1% (w/v) glucose (VWR), and 1% (v/v) defibrinated horse blood (Eu

1% (w/v) glucose (VWR), and 1% (v/v) defibrinated horse blood (Eurobio, Les Ulis, France) (supplemented BHI, S-BHI). When appropriated, 1.5% (w/v) agar (Difco) was added to the liquid medium. Actinomyces neuii, C. albicans, and agar cultures of the lactobacilli were incubated in anaerobic jars using the AnaeroGen Compact system (Oxoid). All the strains were grown at 37 °C. The Caco-2 (HTB-37) (LGC-Standars, Molsheim, France) cell line was routinely grown in Eagle’s minimal essential medium (EMEM) (Sigma-Aldrich Chemie GmbH, Buchs, Switzerland). HeLa (ATCC CCL-2) and HT-29 (HTB-38) (LGC-Standars) cell lines were grown in Dulbecco’s

modified Eagle’s minimal essential medium (DMEM) (Sigma-Aldrich). Both culture broths were supplemented with 10% (w/v) heat-inactivated fetal bovine serum (GibcoBRL, Eragny, France) and with penicillin G/streptomycin (5000 IU mL−1, Selleck PR-171 5000 μg mL−1) (Sigma-Aldrich). this website Cultures were incubated in 25 cm2 tissue culture flasks (Nunc, Roskilde, Denmark) at 37 °C in a 5% (v/v) CO2 atmosphere until confluence. For adhesion assays, 2500 cells per well were seeded in 12-well culture plates (Nunc) and cultivated, with a daily

change of the culture medium until confluence (Tallon et al., 2007). Adhesion to porcine gastric mucin (Porcine gastric mucin, type III, Sigma-Aldrich), Caco-2, HT-29, and HeLa monolayers of the lactobacilli and the pathogenic bacteria was tested following the procedure described by Tallon and co-workers (Tallon et al., 2007), using

around 108 CFUs (as determined by plate count) for the adhesion to mucin and 50 bacteria per eukaryotic cell for the adhesion to epithelial cell tests. Overnight bacterial cultures, in the early stationary phase of growth, and confluent eukaryotic cell cultures were used in all cases. Assays were performed at least in triplicate, and the data are expressed as the mean ± SD. Binding assays were performed using the surface proteins extracted from 50 mL of culture or secreted proteins extracted 17-DMAG (Alvespimycin) HCl from 20 mL of culture and mucin as coated matrix on 96-well plates as described before (Sánchez et al., 2009). Proteins were resolved by SDS-PAGE and then visualized by standard silver staining. Proteins able to bind mucin were identified by its relative electrophoretic mobility with respect to the surface proteins profiles. The effect of the eight Lactobacillus strains on the adhesion of C. albicans CECT 1392 and A. neuii R1 to HeLa cells was performed as described earlier, using a probiotic/pathogen ratio of 10 : 1. After incubation with the cell line monolayers and five PBS washes, aliquots of the cultures or their dilutions were transferred to plates containing S-BHI with 20 μg mL−1 penicillin G (selective for C. albicans) or 16 μg mL−1 erythromycin (Sigma-Aldrich) (selective for A. neuii). The susceptibility of all Lactobacillus strains to both antibiotics was confirmed prior to the adhesion assays.

1% (w/v) glucose (VWR), and 1% (v/v) defibrinated horse blood (Eu

1% (w/v) glucose (VWR), and 1% (v/v) defibrinated horse blood (Eurobio, Les Ulis, France) (supplemented BHI, S-BHI). When appropriated, 1.5% (w/v) agar (Difco) was added to the liquid medium. Actinomyces neuii, C. albicans, and agar cultures of the lactobacilli were incubated in anaerobic jars using the AnaeroGen Compact system (Oxoid). All the strains were grown at 37 °C. The Caco-2 (HTB-37) (LGC-Standars, Molsheim, France) cell line was routinely grown in Eagle’s minimal essential medium (EMEM) (Sigma-Aldrich Chemie GmbH, Buchs, Switzerland). HeLa (ATCC CCL-2) and HT-29 (HTB-38) (LGC-Standars) cell lines were grown in Dulbecco’s

