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Despite their ecological significance, the rhizosphere mycobiomes of Egyptian Red Sea Avicennia marina remain largely unexplored. This study presents the first ITS2 amplicon-based characterization of these mangrove rhizosphere fungi at two sites: Al-Kilo 17 south of Safaga (K17) and Ras Mohamed National Park (RM). Alpha diversity showed higher richness in K17, while PCoA showed clear beta diversity differences. Taxonomic profiling indicated significant site-specific communities; Linear Discriminant Analysis Effect Size identified significant biomarkers across all hierarchical levels Ascomycota dominated K17 samples (59–79%), whereas Basidiomycota prevailed in RM (59–93%). At class level, Dothideomycetes prevailed in K17 and Agaricomycetes in RM. Aspergillus (up to 27%) characterized K17, while Malassezia unexpectedly dominated RM (48–62%). Other genera (e.g., Hortaea , Penicillium , Hypocrea ) were less abundant. Soil analysis highlighted sodium gradients as a potential environmental driver, showing distinct positive correlations ( r  = 0.73–0.86) with alpha diversity and sequencing depth. Functional annotation using FungalTraits inferred putative ecological roles and predicted stress-associated traits based on taxonomic assignments rather than direct functional measurements. Notably, human skin-associated fungi were abundant at RM (> 40%), a tourism-impacted area. This study suggests unique fungal diversity often overlooked by culture-based approaches, highlighting Red Sea mangroves as promising reservoirs of ecological and biotechnological potential.

With lettuce being one of the most important green crops in the world, it is important to improve its growth and nutritive value. To this end, arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus (AMF) application to improve nutrient-dense foods and the production of bioactive compounds in plants is a promising approach. AMF is applied to increase plant growth, primary metabolism, mineral profile and accumulation of secondary (phenols, flavonoids) metabolites. AMF treated plants showed increased biomass accumulation by 38.8%. This increase was in line with increased levels of photosynthesis rate and the total chlorophyll content by approximately 28.8%, respectively. In nutritive value, AMF increased mineral profile, vitamin contents and carbohydrate as indicated by D-mannose, L-galactose, and vitamin E ( p  < 0.05) by approximately 32.7%, 25%, and 46.6%, respectively. The AMF-treated lettuce's proximate composition revealed considerably greater levels of total protein (7.8%), as well as crude fiber, ash, and carbohydrates (about 7%) compared to control samples ( p  < 0.05). Furthermore, AMF inoculation increased levels of antioxidants, essential amino acids, and unsaturated fatty acids. It increased the levels of antioxidants such as alpha and beta carotene, polyphenols, which was correlated with increased phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL) enzyme activity. Treatment with AMF resulted in an increase of more than 76% of the detected amino acids, with the highest increment observed for isoleucine, methionine and biosynthetic enzyme (cystathionine γ-synthase (CGS)), and which were 200%, 270.2%, and 153.5%, respectively. Increased bioactive accumulation also resulted in improved antioxidant and antidiabetic and antibacterial activities against a variety of pathogenic microorganisms. The findings indicate that the AMF treatment is a feasible method for enhancing lettuce's biological characteristics and health-promoting attributes.

Black seed has been applied for several decades to cure an extensive variety of illnesses and ailments. In this report, the chemical profile of both crude and ozonized black seed oil was assessed after the oil was exposed to 0 to 5 L/minute of ozone for four hours. The in vitro effects of black seed oil following being exposed to ozone including antimicrobial properties versus Bacillus cereus (ATCC11778), Staphylococcus aureus (ATCC6538), Escherichia coli (ATCC8739), Salmonella typhi (ATCC 6539), and Klebsiella pneumoniae (ATCC13883), Candida albicans (ATCC10221), and Aspergillus niger (ATCC16888). Beside s , antioxidant effects, anti-inflammatory capacity, and antineoplastic function versus HCT cells were assessed. The chemical profile of ozonized black seed oil showed elevation of essential molecules of oil as well as presence of some characteristic molecules to both forms of oil. Besides, it could be noticed that exposing of oil to ozone improves its antimicrobial activity towards all tested microbes except for C. albicans . Both forms of oil showed no activity towards A. niger . Black seed oil exposed to ozone showed a promising antioxidant capacity with IC 50 of 2.93 ± 0.2 µg/ml. A dramatic improvement in anti-inflammatory impact of ozonized oil as well as its antitumor capacity towards HCT cells could be seen in the laboratory outcomes. The current findings point to a novel method for enhancing some of the in vitro medicinal uses of black seed oil by exposing it to ozone.

