Microbiological investigations on the water of a thermal bath at Budapest

Thermal baths are unique aquatic environments combining a wide variety of natural and anthropogenic ecological factors, which also appear in their microbiological state. There is limited information on the microbiology of thermal baths in their complexity, tracking community shifts from the thermal wells to the pools. In the present study, the natural microbial community of well and pool waters in Gellért bath was studied in detail by cultivation-based techniques. To isolate bacteria, 10% R2A and minimal synthetic media (with “bath water”) with agar–agar and gellan gum were used after prolonged incubation time; moreover, polyurethane blocks covered with media were also applied. Strains were identified by sequencing their 16S rRNA gene after grouping them by amplified rDNA restriction analysis. From each sample, the dominance of Alphaproteobacteria was characteristic though their diversity differed among samples. Members of Actinobacteria, Firmicutes, Beta- and Gamma-proteobacteria, Deinococcus–Thermus, and Bacteroidetes were also identified. Representatives of Deinococcus–Thermus phylum appeared only in the pool water. The largest groups in the pool water belonged to the Tistrella and Chelatococcus genera. The most dominant member in the well water was a new taxon, its similarity to Hartmannibacter diazotrophicus as closest relative was 93.93%

A szív- és érrendszeri betegségek morbiditási és mortalitási adatainak alakulása a XXI. század első két évtizedében Magyarországon

Magyarországon magas a szív- és érrendszeri megbetegedések száma és az abból eredő halálozás aránya. Ezeket a betegségeket vagy a morbiditási, vagy a mortalitási adatok vizsgálatával szokás jellemezni. A szerzők a jelen munkában a morbiditási adatokból kiindulva vizsgálják a korai halálozás kockázatát, a teljes lakosságra vonatkozó halálozást és a depriváció szintjét is, ugyanabban az időszakban. A háziorvosi jelentések alapján (OSAP 1021) 2005-2017. évekre, három szív- és érrendszeri betegség került elemzésre: a magasvérnyomás, az ischaemiás szívbetegségek és a cerebrovasculáris betegségek. Az adatok a KSH-tól kerültek beszerzésre járási szinten egy projekt (EFOP-1.9.6-16-2017-00001) során. A morbiditási és teljes lakosságra vonatkozó mortalitás esetén a lakosságszámra (10 000 vagy 100 000) viszonyítottuk az adatokat, a korai halálozás esetén annak kockázata került kifejezésre. A morbiditási és mortalitási adatok esetén 5 skála alapján kerültek térképre az adatok, a korai halálozási kockázat 6-fokozatú. Jelentős eltérések vannak az ország különböző területein a morbiditás, de a mortalitás tekintetében is. Nem jellemző, hogy a magas morbiditás az alacsony mortalitásnak köszönhető. Még a legalsó decilisbe sorolható járások esetén is vannak különbségek. Annak érdekében, hogy az egyes szív-és érrendszeri betegségek esetén a jelenlegi helyzeten javítani lehessen, érdemes az adatokat járásonként elemezni. Ezekből kiderül, hogy mely helyeken vannak nagyobb hiányosságok az egészségügyi ellátás terén (magas korai halálozási kockázat), illetve hol kellene nagyobb hangsúlyt helyezni a primer prevencióra (magas morbiditás)

Zoogloea oleivorans sp. nov., a floc-forming, petroleum hydrocarbon-degrading bacterium isolated from biofilm

A floc-forming, Gram-stain-negative, petroleum hydrocarbon-degrading bacterial strain, designated BucT, was isolated from a petroleum hydrocarbon-contaminated site in Hungary. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences revealed that strain BucT formed a distinct phyletic lineage within the genus Zoogloea. Its closest relative was found to be Zoogloea caeni EMB43T (97.2% 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity) followed by Zoogloea oryzae A-7T (95.9 %), Zoogloea ramigera ATCC 19544T (95.5 %) and Zoogloea resiniphila DhA-35T (95.4 %). The level of DNA–DNA relatedness between strain BucT and Z. caeni EMB43T was 31.6 %. Cells of strain BucT are facultatively aerobic, rod-shaped, and motile by means of a polar flagellum. The strain grew at temperatures of 5–35 6C (optimum 25–28 6C), and at pH 6.0–9.0 (optimum 6.5–7.5). The predominant fatty acids were C16 : 0, C10 : 0 3-OH, C12 : 0 and summed feature 3 (C16 : 1v7c and/or iso-C15 : 0 2-OH). The major respiratory quinone was ubiquinone-8 (Q-8) and the predominant polar lipid was phosphatidylethanolamine. The genomic DNA G+C content was 63.2 mol%. On the basis of the chemotaxonomic, molecular and phenotypic data, isolate BucT is considered to represent a novel species of the genus Zoogloea, for which the name Zoogloea oleivorans sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is BucT (5DSM 28387T5NCAIM B 02570T)

