Articles

The three extra-cellular zinc metalloproteinases of Streptococcus pneumoniae have a different impact on virulence in mice

Streptococcus pneumoniae possesses large zinc metalloproteinases on its surface. To analyse the importance in virulence of three of these metalloproteinases, intranasal challenge of MF1 outbred mice was carried o...

Authors: Damiana Chiavolini, Guido Memmi, Tiziana Maggi, Francesco Iannelli, Gianni Pozzi and Marco R Oggioni

Annotation and evolutionary relationships of a small regulatory RNA gene micF and its target ompF in Yersinia species

micF RNA, a small regulatory RNA found in bacteria, post-transcriptionally regulates expression of outer membrane protein F (OmpF) by interaction with the ompF mRNA 5'UTR. Phylogenetic data can be useful for RNA/...

Authors: Nicholas Delihas

Characterisation of methionine adenosyltransferase from Mycobacterium smegmatis and M. tuberculosis

Tuberculosis remains a serious world-wide health threat which requires the characterisation of novel drug targets for the development of future antimycobacterials. One of the key obstacles in the definition of...

Authors: Bradley J Berger and Marvin H Knodel

Phenotypic mixing and hiding may contribute to memory in viral quasispecies

In a number of recent experiments with food-and-mouth disease virus, a deleterious mutant, RED, was found to avoid extinction and remain in the population for long periods of time. Since RED characterizes the ...

Authors: Claus O Wilke and Isabel S Novella

Genomic homogeneity between Mycobacterium avium subsp. avium and Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis belies their divergent growth rates

Mycobacterium avium subspecies avium (M. avium) is frequently encountered in the environment, but also causes infections in animals and immunocompromised patients. In contrast, Mycobacterium avium subspecies para...

Authors: John P Bannantine, Qing Zhang, Ling-Ling Li and Vivek Kapur

Profilin is required for viral morphogenesis, syncytium formation, and cell-specific stress fiber induction by respiratory syncytial virus

Actin is required for the gene expression and morphogenesis of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), a clinically important Pneumovirus of the Paramyxoviridae family. In HEp-2 cells, RSV infection also induces actin...

Authors: Vira Bitko, Anja Oldenburg, Nicolle E Garmon and Sailen Barik

Presence and expression of hydrogenase specific C-terminal endopeptidases in cyanobacteria

Hydrogenases catalyze the simplest of all chemical reactions: the reduction of protons to molecular hydrogen or vice versa. Cyanobacteria can express an uptake, a bidirectional or both NiFe-hydrogenases. Maturati...

Authors: Röbbe Wünschiers, Mehtap Batur and Peter Lindblad

A novel Leishmania infantum nuclear phosphoprotein Lepp12 which stimulates IL1-beta synthesis in THP-1 transfectants

We report cloning and characterization of a novel Leishmania infantum protein which we termed Lepp12, and we examine its possible implication in the interference with intramacrophage signaling pathways.

Authors: Konstantina Fragaki, Bernard Ferrua, Baharia Mograbi, Julie Waldispühl and Joanna Kubar

Ebola virus infection inversely correlates with the overall expression levels of promyelocytic leukaemia (PML) protein in cultured cells

Ebola virus causes severe, often fatal hemorrhagic fever in humans. The mechanism of escape from cellular anti-viral mechanisms is not yet fully understood. The promyelocytic leukaemia (PML) associated nuclear...

Authors: Asa Szekely Björndal, Laszlo Szekely and Fredrik Elgh

Staphylococcus aureus - induced tumor necrosis factor - related apoptosis - inducing ligand expression mediates apoptosis and caspase-8 activation in infected osteoblasts

Staphylococcus aureus infection of normal osteoblasts induces expression of tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL).

Authors: Emily H Alexander, F Andrea Rivera, Ian Marriott, Juan Anguita, Kenneth L Bost and Michael C Hudson

Potassium ferrate [Fe(VI)] does not mediate self-sterilization of a surrogate mars soil

Martian soil is thought to be enriched with strong oxidants such as peroxides and/or iron in high oxidation states that might destroy biological materials. There is also a high flux of ultraviolet radiation at...

