Coronin is a protein involved in cell locomotion and cytokinesis of Dictyostelium discoideum. Here we show that coronin is strongly enriched in phagocytic cups formed in response to particle attachment. A fusion of coronin with green fluorescent protein (GFP) accumulates in the cups within less than 1 min upon attachment of a particle and is gradually released from the phagosome within 1 min af...

Benchmarks Since its discovery in 1990, aptamer technology (1,2) has emerged as a novel and increasingly important approach to evolve specifically binding nucleic acid molecules (3). As aptamers can be developed to a vast range of target molecules, their potential application is very diverse. They can be used as molecular recognition elements in analytical systems for detection, separation, or ...

WHILE it is of obvious importance to determine the antibacterial activity of a penicillin in the blood it is perhaps of greater importance to know what concentrations are present in the extravascular fluids. In view of the current interest in protein binding and its influence on activity it is also of importance to determine in what way binding influences distribution throughout the body. Usual...

A series of 5-(3'-oxo-6'-(substituted aryl)-2',3',4',5'-tetrahydropyridazin-2'-ylmethyl )-2-substituted 1,3,4-oxadiazole has been synthesized. Appropriate aromatic hydrocarbon reacts with succinic anhydride in the presence of AICl3 to yield beta-aroyl propionic acid (1a). The corresponding acid is cyclized with hydrazine hydrate to give 6-(substituted aryl)-2,3,4,5-tetrahydro-3-pyridazinone (1b...

A simple, membrane-strip-based lateral-flow (LF) biosensor assay and a high-throughput microtiter plate assay have been combined with a reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) for the detection of a small number (ten) of viable Mycobacterium (M.) avium subsp. paratuberculosis (MAP) cells in fecal samples. The assays are based on the identification of the RNA of the IS900 elemen...

The lysine acetyltransferase (KAT) Rtt109 forms a complex with Vps75 and catalyzes the acetylation of histone H3 lysine 56 (H3K56ac) in the Asf1-H3-H4 complex. Rtt109 and H3K56ac are vital for replication-coupled nucleosome assembly and genotoxic resistance in yeast and pathogenic fungal species such as Candida albicans. Remarkably, sequence homologs of Rtt109 are absent in humans. Therefore, i...

An enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for paraquat is described. The microtitration plate-based assay has a limit of detection of 10 pg per well, and was specific for paraquat and monoquat. Reversed affinity chromatography was used to refine the polyclonal antibody preparation and eliminate interfering antibodies. There were consequent and significant improvements in assay sensitivity an...

Direct smear examination using Ziehl-Neelsen staining for pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) diagnosis is inexpensive and easy to use, but has the major limitation of low sensitivity. Rapid molecular methods are becoming more widely available in centralized laboratories, but they depend on timely reporting of results and strict quality assurance obtainable only from costly commercial kits available i...

PBP2a, the molecular determinant for high level β-lactam resistance in 19 Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), is intrinsically resistant to most β20 lactam antibiotics. The development and characterization of new inhibitors targeting 21 PBP2a would benefit from an effective and convenient assay for inhibitor binding. This 22 study was directed towards the development of a fluore...

LEVEL: INTERMEDIATE M onoclonal antibodies are used to treat a wide range of illnesses such as rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn’s Disease, and follicular non-Hodgkin lymphoma (1). The identification and use of certain growth medium additives and modified culture conditions during cell culture processes that produce MAbs may lower production costs—which could help lower the overall costs of those dru...