In response to systemic infection, mice usually present specific behaviors such as reduced activity and feeding, ruffled fur, hunched position, ataxia and tremor. We aimed to compare tissue bioluminescence, tissue cultures and clinical scores of BALB/c mice as potentially complementary outcome measures of Salmonella disease progression In Balb/c mice. The clinical status of the mice was assesse...

Living cells of the lux-based bioluminescent bioreporter Pseudomonas putida TVA8 were encapsulated in a silica hydrogel attached to the distal wider end of a tapered quartz fiber. Bioluminescence of immobilized cells was induced with toluene at high (26.5 mg/L) and low (5.3 mg/L) concentrations. Initial bioluminescence maxima were achieved after >12 h. One week after immobilization, a biofilm-l...

Physiologic barriers such as the blood placenta barrier (BPB) and the blood brain barrier protect the underlying parenchyma from pathogens and toxins. ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporters are transmembrane proteins found at these barriers, and function to efflux xenobiotics and maintain chemical homeostasis. Despite the plethora of ex vivo and in vitro data showing the function and expressio...

The interplay between evolutionary rates and modularity influences the evolution of organismal body plans by both promoting and constraining the magnitude and direction of trait response to ecological conditions. However, few studies have examined whether the best-fit hypothesis of modularity is the same as the shape subset with the greatest difference in evolutionary rate. Here, we develop a n...