Infections with extraintestinal avian pathogenic Escherichia coli (APEC) cause significant economic losses in the poultry industry worldwide. In a previous study we applied signature-tagged transposon mutagenesis and identified 28 virulence-associated genes in APEC strain IMT5155 (O2 : H5 : K1). One of them, yjjQ, encodes a putative transcriptional regulator whose function and role in pathogene...

CD147 is a widely expressed transmembrane protein that mediates signal transduction, and it plays important roles in many physiological and pathological processes, such as tumor invasion and metastasis. The extracellular portion of CD147 (CD147(EC)) is responsible for its functional interactions with different signaling molecules. Due to the existence of two disulfide bonds, CD147(EC) is mainly...

Eradication of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) by vaccination with epitopes that produce broadly neutralizing antibodies is the ultimate goal for HIV prevention. However, generating appropriate immune responses has proven difficult. Expression of broadly neutralizing antibodies by vaginal colonizing lactobacilli provides an approach to passively target these antibodies to the mucosa...

The proteins encoded by chromosomal homologues of the parA and parB genes of many bacterial plasmids have been implicated in chromosome partitioning. Unlike their plasmid counterparts, mutant phenotypes produced by deleting these genes have so far been elusive or weakly expressed, except during sporulation. Here the properties of Pseudomonas putida strains with mutations in parA and parB are de...

Clavibacter michiganensis, subsp. michiganensis is a Gram-positive plant pathogen infecting tomato (Solanum lycopersicum). Despite a considerable economic importance due to significant losses of infected plants and fruits, knowledge about virulence factors of C. michiganensis subsp. michiganensis and host-pathogen interactions on a molecular level are rather limited. In the study presented here...

P strains of Drosophila are distinguished from M strains by having P elements in their genomes and also by having the P cytotype, a maternally inherited condition that strongly represses P-element-induced hybrid dysgenesis. The P cytotype is associated with P elements inserted near the left telomere of the X chromosome. Repression by the telomeric P elements TP5 and TP6 is significantly enhance...

Resistance of the indigenous strains P. jadinii M9 and P. anomala M10, to high Cr(6+) concentrations and their ability to reduce chromium in culture medium was studied. The isolates were able to tolerate chromium concentrations up to 104 μg mL(-1). Growth and reduction of Cr(6+) were dependent on incubation temperature, agitation, Cr(6+) concentration, and pH. Thus, in both studied strains the ...

We study the relation between the D8-branes wrapped on an orientable compact manifold W in a massive Type IIA supergravity background and the M9-branes wrapped on a compact manifold Z in a massive d=11 supergravity background from the K-theoretic point of view. By speculationg on the use of the dimensional reduction to relate the two theories in different dimensions and by interpreting the D8-b...