The γ-butyrolactone autoregulator receptor has been shown to control secondary metabolism and/or morphological differentiation across many Streptomyces species. Streptomyces avermitilis produces an important anthelmintic agent (avermectin) and two further polyketide antibiotics, filipin and oligomycin. Genomic analysis of S. avermitilis revealed that this micro-organism has the clustered putati...

The role of a tetR transcriptional regulatory gene (SAV7471) in avermectin production in the Gram-positive soil bacterium Streptomyces avermitilis was investigated by gene deletion, complementation, and overexpression experiments. Gene deletion of the SAV7471 open reading frame resulted in avermectin overproduction. The deletion also resulted in overexpression of SAV7472-SAV7473 transcripts, wh...

A variety of compounds including classical anthelmintics and avermectin analogs were screened for their effects on movements of adult heartworms (HW) (Dirofilaria immitis). Contractile activity was measured by tension recording of spontaneous movements of intact HW coil preparations (6 min compound exposure) and motility was evaluated by observation of spontaneous, free movements in culture (3 ...

An azido-avermectin analog [4'' alpha-(4-azidosalicylamido-epsilon-caproylamido-beta-alan ylamido)-4''-deoxyavermectin B1a; azido-AVM] was synthesized and used to photoaffinity label avermectin binding sites present in the membranes of Caenorhabditis elegans and Drosophila melanogaster. Azido-AVM was biologically active and behaved like a competitive inhibitor of [3H]ivermectin binding to C. el...

Avermectin and its analogs are major commercial antiparasitic agents in the fields of animal health, agriculture, and human infections. Previously, comparative transcriptome analysis between the low-producer S. avermitilis ATCC31267 and the high-producer S. avermitilis ATCC31780 using a S. avermitilis whole genome chip revealed that 50 genes were overexpressed at least two-fold higher in S. ave...

Extracellular galectin-3 participates in the control of B2 lymphocyte migration and adhesion and of their differentiation into plasma cells. Here, we analyzed the role of galectin-3 in B1-cell physiology and the balance between B1a and B1b lymphocytes in the peritoneal cavity. In galectin-3(-/-) mice, the total number of B1a lymphocytes was lower, while B1b lymphocyte number was higher as compa...

Avermectins are commercially important anthelmintic antibiotics produced by Streptomyces avermitilis. The homologous TetR-family transcriptional regulators AvaR1 and AvaR2 in this species were identified previously as receptors of avenolide, a novel butenolide-type autoregulator signal required for triggering avermectin biosynthesis. AvaR2 was found to be an important pleiotropic regulator in r...

We determined the complete genome sequence of a coxsackievirus A16 strain (CVA16/SZ29/CHN/2014) from a fatal case in Shenzhen, southern China, in 2014. The strain was assigned to subgenotype B1b based on phylogenetic analysis of the VP1 gene.

Avermectin-binding proteins from the free-living nematode worm Caenorhabditis elegans and from the fruitfly Drosophila melanogaster were purified to homogeneity via a three-step procedure. The binding proteins were covalently labelled using a radioactive photoaffinity probe and then partially purified on a Sephacryl S-300 gel-filtration column. The radiolabelled binding proteins were then purif...

Avermectin-grafted-N,O-carboxymethyl chitosan (NOCC) derivative was obtained by esterification reaction using dicyclohexylcarbodiimide (DCC) as dehydrating agent and 4-methylaminopyridine as catalyst. The structures of the conjugate were confirmed by FT-IR, (1)H NMR, and XRD. Insecticidal activities against armyworms, carmine spider mites, black bean aphids, and brown plant hoppers were investi...