modified Eagle’s minimal essential medium (DMEM) (Sigma-Aldrich). Both culture broths were supplemented with 10% (w/v) heat-inactivated fetal bovine serum (GibcoBRL, Eragny, France) and with penicillin G/streptomycin (5000 IU mL−1, selleck 5000 μg mL−1) (Sigma-Aldrich). Ponatinib molecular weight Cultures were incubated in 25 cm2 tissue culture flasks (Nunc, Roskilde, Denmark) at 37 °C in a 5% (v/v) CO2 atmosphere until confluence. For adhesion assays, 2500 cells per well were seeded in 12-well culture plates (Nunc) and cultivated, with a daily

change of the culture medium until confluence (Tallon et al., 2007). Adhesion to porcine gastric mucin (Porcine gastric mucin, type III, Sigma-Aldrich), Caco-2, HT-29, and HeLa monolayers of the lactobacilli and the pathogenic bacteria was tested following the procedure described by Tallon and co-workers (Tallon et al., 2007), using

around 108 CFUs (as determined by plate count) for the adhesion to mucin and 50 bacteria per eukaryotic cell for the adhesion to epithelial cell tests. Overnight bacterial cultures, in the early stationary phase of growth, and confluent eukaryotic cell cultures were used in all cases. Assays were performed at least in triplicate, and the data are expressed as the mean ± SD. Binding assays were performed using the surface proteins extracted from 50 mL of culture or secreted proteins extracted before from 20 mL of culture and mucin as coated matrix on 96-well plates as described before (Sánchez et al., 2009). Proteins were resolved by SDS-PAGE and then visualized by standard silver staining. Proteins able to bind mucin were identified by its relative electrophoretic mobility with respect to the surface proteins profiles. The effect of the eight Lactobacillus strains on the adhesion of C. albicans CECT 1392 and A. neuii R1 to HeLa cells was performed as described earlier, using a probiotic/pathogen ratio of 10 : 1. After incubation with the cell line monolayers and five PBS washes, aliquots of the cultures or their dilutions were transferred to plates containing S-BHI with 20 μg mL−1 penicillin G (selective for C. albicans) or 16 μg mL−1 erythromycin (Sigma-Aldrich) (selective for A. neuii). The susceptibility of all Lactobacillus strains to both antibiotics was confirmed prior to the adhesion assays.

We sel

We Selleckchem PTC124 then examined factors independently associated with 95% adherence using logistic regression modelling and were specifically interested in whether the year of ART initiation was associated with adherence after adjustment for potential confounders. We considered explanatory variables potentially associated with 95% adherence, including gender (female vs. male), age (<24 vs. ≥24 years), ethnicity (Aboriginal ancestry vs. other), daily heroin injection (yes vs. no), daily cocaine injection (yes vs. no), daily crack cocaine smoking (yes vs. no), methadone use (yes vs. no), any other addiction treatment use (yes vs. no),

and unstable housing (yes vs. no). Age was defined as a dichotomous variable according to the World Health Organization’s definition of a ‘young person’, using the upper age limit of 24 years as the cut-off [25]. All dichotomous behavioural variables referred to the 6-month period prior to the interview. As in our previous work [26], we defined

unstable housing as living in a single-room occupancy hotel or shelter, or being homeless. Clinical variables included baseline HIV-1 RNA level (per log10 copies/mL) and CD4 cell count (per 100 cells/μL). To estimate the independent relationship between calendar year and likelihood DZNeP of 95% adherence to prescribed ART, we fitted a multivariate logistic regression model using an a priori defined protocol suggested by Greenland et al. [27]. First, we fitted a full model including the primary explanatory variable Urease and all secondary variables with P < 0.20 in univariate analyses. In a manual stepwise approach, we fitted a series of reduced models by removing one secondary explanatory variable, noting the change in the value of the coefficient for the primary explanatory variable. We then removed the secondary explanatory variable associated with the smallest absolute change in the primary explanatory coefficient. We

continued this process until the maximum change from the full model exceeded 5%. This technique has been used in a number of studies to best estimate the relationship between an outcome of interest and a primary explanatory variable [28, 29]. All statistical procedures were performed using sas version 9.1 (SAS Institute, Cary, NC). All P-values are two-sided. Between 1996 and 2009, 682 participants initiated ART and were eligible for the present analyses. Overall, the median age was 37 years [interquartile range (IQR) 31–44 years], 243 participants (36%) were Aboriginal and 248 (36%) were women. As shown in Figure 1, between 1996 and 2009 the proportion of individuals who achieved 95% adherence during the first year of ART increased from 19.3% in 1996 to 65.9% in 2009 (Cochrane–Armitage test for trend, P < 0.001).

