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Background: A connection between amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and altered gut microbiota composition has previously been reported in animal models. This work is the first prospective longitudinal study addressing the microbiota composition in ALS patients and the impact of a probiotic supplementation on the gut microbiota and disease progression.Methods: Fifty patients and 50 matched controls were enrolled. The microbial profile of stool samples from patients and controls was analyzed via PCR-Denaturing Gradient Gel Electrophoresis, and the main microbial groups quantified via qPCR. The whole microbiota was then analyzed via next generation sequencing after amplification of the V3-V4 region of 16S rDNA. Patients were then randomized to receive probiotic treatment or placebo and followed up for 6 months with ALSFRS-R, BMI, and FVC%.Results: The results demonstrate that the gut microbiota of ALS patients is characterized by some differences with respect to controls, regardless of the disability degree. Moreover, the gut microbiota composition changes during the course of the disease as demonstrated by the significant decrease in the number of observed operational taxonomic unit during the follow-up. Interestingly, an unbalance between potentially protective microbial groups, such as Bacteroidetes, and other with potential neurotoxic or pro-inflammatory activity, such as Cyanobacteria, has been shown. The 6-month probiotic treatment influenced the gut microbial composition; however, it did not bring the biodiversity of intestinal microbiota of patients closer to that of control subjects and no influence on the progression of the disease measured by ALSFRS-R was demonstrated.Conclusions: Our study poses the bases for larger clinical studies to characterize the microbiota changes as a novel ALS biomarker and to test new microbial strategy to ameliorate the health status of the gut.Trial Registration: CE 107/14, approved by the Ethics Committee of the "Maggiore della Carità" University Hospital, Italy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pollinators, including solitary bees, are drastically declining worldwide. Among the factors contributing to this decline, bee pathogens and different land uses are of relevance. The link between the gut microbiome composition and host health has been recently studied for social pollinators (e.g. honeybees), whereas the information related to solitary bees is sparse. This work aimed at the characterization of the gut microbiome of the solitary bees Xylocopa augusti, Eucera fervens and Lasioglossum and attempted to correlate the gut microbial composition with the presence and load of different pathogens and land uses. Solitary bees were sampled in different sites (i.e. a farm, a natural reserve, and an urban plant nursery) showing different land uses. DNA was extracted from the gut, 16S rRNA gene amplified and sequenced. Eight pathogens, known for spillover from managed bees to wild ones, were quantified with qPCR. The results showed that the core microbiome profile of the three solitary bees significantly varied in the different species. Pseudomonas was found as the major core taxa in all solitary bees analyzed, whereas Lactobacillus, Spiroplasma and Sodalis were the second most abundant taxa in X. augusti, E. fervens and Lasioglossum, respectively. The main pathogens detected with qPCR were Nosema ceranae, Nosema bombi and Crithidia bombi, although differently abundant in the different bee species and sampling sites. Most microbial taxa did not show any correlation with the land use, apart from Snodgrassella and Nocardioides, showing higher abundances on less anthropized sites. Conversely, the pathogens species and load strongly affected the gut microbial composition, with Bifidobacterium, Apibacter, Serratia, Snodgrassella and Sodalis abundance that positively or negatively correlated with the detected pathogens load. Therefore, pathogens presence and load appear to be the main factor shaping the gut microbiome of solitary bees in Argentina. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Fusarium head blight (FHB) is a severe disease caused by different Fusarium species, which affects a wide range of cereal crops, including wheat. It determines from 10 to 30 % of yield loss in Europe. Chemical fungicides are mainly used to reduce the incidence of FHB, but low environmental impact solutions are looked forward. Applications of soil/rhizobacteria as biocontrol agents against FHB in wheat are described in literature, whereas the potential use of lactobacilli in agriculture has scarcely been explored. Results: The aim of this work was to study the inhibitory effect of two bacterial strains, Lactobacillus plantarum SLG17 and Bacillus amyloliquefaciens FLN13, against Fusarium spp. in vitro and to assess their efficacy in field, coupled to the study of the microbial community profile of wheat seeds. Antimicrobial assays were performed on agar plates and showed that the two antagonistic strains possessed antimicrobial activity against Fusarium spp. In the field study, a mixture of the two strains was applied to durum wheat i) weekly from heading until anthesis and ii) at flowering, compared to untreated and fungicide treated plots. The FHB index, combining both disease incidence and disease severity, was used to evaluate the extent of the disease on wheat. A mixture of the two microorganisms, when applied in field from heading until anthesis, was capable of reducing the FHB index. Microbial community profile of seeds was studied via PCR-DGGE, showing the presence of L. plantarum SLG17 in wheat seeds and thus underlining an endophytic behavior of the strain. Conclusions: L. plantarum SLG17 and B. amyloliquefaciens FLN13, applied as biocontrol agents starting from the heading period until anthesis of wheat plants, are promising agents for the reduction of FHB index. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Bifidobacterium represents one of the largest genus within the Actinobacteria, and includes at present 32 species. These species share a high sequence homology of 16S rDNA and several molecular techniques already applied to discriminate among them give ambiguous results. The slightly higher variability of the hsp60 gene sequences with respect to the 16S rRNA sequences offers better opportunities to design or develop molecular assays, allowing identification and differentiation of closely related species. hsp60 can be considered an excellent additional marker for inferring the taxonomy of the members of Bifidobacterium genus. Results: This work illustrates a simple and cheap molecular tool for the identification of Bifidobacterium species. The hsp60 universal primers were used in a simple PCR procedure for the direct amplification of 590 bp of the hsp60 sequence. The in silico restriction analysis of bifidobacterial hsp60 partial sequences allowed the identification of a single endonuclease (HaeIII) able to provide different PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) patterns in the Bifidobacterium spp. type strains evaluated. The electrophoretic analyses allowed to confirm the different RFLP patterns. Conclusions: The developed PCR-RFLP technique resulted in efficient discrimination of the tested species and subspecies and allowed the construction of a dichotomous key in order to differentiate the most widely distributed Bifidobacterium species as well as the subspecies belonging to B. pseudolongum and B. animalis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]