Arthrobacter Strains from Industrial Polluted Soil and its Oxidative Potential of Choline Oxidase Gene

Betaine is a trimethylglycine, serves as osmoregulator to prevent dehydration and plasmolysis under adverse hyperosmotic environments. Choline oxidase gene from Arthrobacter sp. catalyzes two step oxidation reaction of choline to betaine followed by betaine accumulation in cells which in turn help them to survive and thrive in harsh environmental condition. To identify potential choline oxidase gene source, a gram stain positive, rod shaped, catalase and oxidase positive, motile, aerobic bacterial strains designated as HYJE003 and HYJE005 was isolated based on the colony morphology, biochemical and molecular characterization from the industrially polluted soil samples of Hyderabad, India. Optimum growth of the isolated strains was observed at 32°C on nutrient agar media and was found that both the strains were capable of utilizing variety of sugars as carbon source. The 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis revealed that strain HYJE003 was closely related to Arthrobacter globiformis with pairwise sequence similarities of 99.85%, 99.63%, 98.76% and 98.12% respectively. The strain HYJE005 was closely related to Arthrobacter phenanthrenivorans with pairwise sequence similarities of 99.93%, 99.47%, 99.25% and 98.11% respectively. Choline oxidase gene potential of the isolates was studied by feeding the cultures with choline chloride and converted betaine was assessed by the formation of betaine reineckate. Findings revealed that the isolated strain Arthrobacter globiformis-HYJE003 has four times higher conversion rate of choline chloride to betaine than the strain Arthrobacter phenanthrenivorans HYJE005

Microbiota cloacal aeróbia de cracídeos cativos no Rio Grande do Sul e sua susceptibilidade a antimicrobianos Cloacal microbiota identification and evaluation of the antimicrobial resistance in captive cracids from Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil

Os cracídeos são aves silvestres que habitam as matas tropicais da América. Foram coletadas, no ano de 2007, amostras cloacais de 51 aves de dez espécies diferentes de cracídeos mantidos em cativeiros no Estado do Rio Grande do Sul. A partir dos swabs, colhidos assepticamente, foi realizado o isolamento e a caracterização bacteriana e o teste de susceptibilidade antimicrobiana dos isolados. Foram identificadas 93 cepas de bactérias. As bactérias mais frequentemente isoladas foram Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus spp. e Streptococcus spp. Todas as amostras foram negativas para o isolamento de Salmonella spp. O resultado do teste de sensibilidade mostrou que dentre as 93 cepas isoladas, todas foram sensíveis apenas ao imipinem. Adicionalmente, os menores percentuais de resistência foram observados frente ao cloranfenicol e ciprofloxacina. Os gêneros e espécies bacterianas com maior percentual de resistência a diferentes antibióticos testados foram Escherichia coli, Serratia marcescens, Staphylococcus aureus e Streptococcus spp. Com os resultados obtidos no presente trabalho, concluí-se, que a população de cracídeos estudada apresenta sua microbiota cloacal composta por vários gêneros e espécies bacterianas e que a multirresistencia pode ser um problema no futuro, uma vez que algumas cepas isoladas mostraram percentuais elevados de resistência a diferente antimicrobianos.<br>Cracids are wildlife Galliformes which inhabits the America's tropical forests. Fifty one cloacal swabs were collected from 10 different species of captive cracids from the Rio Grande do Sul State during 2007. The cloacal swab samples were submitted to bacterial isolation, identification and, subsequently; antimicrobial susceptibility testing. Ninety three bacterial isolates were obtained from the cracid population examined. The most prevalent among the isolates were Escherichia coli, and bacteria from the Staphylococcus and Streptococcus genera. All samples tested in this study were negative for Salmonella spp. The antimicrobial susceptibility tests showed that none of the 93 strains presented resistance to the antimicrobial imipinem. In addition, the lower percentages of resistance were observed against cloranfenicol and ciprofloxacine. The bacteria genus and species with the highest percentage of resistance to the different antimicrobials examined were E. coli, Serratia marcescens, Staphylococcus spp. and Streptococcus spp. In conclusion, the data presented in this article demonstrate that the cloacal microbiota of the reported cracid population is composed of several bacterial genera and species and multi-drug resistance may be a problem for the future, since some strains showed elevated percentage of resistance against several different antimicrobials