Biotech_Facts

Odilorhabdins: Odilorhabdins , or ODLs, a new class of antibiotics which disrupts protein synthesis are produced by symbiotic bacteria  Xenorhabdus Nematophilia , found in soil-dwelling nematode worms that colonize insects for food. The bacteria  Xenorhabdus Nematophilia  actually helps to kill the insect and, importantly, secrete the antibiotic to keep competating the other bacteria away. Till now, these nematode-associated bacteria and the antibiotics they make have been largely understudied. To identify the antibiotic property present in the  xenorhabdus  bacteria, researchers screened 80 cultured strains of the bacteria & isolated the active compounds showing properties of antibiotics, studied their chemical structures and engineered more potent derivatives. ODLs mainly act on the ribosome, which is the molecular machine of individual cells that makes the proteins it needs to function of bacterial cells. Like many clinically useful antibiotics, O...

The timing of a hurricane is one of the common primary factors influencing its impact on the spread of mosquito-borne infectious diseases such as West Nile Virus, dengue, chikungunya and Zika etc. Researchers from Georgia State and Arizona State University developed a mathematical model to study the impact of heavy rainfall events (HREs) such as hurricanes on the transmission of vector-borne infectious diseases in temperate areas of the world, including the southern coastal U.S. In the impact of this type of extreme weather event, the mosquito population often booms in the presence of stagnant water. At the same time, the breakdown of public and private health infrastructure can set people at increased risk of infection. The study, which was published in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, found that the risk of a disease outbreak is highest if the HRE occurs early in the transmission season, or the period of time when mosquitoes are able to pass on the...