Bartonella bacilliformis is a pathogenic bacterium transmitted to humans presumably by bites of phlebotomine sand flies, infection with which results in a bi-phasic syndrome termed Carrión's disease. After constructing a low-passage GFP-labeled strain of B. bacilliformis, we artificially infected Lutzomyia verrucarum and L. longipalpis populations, and subsequently monitored colonization of san...

Giant clams harbor dinoflagellates generally of the three genera ( Symbiodinium , Cladocopium and Durusdinium ) phototrophic Symbiodiniaceae. Coccoid (alias zooxanthellae) are found mainly inside zooxanthellal tubules located in colorful outer mantle. The symbionts need to obtain carbon, nitrogen phosphorus from host for growth metabolism. can absorb exogenous ammonia through ctenidium assimila...

A group of 180 H. pylori culture positive dyspeptic patients (64 patients with peptic ulcer, PU) completed a 2-week treatment with omeprazole, amoxicillin and metronidazole and underwent endoscopy again 6-8 weeks after the end of therapy. One hundred and twenty-four patients (68.8%) were successfully treated. Factors increasing the rates of eradication were the presence of PU (p=0.007) and anti...

We developed a double-staining procedure involving NanoOrange dye (Molecular Probes, Eugene, Oreg.) and membrane integrity stains (LIVE/DEAD BacLight kit; Molecular Probes) to show the morphological and membrane integrity changes of Campylobacter coli cells during growth. The conversion from a spiral to a coccoid morphology via intermediary forms and the membrane integrity changes of the C. col...

Introduction: Enterococci are gram-positive coccoid bacteria that are present in the normal flora of the gastrointestinal tract in human, and many mammals and birds, as well as the environment. Vancomycin-resistant Enterococci (VRE) are a major and rising problem in hospitals throughout the world. The present study aimed to investigate the frequency of strains of Enterococci and the pattern of ...

The frequencies of cells containing mature phages, the burst sizes, the phage head sizes and the distribution of phages inside cells of different bacterial morphotypes were investigated in the northern Adriatic Sea. Coccoid bacteria more frequently (2 .5%) contained mature phages than rodshaped bacteria (1.2%) and spirillae (1.4 %). Including an estimation of non-v~sible infection we found that...