Veronica Quintero-Hernandez

Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología · Instituto de Ciencias, Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla

Background The antimicrobial activity of two peptides, Uy234 derived from the venom of the scorpion Urodacus yaschenkoi and a consensus peptide QnCs-Buap, was evaluated. We tested different pathogenic bacteria: Acinetobacter baumannii, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Salmonella enterica, Bacillus subtilis, Enterococcus spp. and Staphylococcus aureus, includ...

Background Bacteria produce antimicrobial compounds to compete for nutrients and space in particular habitat. Bacteria of the genus Pseudomonas have gained relevance in recent years due to their ability to produce bacteriocins and a wide range of secondary metabolites of medical and agricultural importance, such as 2,4-diacetylphloroglucinol (DAPG)...

Scorpion venoms have proven to be excellent sources of antimicrobial agents. However, although many of them have been functionally characterized, they remain underutilized as pharmacological agents, despite their evident therapeutic potential. In this review, we discuss the physicochemical properties of short scorpion venom antimicrobial peptides (...

Prosopis laevigata (mesquite) plants can tolerate drought, thermal stress, alkalinity, salinity, and toxicity of heavy metals, making them attractive for phytoremediation. Nonetheless, most of these features have been studied under controlled laboratory conditions. In this work, the bioaccumulation of heavy metals in a free-living population of P....

Anhydrobiosis or life without water, is a condition where certain organisms tolerate almost absolute desiccation through mechanisms such as osmoprotection, vitrification, molecular shielding, and enhanced antioxidant activity. Among the organisms anhydrobionts or tolerant to desiccation are bacteria, fungi, invertebrates, and plants 1. About anhydr...

Resumen OBJETIVO: Evaluar la actividad antimicrobiana de los péptidos BUAP 1 y QnCs-BUAP contra aislados bacterianos de interés clínico TIPO Y DISEÑO DE ESTUDIO: Experimental. MATERIALES Y MÉTODOS: Cepas control Salmonella entérica SL 1344, Acinetobacter baumannii ATCC 17978, Klebsiella pneumoniae ATCC 700603, Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 29213, S. a...

La Organización Mundial de la Salud (OMS) ha declarado que la resistencia a los antimicrobianos es una de las diez principales amenazas de salud pública a las que se enfrenta la humanidad. Cada año, la OMS examina las líneas preclínicas y clínicas de desarrollo de antibacterianos para valorar su progresión con respecto a la lista OMS de patógenos p...

RESUMEN Ante la inminente aparición de microorganismos patógenos multirresistentes es importante contar con nuevas sustancias antimicrobianas que puedan hacer frente a posibles escenarios de pandemia. Las bacterias promotoras del crecimiento de plantas son una fuente importante de compuestos antimicrobianos que pueden ser explorados para su posible...

Recibido: 19 abril 2022. Aceptado: 12 septiembre 2022 RESUMEN En los últimos 15 años, los científicos han mejorado la habilidad para generar modelos estructurales de las proteínas, cuya estructura tridimensional (3D) se desconoce, gracias al crecimiento del número de estructuras depositadas en la base de datos Protein Data Bank (PDB). En la actuali...

Heavy metals are defined as metals having an atomic number greater than 20 and characterized by an atomic density above 5 g·cm-3. Heavy metals are naturally found in the Earth's crust, but they are present in many aspects of modern life. Heavy metals are toxic to all different life forms if their concentration is high in organisms. Heavy metals exh...

El manejo de plagas inicialmente ha tenido como objetivo la eliminación de insectos, hongos, bacterias y virus que pueden afectar a los cultivos de importancia económica en forma indiscriminada y desmedida afectando el entorno ecológico. Stern y col., 1959 proponen el concepto de Nivel de daño económico (NDE) y con ello nace el manejo integral de p...

Scorpionism in México is a public health problem caused by stings from the Centruroides scorpion family. The Ct1a and Ct17 toxins from the venom of the Centruroides tecomanus scorpion are the most abundant and toxic for mammals. This study describes the heterologous expression of recombinant proteins from genes encoding these toxins merged with thi...

Antibiotics are a group of medicines that are used to treat infections caused by bacteria and parasites. Antibiotic resistance is generated by the incorrect use, or overused, of these compounds to treat bacterial infections. When antimicrobial drugs are used intensively, bacteria adapts and are capable for growing in the presence of popularly presc...

Los antibióticos son un grupo de medicamentos que son utilizados para el control de infecciones causadas por bacterias y parásitos. La resistencia a los antibióticos es originada por un mal uso en el tratamiento de las infecciones, y se produce cuando los microorganismos logran adaptarse y crecer en presencia de medicamentos que alguna vez los impa...

AyTBUAP 7(25):52-65 Arreola Barroso et al., 2022 52 Artículo de revisión http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6369485 https://eoi.citefactor. Recibido: 26 diciembre 2021. Aceptado: 11 marzo 2022 RESUMEN En los últimos 10 años, los científicos han logrado simular la evolución natural en sus laboratorios. Este proceso se denomina evolución dirigida, e inici...