The colonization of preterm neonates by multidrug-resistant Enterobacteriaceae, especially in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs), remains poorly understood despite its potential role in healthcare-associated transmission. This study addresses this gap by characterizing gut colonization by Enterobacteriaceae, focusing on carbapenem-resistant in preterm neonates. Samples of preterm neonates' stool were cultured on eosin methylene blue (EMB) agar, followed by biochemical identification, 16S rRNA gene sequencing, and antibiotic susceptibility testing using the VITEK 2 system. All preterm neonates aged 2 weeks or older exhibited colonization by enterobacteria. was the most prevalent species, identified in 56.2% (9/16) of samples, with present in an additional 6.3% (1/16). Two isolates were multidrug-resistant; one exhibited carbapenem resistance, and one showed intermediate susceptibility. These strains were also resistant to multiple other antibiotics. was detected in 50% (8/16) of cases but exhibited no carbapenem resistance. This study demonstrates that preterm neonates in NICUs can harbor multidrug-resistant in their gut, highlighting the gut as a potential reservoir and source of CRE (carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae) dissemination. These findings stress the need for enhanced surveillance, strict infection control practices, and strategies to prevent gut colonization and fecal-oral transmission of multidrug-resistant bacteria in vulnerable neonatal populations. All strains of , including those resistant or with intermediate resistance to carbapenems, displayed widespread sensitivity to gentamicin (GM) and tigecycline (TGC) , suggesting potential clinical utility, though further evaluation is warranted.

The rhizosphere of date palm trees serves as a reservoir for plant growth-promoting bacteria (PGPB). To characterize the microbial communities and associated PGP traits within these rhizospheres, Illumina amplicon sequencing of 16S rRNA genes and Phylogenetic Investigation of Communities by Reconstruction of Unobserved States (PICRUSt) analysis were conducted on samples from four cultivars (Ajwa, Helwa, Rabeaa, and Ruthana) collected in Madinah, Saudi Arabia. Proteobacteria were the dominant bacterial group in most samples, except for Rabeaa, where were more prevalent. The unclassified PAC002137_g genus was most abundant overall. A diverse array of PGPB genera, including , , , , and , was identified. PICRUSt analysis revealed a plethora of potential PGP genes, with those involved in phosphate and sulfate transport, iron acquisition, and redox processes being particularly abundant. These findings suggest that the date palm rhizosphere harbors a rich microbial community capable of promoting plant growth through various mechanisms. Further investigations into the specific roles of these PGPBs could lead to the development of sustainable agricultural practices for date palm cultivation.

We are currently in the era of artificial intelligence (AI), which has become deeply embedded across nearly all scientific disciplines. Harnessing this revolutionary technology to predict virulence factors of emerging pathogens can improve our understanding of their pathogenicity, especially since the majority of these pathogens' proteomes are composed of hypothetical or uncharacterized proteins. Moreover, emerging orphan proteins were expressed from novel open reading frames. Therefore, this study aimed to develop a pipeline for predicting and annotating the species-specific secreted protein structures of these pathogens, with selected as a model organism. The proteome of CBS 136260 was retrieved from the NCBI database. The secretome of this fungus was predicted by ML-based SignalP and Phobius tools, targeting signal peptide (SP) bearing proteins. Species-specific proteins were detected using BLASTp (sequence level) and AFDB clusters (structure level). AlphaFold2, an AI-based system, was used to build structural models of hypothetical proteins specific to . DeepFRI was used to anticipate functional annotation of these proteins based on their structures, while the DALI server was used to detect homologous similarity. Candidate proteins were applied to molecular docking analysis against MHC-II. The structure modeling and homologous matching revealed several protein domains similar to toxins (scorpion toxin-like, cytolysin, CARDS toxin, defensin-like), allergens, adhesins, hydrolytic enzymes, and inhibitors. Novel domains with putative functions (ion binding, proteolysis, transferase activity, and protein binding) were also discovered. In immunoinformatics and molecular docking studies, a cytolysin like-containing protein (Gene ID: ACJ72_08076) outperformed the other selected proteins in binding to MHC-II (Docking score = -318.74) with a confidence score = 0.96. The findings suggest that AI and ML tools can be employed in the preliminary stage to explore host-pathogen interactions and anticipate novel virulence genes.

