Iglė Vepštaitė-Monstavičė

Nature Research Centre · Laboratory of Genetics

The bacterial contamination of meat is a global concern, especially for the risk of Salmonella infection that can lead to health issues. Artificial antibacterial compounds used to preserve fresh meat can have negative health effects. We investigated the potential of natural essential oils (EOs), namely Mentha arvensis (mint) and Cinnamomum cassia (...

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Sea buckthorn, Hippophae rhamnoides L., has considerable potential for landscape reclamation, food, medicinal, and cosmetics industries. In this study, we analyzed fungal microorganism populations associated with carposphere of sea buckthorn harvested in Lithuania. An amplicon metagenomic approach based on the ITS2 region of fungal rDNA was used to...

Olfactory cues have a large impact on insect behaviour and fitness consequently showing potential in pest management. Yeast released volatiles are used by insects as olfactory cues for finding feeding and oviposition sites. The yeast strain SB-16-15 was isolated from spontaneous fermentation of Hippophae rhamnoides berries and identified as Pichia...

Nisin is a recognized bacteriocin widely used in food processing, however, being ineffective against gram-negative bacteria and in complex food systems. As a result, the research of methods that have cell wall-permeabilizing activity is required. In this study, electroporation to trigger sensitization of gram-negative bacteria to nisin-loaded pecti...

The Saccharomycetaceae yeast family recently became recognized for expanding of the repertoire of different dsRNA-based viruses, highlighting the need for understanding of their cross-dependence. We isolated the Saccharomyces paradoxus AML-15-66 killer strain from spontaneous fermentation of serviceberries and identified helper and satellite viruse...

Diaphragm muscles of 25 sika deer (Cervus nippon) farmed in Lithuania were examined for sarcocysts of Sarcocystis species. Two new Sarcocystis species, Sarcocystis frondea and Sarcocystis nipponi, were observed using light microscopy (LM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and characterized by 18S ribosomal DNA (rDNA) and subunit I of cytoc...

The high potential of sea buckthorn, black chokeberry, red and white currants in healthy food industry boosted interest in the plant cultivation. The present study is the first work providing comprehensive information on microbial populations of these berries. Next Generation Sequencing allowed identification of eukaryotic and prokaryotic microorga...

Nisin is a known bacteriocin, which exhibits a wide spectrum of antimicrobial activity, while commonly being inefficient against Gram-negative bacteria. In this work, we present a proof of concept of novel antimicrobial methodology using targeted magnetic nisin-loaded nano-carriers [iron oxide nanoparticles (NPs) (11-13 nm) capped with citric, asco...

The microbial assemblies on the surface of plants correlate with specific climatic features, suggesting a direct link between environmental conditions and microbial inhabitation patterns. At the same time however, microbial communities demonstrate distinct profiles depending on the plant species and region of origin. In this study, we report Next G...

Numerous yeasts produce toxic compounds to fight the competitors. Such compounds include small molecules (like antibiotics), antibiotic peptides, and also larger proteins, including killer toxins. Their ability to affect the cell depends on the host factors modulating the killing activity. Here we describe a robotics-based method to advance the gen...

The ability of chitosan to adsorb dissolved oxygen from solution depends on its physical shape and is related to the surface area. Depending on conditions chitosan is capable of adsorbing or releasing oxygen. Chitosan, modificated by the substances possessing antimicrobial activity, such as succinic acid, Pd(II) ions, metallic Pd or Ag, distinctly...

Seventy one genes, previously determined as important for K2 killer protein susceptibility and not annotated in the Saccharomyces Genome Database (SGD), were analyzed by applying computational analysis and investigation of toxin binding efficiency. Links between 44 unknown ORF products and proteins related to cell wall processes were observed. Out...

Certain Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains secrete different killer proteins of double-stranded RNA origin. These proteins confer a growth advantage to their host by increasing its survival. K2 toxin affects the target cell by binding to the cell surface, disrupting the plasma membrane integrity, and inducing ion leakage. In this study, we have deter...