OBJECTIVE To investigate the effects of four strains, generally used in clinic, including Bifidobacterium longum, Lactobacillus acidophilus, Streptococcus thermophilus and Enterococcus faecalis, and their related products on human colonic smooth muscle in vitro. METHODS Human colonic circular muscle strips obtained from disease-free margins of resected segments from 25 patients with colorecta...

Cadmium (Cd) is a highly toxic heavy metal, wide occupational and an environmental pollutant, affecting human health. Probiotics especially lactic acid bacteria (LAB) have the capacity to bind, remove and to decrease tissue cadmium levels. The objective was to evaluate the potency of Cd binding capacity, antioxidative properties of probiotic bacteria against cadmium in vitro and its probable de...

Cadmium (Cd) is a highly toxic heavy metal, wide occupational and an environmental pollutant, affecting human health. Probiotics especially lactic acid bacteria (LAB) have the capacity to bind, remove and to decrease tissue cadmium levels. The objective was to evaluate the potency of Cd binding capacity, antioxidative properties of probiotic bacteria against cadmium in vitro and its probable de...

Streptococcus thermophilus Sfi6 produces a texturizing exopolysaccharide (EPS) consisting of a -->3)[alpha-D-Galp-(1-->6)]-beta-D-Glcp-(1-->3)-alpha-D-GalpNAc-(1--> 3)-beta-D-Galp-(1--> repeating unit. We previously identified and analyzed a 14.5-kb gene cluster from S. thermophilus Sfi6 consisting of 13 genes responsible for its EPS production. Within this gene cluster, we found a central regi...

The present study investigated the use of fermented Prosopis juliflora pods (PJP) as a carbohydrate source, alternative to rice bran (RB), and a PJP based diet formulation supplemented with probiotics Lactobacillus acidophilus (LA), Lactobacillus bulgaricus 009 (LB) and Streptococcus thermophilus (ST) on the growth of Labeo rohita (rohu) fingerlings. The diets were isonitrogenous (39%) and isoe...

Utilizing a novel and rapid two-column purification procedure, the DNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RNAP) from the thermophile, Thermus thermophilus HB8, was purified to electrophoretic homogeneity with a recovery of 65% (as determined by RNAP activity) in less than 2 days. The purified enzyme was characterized using DNA containing the lambdaP(R) promoter. KMnO(4) footprinting, abortive initiation...

Streptococcus thermophilus ATCC 19258, Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus T-11, and Lactococcus lactis subsp. lactis IL1403 were transformed with the alpha-amylase gene (amyA) from Streptococcus bovis 148 by using a wide host-range vector, and all the transformants secreted the alpha-amylase successfully. Since the promoter and the secretion signal of the amyA gene were functional in t...

The thermo-neutrophilic hydrogen-oxidizing bacterium Hydrogenobacter thermophilus constitutively oxidizes thiosulfate. Soluble extracts of it showed temperature-dependent thiosulfate oxidation activity with an optimum at 60 degrees C. A gene cluster for sox (sulfur oxidation) is presumably responsible for this activity. Among the cluster, two tandemly coded soxA genes were uniquely found. These...

We determined the crystal structure of the liganded form of alpha-aminotransferase from a hyperthermophile, Pyrococcus horikoshii. This hyperthermophilic enzyme did not show domain movement upon binding of an acidic substrate, glutamate, except for a small movement of the alpha-helix from Glu16 to Ala25. The omega-carboxyl group of the acidic substrate was recognized by Tyr70* without its side-...

Plasmid pSt04 of Streptococcus thermophilus contains a gene encoding a protein with homology to small heat shock proteins (A. Geis, H. A. M. El Demerdash, and K. J. Heller, Plasmid 50:53-69, 2003). Strains cured from the shsp plasmids showed significantly reduced heat and acid resistance and a lower maximal growth temperature. Transformation of the cloned shsp gene into S. thermophilus St11 lac...