Gluconobacter oxydans is a Gram-negative bacterium belonging to the family Acetobacteraceae. It is a rod-shaped and obligately aerobic bacterium having a respiratory type of metabolism using oxygen as the terminal electron acceptor. It can grow in highly concentrated sugar solutions and at low pH values. It contains many membrane-bound dehydrogenases that are critical for the incomplete oxidation of biotechnologically important substrates (Ref.1). Glutathione (GSH), a tripeptide, is ubiquitous in eukaryotic system, found widely in Gram negative bacteria. Glutathione (GSH) is made-up of three amino acids viz. glutamic acid, cysteine and glycine Glutathione has diverse roles in biological systems for its antioxidative, immune boosting and cellular detoxifying activities.[..]
Xanthomonas is a Gram-negative rod-shaped bacterium known for being a common plant pathogen. This bacterium is grown commercially to produce the exopolysaccharide xanthan gum, which is used to control viscosity and as a stabilizing agent in many industries. Xanthomonas affects many types of hosts, including citrus, beans, grapes, cotton, and rice. X. axonopodis causes citrus cankers and black rot, which affects many commercial plants. Typical symptoms of the disease include lesions on the leaves, fruit, and stems as well as twig dieback. X. axonopodis is motile by a single polar flagellum and produces slow growing, non-mucoid colonies in culture. It is the causal agent of Asiatic Citrus Canker on most Citrus sp. and close relatives of Citrus in the family Rutaceae[..]
Leptospira is a genus of spirochetal bacteria and the causative agent of leptospirosis, a zoonotic disease of worldwide distribution. There are over 230 recognized serovars of pathogenic leptospires. Leptospira causes Leptospirosis, which causes a wide range of clinical manifestations ranging from a simple febrile illness to systemic complications such as pulmonary hemorrhage syndrome, acute kidney injury and hepatic failure (Ref.1) Leptospira interrogans serovar is an aerobic highly invasive spirochete, the cause of the harmful disease Leptospirosis, which affects many animals and humans. It grows best at pH levels between 7.2 and 7.6, preferring an alkaline habitat to acidic. Virulent serovar Type strain Lai of L. interrogans serogroup Icterohaemorrhagiae consists of[..]
Legionella pneumophila is a motile, rod-shaped, Gram-negative, aerobic, bacterium, considered to be a facultative parasite. L. pneumophila is the causative agent of the Legionnaires' disease, a potential fatal pneumonia. L. pneumophila Lens is an epidemic strain L. pneumophila Paris was responsible for a major outbreak of disease in France. Other virulent strains belonging to serogroup 1 are Lens, Philadelphia, Lorraine (Ref.1&2).Glutathione metabolism in L. pneumophila occurs within cells in two closely linked, enzymatically controlled reactions that utilize ATP and draw on nonessential amino acids as substrates. Glutathione is a tripeptide, composed of glutamate, cysteine and glycine, and has numerous important functions within the bacterial cell. This[..]
Neisseria meningitidis is a causative agent of meningitis, and is responsible for considerable morbidity and mortality throughout the world. Most disease-causing N. meningitidis strains belong to Serogroups A, B and C. Serogroup A strains are responsible for major epidemics and pandemics of meningococcal disease, and therefore most of the morbidity and mortality associated with this disease, and Serogroup B and C strains are responsible for outbreaks of menigitis in the developed world. N.meningitidis Z2491 belongs to serogroup A. It is a Gram-negative species of bacteria belonging to the β-subgroup of proteobacteria. They are facultative commensals, and their only habitat is human. Meningococci colonize the nasopharynx of up to 35% of healthy individuals at[..]
Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a Gram-negative, aerobic rod, belonging to the bacterial family Pseudomonadaceae and is one of the top three causes of opportunistic human infections. It is a versatile bacterium that grows in soil, marshes and coastal marine habitats, as well as on plant and animal tissues. It occurs regularly on the surfaces of plants and occassionally on the surfaces of animals. The bacterium is an opportunistic pathogen and hence, exploits some break in the host defenses to initiate an infection. It causes urinary tract infections, respiratory system infections, dermatitis, soft tissue infections, bacteremia, bone and joint infections, gastrointestinal infections and a variety of systemic infections, particularly in patients with severe burns and in cancer[..]