Authors: Ronald L Crawford, Andrzej Paszczynski and Lisa Allenbach

New Knowledge from Old: In silico discovery of novel protein domains in Streptomyces coelicolor

Streptomyces coelicolor has long been considered a remarkable bacterium with a complex life-cycle, ubiquitous environmental distribution, linear chromosomes and plasmids, and a huge range of pharmaceutically usef...

Authors: Corin Yeats, Stephen Bentley and Alex Bateman

Molecular cloning and characterization of Escherichia coli K12 ygjG gene

Putrescine is the intermediate product of arginine decarboxylase pathway in Escherichia coli which can be used as an alternative nitrogen source. Transaminase and dehydrogenase enzymes seem to be implicated in th...

Authors: Natalya N Samsonova, Sergey V Smirnov, Irina B Altman and Leonid R Ptitsyn

Characterization of the nodulation plasmid encoded chemoreceptor gene mcpG from Rhizobium leguminosarum

In general, chemotaxis in Rhizobium has not been well characterized. Methyl accepting chemotaxis proteins are sensory proteins important in chemotaxis of numerous bacteria, but their involvement in Rhizobium chem...

Authors: Christopher K Yost, Kirsten T Clark, Kate L Del Bel and Michael F Hynes

Analysis of 16S rRNA gene sequences and circulating cell-free DNA from plasma of chronic fatigue syndrome and non-fatigued subjects

The association of an infectious agent with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) has been difficult and is further complicated by the lack of a known lesion or diseased tissue. Cell-free plasma DNA could serve as a ...

Authors: Suzanne D Vernon, Sanjay K Shukla, Jennifer Conradt, Elizabeth R Unger and William C Reeves

Intrastrain and interstrain genetic variation within a paralogous gene family in Chlamydia pneumoniae

Chlamydia pneumoniae causes human respiratory diseases and has recently been associated with atherosclerosis. Analysis of the three recently published C. pneumoniae genomes has led to the identification of a new ...

Authors: Wasna Viratyosin, Lee Ann Campbell, Cho-Chou Kuo and Daniel D Rockey

High resolution, on-line identification of strains from the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex based on tandem repeat typing

Currently available reference methods for the molecular epidemiology of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex either lack sensitivity or are still too tedious and slow for routine application. Recently, tandem r...

Authors: Philippe Le Flèche, Michel Fabre, France Denoeud, Jean-Louis Koeck and Gilles Vergnaud

The expression, processing and localization of polymorphic membrane proteins in Chlamydia pneumoniae strain CWL029

Chlamydiae are obligate intracellular bacteria, which are important human pathogens. Genome sequences of C. trachomatis and C. pneumoniae have revealed the presence of a Chlamydia specific gene family encoding po...

Authors: Brian Berg Vandahl, Anna Sofie Pedersen, Kris Gevaert, Arne Holm, Joël Vandekerckhove, Gunna Christiansen and Svend Birkelund

Dynamics of success and failure in phage and antibiotic therapy in experimental infections

In 1982 Smith and Huggins showed that bacteriophages could be at least as effective as antibiotics in preventing mortality from experimental infections with a capsulated E. coli (K1) in mice. Phages that requi...

Authors: J J Bull, Bruce R Levin, Terry DeRouin, Nina Walker and Craig A Bloch

Sulphonamide resistant commensal Neisseria with alterations in the dihydropteroate synthase can be isolated from carriers not exposed to sulphonamides

Development of sulphonamide resistance in Neisseria meningitidis has been suggested to involve horizontal DNA-transfer from a commensal Neisseria species. In this study, we isolated commensal Neisseria from throa...

Authors: Yvonne Qvarnström and Göte Swedberg

Colony shape as a genetic trait in the pattern-forming Bacillus mycoides

Bacillus mycoides Flügge, a Gram-positive, non-motile soil bacterium assigned to Bacillus cereus group, grows on agar as chains of cells linked end to end, forming radial filaments curving clock- or counter-clock...

