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Background Mycobacterium abscessus is a non-tuberculous mycobacterium (NTM) that causes chronic pulmonary infections. Because of its extensive innate resistance to numerous antibiotics, treatment options are limited, often resulting in poor clinical outcomes. Current treatment regimens usually involve a combination of antibiotics, with clarithromycin being the cornerstone of NTM treatments. Objectives To identify drug candidates that exhibit synergistic activity with clarithromycin against M. abscessus. Methods We performed cell-based phenotypic screening of a compound library against M. abscessus induced to become resistant to clarithromycin. Furthermore, we evaluated the toxicity and efficacy of the top compound in a zebrafish embryo infection model. Results The screen revealed rifaximin as a clarithromycin potentiator. The combination of rifaximin and clarithromycin was synergistic and bactericidal in vitro and potent in the zebrafish model. Conclusions The data indicate that the rifaximin/clarithromycin combination is promising to effectively treat pulmonary NTM infections.

Bacteriophages and phage-derived proteins are a promising class of antibacterial agents that experience a growing worldwide interest. To map ongoing phage research in Singapore and neighboring countries, Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, Nanyang Technological University Singapore (NTU) and Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore (NUS) recently co-organized a virtual symposium on Bacteriophage and Bacteriophage-Derived Technologies, which was attended by more than 80 participants. Topics were discussed relating to phage life cycles, diversity, the roles of phages in biofilms and the human gut microbiome, engineered phage lysins to combat polymicrobial infections in wounds, and the challenges and prospects of clinical phage therapy. This perspective summarizes major points discussed during the symposium and new perceptions that emerged after the panel discussion. Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) Ministry of Health (MOH) National Medical Research Council (NMRC) National Research Foundation (NRF) Following supports are acknowledged: N.K.V. to LeeKong Chian School of Medicine Strategic Academic In-itiative Grant (L0494003); H.C. to A*STAR Grant(C210812044); P.H., B.C.G., and W.M. to Singapore Na-tional Research Foundation (NRF)’s Intra-Campus for Re-search Excellence and Technological Enterprise (CREATE)Seed Collaboration Grant; P.H. and B.C.G. to Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART) An-timicrobial Resistance Interdisciplinary Group funded by theNRF under its CREATE program; T.A.A. to NUSMedpostdoctoral fellowship (NUHSRO/2019/046/PDF/19); J.P.B.to National University Hospital System Seed Fund (NUHSRO/2019/050/T1/Seed-Mar/03) and SMART (ING-001014 BIO);W.M. to Singapore Ministry of Health’s National MedicalResearch Council (OFIRG21jun-0038); M.A.M.V.S. to Na-tional Health Innovation Centre Singapore Innovation to De-velop Grant (NHIC-I2D-2104625).

The authors aim to examine the impact of capital structure on the performance of manufacturing and processing companies listed on the stock exchange in Vietnam during the period of 2015 - 2020. Through the FGLS model, the study found that the ratio of short-term debt to total assets (STDA) and the ratio of long-term debt to total assets (LTDA) have a negative impact on the performance expressed through ROA. In contrast, in terms of Tobin's Q, STDA has no significant relationship with firm performance but it is negatively impacted by LTDA. The two control variables GROWTH and SIZE both have a positive impact on ROA and Tobin's Q. Based on findings, some recommendations for manufacturing and processing companies to enhance their profitability in the future.

As antimicrobial resistance (AMR) continues to pose an ever-growing global health threat, propelling us into a post-antibiotic era, novel alternative therapeutic agents are urgently required. Lysins are bacteriophage-encoded peptidoglycan hydrolases that display great potential as a novel class of antimicrobials for therapeutics. While lysins against Gram-positive bacteria are highly effective when applied exogenously, it is challenging for lysins to access and cleave the peptidoglycan of Gram-negative bacteria due to their outer membrane. In this study, we identify a novel phage lysin Abp013 against

Penicillium digitatum is a major postharvest pathogen of citrus crops. This fungus broadly spreads worldwide and causes green mold disease, which results in severe losses for citrus production. Understanding of the citrus infection by P. digitatum may help develop effective strategies for controlling this pathogen. In this study, we have characterized a virulent strain of P. digitatum isolated in Vietnam and established a highly efficient Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated transformation (ATMT) system for this fungal strain with two newly constructed binary vectors. These binary vectors harbor dominant selectable markers for hygromycin or nourseothricin resistance, and expression cassettes for the red fluorescent protein (DsRed) or the green fluorescent protein (GFP), respectively. Using the established ATMT system, the transformation efficiency of the Vietnamese strain could reach a very high yield of 1240±165 transformants per 106 spores. Interestingly, we found that GFP is much better than DsRed for in situ visualization of citrus fruit colonization by the fungus. Additionally, we showed that the transformation system can also be used to generate T-DNA insertion mutants for screening non-pathogenic or less virulent strains. Our work provides a new platform including a virulent tropical strain of P. digitatum, an optimized ATMT method and two newly constructed binary vectors for investigation of the postharvest pathogen. This platform will help develop strategies to dissect molecular mechanisms of host-pathogen interactions in more detail as well as to identify potential genes of pathogenicity by either insertional mutagenesis or gene disruption in this important pathogenic fungus.

Microbial fuel cells are a recently emerging technology that promises a number of applications in energy recovery, environmental treatment and monitoring. In this study, we investigated the effect of inoculating sources on the enrichment of electrochemically active bacterial consortia in sensor-typed microbial fuel cells (MFCs). Several MFCs were constructed, operated with modified artificial wastewater and inoculated with different microbial sources from natural soil, natural mud, activated sludge, wastewater and a mixture of those sources. After enrichment, the MFCs inoculated with the natural soil source generated higher and more stable currents (0.53±0.03 mA), in comparisons with the MFCs inoculated with the other sources. The results from denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) showed that there were significant changes in bacterial composition from the original inocula to the enriched consortia. Even more interestingly, Pseudomonas sp. was found dominant in the natural soil source and also in the corresponding enriched consortium. The interactions between Pseudomonas sp. and other species in such a community are probably the key for the effective and stable performance of the MFCs.

Aspergillus oryzae is a filamentous fungus widely used in food industry and as a microbial cell factory for recombinant protein production. Due to the inherent resistance of A. oryzae to common antifungal compounds, genetic transformation of this mold usually requires auxotrophic mutants. In this study, we show that Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated transformation (ATMT) method is very efficient for deletion of the pyrG gene in different Aspergillus oryzae wild-type strains to generate uridine/uracil auxotrophic mutants. Our data indicated that all the obtained uridine/uracil auxotrophic transformants, which are 5- fluoroorotic acid (5-FOA) resistant, exist as the pyrG deletion mutants. Using these auxotrophic mutants and the pyrG selectable marker for genetic transformation via A. tumefaciens, we could get about 1060 transformants per 106 fungal spores. In addition, these A. oryzae mutants were also used successfully for expression of the DsRed fluorescent reporter gene under control of the A. oryzae amyB promoter by the ATMT method, which resulted in obvious red transformants on agar plates. Our work provides a new and effective approach for constructing the uridine/uracil auxotrophic mutants in the importantly industrial fungus A. oryzae. This strategy appears to be applicable to other filamentous fungi to develop similar genetic transformation systems based on auxotrophic/nutritional markers for food-grade recombinant applications.