Applied and Environmental Science
Research Article | Applied and Environmental ScienceCollection of Viable Aerosolized Influenza Virus and Other Respiratory Viruses in a Student Health Care Center through Water-Based Condensation GrowthThe significance of virus aerosols in the natural transmission of respiratory diseases has been a contentious issue, primarily because it is difficult to collect or sample virus aerosols using currently available air sampling devices. We tested a new air sampler based on water vapor condensation for efficient sampling of viable airborne respiratory viruses in a student health care center as a model of a real world environment. The new...
Research Article | Applied and Environmental ScienceVirioplankton Assemblage Structure in the Lower River and Ocean Continuum of the AmazonThe Amazon River forms a vast plume in the Atlantic Ocean that can extend for more than 1,000 km. Microbial communities promote a globally relevant carbon sink system in the plume. Despite the importance of viruses for the global carbon cycle, the diversity and the possible roles of viruses in the Amazonia are poorly understood. The present work assesses, for the first time, the abundance and diversity of viruses simultaneously in the...
Research Article | Applied and Environmental ScienceStructural Characterization of Clostridium sordellii Spores of Diverse Human, Animal, and Environmental Origin and Comparison to Clostridium difficile SporesClostridium sordellii is a significant pathogen with mortality rates approaching 100%. It is the bacterial spore that is critical in initiating infection and disease. An understanding of spore structures as well as spore morphology across a range of strains may lead to a better understanding of C. sordellii infection and disease. However, the structural...
Research Article | Applied and Environmental ScienceArginine Exposure Decreases Acidogenesis in Long-Term Oral Biofilm MicrocosmsArginine is used in dental health formulations to help prevent dental cavities. This study assessed the effects of the long-term dosing of laboratory dental plaques with an arginine dentifrice. Data indicate that the addition of arginine dentifrice during sucrose challenge significantly increased plaque pH, thus potentially mitigating cariogenesis. Several functional groups of bacteria associated with tooth decay were significantly...
Editor's Pick Research Article | Applied and Environmental ScienceMonodeuterated Methane, an Isotopic Tool To Assess Biological Methane Metabolism RatesMicrobial methane consumption is a critical component of the global carbon cycle, with wide-ranging implications for climate regulation and hydrocarbon exploitation. Nonetheless, quantifying methane metabolism typically involves logistically challenging methods and/or specialized equipment; these impediments have limited our understanding of methane fluxes and reservoirs in natural systems, making effective management difficult. Here,...
Research Article | Applied and Environmental ScienceLignocellulose-Degrading Microbial Communities in Landfill Sites Represent a Repository of Unexplored Biomass-Degrading DiversityThe microbial conversion of lignocellulosic biomass for biofuel production represents a renewable alternative to fossil fuels. However, the discovery of new microbial enzymes with high activity is critical for improving biomass conversion processes. While attempts to identify superior lignocellulose-degrading enzymes have focused predominantly on the animal gut, biomass-degrading communities in landfill sites represent an unexplored...
Research Article | Applied and Environmental ScienceCharacterization of Legionella Species from Watersheds in British Columbia, CanadaMany species of Legionella can cause Legionnaires’ disease, a significant cause of bacterial pneumonia. Legionella in human-made water systems such as cooling towers and building plumbing systems are the primary sources of Legionnaires’ disease outbreaks. In this temporal study of natural aquatic environments, Legionella relative abundance was shown to vary in watersheds associated with different land uses....
Research Article | Applied and Environmental ScienceVisualizing Antimicrobials in Bacterial Biofilms: Three-Dimensional Biochemical Imaging Using TOF-SIMSModern analytical techniques are becoming increasingly important in the life sciences; imaging mass spectrometry offers the opportunity to gain unprecedented amounts of information on the distribution of chemicals in samples—both xenobiotics and endogenous compounds. In particular, simultaneous imaging of antibiotics (and other antimicrobial compounds) and bacterium-derived metabolites in complex biological samples could be very...
Research Article | Applied and Environmental ScienceSulfide Generation by Dominant Halanaerobium Microorganisms in Hydraulically Fractured ShalesAlthough thousands of wells in deep shale formations across the United States have been hydraulically fractured for oil and gas recovery, the impact of microbial metabolism within these environments is poorly understood. Our research demonstrates that dominant microbial populations in these subsurface ecosystems contain the conserved capacity for the reduction of thiosulfate to sulfide and that this process is likely occurring in the...
Research Article | Applied and Environmental ScienceRetrospective Surveillance of Wastewater To Examine Seasonal Dynamics of Enterovirus InfectionsEnterovirus infections are often not tracked or reported to health officials. This makes it hard to know how many people in a community are infected with these viruses at any given time. Here, we explored enterovirus in municipal wastewater to look at this issue. We show that enteroviruses are present year-round in municipal wastewater at levels of up to 800,000 genomic copies per liter. We estimate that, on average, 2.8% of the people...