Development of Co-aggregated Cells as Bioinoculants Using Plant Seed Powders- A Novel Delivery System for Rice Grown under Lowland Condition

Co-aggregation was attempted in Azorhizobium caulinodans ORS-571 with other agriculturally important microorganisms such as Azospirillum brasilense MTCC-125, Azotobacter chroococcum MTCC-446, Bacillus megatherium MTCC-3353, and Pseudomonas fl uorescens MTCC-4828 to develop coaggregates with multiple benefi ts using seed powders of diff erent plants viz., Moringa oleifera, Strychnos potatorum and Sappindus emaignatus. Among the different treatments evaluated, the combination of Azorhizobium caulinodans ORS-571 and Azospirillum brasilense MTCC-125 with the plant seed powder of Moringa oleifera recorded the maximum co-aggregation of cells to the tune of 96.8%. The co-aggregates were also studied for their phyto-stimulatory effect such as seed vigour, plant height, plant dry weight, plant N content and endophytic colonization of A. caulinodans ORS-571 in rice var. ADT 43 grown under in vitro conditions. Th e co-aggregates of A. caulinodans and A. brasilense were found to be superior in positively augmenting the characters studied above

Chemotactic responses of sweet flag (Acorus calamus L.) root exudates and evaluation of inoculation effects on its growth

Saabunud / Received 04.11.2020 ; Aktsepteeritud / Accepted 20.04.2021 ; Avaldatud veebis / Published online 20.04.2021 ; Vastutav autor / Corresponding author: B. Karthikeyan [email protected] exudate is an important source of nutrients for microorganisms in the rhizosphere and it plays a major role in the early colonization including chemotactic responses and adsorption of rhizospheric bacteria. In this study, we characterized the root exudates from sweet flag under hydroponic conditions and assessed their effect on plant growth. In the present study, the crude root fractions of sweet flag recorded a maximum yield of 520.6 μg plant–1 followed by cationic, anionic and neutral fractions. Among the qualitative and quantitative analysis of different fractions, the cationic fraction recorded a maximum of 90 μg plant–1 for glutamic acid, followed by aspartic acid, glycine, serine and proline. In the anionic fraction, malic acid recorded a maximum of 78.0 μg plant–1 followed by oxalic, succinic, citric and glutamic acid fractions. The neutral fractions included different saccharides, among which, fructose recorded a maximum of 42.5 μg plant–1, followed by glucose, maltose, ribose and arabinose. The relative chemotactic response (RCR) of PGPB (plant growth-promoting bacteria) strains towards different root exudate fractions of Acorus calamus was recorded and it was observed that the combination of Anionic + Cationic + Neutral fraction recorded maximum chemotactic response for PGPR strains. The adsorption of PGPR strains in the root of the Acorus calamus was recorded in three different phases of growth and among these, Log phase bacterial cells exhibited maximum colonization of 7.65 × 10–6 cells g–1 with A.venilandii (ACAzt-2). Inoculation effect of PGPB strains on the root exudate of Acorus calamus and its growth was evaluated and it was observed that the treatment T5 – Consortium recorded maximum plant height and root growth of Acorus calamus, followed by T2. Our results indicate that sweet flag root exudates induce chemotactic responses of PGPR strains and promoted their growth

Efekt inokulacije korijena korijenovim bakterijama za poticanje rasta (PGPR) na rast biljke, sadržaj alkaloida i nutrijenata kod biljke Catharanthus roseus (L.) G. Don.

The effect of plant growth promoting rhizobacteria such as Azotobacter, Bacillus and Pseudomonas was tested separately or in combination in Catharanthus roseus for two consecutive years (2005 and 2006). The combinations of above mentioned PGPR strains significantly increased plant height, root length, root girth and alkaloid content in C. roseus in comparison to the control. In addition, all nutrient contents (N, P, K, Ca and Mg) were also significantly increased as compared to the control. The maximum N, P, K content was obtained from the combination of PGPR treatment. The results of this study suggest that PGPR applied in combination have the potential to increase the plant growth, alkaloid content and nutrient content of C. roseus.Testirani su učinci korijenovih bakterija za poticanje rasta, kao što su Azotobacter, Bacillus i Pseudomonas, zasebno ili u kombinaciji, na biljci Catharanthus roseus i to tijekom dviju godina (2005 i 2006). Kombinacije gorespomenutih PGPR sojeva značajno su povećale visinu biljaka, duljinu korijena, debljinu korijena i sadržaj alkaloida kod C. roseus u usporedbi s kontrolom. Uz to sadržaj svih nutrijenata (N, P, K, Ca i Mg) bio je značajno povišen u usporedbi s kontrolom. Maksimalni sadržaj N, P, K dobiven je kombiniranim tretmanom PGPR. Rezultati ovog rada sugeriraju da PGPR primjenjeni u kombinaciji imaju potencijal povećati rast biljke, sadržaj alkaloida i nutrijenata kod biljke C. roseus

31st Annual Meeting and Associated Programs of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC 2016) : part two

