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Topic Review
Endophytic Fungi
An extensive literature search was performed to review current knowledge about endophytic fungi isolated from plants included in the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) dossier. The selected genera of plants were Acacia, Albizia, Bauhinia, Berberis, Caesalpinia, Cassia, Cornus, Hamamelis, Jasminus, Ligustrum, Lonicera, Nerium, and Robinia. A total of 120 fungal genera have been found in plant tissues originating from several countries. Bauhinia and Cornus showed the highest diversity of endophytes, whereas Hamamelis, Jasminus, Lonicera, and Robinia exhibited the lowest. The most frequently detected fungi were Aspergillus, Colletotrichum, Fusarium, Penicillium, Phyllosticta, and Alternaria. Plants and plant products represent an inoculum source of several mutualistic or pathogenic fungi, including quarantine pathogens. Thus, the movement of living organisms across continents during international trade represents a serious threat to ecosystems and biosecurity measures should be taken at a global level.
  • 2.2K
  • 19 Jan 2021
Topic Review
Table olives microbiota
Table olives fermentation is the result of a complex set of dynamics involving diverse microbial populations such as lactic acid bacteria, yeasts and moulds. Their metabolic activities determine the characteristics such as flavour, texture and safety of the final product. This chapter offers an overview on the main microbiota characterizing table olives and their role during fermentation.
  • 2.2K
  • 01 Jul 2020
Topic Review
Antimicrobial Resistance
The discovery of antibiotics has revolutionized the medicine and treatment of microbial infections. However, the current scenario has highlighted the difficulties in marketing new antibiotics and an exponential increase in the appearance of resistant strains. Here, the main antibiotic resistance mechanisms are briefly listed with some examples. 
  • 2.1K
  • 05 Nov 2020
Topic Review
Antimicrobial-resistance genes in human gut
Antibiotic-resistance has long been associated with the use and abuse of antibiotics. However, increasing evidence is suggesting that antibiotic-resistance is in fact a phenomenon that has been occurring in natural environments for thousands and possibly millions of years. With the expansion of the microbiome field, it is now possible to characterize antibiotic-resistance genes altogether in different samples, including the human gut. This has also enabled the characterization of ancient human gut microbiomes, which also include antibiotic-resistance genes. Mummified gut remains represent a unique opportunity to characterize the microbiome and antibiotic-resistance genes prior the antibiotic-therapy era. Surprisingly, mummies from the Inca and Italian nobility cultures showed to possess antibiotic-resistance-like genes similar to modern-day antibiotic-resistance genes conferring resistance to beta-lactams, sulfa, quinolones and vancomycin, just to mention a few examples. This is intriguing as it further supports that antibiotic-resistance began in the environment and was transferred to the human gut by means that remain to be investigated and are a matter of ongoing speculation.
  • 2.1K
  • 29 Oct 2020
Topic Review
Resistance in Powdery Mildew Fungi
Powdery mildew fungi (Erysiphales) are among the most common and important plant fungal pathogens. These fungi are obligate biotrophic parasites that attack nearly 10,000 species of angiosperms, including major crops, such as cereals and grapes. Although cultural and biological practices may reduce the risk of infection by powdery mildew, they do not provide sufficient protection. Therefore, in practice, chemical control, including the use of fungicides from multiple chemical groups, is the most effective tool for managing powdery mildew. Unfortunately, the risk of resistance development is high because typical spray programs include multiple applications per season. In addition, some of the most economically destructive species of powdery mildew fungi are considered to be high-risk pathogens and are able to develop resistance to several chemical classes within a few years. This situation has decreased the efficacy of the major fungicide classes, such as sterol demethylation inhibitors, quinone outside inhibitors and succinate dehydrogenase inhibitors, that are employed against powdery mildews.
  • 2.1K
  • 25 Sep 2020
Topic Review
Bioevaluation of Artemisia judaica L. Plant’s Essential Oil
Artemisia judaica (ArJ) is a Mediterranean aromatic plant used traditionally to treat gastrointestinal ailments, skin diseases, atherosclerosis, and as an immuno-stimulant. Researches validate the curative role of ArJ in the treatment of skin wounds, which is attributed to its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects, as well as its high proportion of oxygenated monoterpenes and cinnamate derivatives.
