Diana Elbourne- London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
Diana Elbourne
- London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
About
456
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Publications
Publications (456)
Background
Viruses play important roles in modulating microbial communities and influencing global biogeochemistry. There is now growing interest in characterising their ecological roles across diverse biomes. However, little is known about viral ecology in low-nutrient, chemotrophic-based environments. In such ecosystems, virus-driven manipulation...
Background
Anchialine environments, in which oceanic water mixes with freshwater in coastal aquifers, are characterised by stratified water columns with complex physicochemical profiles. These environments, also known as subterranean estuaries, support an abundance of endemic macro and microorganisms. There is now growing interest in characterising...
Background
Anchialine environments, in which oceanic water mixes with freshwater in coastal aquifers, are characterised by stratified water columns with complex physicochemical profiles. These environments, also known as subterranean estuaries, support an abundance of endemic macro and microorganisms. There is now growing interest in characterising...
There is increasing acknowledgment that a “one health” approach is required to tackle the growing problem of antimicrobial resistance. This requires that the issue is examined from not only the perspective of human medicine but also includes consideration of the roles of antimicrobials in veterinary medicine and agriculture and recognizes the impor...
Membrane transporters are a large group of proteins that span cell membranes and contribute to critical cell processes, including delivery of essential nutrients, ejection of waste products, and assisting the cell in sensing environmental conditions. Obtaining an accurate and specific annotation of the transporter proteins encoded by a micro-organi...
Aims:
This study examined the origins and evolution of the AdeABC, AdeFGH and AdeIJK efflux pumps in the Acinetobacter genus, including human and animal pathogens and species from non-clinical environments.
Methods:
Comparative genome analyses were performed using the reference sequences for 70 Acinetobacter species to identify putative ortholog...
Background: Eukaryotic algae have recently emerged as hosts for metabolic engineering efforts to generate heter- ologous isoprenoids. Isoprenoid metabolic architectures, flux, subcellular localization, and transport dynamics have not yet been fully elucidated in algal hosts.
Results: In this study, we investigated the accessibility of different iso...
Bundera sinkhole, located in north-western Australia, is the only known continental anchialine system in the Southern Hemisphere. Anchialine environments are characterised by stratified water columns with complex physicochemical profiles spanning hypoxic and anoxic regions, often displaying high levels of endemism. Research on these systems has foc...
Starmerella bombicola is a non-conventional yeast mainly known for its capacity to produce high amounts of the glycolipids ‘sophorolipids’. Although its product has been used as biological detergent for a couple of decades, the genetics of S. bombicola are still largely unknown. Computational analysis of the yeast’s genome enabled us to identify 25...
Starmerella bombicola is a non-conventional yeast mainly known for its capacity to produce high amounts of the glycolipids ‘sophorolipids’. Although its product has been used as biological detergent for a couple of decades, the genetics of S. bombicola are still largely unknown. Computational analysis of the yeast’s genome enabled us to identify 25...
Plants live in association with microorganisms that positively influence plant development, vigor, and fitness in response to pathogens and abiotic stressors. The bulk of the plant microbiome is concentrated belowground at the plant root-soil interface. Plant roots secrete carbon-rich rhizodeposits containing primary and secondary low molecular wei...
Bacterial multidrug efflux pumps have come to prominence in human and veterinary pathogenesis because they help bacteria protect themselves against the antimicrobials used to overcome their infections. However, it is increasingly realized that many, probably most, such pumps have physiological roles that are distinct from protection of bacteria aga...
Gene essentiality studies have been performed on numerous bacterial pathogens, but essential gene sets have been determined for only a few plant-associated bacteria. Pseudomonas protegens Pf-5 is a plant-commensal, biocontrol bacterium that can control disease-causing pathogens on a wide range of crops. Work on Pf-5 has mostly focused on secondary...
Background
Rural areas of India exhibit high neonatal mortality, and low literacy and numeracy. We assess the effect of a complex package of health interventions on neonatal survival, and the effect of out-of-school-hours teaching on children’s literacy and numeracy, in rural Madhya Pradesh.