Background The immunological escape of tumors represents one of the main ob- stacles to the treatment of malignancies. The blockade of PD-1 or CTLA-4 receptors represented a milestone in the history of immunotherapy. However, immune checkpoint inhibitors seem to be effective in specific cohorts of patients. It has been proposed that their efficacy relies on the presence of an immunological response. Thus, we hypothesized that disruption of the PD-L1/PD-1 axis would synergize with our oncolytic vaccine platform PeptiCRAd. Methods We used murine B16OVA in vivo tumor models and flow cytometry analysis to investigate the immunological background. Results First, we found that high-burden B16OVA tumors were refractory to combination immunotherapy. However, with a more aggressive schedule, tumors with a lower burden were more susceptible to the combination of PeptiCRAd and PD-L1 blockade. The therapy signifi- cantly increased the median survival of mice (Fig. 7). Interestingly, the reduced growth of contralaterally injected B16F10 cells sug- gested the presence of a long lasting immunological memory also against non-targeted antigens. Concerning the functional state of tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), we found that all the immune therapies would enhance the percentage of activated (PD-1pos TIM- 3neg) T lymphocytes and reduce the amount of exhausted (PD-1pos TIM-3pos) cells compared to placebo. As expected, we found that PeptiCRAd monotherapy could increase the number of antigen spe- cific CD8+ T cells compared to other treatments. However, only the combination with PD-L1 blockade could significantly increase the ra- tio between activated and exhausted pentamer positive cells (p= 0.0058), suggesting that by disrupting the PD-1/PD-L1 axis we could decrease the amount of dysfunctional antigen specific T cells. We ob- served that the anatomical location deeply influenced the state of CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes. In fact, TIM-3 expression was in- creased by 2 fold on TILs compared to splenic and lymphoid T cells. In the CD8+ compartment, the expression of PD-1 on the surface seemed to be restricted to the tumor micro-environment, while CD4 + T cells had a high expression of PD-1 also in lymphoid organs. Interestingly, we found that the levels of PD-1 were significantly higher on CD8+ T cells than on CD4+ T cells into the tumor micro- environment (p < 0.0001). Conclusions In conclusion, we demonstrated that the efficacy of immune check- point inhibitors might be strongly enhanced by their combination with cancer vaccines. PeptiCRAd was able to increase the number of antigen-specific T cells and PD-L1 blockade prevented their exhaus- tion, resulting in long-lasting immunological memory and increased median survival

Development of Co-aggregated Cells as Bioinoculants Using Plant Seed Powders- A Novel Delivery System for Rice Grown under Lowland Condition

Co-aggregation was attempted in Azorhizobium caulinodans ORS-571 with other agriculturally important microorganisms such as Azospirillum brasilense MTCC-125, Azotobacter chroococcum MTCC-446, Bacillus megatherium MTCC-3353, and Pseudomonas fl uorescens MTCC-4828 to develop coaggregates with multiple benefi ts using seed powders of diff erent plants viz., Moringa oleifera, Strychnos potatorum and Sappindus emaignatus. Among the different treatments evaluated, the combination of Azorhizobium caulinodans ORS-571 and Azospirillum brasilense MTCC-125 with the plant seed powder of Moringa oleifera recorded the maximum co-aggregation of cells to the tune of 96.8%. The co-aggregates were also studied for their phyto-stimulatory effect such as seed vigour, plant height, plant dry weight, plant N content and endophytic colonization of A. caulinodans ORS-571 in rice var. ADT 43 grown under in vitro conditions. Th e co-aggregates of A. caulinodans and A. brasilense were found to be superior in positively augmenting the characters studied above

Influence of nanoemulsion on the adhesion and survival of Aeromonas sp. in meat and contact surfaces of meat

In the present investigation, coconut oil–based nanoemulsion, designated as AUSN3, was evaluated for its influence on the adhesion and survival of Aeromonas sp. AUBAS34 to beef, pork, and mutton and contact surfaces of meat such as polystyrene, glass, and stainless steel. AUSN3 treatment reduced the hydrophobicity, motility, biofilm formation, and bacterial adhesion of AUBAS34 to meat and the contact surfaces. AUSN3 treatment completely eliminated the AUBAS34 population in the contact surfaces of meat within a time period of 20 min. In meat surfaces, AUSN3 treatment resulted in 1.3–1.8 log reduction in Aeromonas population compared to sodium nitrite treatment and 2.4–3.2 log reduction compared to control

Simultaneous Application of Biosurfactant and Bioaugmentation with Rhamnolipid-Producing Shewanella for Enhanced Bioremediation of Oil-Polluted Soil

In the present study, a combined treatment strategy involving the addition of rhamnolipid, rhamnolipid-producing bacteria (Shewanella sp. BS4) and a native soil microbial community for the remediation of hydrocarbon-contaminated soil under pilot-scale conditions was adopted. The isolate BS4 (rhl+), demonstrating the highest emulsification activity and surface tension reduction efficiency, was identified based on 16 S rDNA sequencing as Shewanella sp. strain. Growth conditions for rhamnolipid production were optimized based on Central Composite Design (CCD) as 2.9% crude oil, a 54 × 106 CFU g−1 inoculation load of soil, a temperature of 30.5 °C, and a pH of 6.7. In situ bioremediation experiments, conducted using hydrocarbon-contaminated soil treated with the combination of rhamnolipid and rhamnolipid-producing bacteria, showed that the inoculated Shewanella sp. BS4, along with the indigenous soil microbial community, supported the highest hydrocarbon-degrading bacterial population and soil respiration activity, and this treatment resulted in 75.8% hydrocarbon removal efficiency, which was higher compared to contaminated soil devoid of any treatment