Malodorants in the human axilla are produced from human biogenic precursors by axillary bacterial enzymes. In the present study, we used pyrosequencing analysis to identify the axillary bacterial microbiota of 13 Japanese male subjects with cumin-like, spicy body odor (C type), and 9 with milky, skin-based body odor (M type). Anaerococcus, Corynebacterium, and Staphylococcus predominated in both C- and M-type subjects, followed by Moraxella and Peptoniphilus. These genera accounted for 96.2-99.9% of the total bacterial population, except in the microbiota of one C-type subject. However, the axillary bacteria in C-type subjects were more abundant than that in M-type subjects. These results suggest that the level of colonization by axillary bacteria is important for the production of malodorants.

　Recent studies have investigated the efficacy of air-cleaning products against pathogens in the air. A standard method to evaluate the reduction in airborne viruses caused by an air cleaner has been established using a safe bacteriophage instead of pathogenic viruses; the reduction in airborne viruses is determined by counting the number of viable airborne phages by culture, after operating the air cleaner. The reduction in the number of viable airborne phages could be because of "physical decrease" or "inactivation". Therefore, to understand the mechanism of reduction correctly, an analysis is required to distinguish between physical decrease and inactivation. The purpose of this study was to design an analysis to distinguish between the physical decrease and inactivation of viable phi-X174 phages in aerosols. We established a suitable polymerase chain reaction (PCR) system by selecting an appropriate primer-probe set for PCR and validating the sensitivity, linearity, and specificity of the primer-probe set to robustly quantify phi-X174-specific airborne particles. Using this quantitative PCR system and culture assay, we performed a behavior analysis of the phage aerosol in a small chamber (1 m³) at different levels of humidity, as humidity is known to affect the number of viable airborne phages. The results revealed that the reduction in the number of viable airborne phages was caused not only by physical decrease but also by inactivation under particular levels of humidity. Our study could provide an advanced analysis to differentiate between the physical decrease and inactivation of viable airborne phages.

　Sublethally heat-injured cells of Salmonella in food can recover under favorable conditions, leading to foodborne illness. To elucidate the molecular mechanism of recovery from heat injury, the global changes in gene transcription of Salmonella Typhimurium were investigated in previous study. In this study, the functions of genes involved in phage shock response (viz., phage shock protein (psp) genes), the transcription levels of which were found in previous study to be increased during recovery from heat injury, were investigated in recovering cells. The increase in pspABCDEFG transcription levels during the recovery process was confirmed by qRT-PCR. To understand the role of psp genes in heat injury recovery, a pspA deletion mutant (ΔpspA) and a pspA-overexpressing strain (S. Typhimurium pBAD30/pspA (+) ) were constructed. ΔpspA showed slightly lower viable counts and membrane potential than those of the wild-type strain during recovery. On the other hand, there was no significant difference in the viable counts between S. Typhimurium pBAD30/pspA (+) and the control strains S. Typhimurium pBAD30/pspA (-) and S. Typhimurium pBAD30 (+) during recovery. It would seem that a lack of PspA protein alone somewhat affects the recovery of S. Typhimurium from heat injury, but overexpression of PspA alone is not sufficient to overcome this effect.

　The four types of chromogenic selective media that are commercially available in Japan were compared for establishing a Japanese standard method for detecting Cronobacter spp. based on ISO/TS 22964:2006. When assessed using 9 standard Cronobacter spp. strains and 29 non-Cronobacter strains, Enterobacter sakazakii isolation agar, Chromocult^TM Enterobacter sakazakii agar, CHROMagar^TM E. sakazakii, and XM-sakazakii agar demonstrated excellent inclusivity and exclusivity. Using the ISO/TS 22964:2006 method, the recovered numbers of 38 Cronobacter spp. strains, including 29 C. sakazakii isolates obtained from each medium, were equivalent, indicating that there was no significant difference (p > 0.05) among the four types of chromogenic selective media. Thus, we demonstrated that these four chromogenic selective media are suitable alternatives when using the standard method for detecting Cronobacter spp. in Japan, based on the ISO/TS 22964:2006.

　The antifungal activity of two Bornean medicinal wild gingers Plagiostachys megacarpa and Zingiber phillippsiae were examined against Lagenidium thermophilum. The most active extract was P. megacarpa at concentration of 320 µg/mL inhibiting both hyphal growth and zoospore production of L. thermophilum in 24 h. Toxicity tests were conducted using mud crab (Scylla tranquebarica) larva. Bath treatment of P. megacarpa at concentrations of 320 and 640 µg/mL for 24 h were highly effective against hyphae and zoospores of the strain and it is non-toxic to mud crab larva. Therefore, crude extracts P. megacarpa may be used as alternative treatment for marine Oomycete infection of mud crab.