Infection from fluoroquinolone-resistant Enterobacteriaceae is an increasing health problem worldwide. In the present study, we developed a pyrosequencing-based high-throughput method for analyzing the nucleotide sequence of the quinolone resistance-determining regions (QRDRs) of gyrA and parC. By using this method, we successfully determined the QRDR sequences of 139 out of 140 clinical Escher...

Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are among the most common bacterial infections and are responsible for significant morbidity and health care costs worldwide. The main bacterial cause of uncomplicated UTI is Escherichia coli, which possesses numerous virulence factors (VFs). Many studies of the pathogenesis of E. coli UTI have centered on VF genes. Hence, the development of better molecular assa...

The objective of the present study was to isolate, identify and characterize new LAB strains with high probiotic potentials from Iranian (Isfahan) indigenous chickens. From 90 isolated LABs, 11 isolates had high growth rate under different stress conditions, including acid (pH 2.5), bile (0.5% oxgall), salt (6-15%) and temperatures 15 and 45°C, and their aggregation time was less than 120 min. ...

The role of rare variants has become a focus in the search for association with complex traits. Imputation is a powerful and cost-efficient tool to access variants that have not been directly typed, but there are several challenges when imputing rare variants, most notably reference panel selection. Extensions to rare variant association tests to incorporate genotype uncertainty from imputation...

RNAi-based genetically engineered (GE) crops for the management of insect pests are likely to be commercialized by the end of this decade. Without a workable framework for conducting the ecological risk assessment (ERA) and a standardized ERA protocol, however, the utility of RNAi transgenic crops in pest management remains uncertain. The overall goal of this study is to assess the risks of RNA...

1. Organic matter decomposition is the main process by which carbon (C) is lost from terrestrial ecosystems, and mycorrhizal associations of plants (i.e. arbuscular mycorrhizas (AM) and ectomycorrhizas (ECM)) may have different indirect effects on this loss pathway. AM and ECM plants differ in the soil decomposers they promote and the quality of litter they produce, which may result in differen...