Identification of tet(M) in two Lactococcus lactis strains isolated from a Spanish traditional starter-free cheese made of raw milk and conjugative transfer of tetracycline resistance to lactococci and enterococci

Specific PCR and sequencing showed that a tet(M) gene was present in two tetracycline-resistant Lactococcus lactis strains isolated from a raw milk, starter-free cheese. Hybridisation experiments using as a probe an internal segment of the gene obtained by PCR associated tet(M) with plasmids of around the same size (30 kbp) in both strains. Molecular analysis of the tetracycline resistance loci, including the upstream and downstream regions of the genes, showed them to be identical to one other and to the tet(M) encoded by the conjugative transposon Tn916. Amplification of Tn916-derived segments suggested the transposon was complete in the two L. lactis strains. Further, curing of the tetracycline resistance was accompanied by a reduction in size of the plasmids comparable to that expected for Tn916. Tetracycline resistance could be transferred by conjugation to plasmid-free Lactococcus and Enterococcus strains. However, no plasmid DNA was detected among the transconjugants while both tet(M) and transposon-related sequences were amplified by PCR. This suggested that only the transposon was mobilized.     

Insights into the role of quorum sensing in food spoilage

Food spoilage is a consequence of the degrading enzymatic activity of some food-associated bacteria. Several proteolytic, lipolytic, chitinolytic, and pectinolytic activities associated with the deterioration of goods are regulated by quorum sensing, suggesting a potential role of such cell-to-cell communication in food spoilage. Here we review quorum sensing signaling molecules and methods of their detection and quantification, and we provide insights into the role of quorum sensing in food spoilage and address potential quorum sensing inhibitors that might be used as biopreservatives.     

Synthesis and Characterization of Sulfanilamide-Based Nonionic Surfactants and Evaluation of Their Nano-Vesicular Drug Loading Application

Nonionic surfactants are highly stable and cost-effective and receiving acceptance for applications in many diverse fields including drug delivery, due to their distinctive properties. Here, we report on the synthesis and characterization of sulfanilamide-based nonionic surfactants for nanoscale vesicular drug loading applications. Nonionic surfactants were synthesized through alkylation of sulfanilamide with alkyl halides that possessed diverse degrees of lipophilicity. They were explored for their nanovesicular drug loading with Cefixime as a hydrophobic model drug. Drug-loaded nanovesicles were characterized for surface morphologies, size, size distribution, surface charge, and drug loading efficiency using atomic force microscopy (AFM), dynamic light scattering (DLS), and UV–visible spectrophotometry. All of the synthesized nonionic surfactants revealed their CMC values in 0.055–0.035 mM range depending upon the lipophilic chain length of surfactants. They caused a decreased hemoglobin release and low toxicity against cell culture. They self-assembled and loaded an increased amount of drug in the form of nanorange spherical shape niosomal vesicles. Results of the current study verify these synthesized nonionic surfactants are hemocompatible, nontoxic, and capable of self-assembling into nanorange niosomal vesicles. These niosomal vesicles can be suggested as safe and highly efficient nanocarriers for hydrophobic drug loading and delivery.     

Improvements and limitation of soy protein-based adhesive: A review

Soy protein is known for its eco-friendly, sustainable, and biodegradable qualities that are likely used as raw material in producing bioadhesive. However, soy protein-based adhesive are lacking in terms of adhesive strength and water-resistance compared to commercial formaldehyde-based adhesives such as phenol and urea-formaldehyde resin. Therefore, continuous research has been done to improve adhesive performance. This can be done via physical or modification methods, including the usage of cross-linking agents, structural modification, enzymatic modification, and the addition of additives. This review will cover these modification methods that give significant enhancement to the water-resistance and adhesive strength of soy protein-based adhesives.     

AODVCS,a new bio-inspired routing protocol based on cuckoo search algorithm for mobile ad hoc networks

Mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) are becoming an emerging technology that offer several advantages to users in terms of cost and ease of use. A MANET is a collection of mobile nodes connected by wireless links that form a temporary network topology that operates without a base station and centralized administration. Routing is a method through which information is forwarded from a transmitter to a specific recipient. Routing is a strategy that guarantees, at any time, the connection between any two nodes in a network. In this work, we propose a novel routing protocol inspired by the cuckoo search method. Our routing protocol is implemented using Network simulator 2. We chose Random WayPoint model as our mobility model. To validate our work, we opted for the comparison with the routing protocol ad hoc on-demand distance vector, destination sequence distance vector and the bio-inspired routing protocol AntHocNet in terms of the quality of service parameters: packet delivery ratio and end-to-end delay (E2ED).     

Privacy‐preserving authentication scheme for on‐road on‐demand refilling of pseudonym in VANET

Privacy in Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks (VANET) is fundamental because the user's safety may be threatened by the identity and the real‐time spatiotemporal data exchanged on the network. This issue is commonly addressed by the use of certified temporal pseudonyms and their updating strategies to ensure the user's unlinkability and anonymity. IEEE 1609.2 Standard specified the process of certifying pseudonym along with certificates structure. However, the communication procedure between the certifying authority and the requesting vehicle was not defined. In this paper, a new privacy‐preserving solution for pseudonym on‐road on‐demand refilling is proposed where the vehicle anonymously authenticates itself to the regional authority subsidiary of the central trusted authority to request a new pseudonyms pool. The authentication method has two phases, the first one uses anonymous tickets, and the second one is a challenge‐based authentication. The anonymous tickets are certificates that do not include the identity of the user. Instead, it contains a reference number and the certifying authority signature. The challenge authentication is identity‐less to preserve the privacy, yet it is used to prevent the misuse of tickets and the impersonation of its owner. Our proposed scheme is analyzed by the use of Burrows, Abadi and Needham (BAN) logic to demonstrate its correctness. It is also specified and checked by using the Security Protocol ANimator (SPAN) and the Automated Validation of Internet Security Protocols and Applications (AVISPA) tools. The logical demonstration proved that this privacy‐preserving authentication is assured. The SPAN and AVISPA tools illustrated that it is resilient to security attacks.