Methods/Design
This is a cluster-randomised controlled tr...
Abstract Poor recruitment to, and retention in, clinical trials is a source of research waste that could be reduced by more informed choices about participation. Barriers to effective recruitment and retention can be wide-ranging but relevance of the questions being addressed by trials and the outcomes that they are assessing are key for potential...
Evidence shows the quality of reporting of randomised controlled trials is not optimal. The lack of transparent reporting impedes readers from judging the reliability and validity of trial findings, prevents researchers from extracting information for systematic reviews, and results in research waste. The Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials...
Plastic pollution is a global threat to marine ecosystems. Plastic litter can leach a variety of substances into marine environments; however, virtually nothing is known regarding how this affects photosynthetic bacteria at the base of the marine food web. To address this, we investigated the effect of plastic leachate exposure on marine Prochloroc...
Scedosporium fungi are found in various natural and host-associated environments, including the lungs of cystic fibrosis patients. However, their role in infection development remains underexplored. Here the attachment of conidia of a virulent S. aurantiacum strain WM 06.482 onto the human lung epithelial A549 cells in vitro was visualized using mi...
Evidence shows that the quality of reporting of randomised controlled trials (RCTs) is not optimal. The lack of transparent reporting impedes readers from judging the reliability and validity of trial findings and researchers from extracting information for systematic reviews and results in research waste. The Consolidated Standards of Reporting Tr...
Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a significant cause of mortality in patients with cystic fibrosis (CF). To explore the interaction of the CF isolate P. aeruginosa PASS1 with the innate immune response, we have used Danio rerio (zebrafish) as an infection model. Confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) enabled visualization of direct interactions between...
Pseudomonas is a large and diverse genus of Gammaproteobacteria. To provide a framework for discovery of evolutionary and taxonomic relationships of these bacteria, we compared the genomes of type strains of 163 species and 3 additional subspecies of Pseudomonas, including 118 genomes sequenced herein. A maximum likelihood phylogeny of the 166 type...
The Inland Pacific Northwest (IPNW) encompasses 1. 6 million cropland hectares and is a major wheat-producing area in the western United States. The climate throughout the region is semi-arid, making the availability of water a significant challenge for IPNW agriculture. Much attention has been given to uncovering the effects of water stress on the...
The proteobacterial antimicrobial compound efflux (PACE) family of transport proteins was only recently described. PACE family transport proteins can confer resistance to a range of biocides used as disinfectants and antiseptics, and are encoded by many important Gram-negative human pathogens. However, we are only just beginning to appreciate the r...
Kinetic response curves parallelling bacterial growth for Biolog phenotype microarray antimicrobial tests in which the pTTQ18-Bcen2424_2356 plasmid facilitated a growth advantage. Curves for E. coli BL21 cells carrying pTTQ18 are shown in red, curves for BL21 cells carrying pTTQ18-Bcen2424_2356 are shown in green and regions of overlap in the respo...
Pairwise comparisons of the individual BTP domains in 47 diverse PACE family proteins. The amino acid sequences of the separated domains were analysed using the MatGat tool [29] to determine the percent identity between each domain. The amino acid sequence identities of each pair of domains are shown in the pairwise distribution plot and coloured a...
Amino acid sequence alignment of 47 diverse PACE family proteins. The sequences are named by locus tag or NCBI protein accession. Sequences were obtained from the NCBI genomes database and aligned using ClustalX [25]. The alignment is coloured according to the level of amino acid sequence conservation at each position. Colours were added using the...
Putative substrates of PACE family proteins identified using whole cell transport experiments (chlorhexidine, acriflavine), conventional minimum inhibitory concentration analyses, (chlorhexidine, acriflavine, benzalkonium, dequalinium) and/or higher throughput resistance tests using the Biolog Phenotype Microarray system (chlorhexidine, acriflavine...
Background
Child maltreatment is a significant public health problem. Group Family Nurse Partnership (gFNP) is a new intervention for young, expectant mothers implemented successfully in pilot studies. This study was designed to determine the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of gFNP in reducing risk factors for maltreatment with a potentially v...
