A five-month-old Indian girl, product of consanguineous marriage, presented with diarrhoea with an onset within two days after birth, severe malnutrition and metabolic acidosis. The diarrhoea persisted even with lactose-free formula, amino acid-based formula and glucose-containing oral rehydration solution, but stopped when fasted. She required prolonged parenteral nutrition. Fructose and glucose tolerance tests were performed, confirming the child was able to absorb and metabolize fructose but not glucose, indicating a diagnosis of glucose-galactose malabsorption. This case illustrate how simple and pertinent clinical observations and laboratory investigations is sufficient to allow a firm diagnosis to be made.
The agarolytic bacterium Persicobacter sp. CCB-QB2 was isolated from seaweed (genus Ulva) collected from a coastal area of Malaysia. Here, we report a high-quality draft genome sequence for QB2. The Rapid Annotation using Subsystem Technology (RAST) annotation server identified four β-agarases (PdAgaA, PdAgaB, PdAgaC, and PdAgaD) as well as galK, galE, and phosphoglucomutase, which are related to the Leloir pathway. Interestingly, QB2 exhibited a diauxic growth in the presence of two kinds of nutrients, such as tryptone and agar. In cells grown with agar, the profiles of agarase activity and growth rate were very similar. galK, galE, and phosphoglucomutase genes were highly expressed in the second growth phase of diauxic growth, indicating that QB2 cells use galactose hydrolyzed from agar by its agarases and exhibit nutrient prioritization. This is the first report describing diauxic growth for agarolytic bacteria. QB2 is a potential novel model organism for studying diauxic growth in environmental bacteria.
Yangia sp. ND199 is a moderately halophilic bacterium isolated from mangrove samples in Northern Vietnam, which was earlier reported to grow on several sugars and glycerol to accumulate poly(hydroxyalkanoates) (PHA). In this study, the potential of the bacterium for co-production of exopolysaccharides (EPS) and PHA was investigated. Genome sequence analysis of the closely related Yangia sp. CCB-M3 isolated from mangroves in Malaysia revealed genes encoding enzymes participating in different EPS biosynthetic pathways. The effects of various cultivation parameters on the production of EPS and PHA were studied. The highest level of EPS (288 mg/L) was achieved using sucrose and yeast extract with 5% NaCl and 120 mM phosphate salts but with modest PHA accumulation (32% of cell dry weight, 1.3 g/L). Growth on fructose yielded the highest PHA concentration (85% of CDW, 3.3 g/L) at 90 mM phosphate and higher molecular weight EPS at 251 mg/L yield at 120 mM phosphate concentration. Analysis of EPS showed a predominance of glucose, followed by fructose and galactose, and minor amounts of acidic sugars.
The virulence of Candida albicans is dependent upon fitness attributes as well as virulence factors. These attributes include robust stress responses and metabolic flexibility. The assimilation of carbon sources is important for growth and essential for the establishment of infections by C. albicans. Previous studies showed that the C. albicans ICL1 genes, which encode the glyoxylate cycle enzymes isocitratelyase are required for growth on non-fermentable carbon sources such as lactate and oleic acid and were repressed by 2% glucose. In contrast to S. cerevsiae, the enzyme CaIcl1 was not destabilised by glucose, resulting with its metabolite remaining at high levels. Further glucose addition has caused CaIcl1 to lose its signal and mechanisms that trigger destabilization in response to glucose. Another purpose of this study was to test the stability of the Icl1 enzyme in response to the dietary sugars, fructose, and galactose. In the present study, the ICL1 mRNAs expression was quantified using Quantitative Real Time PCR, whereby the stability of protein was measured and quantified using Western blot and phosphoimager, and the replacing and cloning of ICL1 ORF by gene recombination and ubiquitin binding was conducted via co-immuno-precipitation. Following an analogous experimental approach, the analysis was repeated using S. cerevisiaeas a control. Both galactose and fructose were found to trigger the degradation of the ICL1 transcript in C. albicans. The Icl1 enzyme was stable following galactose addition but was degraded in response to fructose. C. albicans Icl1 (CaIcl1) was also subjected to fructose-accelerated degradation when expressed in S. cerevisiae, indicating that, although it lacks a ubiquitination site, CaIcl1 is sensitive to fructose-accelerated protein degradation. The addition of an ubiquitination site to CaIcl1 resulted in this enzyme becoming sensitive to galactose-accelerated degradation and increases its rate of degradation in the presence of fructose. It can be concluded that ubiquitin-independent pathways of fructose-accelerated enzyme degradation exist in C. albicans.
The elderly usually suffer from many diseases. Improving the quality of life of the elderly is an urgent social issue. In this present study, D-galactose treated aging mice models were used to reveal the effects of different animal sources and different doses of whey protein (WP) on the immune indexes organs and intestinal flora. A total of 9 groups were set up, including normal control (NC), negative control (NS), positive control (Vc), low-, medium- and high-doses of cow WP intervention groups (CL, CM and CH for short, correspondingly) and low-, medium- and high-doses of goat WP intervention groups (GL, GM and GH for short, correspondingly). The body weight gain, thymus/body weight ratio, superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity, malondialdehyde (MDA) content, spleen immunoglobulins G (IgG), spleen interleukin-2 (IL-2) and spleen interleukin-2 (IL-6) were measured. Then, the intestinal contents were collected, and 16s genes of intestinal bacteria were sequenced to reveal the changes in bacterial flora structure. WP intervention significantly increased the weight gain, thymus/body ratio and SOD activity, but decrease the content of MDA. WP intervention increased some immune indicators. All the WP treated aging mice showed similar values of physiological indexes to that of the Vc group, even better. The relative abundance of Lactobacillus and Stenotrophomonas was increased and decreased, respectively, by both cow and goat WP. Lactobacillus may be involved in regulating the functional repair of organisms. In contrast, Stenotrophomonas might play a negative role in the immune and antioxidant capacity of the body. Combining physiological indicators and intestinal flora structure, low-concentration WP for cow and goat might be optimal for aging models.