Antifungal Activity of an Original Amino-Isocyanonaphthalene (ICAN) Compound Family: Promising Broad Spectrum Antifungals

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Application of special oligotrophic media for cultivation of bacterial communities originated from ultrapure water

Because of the selectivity of the commonly used media it is very difficult to cultivate bacteria inhabiting ultrapure waters under laboratory conditions. In this study 5 new media (synthetic and complex) were developed to reveal bacterial community of the ultrapure water originated from the water purification system of a Hungarian power plant which was studied already with using traditional media. Composition of the new media tends to reproduce the nutrient deficient conditions of the investigated water, therefore media were highly oligotrophic. Altogether 122 bacterial strains were isolated from the 5 different media. Based on ARDRA grouping 27 strains were chosen for the partial 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis. The results showed that the applied media strongly influence the composition of the cultivable bacterial community. A larger scale of α-Proteobacteria (Mesorhizobium spp., Ancylobacter sp., Methylobacterium sp.) and many Actinobacteria (Leifsonia sp., Microbacterium spp., Mycobacterium spp.) could be isolated from the same ultrapure water system than with any other cultivation methods or media applied before. Moreover, two novel bacterial taxa could be isolated from the studied water purification system

Hephaestia caeni gen. nov., sp. nov., a novel member of the family Sphingomonadaceae isolated from activated sludge

A Gram-staining-negative, rod-shaped and motile bacterium, designated strain ERB1-3T, was isolated from a laboratory-scale activated sludge system treating coke plant effluent using thiocyanate-supplemented growth medium. Strain ERB1-3T was oxidase-positive and weakly catalase-positive. The predominant fatty acids were C18 : 1v7c (35.6 %) and C17 : 1v6c (29.2 %), and the major respiratory quinone was Q-10. Polar lipids were dominated by sphingoglycolipid and phosphatidylglycerol. Major polyamines were spermidine and sym-homospermidine. The G+C content of the genomic DNA of strain ERB1-3T was 66.4 mol%. Based on the 16S rRNA gene, strain ERB1-3T exhibited the highest sequence similarity values to Sphingomonas sanxanigenens DSM 19645T (96.1 %), Sphingobium scionense DSM 19371T (95.1 %) and Stakelama pacifica LMG 24686T (94.8 %) within the family Sphingomonadaceae. The novel isolate had some unique chemotaxonomic features that differentiated it from these closely related strains, contained much more C17 : 1v6c, C15 : 0 2-OH, C17 : 0 and C17 : 1v8c fatty acids and possessed diphosphatidylglycerol only in trace amounts. On the basis of the phenotypic, chemotaxonomic and molecular data, strain ERB1-3T is considered to represent a novel genus and species, for which the name Hephaestia caeni gen. nov., sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is ERB1-3T (5DSM 25527T5NCAIM B 02511T)

Bacterial communities in an ultrapure water containing storage tank of a power plant

Ultrapure waters (UPWs) containing low levels of organic and inorganic compounds provide extreme environment. On contrary to that microbes occur in such waters and form biofilms on surfaces, thus may induce corrosion processes in many industrial applications. In our study, refined saltless water (UPW) produced for the boiler of a Hungarian power plant was examined before and after storage (sampling the inlet [TKE] and outlet [TKU] waters of a storage tank) with cultivation and culture independent methods. Our results showed increased CFU and direct cell counts after the storage. Cultivation results showed the dominance of aerobic, chemoorganotrophic α-Proteobacteria in both samples. In case of TKU sample, a more complex bacterial community structure could be detected. The applied molecular method (T-RFLP) indicated the presence of a complex microbial community structure with changes in the taxon composition: while in the inlet water sample (TKE) α-Proteobacteria (Sphingomonas sp., Novosphingobium hassiacum) dominated, in the outlet water sample (TKU) the bacterial community shifted towards the dominance of α-Proteobacteria (Rhodoferax sp., Polynucleobacter sp., Sterolibacter sp.), CFB (Bacteroidetes, formerly Cytophaga-Flavobacterium-Bacteroides group) and Firmicutes. This shift to the direction of fermentative communities suggests that storage could help the development of communities with an increased tendency toward corrosion