Authors: Carmen Di Franco, Elena Beccari, Tiziana Santini, Giuseppe Pisaneschi and Giorgio Tecce

Recognition of secretory proteins in Escherichia coli requires signals in addition to the signal sequence and slow folding

The Sec-dependent protein export apparatus of Escherichia coli is very efficient at correctly identifying proteins to be exported from the cytoplasm. Even bacterial strains that carry prl mutations, which allow e...

Authors: Ipsita Mallik, Margaret A Smith and Ann M Flower

Detection and characterization of the S. typhimurium HilA protein

Virulence genes on Salmonella pathogenicity island 1 (SPI1) are coordinately regulated by HilA, a member of the OmpR/ToxR family of transcription factors. Although a great deal is known about the complex regulati...

Authors: Christine R Rodriguez, Lisa M Schechter and Catherine A Lee

Mycosin-1, a subtilisin-like serine protease of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, is cell wall-associated and expressed during infection of macrophages

Exported proteases are commonly associated with virulence in bacterial pathogens, yet there is a paucity of information regarding their role in Mycobacterium tuberculosis. There are five genes (mycP1-5) present w...

Authors: Joel A Dave, Nico C Gey van Pittius, Albert D Beyers, Mario RW Ehlers and Gordon D Brown

Hepatitis C virus whole genome position weight matrix and robust primer design

The high degree of sequence heterogeneity found in Hepatitis C virus (HCV) isolates, makes robust nucleic acid-based assays difficult to generate. Polymerase chain reaction based techniques, require efficient ...

Authors: Ping Qiu, Xiao-Yan Cai, Luquan Wang, Jonathan R Greene and Bruce Malcolm

Physiological function of the maltose operon regulator, MalR, in Lactococcus lactis

Maltose metabolism is initiated by an ATP-dependent permease system in Lactococcus lactis. The subsequent degradation of intracellular maltose is performed by the concerted action of P_i-dependent maltose phosphor...

Authors: Ulrika Andersson and Peter Rådström

Bacterial discrimination by means of a universal array approach mediated by LDR (ligase detection reaction)

PCR amplification of bacterial 16S rRNA genes provides the most comprehensive and flexible means of sampling bacterial communities. Sequence analysis of these cloned fragments can provide a qualitative and qua...

Authors: Elena Busti, Roberta Bordoni, Bianca Castiglioni, Paolo Monciardini, Margherita Sosio, Stefano Donadio, Clarissa Consolandi, Luigi Rossi Bernardi, Cristina Battaglia and Gianluca De Bellis

HIV-1 expression induces cyclin D₁ expression and pRb phosphorylation in infected podocytes: cell-cycle mechanisms contributing to the proliferative phenotype in HIV-associated nephropathy

The aberrant cell-cycle progression of HIV-1-infected kidney cells plays a major role in the pathogenesis of HIV-associated nephropathy, however the mechanisms whereby HIV-1 induces infected glomerular podocyt...

Authors: Peter J Nelson, Masaaki Sunamoto, Mohammad Husain and Irwin H Gelman

Erratum to: Interaction of the Yersinia pestis type III regulatory proteins LcrG and LcrV occurs at a hydrophobic interface: correction

Authors: Jyl S Matson and Matthew L Nilles

Growth of Helicobacter pylori in a long spiral form does not alter expression of immunodominant proteins

We have previously reported that altered culture conditions (a broth media with shaking) could induce a strain of Helicobacter pylori to assume a long spiral morphology resembling that described for Helicobacter ...

Authors: Kathleen MB Vinette, Kathleen M Gibney, Roy Proujansky and Paul T Fawcett

Diversity and abundance of bacteria in an underground oil-storage cavity

Microorganisms inhabiting subterranean oil fields have recently attracted much attention. Since intact groundwater can easily be obtained from the bottom of underground oil-storage cavities without contaminati...

