Polymyxin B nonapeptide, a polymyxin B derivative which lacks the fatty acyl part and the bactericidal activity of polymyxin, was shown to sensitize smooth encapsulated Escherichia coli (O18:K1) and smooth Salmonella typhimurium to hydrophobic antibiotics (novobiocin, fusidic acid, erythromycin, clindamycin, nafcillin, and cloxacillin). The polymyxin B nonapeptide-treated bacteria were as sensi...

Intestinal bacteria can contribute to cell proliferation and cancer development, particularly in chronic infectious diseases in which bacteria and/or bacterial components might interfere with cell function. The number of microbial cells within the gut lumen is estimated to be 100 trillion, which is about 10-times larger than the number of eukaryotic cells in the human body. Because of the compl...

Disseminated strongyloidiasis is often associated with enteric bacterial infections. This study was undertaken to determine if enteric organisms caused extraintestinal infections in patients infected with Strongyloides stercoralis but without apparent dissemination. The medical records of hospitalized patients from central Kentucky with strongyloidiasis (1993-2003) were examined to determine th...

Viruses affect host physiology beyond causing acute disease, thereby giving rise to the concept that the virome is a component of the microbiome. However, the role of the enteric virome is understudied relative to the fast-paced research examining commensal bacteria in the intestine. In this article, I discuss our recent work on murine norovirus indicating that an animal virus in the intestine ...

The objectives of this study were to evaluate the effects of flunixin meglumine (FM), an inhibitor of PGF2α synthesis, administered at the time of embryo transfer (ET) and insertion of an intravaginal progesteronereleasing device (CIDR) at the time of ET on pregnancy rates (PR) and the resynchronization of estrus. Beef cows (n = 552) and heifers (n = 160) in three locations were assigned random...

Classification of bacterial species into genera has traditionally relied upon variation in phenotypic characteristics. However, these phenotypes often have a multifactorial genetic basis, making unambiguous taxonomic placement of new species difficult. By designing evolutionarily conserved oligonucleotide primers, it is possible to amplify homologous regions of genes in diverse taxa using the p...

Gene clusters for biosynthesis of 24 of 34 basic O-antigen forms of Shigella spp. are identical or similar to those of the genetically closely related bacterium Escherichia coli. For 18 of these relatedness was confirmed chemically by elucidation of the O-antigen (O-polysaccharide) structures. In this work, structures of the six remaining O-antigens of E. coli O32, O53, O79, O105, O183 (all rel...

That some strains of the coliform group of bacteria exert inhibitory effects on other microorganisms, when grown in association in liquid media, was reported first by Nissle in 1916. Because of the multiplicity of factors involved when organisms are growing in heterogeneous mixtures in liquid media, the nature of the inhibiting agent is difficult to ascertain. Gratia of Belgium (1925) observed ...

A study was conducted to understand the descriptive and molecular epidemiology of antimicrobial-resistant gram-negative enteric bacteria in the feces of healthy lactating dairy cattle. Gram-negative enteric bacteria resistant to ampicillin, florfenicol, spectinomycin, and tetracycline were isolated from the feces of 35, 8, 5, and 42% of 213 lactating cattle on 74, 39, 9, 26, and 82% of 23 farms...

Enteric bacteria exposed to the marine environment simultaneously encounter a variety of abiotic and biotic challenges. Among the former, light appears to be critical in affecting seawater survival; previous growth history plays a major part in preadaptation of the cells, and stationary phase cells are generally more resistant than exponentially growing ones. Predation, mostly by protozoa, is p...