The NY-ESO-1 and LAGE-1 genes are expressed by many human cancers, but not by normal tissues, with the exception of testis and placenta. The NY-ESO-1 and LAGE-1 genes give rise to multiple MHC class I and class II-presented epitopes derived from the open reading frames (ORF) 1 and 2. Here, we have investigated whether NY-ESO-1/LAGE-1 ORF2 encodes promiscuous MHC class II-restricted epitopes. Us...

Among oncogenic adenoviruses, human adenovirus type 9 (Ad9) is unique in eliciting exclusively estrogen-dependent mammary tumors in rats and in not requiring viral E1 region transforming genes for tumorigenicity. Instead, studies with hybrid viruses generated between Ad9 and the closely related nontumorigenic virus Ad26 have roughly localized an Ad9 oncogenic determinant(s) to a segment of the ...

The near-complete genomes of two picobirnaviruses (PBVs) in diarrheal stool samples, human picobirnaviruses D and E (HuPBV-D and -E), were genetically characterized. Their RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) protein sequences had <66% identities to known PBVs. Due to a single nucleotide insertion, the open reading frame 2 (ORF2) in segment 1 of HuPBV-D was interrupted by a stop codon. A small s...

Active transport across the outer membrane in gram-negative bacteria requires the energy that is generated by the proton motive force in the inner membrane. This energy is transduced to the outer membrane by the TonB protein in complex with the proteins ExbB and ExbD. In the pathogen Vibrio anguillarum we have identified two TonB systems, TonB1 and TonB2, the latter is used for ferric-anguibact...

BACKGROUND The hepatitis E virus (HEV) has been detected in both humans and animals, particularly pigs, worldwide. Several evidences, including human infection following consumption of raw contaminated meat, suggest a zoonotic transmission of HEV. In Italy, large circulation of genotype 3 HEV has been reported in swine, and recent studies have confirmed the involvement of this genotype in autoc...

Heterologous expression of human LINE-1 ORF2 in yeast yielded a single polypeptide (Mr145 000) which reacted with specific antibodies and co-purified with a reverse transcriptase activity not present in the host cells. Various deletion derivatives of the ORF2 polypeptide were also synthesized. Reverse transcriptase assays using synthetic polynucleotides as template and primer revealed that ORF2...

Proteins of the Tol system play a key role in the maintenance of outer membrane integrity and cell morphology in gram-negative bacteria. In Pseudomonas putida, the seven genes, orf1, tolQ, tolR, tolA, tolB, oprL, and orf2, which encode the proteins of this complex, are clustered in a 5.8-kb region of chromosomal DNA. Analysis of polar mutations, reverse transcriptase PCR assays, and transcripti...

Bovine herpesvirus 1 (BHV-1) infection induces clinical symptoms in the upper respiratory tract, inhibits immune responses, and can lead to life-threatening secondary bacterial infections. Following acute infection, BHV-1 establishes latency in sensory neurons within trigeminal ganglia, but stress can induce reactivation from latency. The latency-related (LR) RNA is the only viral transcript ab...

The mechanism leading to reinitiation of translation after termination of protein synthesis in eukaryotes has not yet been resolved in detail. One open question concerns the way the post-termination ribosome is tethered to the mRNA to allow binding of the necessary initiation factors. In caliciviruses, a family of positive strand RNA viruses, the capsid protein VP2 is translated via a terminati...

"Young" APE-type non-LTR retrotransposons (non-LTRs) typically encode two open reading frames (ORFs 1 and 2). The shorter ORF1 translation product (ORF1p) comprises an RNA binding activity, thought to bind to non-LTR transcript RNA, protect against nuclease degradation and specify nuclear import of the ribonuclear protein complex (RNP). ORF2 encodes a multifunctional protein (ORF2p) comprising ...