Background
Bullying and cyberbullying are common phenomena in schools. These negative behaviours can have a significant impact on the health and particularly mental health of those involved in such behaviours, both as victims and as bullies. This UK study aims to investigate student-level and school-level characteristics of those who become involve...
Women with experience of being ‘looked after’ are more likely than their peers to become young mothers.
There has been limited research investigating support for their needs. This study, embedded in a randomised
trial of Group Family Nurse Partnership (gFNP), involved interviews with young mothers with
care experience, Family Nurses delivering grou...
Background
In the mid-2000s, neonatal mortality accounted for almost 40% of deaths of children under 5 years worldwide, and constituted 65% of infant deaths in India. The neonatal mortality rate in Andhra Pradesh was 44 per 1,000 live births, and was higher in the rural areas and tribal regions, such as the Nagarkurnool division of Mahabubnagar dis...
Comparability of multiple births.
(CSV)
Evidence shows that the quality of reporting of randomised controlled trials (RCTs) is not optimal. The lack of transparent reporting impedes readers from judging the reliability and validity of trial findings and researchers from extracting information for systematic reviews and results in research waste. The Consolidated Standards of Reporting Tr...
Located in the Northern Territory of Australia, Ranger uranium mine is directly adjacent to the UNESCO World Heritage listed Kakadu National Park, with rehabilitation targets needed to ensure the site can be incorporated into the park following the mine's closure in 2026. This study aimed to understand the impact of uranium concentration on microbi...
Background
Systematic reviews suggest that multi-component interventions are effective in reducing bullying victimisation and perpetration. We are undertaking a phase III randomised trial of the INCLUSIVE multi-component intervention. This trial aims to assess the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of the INCLUSIVE intervention in reducing aggres...
Bacillus cereus group strains used for comparative analyses of B. cereus ATCC 14579 efflux pumps.
A complete list of the 168 B. cereus group strains used in comparative analyses of efflux pumps, along with the RefSeq accession numbers of their genome sequences.
(DOCX)
Amino acid sequence alignment of Bacillus RND efflux proteins with the prototypical RND transporter AcrB from E. coli.
The amino acids composing a loop likely to represent the exit site for substrates from AcrB (into TolC) is marked by a red box.
(TIFF)
Biofilm formation of B. cereus ATCC 14579 wild type and the isogenic ΔsecDF deletion mutant measured in a microplate screening assay after 48h and 72h growth.
(A) Bars represent the mean of four independent experiments and error bars represent the standard deviation. The B. cereus ATCC 14579 wild type is shown in dark grey and the ΔsecDF mutant in...
Expression induction of genes BC1356-BC1360 in response to wasp surface ethanol extract and Dominulin B.
Relative expression of the BC1356-BC1360 gene cluster following to wasp surface ethanol extract and the antimicrobial peptide Dominulin B.
(DOCX)
List of primers used in the current study.
The names and nucleotide sequences of all primers used in the current study.
(DOCX)
Susceptibility of B. cereus ATCC 14579 towards compounds used in antimicrobial exposure experiments.
The minimum inhibitory concentrations of the compound used in transcriptional analyses against B. cereus ATCC 14579.
(DOCX)
Background:
Post-partum haemorrhage is the leading cause of maternal death worldwide. Early administration of tranexamic acid reduces deaths due to bleeding in trauma patients. We aimed to assess the effects of early administration of tranexamic acid on death, hysterectomy, and other relevant outcomes in women with post-partum haemorrhage.
Method...
Background
The first row transition metal ions zinc and copper are essential to the survival of many organisms, although in excess these ions are associated with significant toxicity. Here, we examined the impact of zinc and copper stress on Acinetobacter baumannii, a common opportunistic pathogen.
Results
We show that extracellular zinc stress in...