Los microorganismos son de gran interés porque colonizan todo tipo de ambiente, sin embargo, uno de los problemas al que nos enfrentamos para conocer su diversidad biológica es que no todos los microorganismos son cultivables. El desarrollo de nuevas tecnologías como la generación de vectores de clonación aunado al desarrollo de técnicas de secuenc...

The use of bacteriocins holds great promise in different areas such as health, food, nutrition, veterinary, nanotechnology, among others. Many research groups worldwide continue to advance the knowledge to unravel a novel range of therapeutic agents and food preserva- tives. This review addresses the advances of bacteriocins and their producer orga...

Malaria is a parasitic disease, caused by protozoa of the genus Plasmodium, and is transmitted to humans through the bites of infected Anopheles mosquitoes. More than 200 million cases of malaria are reported annually and about 400,000 deaths worldwide. Currently, the use of antimalarial drugs has been efficient in most cases, however, resistance t...

The bacterial strain, EMM-1, was isolated from the rhizosphere of red maize (“Rojo Criollo”) and identified as Pseudomonas protegens EMM-1 based on phylogenetic analysis of 16S rDNA, rpoB, rpoD, and gyrB gene sequences. We uncovered genes involved in the production of antimicrobial compounds like 2,4-diacetylphloroglucinol (2,4-DAPG), pyoluteorin,...

Purpose Pseudomonas putida KT2440 is a desiccation-sensitive bacterium that loses culturability after 15 days of air desiccation. We have previously shown that P. putida KT2440 can develop a viable but nonculturable (VBNC) state after being exposed to desiccation stress and eventually recover when desiccated cells are rehydrated for at least 24 h....

Inhibitory substances can be obtained and purified by different methodologies. Free cell supernatants obtained by centrifugation and filtration are commonly used for evaluating antimicrobial metabolites produced by bacteria. In this work, a new methodology for obtaining antimicrobial metabolites is proposed, especially implemented for bacteria whic...

Growing global viral infections have been a serious public health problem in recent years. This current situation emphasizes the importance of developing more therapeutic antiviral compounds. Hepatitis C virus (HCV) and dengue virus (DENV) belong to the Flaviviridae family and are an increasing global health threat. Our previous study reported that...

Bacteria produce antimicrobial compounds to compete for nutrients and space in a particular habitat. Antagonistic interactions can be evaluated by several methodologies including the double-layer agar and simultaneous inhibition assays. Among the well- known inhibitory substances produced by bacteria are the broad-spectrum antibiotics, organic acid...

Inhibitory substances can be obtained and purified by different methodologies. Free cell supernatants obtained by centrifugation and filtration are commonly used for evaluating antimicrobial metabolites produced by bacteria. In this work, a new methodology for obtaining antimicrobial metabolites is proposed, especially implemented for bacteria whic...

Inhibitory substances can be obtained and purified by different methodologies. Free cell supernatants obtained by centrifugation and filtration are commonly used for evaluating antimicrobial metabolites produced by bacteria. In this work, a new methodology for obtaining antimicrobial metabolites is proposed, especially implemented for bacteria whic...

Bacteria produce antimicrobial compounds to compete for nutrients and space in a particular habitat. Antagonistic interactions can be evaluated by several methodologies including the double-layer agar and simultaneous inhibition assays. Among the well-known inhibitory substances produced by bacteria are the broad-spectrum antibiotics, organic acids...

Scorpion venom peptides represent a novel source of antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) with broad-spectrum activity. In this study, we determined the minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) of three scorpion AMPs, Uy234, Uy17, and Uy192, which are found in the venomous glands of the Urodacus yaschenkoi scorpion, against the clinical isolates of multidr...

Plant growth-promoting bacteria (PGPB) have been extensively studied, because of different mechanisms to perform phytostimulation, as well as the abilities to colonize plants. The number of crop types and hectares of agricultural land, where PGPR are applied is low compared with the total crops or farming area. However, the PGPB application in crop...

La personalidad polifacética del género Klebsiella se pone de manifiesto debido a que las especies Klebsiella variicola , Klebsiella pneumoniae y Klebsiella oxytoca pertenecientes a este género, han sido clasificadas de manera tradicional como rizobacterias promotoras del crecimiento vegetal, como patógenos o como patobiontes. De hecho, existen num...

Introduction Several plant-beneficial bacteria have the capability to promote the growth of plants through different mechanisms. The survival of such bacteria could be affected by environmental abiotic factors compromising their capabilities of phytostimulation. One of the limiting abiotic factors is low water availability. Materials and Methods I...

El escorpión Urodacus yaschenkoi pertenece a la subfamilia Urodacinae, es nativo de Australia central y se caracteriza por ser inofensivo para los humanos, ya que su veneno no contiene toxinas que afecten a canales iónicos de mamíferos [1]. A partir de librerías de ADNc generadas a partir del ARN mensajero de las glándulas venenosas de este escorpi...

The potential of Pseudomonas putida KT2440 to act as a plant-growth promoter or as a bioremediator of toxic compounds can be affected by desiccation. In the present work, the bacterial survival ratio (BSR) in response to air desiccation was evaluated for P. putida KT2440 in the presence of different protectors. The BSR in the presence of nonreducin...

