|
|
|
|
|
|
Mechanism of resistance to vancomycin is different to that which happens in enterococcus where there is a change in the target site of the antibiotic, leading to a lower affinity for vancomycin which gives vancomycin resistant enterococci high levels of resistance. Many enterococcus strains display resistance against vancomycin, and it has been suggested that vancomycin resistance has been transmitted between enterococci and staphylococci on a plasmid in at least on two occasions in the United States. This is rather worrying because it leads to high level resistance to vancomycin in Staphylococcus aureus, and has the potential of spreading rapidly throughout large populations of Staphylococcus aureus in hospitals, as opposed to the traditional VISA mode of intermediate resistance to vancomycin, which has to be acquired by the bacterium during treatment with this drug. The cause of tuberculosis, Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB), is a slow-growing Gram-positive aerobic bacterium that divides every 16 to 20 hours. This is extremely slow compared to other bacteria, which tend to have division times measured in minutes (among the fastest growing bacteria is a strain of E. coli that can divide roughly every 20 minutes). It is a small rod-like bacillus which can withstand weak disinfectants and can survive in a dry state for weeks but, spontaneously, can only grow within a host organism (in vitro culture of M. tuberculosis took a long time to be achieved, but is nowadays a normal laboratory procedure). MTB is identified microscopically by its staining characteristics: it retains certain stains after being treated with acidic solution, and is thus classified as an 'acid-fast bacillus' or 'AFB'. Click on following items to see more information: Anthrax, Antibiotic, Antibiotic treatment, Antibacterial, Bacilli, Bacilli, Bacterium, Bacterium, Phages, Biodegradation, Campylobacter, Cell culture, Cholera, Corynebacteria, E. coli, E. coli, E. coli, E. coli, E. coli, E. coli O157, Erwinia, Fermentation, Yeast, Growth medium, Klebsiella, Meningococci, Bacterial, Micrococcus, Multidrug resistance, Pasteurella, Prokaryote, P. aeruginosa, Rhodococcus, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Salmonella, Salmonella typhimurium, Shigella, S. aureus, Streptococcus, Streptococcus, Vibrio, Yeast Members of the Enterobacteriaceae are rod-shaped, and are typically 1-5 µm in length. They are facultative anaerobes, producing energy through fermentation of sugars, producing lactic acid and various other end products. They also reduce nitrate to nitrite. Like all proteobacteria, they have Gram-negative stains, and can be distinguished from similar bacteria by the absence of oxidase. Most have many flagella used to move about, but a few genera are non-motile. Many members are a normal part of the flora found in the intestines of humans and other animals, while others are found in water or soil, or are parasites on a variety of different animals and plants. Escherichia coli, better known as E. coli, is one of the most important model organisms and its genetics and biochemistry have been closely studied. Generally, bioremediation technologies can be classified as in situ or ex situ. In situ bioremediation involves treating the contaminated material at the site while ex situ involves the removal of the contaminated material to be treated elsewhere. Some examples of bioremediation technologies are bioventing, land farming, bioreactor, composting, bioaugmentation and biostimulation.
|
© 2005
Transgalactic Ltd (manufacturer of Bioscreen C software) |
Privacy Statement | P.O. Box
1393, 00101 Helsinki, Finland,
Last modified: May 25, 2005
| ||||||