Transmission appears to occur permucosally rather than parenteral

Transmission appears to occur permucosally rather than parenterally and is associated with behavioural (traumatic sexual practices and mucosally administered drugs) and biological (pre-existing HIV infection and sexually transmitted infections such as syphilis) risk factors [7]. A meta-analysis has estimated the incidence of AHC in HIV-uninfected MSM as 1.4 per 1000 patient-years, compared to an incidence in UK cohorts of HIV-infected MSM ranging from 7.8–11.8 per 1000 patient-years (see Section 8.10) [8]. Various pathways through which HCV infection may impact on HIV have been suggested, but the main mechanism

proposed is chronic immune activation leading to immune dysfunction and cytokine production, with ensuing enhanced viral replication and CD4 T-cell apoptosis [9]. There has been debate on whether HCV infection selleck chemical affects progression of HIV disease, although a recent meta-analysis suggested this not to be the case [10–11]. Adults with HCV/HIV infection

may experience smaller increases in selleck CD4 lymphocyte counts than HCV-negative patients, although this difference attenuates with time [12]. Other studies have found no difference in rates of CD4 cell count gain between HCV-infected and -uninfected populations [13–14]. Virological response to ART is not associated with HCV serostatus [15–17]. HCV/HIV-infected patients have higher HCV viral loads [18–19] and accelerated liver fibrosis rates [20], with one meta-analysis finding that the estimated risk of cirrhosis was two-fold higher [21]. The mechanisms by which HIV causes accelerated fibrosis include direct entry of HIV virus into hepatic stellate cells [22]; immune activation by HIV inducing cytokine changes that increase liver inflammation;

and an increase in tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-induced apoptosis [23]. HCV/HIV infection increases the risk of hepatocellular carcinoma, which tends to occur at a younger age and within a shorter time period since infection than in HCV monoinfection [24–25]. A number of studies have shown that coinfection is associated with increased mortality over HIV alone [26–27]. most A 20-year prospective study found increased risk of hepatitis/liver-related deaths despite ART among coinfected IDUs compared to HCV-monoinfected IDUs [28]. Both the EuroSIDA study and data from the Swiss HIV Cohort Study have confirmed that HCV infection is associated with an increased risk of death [29]. We recommend patients who have raised transaminases or had recent high-risk exposure to an individual known to be HCV positive are tested for anti-HCV and HCV-PCR (1D). When past spontaneous clearance or successful treatment has occurred HCV-PCR should be performed. We recommend the HCV-PCR should be repeated after 1 month if initially negative and if any potential exposure was less than 1 month before the first test, or the transaminases remain abnormal with no known cause (1D). We recommend patients who have experienced a recent high-risk exposure (e.g.

In older people, blockade of the renin-angiotensin system seems t

In older people, blockade of the renin-angiotensin system seems to be as important as it is in younger people; however, these drugs are often prescribed at suboptimal doses. Further, while glycaemic and blood pressure

control is paramount, factors such as cognitive impairment and postural hypotension can make the management of these aspects difficult in older people. Cardiovascular disease is very common in people with chronic renal disease, and thus older people are also likely to benefit from cardiovascular risk factor protection. Estimating renal function in older people can also be less reliable due to reduced muscle mass and less well validated measures Lapatinib purchase of renal function. However, when end-stage renal disease is established, many treatment options, including renal replacement therapy, are well tolerated and are being increasingly used in older people. This article discusses the evidence and treatments available for older people with diabetic renal disease. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons. “
“Patient preference and health status are the two main factors which determine the choice of contraception for diabetic women. Intrauterine contraceptive methods (IUDs) are particularly suited to women who do not wish to become pregnant within the next year. In women Rapamycin price without vascular disease who wish to conceive

sooner, combined (estrogen and progesterone) hormonal contraception is considered safe. Women with longstanding diabetes, hypertension, microvascular or cardiovascular complications, and those who are less than 6 weeks postpartum, should not use estrogen-containing contraceptives; progesterone only methods (injections Acetophenone or tablets) may be used. Barrier and natural family planning methods are less ideal because of high failure rates. Following completion of childbearing, vasectomy and female sterilization are available.

