Streptococcus sanguis on media containing 3% sucrose gives rise to characteristic hard cohesive colonies (designated Spp+). Populations of Spp+ bacteria (strain Challis) on sucrose media switch to a soft noncohesive phenotype (designated Spp-) at a frequency of 10(-4) to 10(-3). Spp- bacteria switch back to Spp+ bacteria at a similar frequency. Successive rounds of Spp variation were observed. ...

BACKGROUND Animal neurotoxin peptides are valuable probes for investigating ion channel structure/function relationships and represent lead compounds for novel therapeutics and insecticides. However, misfolding and aggregation are common outcomes when toxins containing multiple disulfides are expressed in bacteria. METHODS The β-scorpion peptide toxin Bj-xtrIT from Hottentotta judaica and fou...

Spider venoms are complex cocktails rich in peptides, proteins and organic molecules that collectively act to immobilize prey. Venoms of the primitive hunting spider, Plectreurys tristis, have numerous neurotoxic peptides called "plectoxins" (PLTX), a unique acylpolyamine called bis(agmatine)oxalamide, and larger unidentified protein components. These spiders also have unconventional multi-lobe...

Exogenous sphingosine-1-phosphate (SPP) inhibits chemotactic motility of several transformed cell lines. We have found that SPP at high micromolar concentrations decreased chemotaxis of estrogen-independent (MDA-MB-231 and BT 549) and estrogen-dependent (MCF-7 and ZR-75-1) human breast cancer cells. Because SPP has been implicated as a lipid-signaling molecule with novel dual intra- and interce...

We identified the Drosophila melanogaster Signal peptide peptidase gene (Spp) that encodes a multipass transmembrane aspartyl protease. Drosophila SPP is homologous to the human signal peptide peptidase (SPP) and is distantly related to the presenilins. We show that, like human SPP, Drosophila SPP can proteolyze a model signal peptide and is sensitive to an SPP protease inhibitor and that it lo...

Exogenous sphingosine-1-phosphate (SPP) inhibits chemotactic motility of several transformed cell lines. We have found that SPP at high micromolar concentrations decreased chemotaxis of estrogen-independent (MDA-MB-231 and BT 549) and estrogen-dependent (MCF-7 and ZR75-1) human breast cancer cells. Because SPP has been implicated as a lipid-signaling molecule with novel dual intraand intercellu...

Antibiotic resistance and microbiota within edible snow crabs are important for the Chionoecetes (snow crab) fishing industry. We investigated these parameters using culture methods and antibiotic susceptibility tests with six internal organs from three species of Chionoecetes. Each sample revealed many unexpected microbial species within Chionoecetes internal organs. On the basis of 16S rRNA s...

Removal of heavy metals from wastewater needs advance chemical technology and is more expensive too. The cheaper alternative for this is the bioremediation using heavy metals resistant microorganisms. In this study, 10 heavy metal resistant bacteria were isolated from oxidation ditch of wastewater treatment plant of Bagmati Area Sewerage Project. These include chromium resistant Staphylococcus ...

the prevalence of eimeria spp. infection and the intensity of fecal oocysts were determined in 250 sheep in malayer suburb of iran using flotation and sporulation techniques. the overall prevalence was 23.23% in which the young male sheep had the highest prevalence (37.61%) with the highest intensity (63.58%). there were no significant difference in the prevalence between male (27.9%) and femal...