This disclosure relates to methods for isolating bacterial cells, fungal cells, and single-celled parasites present in a blood sample containing higher eukaryotic cells; particularly wherein the microorganisms are present at a concentration significantly lower than the eukaryotic cells in the sample.

The invention relates to a method of identifying a specific yeast species in patient tissue or body fluid. The method comprises the steps of extracting and recovering DNA of the yeast species from the patient tissue or body fluid, amplifying the DNA, hybridizing a probe to the DNA to specifically identify the yeast species, and specifically identifying the yeast species. The invention also relates to a method of identifying a yeast mycotoxin in patient tissue or body fluid. The method comprises the steps of extracting and recovering the yeast mycotoxin from the patient tissue or body fluid, contacting the yeast mycotoxin with an antibody directed against the yeast mycotoxin, and identifying the yeast myocotoxin. Both of these methods can he used to determine if a patient is at risk for or has developed a disease state related to a yeast infection, and to develop an effective treatment regimen for the patient.

An aflatoxin nanobody immunoabsorbent and immunoaffinity column and preparation method and use thereof. The immunoabsorbent comprises a solid phase carrier and aflatoxin B1 nanobody 2014AFB-G15 coupled with the solid phase carrier. The 50% inhibiting concentration IC.sub.50 of aflatoxin B1 nanobody 2014AFB-G15 to aflatoxin B1 is 0.66 ng/mL, and the cross-reactivity of aflatoxin B1 nanobody 2014AFB-G15 to aflatoxins B2, G1, G2, and M1 are respectively 22.6%, 10.95%, 32.1% and 26%. The amino acid sequence of aflatoxin B1 nanobody 2014AFB-G15 is as depicted by SEQ ID NO: 7, and the coding gene sequence thereof is as depicted by SEQ ID NO: 8. The aflatoxin nanobody immunoaffinity column can be used for purification and concentration of sample extract prior to computer testing, and the immunoaffinity column can be reused repeatedly.

The invention provides a method and compositions for detecting the presence of viable endophyte in a plant, the method comprising germinating seed and excising a young leaf, optionally preparing an extract from the young leaf, and performing antibody, nucleic acid, or preferably PCR-based methods to detect the viable endophyte, wherein at least one primer hybridizes to the intergenic region (IGS) of the ribosomal repeat region of a specific endophyte when used in a PCR-based method. The invention provides a new method for rapid identification of both viable beneficial endophytes and any viable contaminating endophytes, as opposed to any non-viable endophytes, by detecting the presence of endophytes in the first leaf of germinated plants.

Described herein are engineered microbe-targeting or microbe-binding molecules, kits comprising the same and uses thereof. Some particular embodiments of the microbe-targeting or microbe-binding molecules comprise a carbohydrate recognition domain of mannose-binding lectin, or a fragment thereof, linked to a portion of a Fc region. In some embodiments, the microbe-targeting molecules or microbe-binding molecules can be conjugated to a substrate, e.g., a magnetic microbead, forming a microbe-targeting substrate (e.g., a microbe-targeting magnetic microbead). Such microbe-targeting molecules and/or substrates and the kits comprising the same can bind and/or capture of a microbe and/or microbial matter thereof, and can thus be used in various applications, e.g., diagnosis and/or treatment of an infection caused by microbes such as sepsis in a subject or any environmental surface. Microbe-targeting molecules and/or substrates can be regenerated after use by washing with a low pH buffer or buffer in which calcium is insoluble.

A method of enhancing plant immunity is provided. The method comprises the step of administering to a plant a small molecule that binds to NPR1, or a functionally equivalent homolog thereof, that disrupts the interaction between N-terminal BTB/POZ domain and the C-terminal transactivation domain of NPR1. A method of screening for small molecule compounds that enhance plant immunity is also provided.

In some cases, the described systems and methods include obtaining a cell sample containing multiple antibody-producing cells. In such cases, the cells can be tagged with a cross-linking reagent having a first portion configured to bind to a marker on the antibody-producing cells and a second portion configured to bind to an antigen of interest. In some instances, the tagged antibody-producing cells are exposed to the antigen of interest such that the antigen becomes bound to the cells. In some such instances, the antibody-producing cells are also allowed to produce an antibody, such that a portion of the antibody-producing cells produce an antigen-specific antibody that binds to the antigen of interest. To identify cells that produce the antigen-specific antibody, the tagged cells can be exposed to a labeled secondary antibody that is configured to bind to the antigen-specific antibody. Other implementations are also described.

The present invention relates to an immunodiagnostic kit and method for co-detection of R. solanacearum and F. oxysporum that cause bacterial wilt disease and fungal wilt disease, respectively, which are difficult to accurately diagnose due to the overlapping onset time and similar disease symptoms thereof in plants, and to a test kit for determining a pathogen of plant wilt disease in an early stage by using a semi-quantitative lateral flow immunodiagnostic technique to detect the pathogen in a plant juice.

A method for synthesis, assembly and function test of an artificial chloroplast genome of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. Rational design has been carried out on the Chlamydomonas reinhardtii chloroplast genome for the first time, and total artificial synthesis of the Chlamydomonas reinhardtii chloroplast genome is proposed. By using totally chemically synthesized chloroplast genome segments, total chemical de novo synthesis and assembly of a chloroplast genome are achieved in a yeast-bacterium system. Then, a totally chemically synthesized chloroplast genome is transformed into Chlamydomonas cells to replace the original chloroplast genome, which works normally, and has been verified, fulfilling biological functions of the totally chemically synthesized chloroplast genome. According to the embodiments, the Chlamydomonas reinhardtii chloroplast genome is an efficient platform for carrying out synthetic biology operation.

It is provided novel anti-galactofuranose antibodies and their use for diagnosis of and/or treating aspergillosis, and for the design of chimeric antigen receptor T-cells, wherein single chain variable fragment of the antibodies, such as a heavy chain variable region or a light chain variable region, is fused via a spacer and a transmembrane domain to a signaling endodomain to generate an expression cassette that will be integrated into a T cell.