Nonspecific interactions related to physicochemical properties of bacterial cell surfaces, such as hydrophobicity and electrostatic charge, are known to have important roles in bacterium-host cell encounters. Streptococcus pneumoniae (pneumococcus) expresses multiple, surface-exposed, choline-binding proteins (CBPs) which have been associated with adhesion and virulence. The purpose of this stu...

The opportunistic pathogenic yeast Candida albicans exhibits growth phase-dependent changes in cell surface hydrophobicity, which has been correlated with adhesion to host tissues. Cell wall proteins that might contribute to the cell surface hydrophobicity phenotype were released by limited glucanase digestion. These proteins were initially characterized by their rates of retention during hydro...

Faecal bile acids have long been associated with colon cancer; highly hydrophobic bile acids, which induce apoptosis, have been implicated in the promotion of colon tumours. The moderately hydrophobic chemopreventive agent ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA) does not induce apoptosis; rather, it causes colon-derived tumour cells to arrest their growth. To investigate the relationship between bile acid ...

Adsorption of extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins in competition with other substances is a key to explain the relationship between substratum surface hydrophobicity and mammalian cell adhesion: when polystyrene substrata were exposed simultaneously to ECM protein and a PEO-PPO-PEO polymer surfactant (Pluronic F68), either by pre-conditioning or through protein cell secretion, a weaker substrat...

The role of cell and surface hydrophobicity in the adherence of the waterborne bacterium Mycobacterium smegmatis to nanostructures and biofilm formation was investigated. Carbon nanostructures (CNs) were synthesized using a flame reactor and deposited on stainless steel grids and foils, and on silicon wafers that had different initial surface hydrophobicities. Surface hydrophobicity was measure...

Aerobic granule characteristic in sequencing batch reactors treating high-nitrogen digester supernatant was investigated at cycle lengths (t) of 6, 8 and 12 h with the COD/N ratios in the influent of 4.5 and 2.3. The biomass production (Y obs) correlated with the extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) in grams per COD removed. Denitrification efficiency significantly decreased as the amount o...

Protein quality control (PQC) degradation protects the cell by preventing the toxic accumulation of misfolded proteins. In eukaryotes, PQC degradation is primarily achieved by ubiquitin ligases that attach ubiquitin to misfolded proteins for proteasome degradation. To function effectively, PQC ubiquitin ligases must distinguish misfolded proteins from their normal counterparts by recognizing an...