Plasmodium falciparum is the etiological agent of malaria tropica, the leading cause of death due to a vector borne infectious disease, claiming 0.5 million lives every year. The single-cell eukaryote undergoes a complex life cycle and is an obligate intracellular parasite of hepatocytes and erythrocytes (Ref.1). Malaria in humans is caused by five species of protozoan parasites of the genus Plasmodium, namely P. falciparum, P. vivax, P. ovale, P. malariae and P. knowlesi. The most severe form of the disease is caused by P. falciparum and about 90% of the 600,000 annual deaths are attributable to an infection with this parasite species in Sub-Saharan Africa, with children under the age of 5 and pregnant women being most vulnerable to the infection (Ref.2). In its human[..]
Photorhabdus luminescens is a nematode-symbiotic, gram negative, bioluminescent bacterium, belonging to the family of Enterobacteriaceae. P. luminescens is a part of the Photorhadbus genus, known to have three bacterial species: Photorhabdus luminescens, Photorhabdus temperata and Photorhabdus asymbiotica (Ref.1). It lives in the gut of an entomopathogenic nematode of the family Heterorhabditidae. When the nematode infects an insect, P. luminescens is released into the blood stream and rapidly kills the insect host (within 48 hours) by producing toxins. It encodes a large number of adhesins, toxins, hemolysins, proteases and lipases, and contains a wide array of antibiotic synthesizing genes. These proteins likely play a role in the elimination of competitors, host[..]
Prochlorococcus is a genus of very small (0.6 μm) marine cyanobacteria with an unusual pigmentation (chlorophyll a2 and b2). These bacteria belong to the photosynthetic picoplankton and are probably the most abundant photosynthetic organism on Earth. Prochlorococcus microbes are among the major primary producers in the ocean, responsible for a large percentage of the photosynthetic production of oxygen. P. marinus MED4 is a high-light adapted ecotypewith the smallest genome of any known oxygenic phototroph (Ref.1). Their cell envelope is of a Gram-negative type but may attain a considerable thickness in the peptidoglycan layer (Ref.2&3). Photosynthetic organisms are constantly faced with the threat of reactive oxygen species (ROS) generated as a[..]
The marine unicellular green cyanobacterium Prochlorococcus marinus MIT9313 belongs to the most abundant and photosynthetically productive genus of cyanobacteria in the oceans. This monophyletic genus use divinyl chlorophyll a (Chl a2) and b (Chl b2) to build the photosystems and the membrane-intrinsic Pcb-type antennae. P. marinus MIT9313 has two genes that encode chlorophylls a/b-binding proteins (Pcb): pcbA and pcbB(Ref.1,2&3). Photosynthetic organisms are constantly faced with the threat of reactive oxygen species (ROS) generated as a by-product of photosynthesis and cellular metabolism. To overcome these challenges, photosynthetic organisms have developed robust antioxidant and redox buffering systems composed of enzymatic and small molecule[..]
Prochlorococcus is one of the main picophytoplankters in the oligotrophic oceans of our planet(Ref.1). The P. marinus SS120 strain represents an extreme within the Prochlorococcus genus because of its ability to grow at very low light levels. This strain is characterized by a nearly minimal gene complement with a compact genome. The genome is a single circular chromosome of 1,751,080 bp with an average G+C content of 36.4%. It contains 1,884 predicted protein-coding genes with an average size of 825 bp, a single rRNA operon, and 40 tRNA genes (Ref.2&3). Photosynthetic organisms are constantly faced with the threat of reactive oxygen species (ROS) generated as a by-product of photosynthesis and cellular metabolism. To overcome these challenges, photosynthetic[..]
Photobacterium profundum is a deep sea Gammaproteobacterium, belonging to the family Vibrionaceae and genus Photobacterium. Members of Photobacterium genus are marine organism. There are currently 4 cultured wild-type strains of P. profundum, (strains SS9, 3TCK, DJS4 and 1230) (Ref.1). P. profundum has two circular chromosomes and is a gram-negative with rod shape and has two flagella systems. It can grow at temperatures from 0 °C to 25 °C and pressures from 0.1 MPa to 70 MPa depending on the strain. It has a requirement for salt, is able to metabolise a wide range of simple and complex carbohydrates. It was originally isolated in 1986 from the Sulu Sea (Ref.2). In their natural environment or during infections, bacteria encounter different reactive species,[..]