  • 2.1K
  • 21 Feb 2022
Topic Review
Oleaginous Yeasts
The production of lipids from oleaginous yeasts involves several stages starting from cultivation and lipid accumulation, biomass harvesting and finally lipids extraction. However, the complex and relatively resistant cell wall of yeasts limits the full recovery of intracellular lipids and usually solvent extraction is not sufficient to effectively extract the lipid bodies. A pretreatment or cell disruption method is hence a prerequisite prior to solvent extraction. In general, there are no recovery methods that are equally efficient for different species of oleaginous yeasts.
  • 2.1K
  • 08 Feb 2021
Topic Review
Lactoferrin and Lactobacilli
Vaginal infections are the most prevalent women's health problem. Incompetent diagnosis, inappropriate treatments, and antibiotic resistance are the main causes of the unsatisfactory results of conventional antimicrobic treatment for these infections. Consequently, several researches have been carried out to identify new treatments for these genital diseases. The significant enhancement in our knowledge of vaginal microbiota has permitted to develop new nonpharmacological strategies for the treatment of vaginal infections that seek to restore the balance of vaginal microflora, as opposed to modifying its components. Among these approaches, bioactive compounds, such as probiotics and nutraceutical proteins (like lactoferrin), deserve particular attention. The aim of this review is to examine the role of probiotics (mainly Lactobacillus spp.) and lactoferrin as new strategies for counteracting bacterial and fungal vaginal infections.
  • 2.1K
  • 30 Oct 2020
Topic Review
Pyocyanin
Pyocyanin is a blue pigment synthesized by about 95% of the strains of Pseudomonas aeruginosa.
  • 2.1K
  • 02 Mar 2021
Topic Review
Lactic Acid Bacteria
The antibacterial effect of lactic acid bacteria is attributed to its ability to produce antimicrobial compounds, including bacteriocins, with strong competitive action against many microorganisms. The use of bacteriocins, both separately and in combination with edible coatings, is considered a very promising approach for microbiological quality, and safety for postharvest storage of raw and minimally processed fruits and vegetables.
  • 2.1K
  • 26 Oct 2020
Topic Review
Equine Piroplasmosis
Equine piroplasmosis (EP), caused by the hemoparasites Theileria equi, Theileria haneyi, and Babesia caballi, is an important tick-borne disease of equines that is prevalent in most parts of the world. Infection may affect animal welfare and has economic impacts related to limitations in horse transport between endemic and non-endemic regions, reduced performance of sport horses and treatment costs.
  • 2.1K
  • 26 Nov 2020
Topic Review
Proteomics for Studying Antibiotic Action
To design more efficient treatments against bacterial infections, detailed knowledge about the bacterial response to the commonly used antibiotics is required. Proteomics is a well-suited and powerful tool to study molecular response to antimicrobial compounds. Bacterial response profiling from system-level investigations could increase our understanding of bacterial adaptation, the mechanisms behind antibiotic resistance and tolerance development.
  • 2.1K
  • 03 Nov 2020
Topic Review
Lactic Acid Fermentation on Food
The microbial and biochemical changes in different fermented foods due to the fermenting microorganisms. It has been a matter of study because it contributes to the enhancement of nutritional content in fermented foods due to various fermenting microorganisms that results in the modifications of foods ecosystems like on flavour, rheology, and shelf-life, as well as on the functional/nutritional characteristics of the foods. Fermentation technique has been used for centuries to upgrade food materials and to formulate a more acceptable product. It helps in the successful degradation of anti-nutritive compounds present in the fermented foods thus making it safe and consumable. This entry will help to know more about the potential of fermented foods to increase substantially the nutritional value of the world's most abundant food resources. The fermentation process has converted the unpalatable food materials into attractive and nutritious foods to add variety and flavour to monotonous staple dishes. It also enhances the nutritional value of foods in terms of vitamins, antioxidants, volatile compounds and minerals, etc. This entry may promote microbial and biochemical changes in fermented foods in a broad manner that helps to understand the overall beneficial effect of microorganisms on fermented foods. 
  • 2.0K
  • 13 Dec 2020
Topic Review
Genome Editing in Bacteria
Genome editing in bacteria encompasses a wide array of laborious and multi-step methods such as suicide plasmids. The discovery and applications of clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)-Cas based technologies have revolutionized genome editing in eukaryotic organisms due to its simplicity and programmability. 
