This document presents a summary of the performance budget studies conducted as part of the NGAO design study, and compares these predictions to the NGAO science and system requirements. The eight performance budget studies and the personnel originally assigned to perform these studies are listed in Table 1. Five of these studies have produced KAONs, while studies on polarimetric performance an...

The majority of Listeria monocytogenes isolates recovered from foods and the environment are strains of serogroup 1/2, especially serotypes 1/2a and 1/2b. However, serotype 4b strains cause the majority of human listeriosis outbreaks. Our investigation of L. monocytogenes biofilms used a simulated food-processing system that consisted of repeated cycles of growth, sanitation treatment, and star...

Reptiles are well-known sources of human Salmonella infections; however, little is known about the ability of Salmonella to cause disease in reptiles. Thirty-seven isolates of Salmonella enterica subspecies arizonae (S. arizonae) were obtained from retrospective and prospective studies of a closed colony of ridgenose rattlesnakes (Crotalus willardi) with osteomyelitis. All isolates (N = 7) from...

The evolution of the capsular biosynthetic (cps) locus of serogroup 6 Streptococcus pneumoniae was investigated by analyzing sequence variation within three serotype-specific cps genes from 102 serotype 6A and 6B isolates. Sequence variation within these cps genes was related to the genetic relatedness of the isolates, determined by multilocus sequence typing, and to the inferred patterns of re...

Of 2,500 fecal samples collected from children with diarrhea in the province of Siena, 35 (1.4%) were found to be positive for Yersinia enterocolitica. Of the isolates, 94.2% belonged to biotype 4, serotype 0:3; 2.8% belonged to biotype 2, serotype O:9; and 2.8% belonged to biotype 1, serotype O:6. The in vitro pathogenicity tests showed that all but two isolates were calcium dependent and auto...

BACKGROUND Streptococcus pneumoniae is a significant pathogen capable of expressing protective and antigenically diverse capsules. To better understand the molecular basis of capsular antigenic diversity, we investigated the hypothetical serological role of wcjE, which encodes a capsule O-acetyltransferase, in the vaccine-targeted serotype 9V and related serotype 9A. METHODS We inactivated wc...

Cryptococcus neoformans is a pathogenic basidiomycete with a defined sexual cycle involving mating between haploid yeast cells with a transient diploid state. We examined F1 progeny from a crossing between the urease-negative strain (environmental isolate, serotype A, mating type alfa, haploid) and a tester strain (B 3502 from NIH of USA; urease-positive, serotype D, mating type a, haploid) for...

Our earlier findings established that cyclic AMP-dependent protein kinase functions in a signaling cascade that regulates mating and virulence of Cryptococcus neoformans var. grubii (serotype A). Mutants lacking the serotype A protein kinase A (PKA) catalytic subunit Pka1 are unable to mate, fail to produce melanin or capsule, and are avirulent in animal models, whereas mutants lacking the PKA ...