BACKGROUND Burkholderia pseudomallei is a soil saprophytic bacterium that causes melioidosis. The infection occurs through cutaneous inoculation, inhalation or ingestion. Bacteriophages (phages) in the same ecosystem may significantly impact the biology of this bacterium in the environment, and in their culturability in the laboratory. METHODS/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS The soil samples were analysed...

Diploscapter, a thermotolerant, free-living soil bacterial-feeding nematode commonly found in compost, sewage, and agricultural soil in the United States, was studied to determine its potential role as a vehicle of Salmonella enterica serotype Poona, enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli O157:H7, and Listeria monocytogenes in contaminating preharvest fruits and vegetables. The ability of Diploscap...

Survival and transport of pathogens from manure in the environment depend on a number of complex phenomena. An important question is how the properties of such a complex environment as the soil–manure medium impact the persistence of bacteria within the vadose zone. First, manure can change the partitioning of precipitation water between infiltration (enhanced by solid manure) and surface runof...

The aim of our experiment was to determine the effect of heating oil application on the count of microorganisms and some physico-chemical properties of limed and lime-free soil and soil sown with yellow lupine of the Markiz variety and unsown soil. The results obtained indicate that heating oil deteriorated the physico-chemical properties of the experimental soil (acidification, decrease in the...

During the course of certain experiments designed to demonstrate ' antagonistic bacteria ' for intestinal pathogenic bacteria of man, the interesting observation was made, that manysamples of garden and field soil contain bacteriophages active against these organisms. A 1 in 100 suspension in saline of soil when added in 1 c.cm. amounts to melted agar containing a thick suspension of one of the...

Soil microorganisms drive critical functions in plant-soil systems. As such, various microbial properties have been proposed as indicators of soil functioning, making them potentially useful in evaluating the recovery of polluted soils via phytoremediation strategies. To evaluate microbial responses to metal phytoextraction using hyperaccumulators, a microcosm experiment was carried out to stud...

The influences of an IAA (indole-3-acetic acid)-producing bacterium (Bacillus megaterium) and two bacterial-feeding nematodes (Cephalobus sp. or Mesorhabditis sp.) on the growth of peanut (Arachis hypogaea L. cv. Haihua 1) after various durations of time were investigated in natural soils. The addition of bacteria and nematodes and incubation time all significantly affected plant growth, plant ...

Bacteria pathogenic for man and animals find their way to the soil, either in the excreta of the hosts or in their remains. If one considers the period for which animals and plants have existed on this planet and the great numbers of disease-producing microbes that must have thus gained entrance into the soil, one can only wonder that the soil harbors so few bacteria capable of causing infectio...

The use of biodegradation methods by microorganisms in the removal of industrial dyes are widely considered owing to their high efficiency and compatibility to the environment. Therefore, this study aims to evaluate the biodegradation of methylene blue (MB) from aqueous solution by bacteria isolated from contaminated soil. This study was performed in laboratory scale on bacteria isolated and pu...

A culture-independent survey was performed to search for 16S rRNA gene sequences representing dominant and metabolically active bacteria in rhizosphere soil. PCR- and reverse transcription-PCR-derived clone libraries were constructed from DNA and RNA directly extracted from the soil sample. Acidobacteria-related sequences occupied an unusually large proportion (>50%) of both rDNA- and rRNA-deri...