  • 2.0K
  • 26 May 2021
Topic Review Peer Reviewed
Marine Fungi: Opportunities and Challenges
Marine fungi play a crucial role in energy flow and nutrient recycling, mediating the cycling of dissolved organic matter in marine environments. However, despite being a prolific group of organisms, marine fungi have been largely neglected for a long time. Besides their importance in the marine food web, marine fungi represent an active source of natural products. Over the last years, researchers have focused on studying marine organisms to discover new metabolites with antibacterial, antiviral, and anticancer activities. Moreover, with the advances in high-throughput sequencing technologies and mass spectrometry techniques, genomic and metabolomic approaches have revealed to be of paramount importance in natural products discovery. The marine mycobiome includes many organisms still to be identified, and the ones already known are still underutilized in biotechnological applications. For this reason, it is undeniable that exploring the marine mycobiome including new habitats and substrates, even those of remote access, is fundamental for describing the true magnitude of the Earth’s mycobiome.
  • 2.0K
  • 13 Apr 2022
Topic Review
Bacteroidetes
The phylum "Bacteroidetes" is composed of three large classes of Gram-negative, nonsporeforming, anaerobic or aerobic, and rod-shaped bacteria that are widely distributed in the environment, including in soil, sediments, and sea water, as well as in the guts and on the skin of animals. Although some Bacteroides spp. can be opportunistic pathogens, many "Bacteroidetes" are symbiotic species highly adjusted to the gastrointestinal tract. Bacteroides are highly abundant in intestines, reaching up to 1011 cells g−1 of intestinal material. They perform metabolic conversions that are essential for the host, such as degradation of proteins or complex sugar polymers. "Bacteroidetes" colonize the gastrointestinal tract already in infants, as non-digestible oligosaccharides in mother milk support the growth of both Bacteroides and Bifidobacterium spp. Bacteroides spp. are selectively recognized by the immune system of the host through specific interactions.
  • 2.0K
  • 02 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Glutamate Decarboxylase
Glutamate decarboxylase (l-glutamate-1-carboxylase, GAD; EC 4.1.1.15) is a pyridoxal-5’-phosphate-dependent enzyme that catalyzes the irreversible α-decarboxylation of l-glutamic acid to γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) and CO2. The enzyme is widely distributed in eukaryotes as well as prokaryotes, where it—together with its reaction product GABA—fulfils very different physiological functions. The occurrence of gad genes encoding GAD has been shown for many microorganisms, and GABA-producing lactic acid bacteria (LAB) have been a focus of research during recent years. A wide range of traditional foods produced by fermentation based on LAB offer the potential of providing new functional food products enriched with GABA that may offer certain health-benefits. Different GAD enzymes and genes from several strains of LAB have been isolated and characterized recently.
  • 2.0K
  • 23 Dec 2020
Topic Review
Antimicrobial Blue Light
Blue light primarily exhibits antimicrobial activity through the activation of endogenous photosensitizers, which leads to the formation of reactive oxygen species that attack components of bacterial cells, such as cell wall, cell membrane and genome. Current data show that blue light is innocuous on the skin, but may inflict photo-damage to the eyes. While complete resistance to blue light has not been reported, isolated evidence suggests that bacterial tolerance to blue light may occur over time, especially through gene mutations, although at a slower rate than antibiotic resistance. Future studies can aim at characterizing the amount and type of intracellular photosensitizers across bacterial species and at assessing the oxygen-independent mechanism of blue light.
  • 1.9K
  • 11 Jan 2021
Topic Review
Seaweed-Associated Bacteria
Seaweeds are broadly distributed and represent an important source of secondary metabolites (e.g., halogenated compounds, polyphenols) eliciting various pharmacological activities and playing a relevant ecological role in the anti-epibiosis. Importantly, host (as known as basibiont such as algae)–microbe (as known as epibiont such as bacteria) interaction (as known as halobiont) is a driving force for coevolution in the marine environment. 
  • 1.9K
  • 25 Dec 2020
Topic Review
Yarrowia lipolytica
After having drawn some industrialists’ attention as early as the 1950s, the non-conventional oleaginous yeast Yarrowia lipolytica has been recognized since several decades, as a powerful host for heterologous protein expression, secretion and surface display. The development of sequencing and genetic engineering tools, combined with an increasing knowledge of its metabolism, have then facilitated the complex engineering of the metabolic pathways of this yeast for various applications. Since nearly two decades, numerous laboratories throughout the world have chosen Y. lipolytica as a chassis for designing microbial cell factories. White biotechnology applications of this yeast include notably single cell oil production, whole cell bioconversion and upgrading of industrial wastes. 
  • 1.9K
  • 19 Jul 2021
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