Gut Microbiota of Young Children Living in Four Brazilian Cities

Recent studies have demonstrated that gut microbiota development is influenced by human biogeographic factors such as race, ethnicity, diet, lifestyle or culture-specific variations, and other environmental influences. However, biogeographic variation in gut microbiota assembly remains largely unexplored in Latin America. In this paper, we compared food recall information and microbiota composition of toddlers living in geographically separated urban populations within four states of Brazil. 16S RNA gene sequencing revealed that alpha diversity was similar between the four different populations. Gut microbiota compositions were dominated by members of the phyla Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes, resembling a more adult-like microbiota as compared with those of Western European toddlers of similar age. These findings suggest that inter-individual and nutrition-induced differences were apparent in the fecal microbiota. We conclude that urban dietary pattern plays a larger role in influencing the gut microbiota composition than do biogeographic factors.

Characterization of anodic biofilm bacterial communities and performance evaluation of a mediator-free microbial fuel cell

This study investigated the bioelectrical performance of a single-chamber microbial fuel cell (SCMFC) fueled with acetate as the electron donor and inoculated with municipal solid waste rejected fractions (MSWRFs) as a microbial inoculum. The molecular characterization of the bacterial community structures of the anodic biofilm was conducted based on 16s RNA gene sequencing. The results indicated that the highest open-circuit voltage (OCV) was 797 mV and the system had a maximum power density of 134.5 mW/m² at a stable current density of 328 mA/m². The microbial fuel cell’s (MFC) columbic efficiency (CE) was 55% at a maximum substrate degradation rate of about 86.6% based on COD removal efficiency. The molecular analysis of the anodic bacterial isolates indicated that the phylogenetic bacterial mixture was dominated by seven strains with similarity percentage above 99% for each strain: <i>Enterococcus faecalis, Clostridium butyricum, Bacillus sp., Bacillus subterranous, Enterobacter celoaca,</i> <i>Klebsiella pneumonia,</i> and <i>Escherichia coli</i>. These results suggested that MSWRFs bacterial consortia have a moderate symbiotic structure as indicated by electrons release in parallel with substrate decomposition.

Meningitis and Bacteremia Due to Neisseria cinerea following a Percutaneous Rhizotomy of the Trigeminal Ganglion

Neisseria cinereais a human commensal. The first known case of meningitis and bacteremia due toNeisseria cinereafollowing percutaneous glycerol instillation of the trigeminal ganglion is reported. Conventional phenotypic methods and complete 16S RNA gene sequencing accurately identified the pathogen. Difficulties in differentiation from pathogenic neisseriae are discussed.