The ability to control growth is essential for fundamental studies of bacterial physiology and biotechnological applications. We have engineered an Escherichia coli strain in which the transcription of a key component of the gene expression machinery, RNA polymerase, is under the control of an inducible promoter. By changing the inducer concentration in the medium, we can adjust the RNA polymer...

Measurement of ruminal microbial protein is necessary to quantify ruminal escape of dietary protein and microbial yields. Microbial markers used most widely have been the internal markers, diaminopimelic acid and nucleic acids (RNA, DNA, individual purines and pyrimidines, or total purines), and the external isotopic markers (e.g., 15N and 35S). Combined with digesta flow markers in ruminally a...

BACKGROUND/AIMS Early diagnosis and appropriate antimicrobial choice are crucial when managing pneumonia patients, and quantitative culture of bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid is considered a useful method for identifying pneumonia pathogens. We evaluated the quantitative yield of BAL fluid bacterial cultures in patients being treated with antimicrobials and attempted to identify factors pred...

Few reports in the literature have documented the isolation of Ureaplasma species from sternal wounds. A case of sternal wound infection likely due to Ureaplasma parvum is described. When routine bacterial cultures from a sternal wound infection fail to yield a pathogen, diagnostic testing for mycoplasmas and ureaplasmas should be considered.

Xanthomonas fragariae is a worldwide-spread plant bacterial disease causing angular leaf spots, thus reducing the yield of production for strawberry fruits. Three isolates with various geographic and time origins were sequenced with long-read technology (PacBio) to generate finished genome sequences of virulent strains and observe the variability in their contents.

Amorpha-4,11-diene synthase (ADS) from Artemisia annua and (+)-germacrene synthase (GDS) from Zingiber officinale were expressed in Escherichia coli under different conditions to optimize the yield of active soluble protein. The cDNAs of these enzymes were inserted into the pET28 vector (Novagen) and expressed in four different bacterial strains; BL21 (DE3), BL21 (DE3) Tuner, BL21 (DE3) pLysS a...

Livestock waste composts with minimum inorganic fertilizer as a soil amendment in low-input intensive farming are a feasible agricultural practice to improve soil fertility and productivity and to mitigate soil degradation. The key benefits of the practice rely on the activities of soil microorganisms. However, the role of different livestock composts [composted cattle manure (CCM) vs. composte...

The economical profitability of the dairy industry is based on the quality of the bulk milk collected in the farms, therefore it was based on the herd level rather than on the individual animals at real time. Udder infection and stage of lactation are directly related to the quality of milk produced on the herd level. However, improvement of milk quality requires testing each animal's milk sepa...

Title of Document: Rewiring Quorum Sensing Circuitry for Recombinant Protein Production in E. coli Chen-Yu Tsao, Doctor of Philosophy, 2007 Directed By: Professor William E. Bentley Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering The global objective of this research is to rewire the circuitry of bacterial quorum sensing to facilitate recombinant protein production in bacteria. Previous res...

Influenza virus infection is a leading cause of death and disability throughout the world. Influenza-infected hosts are vulnerable to secondary bacterial infection, however, and an ensuing bacterial pneumonia is actually the predominant cause of influenza-attributed deaths during pandemics. A number of mechanisms have been proposed by which influenza may predispose to superinfection with an unr...