Lactiplantibacillus plantarum is one of the most diverse species of lactic acid bacteria found in various habitats. The aim of this work was to perform preliminary phenotypic and genomic characterization of two novel and potentially probiotic L. plantarum strains isolated from Indian foods, viz., dhokla batter and jaggery. Both the strains were bile and acid tolerant, utilized various sugars, adhered to intestinal epithelial cells, produced exopolysaccharides and folate, were susceptible for tetracycline, erythromycin, and chloramphenicol, did not cause hemolysis, and exhibited antimicrobial and plant phenolics metabolizing activities. The genetic determinants of bile tolerance, cell-adhesion, bacteriocins production, riboflavin and folate biosynthesis, plant polyphenols utilization, and exopolysaccharide production were found in both the strains. One of the strains contained a large number of unique genes while the other had a simultaneous presence of glucansucrase and fructansucrase genes which is a rare trait in L. plantarum. Comparative genome analysis of 149 L. plantarum strains highlighted high variation in the cell-adhesion and sugar metabolism genes while the genomic regions for some other properties were relatively conserved. This work highlights the unique properties of our strains along with the probiotic and technically important genomic features of a large number of L. plantarum strains.

Deleterious effects of ionising radiation leading to significant morbidity and mortality have been studied elaborately. A range of synthetic, semisynthetic and herbal compounds have been screened as radiation countermeasure agents and a number of promising radiation countermeasure agents are under development. Amifostin is the only drug which has been approved by the United State Food and Drug Administration (US-FDA), but that too for use in a defined population under strict medical supervision. Granulocyte Colony Stimulating Factor/filgrastim, γ-tocotrienol, genistein are at an advanced stage of development and are tested on higher animal models as per required norms of FDA. Herbal compounds are also considered very safe and of high value as radiation countermeasure agents owing to various properties like antioxidant, immunomodulation activity etc. Histone deacetylase inhibitors such as Trichostatin A, Diallyl sulphide, Sulforaphane are being viewed as very promising radiomitigating agents by our laboratory and active research in the same direction is going on. Infusion of hematopoietic stem cells and growth factors are in practice as potent therapeutics. This review gives an overview on various radioprotectors, radiomitigators and therapeutic agents either available or under development currently.

The gut physiology of pediatric and adult persons with cystic fibrosis (pwCF) is altered relative to healthy persons. The CF gut is characterized, in part, as having excess mucus, increased fat content, acidic pH, increased inflammation, increased antibiotic perturbation and the potential for increased oxygen availability. These physiological differences shift nutritional availability and the local environment for intestinal microbes, thus likely driving significant changes in microbial metabolism, colonization and competition with other microbes. The impact of any specific change in this physiological landscape is difficult to parse using human or animal studies. Thus, we have developed a novel culture medium representative of the CF gut environment, inclusive of all the aforementioned features. This medium, called CF-MiPro, maintains CF gut microbiome communities, while significantly shifting non-CF gut microbiome communities toward a CF-like microbial profile, characterized by low Bacteroidetes and high Proteobacteria abundance. This medium is able to maintain this culture composition for up to 5 days of passage. Additionally, microbial communities passaged in CF-MiPro produce significantly less immunomodulatory short chain fatty acids (SCFA), including propionate and butyrate, than communities passaged in MiPro, a culture medium representative of healthy gut physiology, confirming not only a shift in microbial composition but altered community function. Our results support the potential for this in vitro culture medium as a new tool for the study of gut dysbiosis in CF.ImportanceCystic fibrosis is an autosomal recessive disease that disrupts ion transport at mucosal surfaces, leading to mucus accumulation and altered physiology of both the lungs and the intestines, among other organs, with the resulting altered environment contributing to an imbalance of microbial communities. Culture media representative of the CF airway have been developed and validated; however, no such medium exists for modeling the CF intestine. Here, we develop and validate a first-generation culture medium inclusive of features that are altered in the CF colon. Our findings suggest this novel medium, called CF-MiPro, as a maintenance medium for CF gut microbiome samples and a flexible tool for studying key drivers of CF-associated gut dysbiosis.

L. plantarum is one of the most diverse species of lactic acid bacteria found in various habitats. Here we report the isolation of two distinct strains of L. plantarum from Indian foods, one each from dhokla batter and jaggery, and analysis of their probiotic potential, technical properties, and genomic features. Both the strains were bile and acid tolerant, utilized various sugars, adhered to intestinal epithelial cells, produced exopolysaccharides, were susceptible for tetracycline, erythromycin, and chloramphenicol, did not cause hemolysis, and exhibited antimicrobial activity against a few pathogenic bacteria. The genetic determinants of bile tolerance, cell-adhesion, bacteriocins production, riboflavin and folate biosynthesis, plant polyphenols utilization, and exopolysaccharide production were found in both the strains. One of the strains contained a large number of unique genes while the other had a simultaneous presence of glucansucrase and fructansucrase genes which is a rare trait in L. plantarum. Comparative genome analysis of 149 L. plantarum strains highlighted high variation in the cell-adhesion and sugar metabolism genes while the genomic regions for some other properties were relatively conserved. This work highlights the unique properties of our strains along with the probiotic and technically important genomic features of a large number of L. plantarum strains.