described procedures. The purity of the plasmid preparations was determined with DNA renaturation kinetics, which method has the advantage that the plasmid need not to be in the supercoiled or open circular form

Mayor Bernardus Ledeboer, Having Received a Request from Electors in the City of Holland, Regarding the Construction of a Railroad to Holland, Set June 10 to Vote Upon the Issue

Mayor Bernardus Ledeboer, having received a request from electors in the City of Holland, regarding the construction of a railroad to Holland, set June 10 to vote upon the issue. It is signed by the same electors who signed the May 14 document.https://digitalcommons.hope.edu/vrp_1860s/1502/thumbnail.jp

Salt-inducible promoter derivable from a lactic acid bacterium, and its use in a lactic acid bacterium for production of a desired protein

The invention provides a salt-inducible promoter present in SEQ ID NO: 10 and derivable from a lactic acid bacterium in isolation from the coding sequence normally controlled by said promoter in a wild-type lactic acid bacterium, with modifications and important parts thereof. Also provided are a recombinant vector and a transformed lactic acid bacterium comprising such promoter, and the production of a desired protein by such transformed bacterium, whereby the gene encoding said desired protein or a precursor thereof is expressed under control of such promoter. The desired protein can be secreted by the bacterium due to the presence of a signal sequence. The action of the salt-inducible promoter is enhanced at a pH of about 4-4.5 and/or by the presence of glutamic acid. Such process can be used in a fermentation process, in which the desired protein is a lytic protein causing lysis of the cells and release of the cell content. Or the desired protein can be an enzyme involved in flavour formation, e.g. in producing dressings, spreads, sausages and sour dough, or a protein functioning in a cheese production process, such as chymosin or a precursor thereof, or an enzyme involved in cheese flavour formation

A structural description of Oregon counties, 1973-1978

Local government officials and county planners may find descriptive information concerning the economic structure of each Oregon county useful for planning for future economic development. Specifically, citizens of counties and planning districts need to know whether industries in their area are growing or declining and in which industries a comparative advantage occurs. A regional economy is comprised of a mix of industries. Growth (decline) in various industrial sectors contributes to overall regional growth (decline). Numerous factors may account for an industry's growth: high productivity of capital and labor; new technologies which increase output per unit cost; positive labor-management relations which lead to improved performance; and unique locational advantages which may reduce input, transport, or other costs. Prior to identifying the possible determinants of growth in a specific area, a technique which measures the differences in growth rates among regions is necessary. Shift-share analysis is a descriptive tool which permits a systematic assessment of the industrial changes occurring in a region. The shift-share technique determines how specific industries in certain regions are performing relative to the same industries in a larger reference region. The primary objective of the thesis is to apply the modified shift-share technique proposed by Kalbacher [1979] to delineate changes in income in each Oregon county for the time period 1973 to 1978. The Pacific Northwest region which includes the states of Idaho, Oregon, and Washington is the designated reference economy. Labor and proprietors' income data, available at the county level from the Bureau of Economic Analysis, are utilized to measure the change in a region's economic activity level relative to the Pacific Northwest region. The shift-share model does not provide, by itself, a clear-cut explanation on how regions grow and to what extent interregional growth divergencies can be explained. In order to explain the varying rates of growth experienced by the individual Oregon counties, additional analysis of factors underlying the regional share component is necessary. Selected variables, which represent economic and social characteristics of each Oregon county, are utilized in the regression analysis which attempts to identify possible determinants of a county's regional share value

Formation and quantification of protein complexes between peroxisomal alcohol oxidase and GroEL

We have studied the use of yeast peroxisomal alcohol oxidase (AO) as a model protein for in vitro binding by GroEL. Dilution of denatured AO in neutral buffer leads to aggregation of the protein, which is prevented by the addition of GroEL. Formation of complexes between GroEL and denatured AO was demonstrated by a gel-shift assay using non-denaturing polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, and quantified by laser-densitometry of the gels. In the presence of MgAMP-PNP or MgADP the affinity of GroEL for AO was enhanced. Under these conditions up to 70% of the purified GroEL formed a complex with this protein. Release was stimulated at room temperature by MgATP, and was further enhanced by addition of GroES.

Development of a multilocus sequence typing scheme for the molecular typing of Mycoplasma pneumoniae

This work was funded by Public Health England. These studies were supported by funding initiatives by the National Institute for Social Care and Health Research (NISCHR; research support from the Welsh Government) via the registered research group Microbial and Infection Translational Research Group (MITReG) and Children and Young Persons Research Network (CYPRN).Mycoplasma pneumoniae is a major human respiratory pathogen causing both upper and lower respiratory disease in humans of all ages, and it can also result in other serious extrapulmonary sequelae. A multilocus sequence typing (MLST) scheme for M. pneumoniae was developed based on the sequences of eight housekeeping genes (ppa, pgm, gyrB, gmk, glyA, atpA, arcC, and adk) and applied to 55 M. pneumoniae clinical isolates and the two type strains M129 and FH. A total of 12 sequence types (STs) resulted for 57 M. pneumoniae isolates tested, with a discriminatory index of 0.21 STs per isolate. The MLST loci used in this scheme were shown to be stable in 10 strains following 10 sequential subculture passages. Phylogenetic analysis of concatenated sequences of the eight loci indicated two distinct genetic clusters that were directly linked to multilocus variable-number tandem repeat analysis (MLVA) type. Genetic MLST clustering was confirmed by genomic sequence analysis, indicating that the MLST scheme developed in this study is representative of the genome. Furthermore, this MLST scheme was shown to be more discriminatory than both MLVA and P1 typing for the M. pneumoniae isolates examined, providing a method for further and more detailed analysis of observed epidemic peaks of M. pneumoniae infection. This scheme is supported by a public Web-based database (http://pubmlst.org/mpneumoniae).PostprintPeer reviewe