Thermolability of 5,10-methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) was examined as a possible cause of mild hyperhomocysteinemia in patients with premature vascular disease. Control subjects and vascular patients with mild hyperhomocysteinemia and with normohomocysteinemia were studied. The mean (+/- SD) specific MTHFR activity in lymphocytes of 22 control subjects was 15.6 (+/- 4.7) nmol CH2O/...

SulA is a division inhibitor of Escherichia coli with a short half life, whose accumulation results in filamentation. Here we show that SulA is thermally unstable and goes into aggregates at elevated temperatures. This property enables the selection of mutants in the protein quality control system.

Diverse physiological groups congregate into environmental corrosive biofilms, yet the interspecies interactions between these are seldom examined. We, therefore, explored Fe 0 -dependent cross-group acetogens and methanogens from lake sediments. On , were more metabolically active when decoupled methanogens, whereas coupled with acetogens. This suggests an opportunistic (win–loss) interaction ...

1. Certain pneumococcus autolysates produce necrosis when injected into the skin of guinea pigs. 2. The necrosis-producing principle can be filtered through a Berkefeld N filter, is extremely thermolabile, and is very sensitive to oxidation. 3. The necrotizing poison can be separated from the pneumococcus hemotoxin by adsorption with red cells. This removes the hemotoxin and leaves the necrosis...

A study of enterotoxin production by means of biological tests (Y1 adrenal cells and suckling mice) using 67 Escherichia coli strains responsible for diarrhea in newborn piglets, confirmed the advantages of these methods and demonstrated the correlation between antigenic specificity and enterotoxin production. In particular the presence of capsular antigen K 88 is related to the thermolabile (L...

known naturally occurring degradation product may be of interest with respect to the etiology of neural tube defects or the homocysteinemia that is associated with this variant. At a more practical level, the comparative evaluation of the two assays reported here indicates that folate concentrations are not being measured accurately by one of the assays in the 5% to 15% of people who are homozy...

Sera from individuals vaccinated with a cholera toxoid were tested to determine if sera with significant titers of cholera antitoxin could neutralize Escherichia coli thermolabile enterotoxin. Individuals who responded to immunization with significant increases in serum cholera antitoxin titers also showed increases in serum E. coli enterotoxin-neutralizing capacity. These findings suggested th...

A novel view of the eukaryotic cell cycle is taking form as genetic strategies borrowed from investigations of microbial gene regulation and bacteriophage morphogenesis are being applied to the process of cell division. It is a genetic construct in which mutational lesions identify the primary events, thermolabile gene products reveal temporal order, mutant phenotypes yield pathways of causalit...