University of Guelph

About: University of Guelph is a education organization based out in Guelph, Ontario, Canada. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Poison control. The organization has 26542 authors who have published 50553 publications receiving 1715255 citations. The organization is also known as: U of G & Guelph University.

Psychrotrophs in dairy products: Their effects and their control

Abstract: Health concerns and technological effects of psychrotrophic bacteria in dairy products are reviewed, as well as methods to control their presence and development. The various Gram-negative and Gram-positive psychrotrophic species are listed and, with respect to pathogenic psychrotrophs, emphasis is given on Listeria monocytogenes, Yersinia enterocolitica, and Bacillus cereus. The influence of psychrotrophic bacteria on the quality of raw milk, pasteurized and UHT milks, butter, ice cream, cheese, and powders is examined. Public health considerations of Listeria monocytogenes, Yersinia enterocolitica, and Bacillus cereus of these various dairy products are also presented. Methods that can be used to eliminate or control the development of psychrotropic bacteria include low or high temperatures, chemicals, gases, the lactoperoxidase system, lactic acid bacteria, microfiltration, bactofugation, lactoferrin-related proteins, sanitation, flavors, and naturally occurring spore germinants.

A mutation in NLA, which encodes a RING-type ubiquitin ligase, disrupts the adaptability of Arabidopsis to nitrogen limitation.

Abstract: Summary Abundant nitrogen is required for the optimal growth and development of plants, while numerous biotic and abiotic factors that consume soil nitrogen frequently create a nitrogen limitation growth condition. To cope with this, plants have evolved a suite of adaptive responses to nitrogen limitation. However, the molecular mechanism governing the adaptability of plants to nitrogen limitation is totally unknown because no reported mutant defines this trait. Here we isolated an Arabidopsis mutant, nla (nitrogen limitation adaptation), and identified the NLA gene as an essential component in this molecular mechanism. Supplied with insufficient inorganic nitrogen (nitrate or ammonium), the nla mutant failed to develop the essential adaptive responses to nitrogen limitation, but senesced much earlier and more rapidly than did the wild type. Under other stress conditions including low phosphorus nutrient, drought and high temperature, the nla mutant did not show this early senescence phenotype, but closely resembled the wild type in growth and development. Map-based cloning of NLA revealed that this gene encodes a RING-type ubiquitin ligase, and nla is a deletion mutation which does not code for the RING domain in the NLA protein. The NLA protein is localized to the nuclear speckles, where this protein interacts with the Arabidopsis ubiquitin conjugase 8 (AtUBC8). In the nla mutant, the deletion of the RING domain from NLA altered its subcellular localization, disrupted the interaction between NLA and AtUBC8 and caused the early senescence phenotype induced by low inorganic nitrogen. All the results indicate that NLA is a positive regulator for the development of the adaptability of Arabidopsis to nitrogen limitation.

To gel or not to gel: correlating molecular gelation with solvent parameters.

Abstract: Rational design of small molecular gelators is an elusive and herculean task, despite the rapidly growing body of literature devoted to such gels over the past decade. The process of self-assembly, in molecular gels, is intricate and must balance parameters influencing solubility and those contrasting forces that govern epitaxial growth into axially symmetric elongated aggregates. Although the gelator–gelator interactions are of paramount importance in understanding gelation, the solvent–gelator specific (i.e., H-bonding) and nonspecific (dipole–dipole, dipole-induced and instantaneous dipole induced forces) intermolecular interactions are equally important. Solvent properties mediate the self-assembly of molecular gelators into their self-assembled fibrillar networks. Herein, solubility parameters of solvents, ranging from partition coefficients (log P), to Henry's law constants (HLC), to solvatochromic parameters (ET(30)), and Kamlet–Taft parameters (β, α and π), and to Hansen solubility parameters (δp, δd, δh), are correlated with the gelation ability of numerous classes of molecular gelators. Advanced solvent clustering techniques have led to the development of a priori tools that can identify the solvents that will be gelled and not gelled by molecular gelators. These tools will greatly aid in the development of novel gelators without solely relying on serendipitous discoveries. These tools illustrate that the quest for the universal gelator should be left in the hands of Don Quixote and as researchers we must focus on identifying gelators capable of gelling classes of solvents as there is likely no one gelator capable of gelling all solvents.

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in horses and horse personnel, 2000-2002.

Abstract: Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infection was identified in 2 horses treated at a veterinary hospital in 2000, prompting a study of colonization rates of horses and associated persons. Seventy-nine horses and 27 persons colonized or infected with MRSA were identified from October 2000 to November 2002; most isolations occurred in a 3-month period in 2002. Twenty-seven (34%) of the equine isolates were from the veterinary hospital, while 41 (51%) were from 1 thoroughbred farm in Ontario. Seventeen (63%) of 27 human isolates were from the veterinary hospital, and 8 (30%) were from the thoroughbred farm. Thirteen (16%) horses and 1 (4%) person were clinically infected. Ninety-six percent of equine and 93% of human isolates were subtypes of Canadian epidemic MRSA-5, spa type 7 and possessed SCCmecIV. All tested isolates from clinical infections were negative for the Panton-Valentine leukocidin genes. Equine MRSA infection may be an important emerging zoonotic and veterinary disease.