The use of MALDI-TOF MS (matrix-assisted laser desorption/ ionization-time of flight mass spectrometry) and WGS (whole genome sequencing) has been described for identification and strain relatedness determination. We describe the complementary use of MALDI-TOF MS and WGS in a VRE (vancomycin-resistant enterococci) outbreak investigation, and discus...
All cellular life contains an extensive array of membrane transport proteins. The vast majority of these transporters have not been experimentally characterized. We have developed a bioinformatic pipeline to identify and annotate complete sets of transporters in any sequenced genome. This pipeline is now fully automated enabling it to better keep p...
Background: Each year, 15 million babies are born preterm and one million deaths occur as a result. WHO guidelines state that kangaroo mother care (KMC) is recommended for “routine care of newborns weighing ≤2000g at birth, and should be initiated in facilities as soon as newborns are clinically stable.” However, the majority of deaths occur in bab...
Unlabelled:
Multidrug efflux pumps provide clinically significant levels of drug resistance in a number of Gram-negative hospital-acquired pathogens. These pathogens frequently carry dozens of genes encoding putative multidrug efflux pumps. However, it can be difficult to determine how many of these pumps actually mediate antimicrobial efflux, and...
Distribution of insertion indexes for genes annotated in the A. baumannii BAL062 genome. The insertion index for each gene was calculated by dividing the number of unique insertions within the first 90% of the gene by the gene length. Bars represent the number of genes (density) with a particular insertion index. The indexes show a bimodal distribu...
Number of particles analyzed and numbers of cells collected in each replicate TraDISort FACS experiment.
Gating during flow cytometry to examine only single A. baumannii cells of uniform size. (A) Single particles were gated based on forward scatter and the forward scatter trigger pulse width (red gate labeled “singles”). (B) Cells within this gate displaying uniform side scatter were selected as single living cells (green gate labeled “cells”) in whi...
Genes positively selected by flow sorting. Bars represent the fold change in mutant abundance in cells selected for low ethidium fluorescence (blue), high ethidium fluorescence (red), or growth in 62.5 µg/ml (approximately 158 µM) ethidium bromide (hatched green; 1/4× MIC), compared to the starting mutant pool. Positive values indicate higher mutan...
Genes negatively selected by flow sorting. Bars represent the fold change in mutant abundance in cells selected for low ethidium fluorescence (blue), high ethidium fluorescence (red), or growth in 62.5 µg/ml (approximately 158 µM) ethidium bromide (hatched green; 1/4× MIC), compared to the starting mutant pool. Positive values indicate higher mutan...
Microsoft Excel file showing the log2 fold changes in mutant abundance between the FACS-selected or ethidium-selected mutant pools and the control mutant pools and Q values for all genes examined in this study. Download
Sequence read numbers, insertion counts, and European Nucleotide Archive accession numbers for the TraDIS replicate samples sequenced in this study.
Flow cytometric analysis of Acinetobacter parental (black), and ΔadeN (red) and ΔadeJ (blue) mutant populations exposed to ethidium bromide. (A) A. baumannii AB5075-UW parental and mutant populations exposed to 40 µM ethidium bromide. The AB5075-UW strains were obtained from the Manoil lab collection (9). The mutants carry Tn26 insertions in adeJ (...
Genes encoding putative efflux pumps in A. baumannii BAL062 and their level of selection by FACS or ethidium. Genes were identified using the Transporter Automated Annotation Pipeline (TransAAP; http://www.membranetransport.org). The log2 fold changes in mutant abundance between the FACS-selected or ethidium-selected mutant pools and the control mu...
Facility-based kangaroo mother care (KMC) for infants weighing <2000 grams (g) is associated with a 51% reduction in mortality, and the World Health Organization states that KMC “should be initiated in facilities as soon as newborns are clinically stable.” However, the majority of deaths occur in babies who are unstable. A notable gap exists in the...
Estimation of empirical relationships is prone to bias. Economists have carefully studied sources of bias in structural and quasi-experimental approaches, but the randomized control trial (RCT) has only begun to receive such scrutiny. In this paper, we argue that several lessons from medicine, derived from analysis of thousands of RCTs establishing...
