Waman N. Paunikar

Novel bacteriophage therapy for controlling metallo-beta-lactamase producing Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection in Catfish

BackgroundThe bacteriophage therapy is an effective antimicrobial approach with potentially important applications in medicine and biotechnology which can be seen as an additional string in the bow. Emerging drug resistant bacteria in aquaculture industry due to unrestricted use of antibiotics warrants more sustainable and environmental friendly strategies for controlling fish infections.The isolated bacteria from fish lesions was characterised based on isolation on selective and differential medium like Pseudomonas agar, gram staining, biochemical tests and 16SrRNA sequencing. The metallo-beta-lactamase (MBL) producing bacterial isolate was evaluated using Imipenem - Ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) disk method. The specific bacteriophage was isolated and concentrated using coal bed developed in our lab at CSIR-NEERI. The isolated and enriched bacteriophage was characterised by nucleotide sequencing and electron microscopy. The phage therapy was applied for treating ulcerative lesion in fish.ResultsThe pathogenic bacterium responsible for causing ulcerative lesions in catfish species (Clarias gariepinus) was identified as Pseudomonas aeruginosa. One out of twenty P. aeruginosa isolate showing multi drug resistance (MDR) was incidentally found to be MBL producing as determined by Imipenem-EDTA disk method. The phage therapy effectively cured the ulcerative lesions of the infected fish in 8–10 days of treatment, with a sevenfold reduction of the lesion with untreated infection control.ConclusionBacteriophage therapy can have potential applications soon as an alternative or as a complement to antibiotic treatment in the aquaculture. We present bacteriophage therapy as a treatment method for controlling MDR P. aeruginosa infection in C. gariepinus. To the best of our knowledge this is a first report of application of phage therapy against MBL producing P. aeruginosa isolated from aquatic ecosystem.

Bioactive compounds derived from microalgae showing antimicrobial activities.

Microalgae have been explored for their bioactive compounds with promising applications encompassing antibacterial, antiviral, antifungal and antialgal activities. Considering the present status of widely used treatment therapies and their limitations to tackle their adverse effects, the application of bioactive compounds derived from algae will prove beneficial and much more effective as compared with traditional treatment methods. Due to the emerging infectious diseases, viral infections (epidemic and pandemic) and raise in antibiotic resistant bacteria, there is an urgent need for development of alternative treatment therapies against infectious diseases. Present work provides a brief introduction about the algal bioactive compounds and their activities against various pathogens.

Novel application of bacteriophage for controlling foaming in wastewater treatment plant- an eco-friendly approach

ABSTRACT This addendum to “Novel application of bacteriophage for controlling foaming in wastewater treatment plant- an eco-friendly approach “ includes characteristics of the phages NOC1, NOC2 and NOC3 not discussed in the previous paper. The phage adsorption and host interaction properties, their sensitivity to pH and temperature are inferred. NOC2 is seen to be more temperature resistant while others are not. All the phages show pH sensitivity. There is a variance observed in the behavior of these phages. Also, applicability of the phage based system to large scale reactors is studied and discussed here.

Increasing the extraction efficiency of algal lipid for biodiesel production: novel application of algal viruses.

Various studies have been conducted recently using microalgal system for the production of algal lipid for biodiesel production. This study aimed at increasing the extraction efficiency of algal lipid from Chlorella sp. by the application of Chlorella viruses. The calorific value of lipid from Chlorella sp. has been reported to be higher than that of fresh water microalgae, making it a potential candidate to be used as biofuel. This is the first report on novel application of microalgal viruses for improving the extraction efficiency of algal lipid for biodiesel production through viral lysis of Chlorella vulgaris . The algal lipid extraction efficiency, increased by 11.68% in the case of Chlorella virus treated C. vulgaris when compared with Chlorella virus untreated C. vulgaris . The application of Chlorella virus and the viral encoded lytic enzymes for increasing the extraction efficiency of algal lipid will be helpful in optimizing algal biofuel industry in the future. Keywords: Micro-algal system, biodiesel, algal lipid, Chlorella viruses, viral lysis. African Journal of Biotechnology , Vol 13(15), 1666-1670

Comparative Functional Genomics Studies for Understanding the Hypothetical Proteins in Mycobacterium tuberculosis KZN 1435

The prediction for the unknown proteins from Mycobacterium tuberculosis KZN 1435 were carried out for characterization of the proteins in their respective families. In Mycobacterium tuberculosis KZN 1435 out of 1560 genes for hypothetical proteins, functions were predicted for 1221 hypothetical protein whereas, structures for 803 unknown proteins were revealed. The Bioinformatics web tools like CDD-BLAST, INTERPROSCAN, PFAM and COGs were used for the prediction of functions in the proteins by searching protein databases for the presence of conserved domains; whereas, tertiary structures were constructed using PS 2 Server-Protein Structure Prediction server. This study was helpful in understanding functional characteristics of hypothetical proteins in Mycobacterium tuberculosis KZN 1435 as well as their role in the life cycle of the bacterium.