Abstract'Agarwood' or 'eaglewood' ('Aguru' in Bengali) is the most expensive wood in the world, which is an occasional product of a few genera of Aquilaria and Gyrinops in the plant family Thymelaeaceae. Agar is a scented product, oleoresin, obtained from pathological conditions of the wood of live trees containing many aromatic substances. Various bacteria and fungi have been found to be associated with Agarwood formation, although it is still not absolutely clear which are important or even necessary. The quality of agar mostly depends on the plant species and the fungal species involved, as well as, certain other unknown factors. The issues are now to explore the new sources of agarwood to protect the endangered plant species, to ensure agar formation in 100% of the planted trees, upgrade in quality and most possibly quantity of agar yield per tree simultaneously minimizing the maturation time. Both physical and chemical stresses like mechanical wound and induction have long been practiced to enhance agarwood yield as well as fungal inoculation. Specificity of fungal infection is a minor criterion of agarwood formation rather than the plant's physiological state, immune responses and presence of inducer. The agarwood production could be a multifaceted field of prospects in Bangladesh. The cultivation of new Aquilaria and Gyrinops plants and selection of appropriate inocula and inducers should be the priority objective. A multidisciplinary approach could be initiated with the experts of forestry, mycology, biochemistry and microbiology to achieve the goal.

doi: medRxiv preprint NOTE: This preprint reports new research that has not been certified by peer review and should not be used to guide clinical practice.

Ear infection is a common problem for both children and adults especially in developing countries. However in Bangladesh particularly in the study area, there is no recent data that shows the magnitude of the problem. A retrospective study was conducted from from April, 2013 to March, 2014 at Shaheed Monsur Ali Medical College. Ear discharge samples were cultured on MacConkey agar, blood agar and chocolate agar plates. A total of 115 ear discharge samples were tested for bacterial isolation and 86 (74.78%) cases were found positive; 49 (56.98%) were gram negative bacteria and the predominant isolate were S. aureus 21 (24.42%) followed by Pseudomonas aeruginosa 20 (23.26%). Of individuals 70 (81.40%) had single bacterial infection and 16 (18.60%) had mixed bacterial infections. Under five children were more affected by ear infection. The prevalence of ear infection was higher in females than males (64.35% vs 35.65%) (P=0.879). The prevalence of ear infection was very high in the study area. Majority of the bacterial isolates were resistant to multiple antibiotics. Hence antibiotics susceptibility test is mandatory before prescribing any antibiotics.

An environmental freshwater bacterial isolate, DM104, appearing as Shigella-like colonies on selective agar plates was found to show strong and specific serological cross-reactivity with Shigella dysenteriae type 4. Biochemical identification according to the analytical profile index, molecular serotyping by restriction of the amplified O-antigen gene cluster (rfb-RFLP), together with phylogenetic analysis of the 16S rRNA gene and multi-locus sequence analysis, identified the isolate as Escherichia albertii. rfb-RFLP of DM104, revealed a profile different from that of S. dysenteriae type 4. However, western blot analysis of extracted lipopolysaccharides demonstrated strong cross-reactivity with S. dysenteriae type 4 using specific monovalent antisera and a lipopolysaccharide gel banding profile similar to that of S. dysenteriae type 4. The observed O-antigen cross-reaction between an E. albertii isolate and S. dysenteriae extends our knowledge of the extent of O-antigen cross-reaction within the Escherichia/Shigella group of organisms, and offers the possibility of using DM104 and similar cross-reacting strains as shigellosis vaccine candidates.