Vasco Azevedo

By Ricardo B. Mariutti, Natayme R. Tartaglia, Núbia Seyffert, Thiago Luiz de Paula Castro, Raghuvir K. Arni, Vasco A. Azevedo, Yves Le Loir and Koji Nishifuji

Virulent strains of Staphylococcus aureus secrete exfoliative toxins (ETs) that cause the loss of cell‐cell adhesion in the superficial epidermis. S. aureus ETs are serine proteases, which exhibit exquisite substrate specificity, and their mechanisms of action are extremely complex. To date, four different serotypes of ETs have been identified and three of them (ETA, ETB and ETD) are associated with toxin‐mediated staphylococcal syndromes related to human infections leading to diseases of medical and veterinary importance.

Part of the book: The Rise of Virulence and Antibiotic Resistance in Staphylococcus aureus

By Rodrigo Carvalho, Fillipe Carmo, Sara Heloisa, Barbara Cordeiro, Aline Vaz, Enrico Gimenez, Luis Goulart, Aristóteles Góes-Neto, Yves Le Loir, Gwénaël Jan and Vasco Azevedo

The human gut microbiota makes fundamental contributions to host metabolism and immune system. Therefore, perturbations in its composition, a process known as dysbiosis, have an important role in the development of several chronicle diseases, mainly intestinal inflammatory disorders. Culture-independent molecular methods are allowing scientific community to uncover substantive findings, thus giving a more detailed description of the human intestinal microbiota. This chapter presents a review on current metagenomic approaches, based on next-generation sequencing technologies, for investigating bacterial taxonomic classification and predictive function associated with the human gut in health and disease. In this context, we describe recent studies that have been trying to elucidate important alterations in microbiome composition across individuals according to delivery mode, aging, diet and medication that might be linked to susceptibility to immune-mediated diseases. A description of the main bacterial taxa and genes acting in dysbiosis during inflammation, focusing on chronic inflammatory bowel diseases and colorectal cancer, is also explored in this chapter.

Part of the book: Metagenomics for Gut Microbes

By Carlos Leonardo Araújo, Jorianne Alves, Alyne Lima, Larissa Dias, Patricia Silva, Joana Marques, Vasco Azevedo, Artur Silva and Adriana Folador

This chapter will address the main omics approaches used in studies involving the genus Corynebacterium, Gram-positive microorganisms that can be isolated from many diverse environments. Currently, the genus Corynebacterium has more than 130 highly diversified species, many of which present medical, veterinary and biotechnological importance, such as C. diphtheriae, C. pseudotuberculosis, C. ulcerans and C. glutamicum. Due to the wide application in these fields, several omics methodologies are used to better elucidate the species belonging to this genus, such as genomics, transcriptomics and proteomics. The genomic era has contributed to the development of more advanced and complex approaches that enable the increase of generated data, and consequently the advance on the structural, functional and dynamic knowledge of biological systems.

Part of the book: Basic Biology and Applications of Actinobacteria