Background: Arthropod-borne diseases remain a leading cause of human morbidity and mortality and exact an enormous toll on global agriculture. The practice of insecticide-based control is fraught with issues of excessive cost, human and environmental toxicity, unwanted impact on beneficial insects and selection of resistant insects. Efforts to mod...

Bacteria from rhizosphere have the potential to promote the growth of plants, and could be used as inoculants to increase the crop profitability. However, under drought stress conditions, the number of bacteria associated to seeds could decrease below the minimal number of bacteria required to obtain a positive plant response. At the present work,...

Plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) increase plant growth and crop productivity. The inoculation of plants with a bacterial mixture (consortium) apparently provides greater benefits to plant growth than inoculation with a single bacterial strain. In the present work, a bacterial consortium was formulated containing four compatible and desic...

Bacterial growth in SYP or PY-Ca liquid media for bacteria grown individually or all together. (PDF)

Physicochemical characteristics of the soils used for support in the desiccation experiments. (PDF)

Siderophore production of the four strains chosen for the bacterial consortium. (PDF)

Sequence identity of 16S rRNA from Acinetobacter sp. strain EMM02. (DOCX)

Number of bacteria present in suspensions used for the inoculation of maize. (DOCX)

Colonization of the rhizosphere of maize plants by the bacterial strains. (DOCX)

Flow chart illustrating the identification of Acinetobacter sp. EMM02 by the amplification and sequencing of the gene encoding 16S rRNA. (PDF)

Restriction patterns of the amplified gene encoding the 16S rRNA of the bacterial strains isolated from plants. (PDF)

Adhesion of strains to maize seeds sown in vermiculite. (DOCX)

Strains used in this study. (DOCX)

Sugar cane is a plant of high world production, from which many products are obtained, among them sugar and ethanol. One way to raise the world yields of this plant is to implement alternative forms of cultivation which can include the effective micropropagation of seedlings, their inoculation with beneficial bacteria and the introduction of these...

We describe a method to evaluate bacterial tolerance to air desiccation at 30 °C and 50% relative humidity.

Here we describe two methods for assessing the ability of one bacteria to inhibit the growth of another through the production of antimicrobial compounds. In the first assay, the double agar layer method, only the secreted substances but not the candidate antagonist bacteria interact with the sensitive microorganisms. In the second assay, the simul...

Bacteria may exhibit antagonistic interactions to compete for space and nutrients in their habitat. This competition has been mainly evaluated by double-layer agar and simultaneous inhibition assays. The best known antagonistic bacteria are Enterococcus, Lactococcus, Streptomyces, Bacillus, Pseudomonas, Klebsiella, Escherichia, and Burkholderia due...

Determination of bacteria susceptible to desiccation

Pseudomonas sp. EMM-1 is a Gram-negative bacterium isolated from contaminated soil highly competitive due to the production of one or more inhibitory substances. By testing in double-layer agar it has been demonstrated its antimicrobial activity against diverse beneficial and pathogenic microorganisms such as Bradyrhizobium, Azotobacter, Staphyloco...

The scorpion venom has a wide variety of components, including several types of toxins that modulate the function of ion channels and receptors in excitable cell membranes and are responsible for the many known symptoms of poisoning. In addition to the toxins, bioactive antimicrobial peptides against bacteria, fungi, yeasts and viruses have also be...

The manuscript: “Design and expression of recombinant toxins from Mexican scorpions of the genus Centruroides for production of antivenoms”, by Jimenez-Vargas, J.M., Quintero-Hernández, V., Gonzalez-Morales, L, Ortiz, E. and Possani, L.D., published in TOXICON, 128: 4–14 (2017) contains an error on the value of the DL50 of the venom from Centruroid...

Background: Scorpion venoms contain toxins that modulate ionic channels, among which are the calcins, a small group of short, basic peptides with an Inhibitor Cystine Knot (ICK) motif that target calcium release channels/ryanodine receptors (RyRs) with high affinity and selectivity. Here we describe the heterologous expression of Intrepicalcin, id...

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1751-7915.12448/full In this Crystal Ball we describe the negative effects of the scheme of intensive agriculture of the green revolution technology. To recover the contaminated soils derived from intensive farming is necessary introduce new successful technologies to replace the use of chemical fertilize...

This manuscript describes the design of plasmids containing the genes coding for four main mammalian toxins of scorpions from the genus Centruroides (C.) of Mexico. The genes that code for toxin 2 of C. noxius (Cn2), toxin 2 from C. suffusus (Css2) and toxins 1 and 2 from C. limpidus (Cll1 and Cll2) were included into individual plasmids carrying t...

La cuantificación de microorganismos es fundamental para entender como estos seres diminutos interaccionan con sus hospederos y en los ambientes donde se desarrollan. Para la química clínica la cuantificación de microorganismos es muy importante para conocer el grado de infección de un microorganismo, sin embargo, no se llevan a cabo como prueba de...