BACKGROUND Secretory signal peptides (SPs) are well-known sequence motifs targeting proteins for translocation across the endoplasmic reticulum membrane. After passing through the secretory pathway, most proteins are secreted to the environment. Here, we describe the modification of an expression vector containing the SP from secreted acid phosphatase 1 (SAP1) of Leishmania mexicana for optimiz...

BACKGROUND Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is a major health problem worldwide, affecting an estimated 2-3 % of human population. An HCV vaccine, however, remains unavailable. High viral diversity poses a challenge in developing a vaccine capable of eliciting a broad neutralizing antibody response against all HCV genotypes. The small surface antigen (sHBsAg) of hepatitis B virus (HBV) has the...

The loss of kinetoplast DNA in Leishmania tarentolae, which occurs in the presence of low concentrations of acriflavin, was found to be a result of selective inhibition of replication of this DNA. Nuclear DNA synthesis was relatively unaffected and cell and kinetoplast division proceeded normally for several generations. An approximately equal distribution of parental kinetoplast DNA between da...

a Department of Molecular, Cell and De6elopmental Biology, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, UCLA School of Medicine, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1662, USA b Howard Hughes Medical Institute, UCLA School of Medicine, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1662, USA c Department of Medical Microbiology, Immunology and Molecular Genetics, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, UCLA School of Medicine, UCLA, Los Ang...