We describe an interesting case of severe asthma who was not showing satisfactory response to standard treatment. Investigations revealed him to be suffering from allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis (ABPA). After starting systemic steroids he showed marked improvement initially only to have recurrent symptoms within a year. He was investigated further and found to have chronic pulmonary asp...

The tight control of autolysis by Streptococcus mutans is critical for proper virulence gene expression and biofilm formation. A pair of dicistronic operons, SMU.575/574 (lrgAB) and SMU.1701/1700 (designated cidAB), encode putative membrane proteins that share structural features with the bacteriophage-encoded holin family of proteins, which modulate host cell lysis during lytic infection. Anal...

Krebs cycle enzyme activity in Bacillus subtilis was examined under aerobic and anaerobic conditions. Citrate synthase and aconitase activities in cells grown anaerobically in the presence of nitrate were reduced by as much as 10- and 30-fold, respectively, from levels observed under aerobic culture conditions. The maximum level of isocitrate dehydrogenase activity during anaerobic growth was o...