Authors: Kazuya Watanabe, Yumiko Kodama and Nobuo Kaku

Measurement of microbial activity in soil by colorimetric observation of in situ dye reduction: an approach to detection of extraterrestrial life

Detecting microbial life in extraterrestrial locations is a goal of space exploration because of ecological and health concerns about possible contamination of other planets with earthly organisms, and vice ve...

Authors: Ronald L Crawford, Andrzej Paszczynski, Qingyong Lang, Daniel P Erwin, Lisa Allenbach, Giancarlo Corti, Tony J Anderson, I Francis Cheng, Chien Wai, Bruce Barnes, Richard Wells, Touraj Assefi and Mohammad Mojarradi

Identification of cultured isolates of clinically important yeast species using fluorescent fragment length analysis of the amplified internally transcribed rRNA spacer 2 region

The number of patients with yeast infection has increased during the last years. Also the variety of species of clinical importance has increased. Correct species identification is often important for efficien...

Authors: Thierry De Baere, Geert Claeys, Danielle Swinne, Caroline Massonet, Gerda Verschraegen, An Muylaert and Mario Vaneechoutte

Epstein-Barr virus reactivation after superinfection of the BJAB-B1 and P3HR-1 cell lines with cytomegalovirus

Studies examining herpesvirus-herpesvirus (cytomegalovirus (CMV)-Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)) interactions are limited, and many of the studies have been clinical observations suggesting such an interaction exist...

Authors: Rodney C Arcenas and Raymond Widen

Avian papillomaviruses: the parrot Psittacus erithacus papillomavirus (PePV) genome has a unique organization of the early protein region and is phylogenetically related to the chaffinch papillomavirus

An avian papillomavirus genome has been cloned from a cutaneous exophytic papilloma from an African grey parrot (Psittacus erithacus). The nucleotide sequence, genome organization, and phylogenetic position of th...

Authors: Ruth Tachezy, Annabel Rector, Marta Havelkova, Elke Wollants, Pierre Fiten, Ghislain Opdenakker, A Bennett Jenson, John P Sundberg and Marc Van Ranst

Genomic comparisons among Escherichia coli strains B, K-12, and O157:H7 using IS elements as molecular markers

Insertion Sequence (IS) elements are mobile genetic elements widely distributed among bacteria. Their activities cause mutations, promoting genetic diversity and sometimes adaptation. Previous studies have exa...

Authors: Dominique Schneider, Esther Duperchy, Joëlle Depeyrot, Evelyne Coursange, Richard E Lenski and Michel Blot

Determination of PCR efficiency in chelex-100 purified clinical samples and comparison of real-time quantitative PCR and conventional PCR for detection of Chlamydia pneumoniae

Chlamydia pneumoniae infection has been detected by serological methods, but PCR is gaining more interest. A number of different PCR assays have been developed and some are used in combination with serology for d...

Authors: Tina Mygind, Svend Birkelund, Niels H Birkebæk, Lars Østergaard, Jørgen Skov Jensen and Gunna Christiansen

Interaction of the Yersinia pestis type III regulatory proteins LcrG and LcrV occurs at a hydrophobic interface

Secretion of anti-host proteins by Yersinia pestis via a type III mechanism is not constitutive. The process is tightly regulated and secretion occurs only after an appropriate signal is received. The interaction...

Authors: Jyl S Matson and Matthew L Nilles

Detection of Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis specific IS900 insertion sequences in bulk-tank milk samples obtained from different regions throughout Switzerland

Since Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis (MAP) was isolated from intestinal tissue of a human patient suffering Crohn's disease, a controversial discussion exists whether MAP have a role in the etiol...

Authors: Sabrina Corti and Roger Stephan

Cellophane based mini-prep method for DNA extraction from the filamentous fungus Trichoderma reesei

Methods for the extraction of DNA from filamentous fungi are frequently laborious and time consuming because most of the available protocols include maceration in liquid nitrogen after the mycelium has been gr...

