Very little is known about the normal gastrointestinal flora of wild birds, or how it might affect or reflect the host's life-history traits. The aim of this study was to survey the species richness of bacteria in the feces of a wild population of blue tits Cyanistes caeruleus and to explore the relationships between bacterial species richness and various life-history traits, such as age, sex, ...

BACKGROUND Protective host responses to respiratory pathogens are typically characterized by inflammation. However, lung inflammation is not always protective and it may even become deleterious to the host. We have recently reported substantial protection against Streptococcus pneumoniae (pneumococcal) pneumonia by induction of a robust inflammatory innate immune response to an inhaled bacteria...

A novel fluorescence-based screen for bacterial mechanosensitive ion-channel activity has been developed. This assay is capable of clearly distinguishing the previously observed gain of function and loss of function phenotypes for the Escherichia coli mechanosensitive channel of large conductance (Ec-MscL). The method modifies Molecular Probes' Live/Dead BacLight bacterial viability assay to mo...

Numerous studies in Gram-negative bacteria have focused on the Type VI Secretion Systems (T6SSs), Quorum Sensing (QS), and social behavior, such as in biofilms. These interconnected mechanisms are important for bacterial survival; T6SSs allow bacteria to battle other cells, QS is devoted to the perception of bacterial cell density, and biofilm formation is essentially controlled by QS. Here, we...

introduction: this study was carried out to evaluate the bacterial leakage of root canal fillings when cavity varnish containing 5% fluoride (duraflur) was used as root canal sealer. methods and materials: root canals of 88 straight single-rooted teeth were prepared. eighty teeth were randomly divided into 3 experimental groups ( n =20) and two positive and negative control groups of ten each. ...

background : propylene glycol (1,2-propanediol, pg) is a commonly used solvent for oral, intravenous, as well as topical pharmaceutical preparations. while pg is generally considered to be safe, it has been known that large intravenous doses given over a short period of time can be toxic. objective: to evaluate the effect of pg in sepsis induced by the bacterial endotoxin lipopolysaccharide (lp...

background: sealing ability is one of the most important features of endodontic sealers. the purpose of this in vitro study was to compare the sealing ability of a resin-based sealer with a mineral trioxide aggregate-based sealer. materials and methods: a total of 60 single-rooted extracted human teeth were randomly divided into two experimental groups (n = 25) and two control groups (n = 5). a...

We have previously demonstrated conjugation of Escherichia coli into vacuoles of the protozoal ciliate (Tetrahymena thermophila). This indicated a possible role of ciliates in evoking bacterial quorum sensing, directly connecting bacterial survival via accumulation in the ciliate vacuoles. We therefore assessed if ciliates promoted bacterial autoinducer (AI)-2 accumulation with vacuole formatio...

Bacterial resistance to the available marketed drugs has prompted the search of novel therapies; especially in regards of anti-virulence strategies that aim to make bacteria less pathogenic and/or decrease their probability to become resistant to therapy. Cinnamaldehyde is widely known for its antibacterial properties through mechanisms that include the interaction of this compound with bacteri...

The spread of bacterial infectious diseases due to the development of resistance to antibiotic drugs in pathogenic bacteria is an emerging global concern. Therefore, the efficacious management and prevention of bacterial infections are major public health challenges. RecA is a pleiotropic recombinase protein that has been demonstrated to be implicated strongly in the bacterial drug resistance, ...