Escherichia coli O157:H7 is a food-borne bacterium that causes hemorrhagic diarrhea and hemolytic uremic syndrome in humans. While cattle are a known source of E. coli O157:H7 exposure resulting in human infection, environmental reservoirs may also be important sources of infection for both cattle and humans. Bacteriophage-encoded Shiga toxins (Stx) carried by E. coli O157:H7 may provide a sele...

We studied species coexistence in a protist community consisting of a bacterial resource, five protist consumers, and an intraguild predator, Blepharisma americanum. Spatial heterogeneity was manipulated by constructing spatial arrays of interlinked bottles. In the heterogeneous treatment species were permitted to disperse naturally between bottles whereas in the homogenous treatment half the w...

Ciliate protozoa contribute to ruminal digestion and emission of the greenhouse gas methane. Individual species of ciliates co-cultured with mixed prokaryote populations were hypothesized to utilize carbohydrate types differently. In an in vitro batch culture experiment, 0.6 g of pure cellulose or xylan was incubated for 24 h in 40-mL cultures of Entodinium caudatum, Epidinium ecaudatum, and Eu...

The present study was aimed to screen the anti-bacterial properties of medicinally important ferns viz., Adiantum caudatum L., Adiantum latifolium Lam. and Adiantum lunulatum Burm against the selected UTI pathogens. Anti-bacterial study was carried out by disc diffusion method against the pathogens viz., Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae and Staphylococcus aureus maximum degree of antibac...

In Paramecium, ciliary reversal is coupled with voltage-gated Ca 2+ channels on the ciliary membrane. We previously isolated a P. caudatum mutant, cnrC, with a malfunction of the Ca 2+ channels and discovered that the channel activity of cnrC was restored by transfection of the P. caudatum centrin (Pccentrin1p) gene, which encodes a member of the Ca 2+-binding EF-hand protein family. In this st...

In Paramecium, ciliary reversal is coupled with voltage-gated Ca(2+) channels on the ciliary membrane. We previously isolated a P. caudatum mutant, cnrC, with a malfunction of the Ca(2+) channels and discovered that the channel activity of cnrC was restored by transfection of the P. caudatum centrin (Pccentrin1p) gene, which encodes a member of the Ca(2+)-binding EF-hand protein family. In this...

Waste accumulation is reported to be one of the serious environmental problems. Organic wastes such as organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW) or sewage sludge (SS) can be treated using aerobic microbial decomposition called composting. It is important to know when composts obtained in co-treatment processes turns to be safe but not toxic for the environment. In this study, we estimat...

introduction: response to morphine and role of nitric oxide (no) on expression of morphine response has been studied in vertebrates. but, little evidence is provided in the matter in earlier invertebrates. this investigation for the first time evaluated the effect of no on expression of morphine potency in paramecium caudatum. methods: animal after isolation from natural media and specific iden...