When faced with an unintended pregnancy, women with diabetes must receive additional guidance reflecting their increased risk for major congenital anomalies. Clinicians must understand the range of contraceptive options available for women with diabetes and promote effective methods. The postpartum visit offers a unique opportunity to counsel the women regarding contraception and future pregnancy planning. “
“The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of psychological morbidity in the local secondary care population of people with type 1 diabetes or type 2 diabetes (T1DM or T2DM) in order to determine appropriate treatment provision. Four hundred patients seen in diabetes outpatient clinics were sent a number of standardised and validated questionnaires designed to measure: diabetes related distress; anxiety and depression; disordered eating behaviours; and borderline personality disorder. A response rate of 52.7% was achieved, providing a total of 211 completed questionnaires (111 T1DM, 100 T2DM) for analysis.

The guidelines are aimed at clinical professionals directly invol

The guidelines are aimed at clinical professionals directly involved with, and responsible for, the care of pregnant women with HIV infection. The purpose of the 2014 interim review is to identify significant developments

that would either lead to a change in recommendation or a change in the strength of recommendation. These changes and the supporting evidence are highlighted. More detail has been added in areas of controversy. New data that simply support the existing data have not routinely been included in this revision. The British HIV Association (BHIVA) revised and updated CHIR 99021 the Association’s guideline development manual in 2011 (www.bhiva.org/GuidelineDevelopmentManual.aspx; see also Appendix 1). BHIVA has adopted the modified GRADE system for the assessment, evaluation and grading of evidence and the development of recommendations. Full details of the guideline development process including selection of the Writing Group and the conflict of interest policy are outlined in the manual. The guidelines were commissioned by the BHIVA Guidelines Subcommittee who nominated

the Chair of the Writing Group and deputy. They then nominated PARP inhibitor review a Writing Group of experts in the field based on their knowledge, expertise and freedom from conflicts of interest. The scope, purpose and guideline topics were agreed by the Writing Group. Questions concerning each guideline topic were drafted and a systematic literature review undertaken by an information scientist. Details of the search questions and strategy (including the definition of populations, interventions and outcomes) are outlined in Appendices 2 and 3. The literature searches for the 2012 guidelines covered the period up until September 2011 and included abstracts from selected conferences. For the interim review,

conference abstracts and publications since September 2011 until end July 2013 were considered. For each topic and healthcare question, stiripentol evidence was identified and evaluated by Writing Group members with expertise in the field. Using the modified GRADE system (see Appendix 1), members were responsible for assessing and grading the quality of evidence for predefined outcomes across studies and developing and grading the strength of recommendations. All Writing Group members received training in use of the modified GRADE criteria before assessing the evidence. Owing to the lack of data from randomized controlled trials in several important areas the Writing Group were unable to assign high grades (in areas such as mode of delivery); however, they have made recommendations on best practice where decisions need to be made on the balance of available evidence. Recommendations are summarized and numbered sequentially within the text.


“Objectives  Many health professionals lack the time and s


“Objectives  Many health professionals lack the time and skills to search for and appraise information on medicines. A solution might be to use others skilled in evidence appraisal, who make recommendations or provide information tailored to patients’ needs. The objectives of this study were to assess how advice provided to health professionals by the northwest of England regional medicines

information centre is used, whether it is useful for patient care and to measure satisfaction with the service. Methods  A questionnaire was designed and sent to health professionals high throughput screening who contacted the centre between September 2008 and March 2009. Enquirers contacting the centre more than once were sent a questionnaire only in response to their first enquiry during the study period. Non-responders were sent a reminder. Key findings  Questionnaires were sent to 672 enquirers; 68% were returned. Nearly all respondents used the advice provided. Of the 430 respondents who provided data on how they used the information, 81% used it to manage a current patient and 29% to plan the care of future patients; nearly all considered it useful. click here Where data were given (n = 366), half used it to check if current

or proposed management was appropriate, 45% to make changes to therapy and 35% to advise another health professional. In addition to patient care, one-quarter (n = 105/430) of respondents used the information for continuing professional development and 16% (n = 69/430) for training or teaching. Conclusions  Health professionals value the enquiry-answering service and use the advice provided for patient care, continuing professional development and educating

patients and other health professionals. The service is responsive, supporting the care of patients needing immediate and future Guanylate cyclase 2C management. “
“It is with great pleasure that I introduce this supplemental issue of the International Journal of Pharmacy Practice. In this supplement you will find abstracts of the pharmacy practice research papers and posters presented at the 2013 Royal Pharmaceutical Society Conference, held at the International Convention Centre, Birmingham. The theme of this year’s conference is ‘Building the future of the profession. In common with previous years, this supplement has been prepared in advance of the conference, to allow participants in the practice research sessions to read the abstracts prior to the sessions. 192 abstracts were submitted for the Royal Pharmaceutical Society Conference 2013, and this year the Society’s Pharmacy Research Panel accepted 138 for poster or oral presentation at the Conference. Please note that although the abstracts have already been examined by the Panel, they have not passed through the peer review process applied by the IJPP to all other contributions.