Authors: Alexandre Cassago, Rodrigo Alexandre Panepucci, Ana Maria Tortella Baião and Flavio Henrique-Silva

Oxygen and nitrate-dependent regulation of dmsABC operon expression in Escherichia coli: sites for Fnr and NarL protein interactions

Escherichia coli can respire anaerobically using dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) or trimethylamine-N-oxide (TMAO) as the terminal electron acceptor for anaerobic energy generation. Expression of the dmsABC genes that e...

Authors: Shawn MD Bearson, Jeffrey A Albrecht and Robert P Gunsalus

Detection and subtyping of Herpes simplex virus in clinical samples by LightCycler PCR, enzyme immunoassay and cell culture

Prompt laboratory diagnosis of Herpes simplex virus (HSV) infection facilitates patient management and possible initiation of antiviral therapy. In our laboratory, which receives various specimen types for det...

Authors: Julie Burrows, Andreas Nitsche, Belinda Bayly, Elise Walker, Geoff Higgins and Tuckweng Kok

Serological evidence of herpesvirus infection in gibbons

Herpesviruses are not only infectious agents of worldwide distribution in humans, but have also been demonstrated in various non-human primates as well. Seventy-eight gibbons were subjected to serological test...

Authors: Kamol Sakulwira, Apiradee Theamboonlers, Phingphol Charoonrut, Parntep Ratanakorn and Yong Poovorawan

Erratum to: Mouse skin passage of a Streptococcus pyogenes Tn917 mutant of sagA/pel restores virulence, beta-hemolysis and sagA/pel expression without altering the position or sequence of the transposon

Authors: Thomas H Eberhard, Darren D Sledjeski and Michael DP Boyle

Antibodies against prM protein distinguish between previous infection with dengue and Japanese encephalitis viruses.

In Southeast Asia, dengue viruses often co-circulate with other flaviviruses such as Japanese encephalitis virus, and due to the presence of shared antigenic epitopes it is often difficult to use serological m...

Authors: Mary Jane Cardosa, Seok Mui Wang, Magdline Sia H Sum and Phaik Hooi Tio

The methionine salvage pathway in Bacillus subtilis

Polyamine synthesis produces methylthioadenosine, which has to be disposed of. The cell recycles it into methionine through methylthioribose (MTR). Very little was known about MTR recycling for methionine salv...

Authors: Agnieszka Sekowska and Antoine Danchin

Biofilm formation by nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae: strain variability, outer membrane antigen expression and role of pili

Nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae is an important cause of otitis media in children and lower respiratory tract infection in adults with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Several lines of evidence su...

Authors: Timothy F Murphy and Charmaine Kirkham

First isolation of the enterohaemorrhagic Escherichia coli O145:H- from cattle in feedlot in Argentina

Enterohaemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC) is considered to be common cause of haemorrhagic colitis (HC), thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura and haemolytic uraemic syndrome (HUS) in humans. In a previous paper, ...

Authors: Nora L Padola, Marcelo E Sanz, Paula MA Lucchesi, Jesús E Blanco, Jorge Blanco, Miguel Blanco, Analía I Etcheverría, Guillermo H Arroyo and Alberto E Parma

Production of Diamino propionic acid ammonia lyase by a new strain of Salmonella typhimurium PU011

Seeds of the legume plant Lathyrus sativus, which is grown in arid and semi arid tropical regions, contain Diamino Propionic acid (DAP). DAP is a neurotoxin, which, when consumed, causes a disease called Lathy...

Authors: KR Rupesh, PL PremKumar, Vasanth V Shiva Kumar and Seetharaman S Jayachandran

Evaluation of amplified rDNA restriction analysis (ARDRA) for the identification of cultured mycobacteria in a diagnostic laboratory

The development of DNA amplification for the direct detection of M. tuberculosis from clinical samples has been a major goal of clinical microbiology during the last ten years. However, the limited sensitivity of...

Authors: Thierry De Baere, Ricardo de Mendonça, Geert Claeys, Gerda Verschraegen, Wouter Mijs, Rita Verhelst, Sylvianne Rottiers, Leen Van Simaey, Catharine De Ganck and Mario Vaneechoutte