The poultry industry has been searching for a replacement for antibiotic growth promoters in poultry feed as public concerns over the use of antibiotics and the appearance of antibiotic resistance has become more intense. An ideal replacement would be feed amendments that could eliminate pathogens and disease while retaining economic value via improvements on body weight and feed conversion rat...

BACKGROUND Certain intestinal microflora are thought to regulate the systemic immune response. Lactic acid bacteria are one of the most studied bacteria in terms of their beneficial effects on health and autoimmune diseases; one of which is Multiple sclerosis (MS) which affects the central nervous system. We investigated whether the lactic acid bacterium Pediococcus acidilactici, which comprise...

The positive effects of root-colonizing bacteria cooperating with plants lead to improved growth and/or health of their eukaryotic hosts. Some of these Plant Growth-Promoting Rhizobacteria (PGPR) display several plant-beneficial properties, suggesting that the accumulation of the corresponding genes could have been selected in these bacteria. Here, this issue was targeted using 23 genes contrib...

The plant kingdom is colonized by a diverse array of endophytic bacteria which form non-pathogenic relationships with their hosts. When beneficial, such associations can stimulate plant growth, increase disease resistance, improve the plant’s ability to withstand environmental stresses (e.g. drought), or enhance N2 fixation. Crop sequences can favour the build-up of advantageous associations of...

Recent studies have shown that the synthesis of various polysaccharides by bacteria can induce immune responses that are beneficial to the bacterium, the host, or both. Here, we discuss the diverse interactions between bacterial glycans and the host immune system.

Probiotics are defined as live bacteria and yeasts that exert beneficial effects for health. Among their various effects, anti-cancer properties have been highlighted in recent years. Such effects include suppression of the growth of microbiota implicated in the production of mutagens and carcinogens, alteration in carcinogen metabolism and protection of DNA from oxidative damage as well as reg...

Lactobacillus plantarum WJL is beneficial to Drosophila physiology along its entire life cycle. 2 6 This bacteria triggers the early emergence and longer survival of fit and fertile adults.

Our previous study on a model microbial community originating from an artisanal cheese fermentation starter revealed that bacteriophages not only co-exist with bacteria but also are highly abundant. Here we describe the genomic content of phage particles released by 6 different strains in culture. The identified prophages belong to three subgroups Siphoviridae P335 group. Remarkably, most analy...

We report the transformation of a gram-positive bacterium, Clavibacter xyli subsp. cynodontis, with several plasmids in the IncP incompatibility group from gram-negative bacteria. Our results suggest that IncP plasmids may be transferable to other gram-positive organisms. After optimizing electroporation parameters, we obtained a maximum of 2 x 10(5) transformants per microgram of DNA. The avai...

Myxobacteria are amongst the top producers of natural products. The diversity and unique structural properties of their secondary metabolites is what make these social microbes highly attractive for drug discovery. Screening of products derived from these bacteria has revealed a puzzling amount of hits against infectious and non-infectious human diseases. Preying mainly on other bacteria and fu...