Contact lenses are a successful form of vision correction. But their use has been associated with an increased risk of microbial keratitis (MK), contact lens related acute red eye (CLARE) as well as contact lens peripheral ulcer (CLPU) (Eltis, 2011). One of the main problems associated with contact lenses is microbial contamination of the lens surface. Microbial contamination further leads to t...

2,3-Butanediol (2,3-BDO) has immense industrial applications. Recently, microbial fermentation has emerged as an alternative way to produce this industrially important chemical. Although 2,3-BDO is produced by several microorganisms, the Klebsiella genera has an excellent production compared with other 2,3-BDO-producing microorganisms. In order to produce 2,3- BDO on a large scale, the challeng...

Fresh produce is a generalized term for a group of farm-produced crops, including fruits and vegetables. Organic agriculture has been on the rise and attracting the attention of the food production sector, since it uses eco-agricultural principles that are ostensibly environmentally-friendly and provides products potentially free from the residues of agrochemicals. Organic farming practices suc...

A simple and green method was developed for the biosynthesis of AgCl nanoparticles, free from Ag nanoparticles, using the exopolysaccharide-based bioflocculant of nitrogen fixing Azotobacter chroococcum XU1 strain. AgCl nanoparticles were characterized by UV-Vis, X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier Transform-Infra Red (FT-IR) and Scanning electron microscopy-energy dispersive X-ray (SEM-EDX). The ...

Medicinal plants produce several antibacterial compounds. These plants are well known for their medicinal value and are widely used in community for the treatment of various diseases. In this study 5 different medicinal plants (Azadirachta indica, Ficus religiosa, Acacia nilotica, Linum usitatissimum and Rosa damascene), traditionally used in medicine, were subjected to preliminary screening fo...

As the consumer attitudes shift to healthier, low caloric value as well as to convenience products, the demand for whole and fresh-cut produce has proportionally increased over the last decade [19, 53, 55]. Together with the grown market, an increased number of outbreaks associated with fresh-cut produce brought the necessity to deal with microbial decontamination methods of the fresh-cut lettu...

Antimicrobial peptides exhibit high levels of antimicrobial activity against a broad range of spoilage and pathogenic microorganisms. Compared with bacteriocins produced by lactic acid bacteria, antimicrobial peptides from the genus Bacillus have been relatively less recognized despite their broad antimicrobial spectra. These peptides can be classified into two different groups based on whether...

Bacteriocins are peptides, synthesized on the ribosome of bacteria that show specific antimicrobial activity against a range of bacteria. Among the bacteria producing bacteriocin, the lactic acid bacteria have special emphasis for producing bacteriocins that are not toxic and are easily broken in the mammalian stomach. Therefore, this study evaluated the potential of strains of Streptococcus th...

A total of 103 isolates of basidiomycetes, representing 84 species from different Brazilian ecosystems, were evaluated for their antifungal and antibacterial activity in a panel of pathogenic and non-pathogenic microorganisms. Tissue plugs of the fruiting bodies were cultivated in liquid media and the whole culture extracted with ethyl acetate. Crude extracts from Agaricus cf. nigrecentulus, Ag...

Glycans constitute basic cellular components of living organisms across biological kingdoms, and glycan-binding Abs participate in many cellular interactions during immune defense against pathogenic organisms. Glycan epitopes are expressed as carbohydrate-only entities or as oligomers or polymers on proteins and lipids. Such epitopes on glycoproteins may be formed by posttranslational modificat...