Coconut oil is eatable oil with many nutritional and cosmetic applications. In this investigation coconut oil was subjected to 0 to 5 L/min of ozone for 3 h and the chemical composition of both crude and ozonized oil was valued via Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC–MS). Some biological tests were done including antibacterial action versus Helicobacter pylori , anti-biofilm activity versus H. pylori , anti-hemolytic activity in the existence of H. pylori , anti-Alzheimer action, and cytotoxic effect towards A-413 cancer cell line to determine the activity of coconut oil and upon exposure to ozone. Fifteen compounds were detected in the coconut oil crude and ozonized oils where the fatty acid esters were the most common molecules in crude coconut oil, whereas alkenes were the most predominant compounds in ozonized coconut oil. A slight elevation of antibacterial action towards H. pylori from 23.0 ± 0.1 to 28.2 ± 0.5 mm was displayed upon exposure of the coconut oil to ozone. Both crude and ozonized coconut oil showed a bactericidal effect with MICs = 62.5 ± 0.1, 125.0 ± 0.2 µg/mL and MBCs = 15.62 ± 0.2, 31.25 0.2 µg/mL for crude and ozonized oil, respectively. A significant elevation in anti-biofilm activity was found upon using 25% of MBCs of ozonized oil relative to crude oil. A dramatic rise was observed in anti-hemolytic activity upon using 25 and 75% of MICs of ozonized oil relative to crude one. A notable elevation of anti-Alzheimer impact was evident upon exposing coconut oil to ozone. Besides, the cytotoxic impact towards A-431 cells was slightly increased after exposing the oil to ozone. The current results suggest a new technique to expose coconut oil to ozone to improve some of its in vitro pharmaceutical applications.

Laccases are versatile biocatalysts that are prominent for industrial purposes due to their extensive substrate specificity. Therefore, this research investigated producing laccase from Physisporinus vitreus via liquid fermentation. The results revealed that veratryl alcohol (4mM) was the most effective inducer 7500U/L. On the other hand, Zn ions inhibited laccase production. The optimum carbon and nitrogen sources were glucose and tryptone by 5200 and 3300 U/L, respectively. Moreover, solvents exhibited various impacts on the enzyme activity at three different solvent concentrations (5%, 10% and 20%), however, it showed a highest activity at 5% of the investigated solvent. Ferric ions inhibited the enzyme activity. In addition, the enzyme has a high ability to decolorize azo dyes when using syringaldehyde as a mediator. The purified laccase from Physisporinus vitreus is a promising substance to be used for industrial and environmental applications due to its stability under harsh conditions and efficiency in decolorization of dyes. Graphical abstract

The emergence of -resistant strains represents one of the most urgent global threats. In this regard, C7-3 peptide is one of the anti-virulence therapies that has demonstrated promising anti-gonococcal activity. Accordingly, this research aimed to formulate C7-3 peptide and its derivatives in chitosan nanoparticles. The peptide loaded chitosan nanoparticles were prepared using ion gelation method, and their physicochemical characteristics were investigated. The anti-gonococcal and antibiofilm activity of prepared NPs was assessed, and their cytotoxicity in human ovarian cells was evaluated. All prepared NPs were optimized for the smallest particle size of 136.9 to 168.3 nm. The EE% of C7-3, C7-3m1, and C7-3m2 CNPs reached 90.2, 92.5, and 91.8%, respectively. An in vitro release study demonstrated a continuous sustained-release pattern of C7-3 peptide from NPs. The SDS-PAGE assay confirmed the integrity of C7-3 peptide after the fabrication process. When comparing each peptide alone, the generated NPs demonstrated higher anti-gonococcal and anti-biofilm effectiveness against standard and resistant bacterial strains under anaerobic conditions. The cytotoxicity experiments revealed the cytocompatibility of NPs in HeLa cell lines. Given the advantages of enhanced anti-gonococcal activity of the C7-3 peptide and its derivatives when loaded with CNPs, as well as the antimicrobial properties of chitosan NPs, the reported NPs have great potential in the treatment of gonococcal infection.