In this context, it would seem that genome linearity is associate

In this context, it would seem that genome linearity is associated with one obvious factor – chromosome size. Although not an absolute relationship, the linear chromosomes and the potentially linear chromosomes are generally larger than 7 Mb in size, whereas many circular chromosomes in the Actinomycetales are smaller than 6 Mb. For example, the chromosome of Kitasatospora setae, a member

of a genus closely related to the Streptomyces, is linear, based on its chromosome sequence and has a genome size of 8.78 Mb (Ichikawa et al., 2010). Further, the genome sizes of the linear chromosome of Rhodococcus spp. are 7.80 Mb (R. jostii) and 7.91 Mb (R. opacus). The circular genome R. erythropolis has a genome size of 6.52 Mb. Two exceptions stand out, S. erythraea at 8.21 Mb and Streptosporangium roseum at 10.12 Mb. As indicated

earlier, some strains of the former selleck kinase inhibitor may be linear and the chromosome sequence of the latter is not complete. If a large chromosome size is associated Everolimus supplier with linearity, two possible hypotheses for a selective advantage can be proposed. First, the modular structure of the linear chromosome with a central core region, with regions on either side of this containing genes associated with being a highly complex organism that undergoes complex morphogenetic changes and then two terminal regions that seem to be completely unique to each species, may lend itself to easily increasing in size without disrupting essential functions found in the central core. Alternatively, on genetic

transfer, linear chromosomes may generally be able to eliminate circular chromosomes by recombination, which in a myceliate organism would Tyrosine-protein kinase BLK be highly advantageous to the linear chromosome. Figure 1 shows the alignment of various complete actinomycete chromosomes against the chromosome of S. coelicolor as a standard. It is immediately noticeable, with the exception of the outgroup Bifidobacterium longum, which is not a member of the Actinomycetales but an Actinobacteria, that there is significant similarity and synteny across most of the species analyzed. This gene conservation is mostly concentrated in the centre of the chromosomes and corresponds to the previously identified core region of the Streptomyces (Bentley et al., 2002; Hsiao & Kirby, 2008). The similarity in the core region has been supported broadly by many chromosome sequences, including those not present in Fig. 1, such as A. mediterranei (Zhao et al., 2010) and K. setae (Ichikawa et al., 2010). The core region contrasts clearly with the terminal regions of the chromosomes, where very little similarity or gene conservation can be found in any of the Actinomycetales investigated.

1), streptococcal culture

1), streptococcal culture Everolimus in vivo supernatants were harvested

by centrifugation exactly at the mid log phase (A600 = 0.6–0.7) (Svensson et al., 2002). In addition, to ensure the absence of the zymogene (40 kDa) and active form (28 kDa) of the SpeB protease, the proteins of mid log phase culture supernatants were precipitated using 100% trichloroacetic acid and were evaluated by standard 12% SDS-PAGE and Coomassie blue staining (Svensson et al., 2002). The culture supernatants were subsequently filtered through 0.22-μm filter (Whatman, Germany) and stored at −70 °C until use. For each colorimetric assay, 50 μL of the culture supernatant was incubated at 37 °C with 100 μL 50 mM Tris–HCl, pH 7.4 in microplate containing 50 μg mL−1 of human Plg (Sigma) for 15 min. The S-2251 substrate (50 μL of 2.5 mM) was added, and absorbance was measured at 405 nm every 5 min for 60 min. Each assay was performed in duplicate, both in the presence and absence of Plg/S-2251. Assays containing the intact (unused) THB media and culture supernatants of the reference strains were also employed as negative and positive controls, respectively. Serial dilutions of Streptase® (CSL, Behring, Germany), a commercial SK, were used to prepare the standard curve for

