Polyvinyl alcohol and polyethylene glycol form polymer bodies in the periplasm of Sphingomonads that are able to assimilate them

"Out-of-the-box" Granular Gel Bath Based on Cationic Polyvinyl Alcohol Microgels for Embedded Extrusion Printing

Embedded extrusion printing provides a versatile platform for fabricating complex hydrogel-based biological structures with living cells. However, the time-consuming process and rigorous storage conditions of current support baths hinder their commercial application. This work reports a novel "out-of-the-box" granular support bath based on chemically crosslinked cationic polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) microgels, which is ready to use by simply dispersing the lyophilized bath in water. Notably, with ionic modification, PVA microgels yield reduced particle size, uniform distribution, and appropriate rheological properties, contributing to high-resolution printing. Following by the lyophilization and re-dispersion process, ion-modified PVA baths recover to its original state, with unchanged particle size, rheological properties, and printing resolution, demonstrating its stability and recoverability. Lyophilization facilitates the long-term storage and delivery of granular gel baths, and enables the application of "out-of-the-box" support materials, which will greatly simplify experimental procedures, avoid labor-intensive and time-consuming operations, thus accelerating the broad commercial development of embedded bioprinting.

Poly(vinyl alcohol): review of its promising applications and insights into biodegradation

Poly(vinyl alcohol) is a promising class of synthetic polymer biodegradable under a two-step metabolism consisting of an oxidation and hydrolysis.

Full Genome Sequence Analysis of Two Isolates Reveals a Novel Xanthomonas Species Close to the Sugarcane Pathogen Xanthomonas albilineans

Xanthomonas albilineans is the bacterium responsible for leaf scald, a lethal disease of sugarcane. Within the Xanthomonas genus, X. albilineans exhibits distinctive genomic characteristics including the presence of significant genome erosion, a non-ribosomal peptide synthesis (NRPS) locus involved in albicidin biosynthesis, and a type 3 secretion system (T3SS) of the Salmonella pathogenicity island-1 (SPI-1) family. We sequenced two X. albilineans-like strains isolated from unusual environments, i.e., from dew droplets on sugarcane leaves and from the wild grass Paspalum dilatatum, and compared these genomes sequences with those of two strains of X. albilineans and three of Xanthomonas sacchari. Average nucleotide identity (ANI) and multi-locus sequence analysis (MLSA) showed that both X. albilineans-like strains belong to a new species close to X. albilineans that we have named "Xanthomonas pseudalbilineans". X. albilineans and "X. pseudalbilineans" share many genomic features including (i) the lack of genes encoding a hypersensitive response and pathogenicity type 3 secretion system (Hrp-T3SS), and (ii) genome erosion that probably occurred in a common progenitor of both species. Our comparative analyses also revealed specific genomic features that may help X. albilineans interact with sugarcane, e.g., a PglA endoglucanase, three TonB-dependent transporters and a glycogen metabolism gene cluster. Other specific genomic features found in the "X. pseudalbilineans" genome may contribute to its fitness and specific ecological niche.

The plant pathogen Xanthomonas campestris pv. campestris exploits N-acetylglucosamine during infection

N-Acetylglucosamine (GlcNAc), the main component of chitin and a major constituent of bacterial peptidoglycan, is present only in trace amounts in plants, in contrast to the huge amount of various sugars that compose the polysaccharides of the plant cell wall. Thus, GlcNAc has not previously been considered a substrate exploited by phytopathogenic bacteria during plant infection. Xanthomonas campestris pv. campestris, the causal agent of black rot disease of Brassica plants, expresses a carbohydrate utilization system devoted to GlcNAc exploitation. In addition to genes involved in GlcNAc catabolism, this system codes for four TonB-dependent outer membrane transporters (TBDTs) and eight glycoside hydrolases. Expression of all these genes is under the control of GlcNAc. In vitro experiments showed that X. campestris pv. campestris exploits chitooligosaccharides, and there is indirect evidence that during the early stationary phase, X. campestris pv. campestris recycles bacterium-derived peptidoglycan/muropeptides. Results obtained also suggest that during plant infection and during growth in cabbage xylem sap, X. campestris pv. campestris encounters and metabolizes plant-derived GlcNAc-containing molecules. Specific TBDTs seem to be preferentially involved in the consumption of all these plant-, fungus- and bacterium-derived GlcNAc-containing molecules. This is the first evidence of GlcNAc consumption during infection by a phytopathogenic bacterium. Interestingly, N-glycans from plant N-glycosylated proteins are proposed to be substrates for glycoside hydrolases belonging to the X. campestris pv. campestris GlcNAc exploitation system. This observation extends the range of sources of GlcNAc metabolized by phytopathogenic bacteria during their life cycle.

Despite the central role of N-acetylglucosamine (GlcNAc) in nature, there is no evidence that phytopathogenic bacteria metabolize this compound during plant infection. Results obtained here suggest that Xanthomonas campestris pv. campestris, the causal agent of black rot disease on Brassica, encounters and metabolizes GlcNAc in planta and in vitro. Active and specific outer membrane transporters belonging to the TonB-dependent transporters family are proposed to import GlcNAc-containing complex molecules from the host, from the bacterium, and/or from the environment, and bacterial glycoside hydrolases induced by GlcNAc participate in their degradation. Our results extend the range of sources of GlcNAc metabolized by this phytopathogenic bacterium during its life cycle to include chitooligosaccharides that could originate from fungi or insects present in the plant environment, muropeptides leached during peptidoglycan recycling and bacterial lysis, and N-glycans from plant N-glycosylated proteins present in the plant cell wall as well as in xylem sap.