Browsing by Subject "microbe"

This study was conducted to find suitable methods for the quality control of commercial plant growth-promoting (PGP) microbial products. A commercial bacterial product called TwinN was evaluated for its microbiological quality, physiological features of its bacterial strains, and its ability to promote plant growth. Other bacterial strains which had shown PGP features in earlier studies, were used as reference strains. The microbiological composition of the TwinN bacterial lyophilisate corresponded to the manufacturer's description, as it was composed of bacteria belonging to the genera Azoarcus, Azorhizobium, and Azospirillum. However, the concentrations of some of the bacterial species were lower than reported. If the product was used according to the manufacturer's instructions, the bacterial counts in the plants wouldn't necessarily reach a sufficient level. With the TwinN product, a powdery growth medium was also supplied, which appeared to be highly contaminated with bacteria and moulds. The nature and source of these microbes remained unknown. The bacteria in the TwinN product were isolated as pure cultures, and identified based on the partial sequences of their 16S rRNA genes. Specific plate and broth culturing techniques were used to uncover the potential PGP physiological features of the pure cultures. The bacterial strains were able to produce indole-3-acetic acid, ACC deaminase and siderophore, which suggests that they might also have PGP activity. The ability of the bacteria to promote plant growth was tested in a plant experiment using hydroponic growth pouches. An Azospirillum brasilense strain isolated from the TwinN product was able to increase the dry weight of the shoots of chinese gabbage almost 41 % compared with the uninoculated control plants. Of the five bacterial treatments used, the A. brasilense strain was the only one able to promote plant growth. Chinese cabbage was the only plant species out of six that gave a positive response to the A. brasilense treatment. For some reason, the TwinN product itself didn't show any PGP activity. The plants showed signs of nitrogen deficiency, which indicates that no bacterial nitrogen fixation had taken place. The method used to determine the microbial composition of the TwinN product, was Amplicon sequencing. Combined with the results of traditional culturing techniques, Amplicon sequencing proved to be a useful method for the assessment of the microbiological quality of the product. The physiological tests that could be of use in the quality control of PGP products, are siderophore production test, phosphate solubilization test and the test that measures indole-3-acetic acid production.

Immune-mediated diseases, such as various allergies and asthma, are increasing rapidly in an urbanized world where biodiversity is steadily declining. Decreased biodiversity and homogenous microbiota have been associated with weaker immune defence. Studies show that contact with the natural environment enriches the human microbiota, promotes immune response, and protects against allergies and inflammatory diseases. For this reason, in order to prevent immune-mediated diseases, solutions have been sought from nature-based approaches in which the immune system encounters environmental microbial stimuli in a natural way. The aim of this master's thesis was to study how different nature-based materials (sod and forest floor) affect the skin microbiota of kindergarten-age children and to examine how different factors such as varying weather conditions and different sampling times affect the results. The results supported the hygiene hypothesis and previous research according to which increasing biodiversity can have a positive effect on human skin microbial communities. A positive effect on children's skin was achieved with sod alone, which is important information in the development of suitable biodiverse materials for urban planning. The results also supported the surmise that different weather conditions and sampling methods can significantly affect the results.

Microbial diversity can be found everywhere around us. The diversity is however declining globally and the diversity loss is most visible in highly urbanized areas. The lack of microbial biodiversity has been linked to increased risk of certain im-mune mediated diseases most prevalent within urban population. Understanding how diversity differs between urban and rural areas can help us to figure out mechanisms behind biodiversity loss and higher frequency of immune-mediated dis-eases and develop prevention methods for the latter. The aim of the thesis is to study how bacterial communities differ between urban and rural areas using indicator species as proxy. The aim is also to find out if the results support the biodiversity hypothesis. The results of the thesis found out significant differences in diversity indexes between bacterial communities in urban and rural areas, which supports the biodiversity hypothesis. The study also found differences in Proteobacteria diversity index-es, which have been linked to some immune mediated diseases in previous studies.