SK Selleck BIBF-1120 activity. Optical densities were plotted against time, and activity rates were determined from linear portion of the curve. The level of SK activity in each bacterial culture supernatant was converted to IU mL−1 using the standard curve. The PCR product of a representative of each digestion pattern (Fig. 1) was selected for nucleotide sequencing. DNA sequencing data were used for alignment studies and restriction site mapping via application Linifanib (ABT-869) of the Molecular Evolutionary Genetic Analysis (mega 4) analytical package (Tamura et al., 2007). Difference in SK activities among GAS and GCS/GGS groups was determined using the one-way

anova test. The Kruskal–Wallis analysis of variance was employed to calculate the level of significance of SK activity among variants. All statistical analyses were carried out using spss version 16.0 (SPSS, Inc., Chicago, IL). A value of P < 0.05 was considered significant. PCR-based amplification of the sk-V1 region produced the expected 339-bp fragments (Fig. 1). Digestion of the PCR products (sk-V1) by MluI, PvuII, DraI and DdeI restriction enzymes also provided exactly the earlier described restriction patterns of the DNA fragments (Tewodros et al., 1996) (Fig. 1, Supporting Information, Table S1). The reference strains GCS/GGS and NZ131 were classified as sk5 and sk1, respectively, as expected. In total, 21 sk allelic variants were detected among strains investigated in our study (Fig. 2). Besides the several previously reported sk allelic variants of GAS and GCS/GGS isolates (Tewodros et al.

The reactions were performed as per the manufacturer’s instructio

The reactions were performed as per the manufacturer’s instructions click here (New England Biolabs, UK). DNA fragments were electrophoresed on 1% agarose gel at 5 V cm−1, in 1× TAE buffer (40 mM Tris, 40 mM acetate, 2 mM EDTA, pH 8.0). φ Lambda HindIII digest was used as DNA molecular weight marker. Gels were stained with ethidium bromide and photographed. Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) of bacteriophage DNA was carried out using the protocols described earlier (Carlson, 2005). Agarose plugs were prepared by mixing 1 mL of bacteriophage concentrate with 1 mL of 1.6% PFGE-grade agarose (Bio-Rad, Hercules, CA) and allowed to solidify at room temperature. These agarose

plugs were incubated in EDTA sarcosine proteinase K (ESP) (0.5 M EDTA, pH 9,

1% N-laurylsarcosine, and mg mL−1 proteinase K) overnight at 50 °C to digest the bacteriophage coat proteins and then washed thrice with TE (10 mM Tris-HCl, 0.1 mM EDTA, pH 7.5). The plugs were then treated with RNase A (μg mL−1) by incubating at 37 °C for 30 min. Restriction digestion was performed with various enzymes such as AluI, BamHI, BgII, DraI, HindIII, HaeII, KpnI, NcoI, NotI, PstI, XbaI, and ScaI following manufacturer’s instructions. The plugs were cut to 2-mm slices, placed in 1× restriction buffer, and incubated for 10 min in a 37 °C water bath. The buffer was removed, and fresh restriction buffer NU7441 order containing 10 U of enzyme was added and incubated at 37 °C in water bath for 4 h. PFGE was carried out in 1% agarose gels in a BioRad CHEF DR-III PFGE

system (Bio-Rad), at 120° angle and 6 V cm−1, using ramped pulse times from 1 to 12 s for 6 h in 0.5× TBE (45 mM Tris, 45 mM borate, 1 mM EDTA pH 8.0) at 14 °C. Low-range PFGE marker was used as molecular weight size standard. Genome size was estimated by adding the length of each DNA fragment in the PFGE profile of ScaI and XbaI separately. The REA and PFGE patterns were captured using the Quantity one electrophoresis analysis system (Bio-Rad). Gel images were digitally normalized Thiamine-diphosphate kinase to a single DNA marker to reduce gel-to-gel restriction pattern variability, and cluster analysis was carried out using molecular analyst software – Fingerprinting II (Version 3.0; Bio-Rad) by unweighted pair group method with arithmetic mean. Ability of the phages to transduce genetic elements was demonstrated by the transduction of the plasmid pHSG396 (Takara Bio Inc., Shiga, Japan), which possesses two selective phenotypic markers, β-galactosidase and chloramphenicol resistance. An isolate of V. harveyi (Vh57) susceptible to all four phages was transformed by CaCl2 treatment (Sambrook et al., 1989). Transformants carrying the plasmid were grown in 10 mL PYSS broth supplemented with 50 μg mL−1 chloramphenicol at 30 °C. This broth was suitably diluted with sterile PYSS to obtain 108 cells and mixed with four bacteriophage suspensions at a multiplicity of infection of one in separate tubes and incubated for 15 min at 30 °C.