Track E Implementation Science, Health Systems and Economics

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/138412/1/jia218443.pd

Study of Antibacterial Efficacy of Hybrid Chitosan-Silver Nanoparticles for Prevention of Specific Biofilm and Water Purification

Antibacterial efficacy of silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) deposited alternatively layer by layer (LBL) on chitosan polymer in the form of a thin film over a quartz plate and stainless steel strip has been studied. An eight-bilayer chitosan/silver (Cs/Ag)8 hybrid was prepared having a known concentration of silver. Techniques such as UV-visible spectroscopy, inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES), and atomic force microscopy (AFM) were carried out to understand and elucidate the physical nature of the film. Gram-negative bacteria, Escherichia coli (E. coli), were used as a test sample in saline solution for antibacterial studies. The growth inhibition at different intervals of contact time and, more importantly, the antibacterial properties of the hybrid film on repeated cycling in saline solution have been demonstrated. AFM studies are carried out for the first time on the microbe to know the morphological changes affected by the hybrid film. The hybrid films on aging (3 months) are found to be as bioactive as before. Cytotoxicity experiments indicated good biocompatibility. The hybrid can be a promising bioactive material for the prevention of biofilms specific to E. coli and in purification of water for safe drinking

Host metabolic interaction and perspectives in phytoplasma research

Phytoplasmas are plant pathogenic bacteria that have large economic impacts on crops and landscape plants. Knowledge of their biology is limited also because they are still not easily cultured in media. It is still a mystery how phytoplasmas use the sugar-rich phloem sap and how they interact with the hosts. It is agriculturally important to identify the factors involved in their pathogenicity and to discover effective measures to control phytoplasma-associated diseases. The knowledge about host-pathogen interaction during the infection process can help to elucidate the processes leading to symptom expression. Transcriptomics studies paved the way for analysing the gene expression pattern in phytoplasma-infected plants and revealed the up-regulation of genes responsible for hormonal balance, transcription factors, and signalling. Recent studies have identified potential virulence factors that induce some of the typical phytoplasma disease symptoms and have started the annotation of their genomes having unique reductive evolution features. The novel manipulation tool represented by the potential of the synthetic biology can be helpful for its potential application in studying efficient management strategies to reduce the agricultural impact of the diseases associated with the phytoplasma presence