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| 2. |
- Alsmark, Cecilia M., et al.
(författare)
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The louse-borne human pathogen Bartonella quintana is a genomic derivative of the zoonotic agent Bartonella henselae
- 2004
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Ingår i: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. - : Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. - 0027-8424 .- 1091-6490. ; 101:26, s. 9716-9721
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We present the complete genomes of two human pathogens, Bartonella quintana (1,581,384 bp) and Bartonella henselae (1,931,047 bp). The two pathogens maintain several similarities in being transmitted by insect vectors, using mammalian reservoirs, infecting similar cell types (endothelial cells and erythrocytes) and causing vasculoproliferative changes in immunocompromised hosts. A primary difference between the two pathogens is their reservoir ecology. Whereas B. quintana is a specialist, using only the human as a reservoir, B. henselae is more promiscuous and is frequently isolated from both cats and humans. Genome comparison elucidated a high degree of overall similarity with major differences being B. henselae specific genomic islands coding for filamentous hemagglutinin, and evidence of extensive genome reduction in B. quintana, reminiscent of that found in Rickettsia prowazekii. Both genomes are reduced versions of chromosome I from the highly related pathogen Brucella melitensis. Flanked by two rRNA operons is a segment with similarity to genes located on chromosome II of B. melitensis, suggesting that it was acquired by integration of megareplicon DNA in a common ancestor of the two Bartonella species. Comparisons of the vector-host ecology of these organisms suggest that the utilization of host-restricted vectors is associated with accelerated rates of genome degradation and may explain why human pathogens transmitted by specialist vectors are outnumbered by zoonotic agents, which use vectors of broad host ranges.
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| 4. |
- Cramp, R.L., et al.
(författare)
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The effects of saltwater acclimation on neurotransmitters in the lingual salt glands of the estuarine crocodile, Crocodylus porosus
- 2007
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Ingår i: Regulatory Peptides. - : Elsevier BV. - 0167-0115. ; 140:1-2, s. 55-64
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Introduction Most avian and reptilian salt glands display marked phenotypic plasticity when animals are exposed to hyperosmotic conditions. In addition, the activity of most salt glands is under considerable control by the nervous system and nerves containing cholinergic, adrenergic and peptidergic neurotransmitters have been identified in avian and reptilian salt gland tissues. The present study sought to determine whether the salt glands of the estuarine crocodile, Crocodylus porosus contain the peptidergic neurotransmitters SP, CGRP, VIP, and PACAP and the gaseous neurotransmitter, NO. In addition, we sought to determine whether there was any evidence for the adaptation of the C. porosus salt gland nervous system to hyperosmotic conditions. Methods Salt glands from freshwater- and saltwater-acclimated C. porosus hatchlings were sectioned and examined immunohistochemically for neurotransmitters within the tissue. Results Neurons containing SP, CGRP, VIP, PACAP and NO synthase were identified within C. porosus salt glands. There was no difference in the overall number (density) of neurons within SW-acclimated tissues when compared with FW-acclimated animals. However, there was a significant reduction in density of neurons containing SP and PACAP in SW-acclimated animals. Conclusion C. porosus salt glands display phenotypic plasticity following exposure to hyperosmotic conditions. In addition to cholinergic and adrenergic neurons, they contain a variety of peptidergic neurotransmitters and the gaseous neurotransmitter NO. Additionally, there appears to be some evidence of acclimation of the nervous system of C. porosus to hypersaline conditions, although the functional significance of these changes remains to be determined.
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| 5. |
- Ivanova, Natalia, et al.
(författare)
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Structure probing of tmRNA in distinct stages of trans-translation
- 2007
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Ingår i: RNA. - : Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. - 1355-8382 .- 1469-9001. ; 13:5, s. 713-722
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Ribosomes stalled on problematic mRNAs in bacterial cells can be rescued by transfer-messenger RNA (tmRNA), its helperprotein (small protein B, SmpB), and elongation factor Tu (EF-Tu) through a mechanism called trans-translation. In this work weused lead(II) footprinting to probe the interactions of tmRNA with SmpB and other components of the translation machinery atdifferent steps of the trans-translation cycle. Ribosomes with a short nascent peptide stalled on a truncated mRNA were reactedwith Ala-tmRNA EF-Tu GTP, SmpB, and other translation components to initiate and execute trans-translation. Free tmRNA was d dprobed with lead(II) acetate with and without SmpB, and ribosome bound tmRNA was probed in one of four different trans-translation states stabilized by antibiotic addition or selective exclusion of translation components. For comparison, we alsoanalyzed lead(II) cleavage patterns of tmRNA in vivo in a wild-type as well as in an SmpB-deficient Escherichia coli strain. Weobserved some specific cleavages/protections in tmRNA for the individual steps of trans-translation, but the overall tmRNAconformation appeared to be similar in the stages analyzed. Our findings suggest that, in vivo, a dominant fraction of tmRNA isin complex with SmpB and that, in vitro, SmpB remains tmRNA bound at the initial steps of trans-translation.
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| 6. |
- Berglund, Eva C., et al.
(författare)
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Genome dynamics of Bartonella grahamii in micro-populations of woodland rodents
- 2010
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Ingår i: BMC Genomics. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1471-2164. ; 11, s. 152-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: Rodents represent a high-risk reservoir for the emergence of new human pathogens. The recent completion of the 2.3 Mb genome of Bartonella grahamii, one of the most prevalent blood-borne bacteria in wild rodents, revealed a higher abundance of genes for host-cell interaction systems than in the genomes of closely related human pathogens. The sequence variability within the global B. grahamii population was recently investigated by multi locus sequence typing, but no study on the variability of putative host-cell interaction systems has been performed. Results: To study the population dynamics of B. grahamii, we analyzed the genomic diversity on a whole-genome scale of 27 B. grahamii strains isolated from four different species of wild rodents in three geographic locations separated by less than 30 km. Even using highly variable spacer regions, only 3 sequence types were identified. This low sequence diversity contrasted with a high variability in genome content. Microarray comparative genome hybridizations identified genes for outer surface proteins, including a repeated region containing the fha gene for filamentous hemaggluttinin and a plasmid that encodes a type IV secretion system, as the most variable. The estimated generation times in liquid culture medium for a subset of strains ranged from 5 to 22 hours, but did not correlate with sequence type or presence/absence patterns of the fha gene or the plasmid. Conclusion: Our study has revealed a geographic microstructure of B. grahamii in wild rodents. Despite near-identity in nucleotide sequence, major differences were observed in gene presence/absence patterns that did not segregate with host species. This suggests that genetically similar strains can infect a range of different hosts.
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| 7. |
- Berglund, Eva C., et al.
(författare)
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Run-off replication of host-adaptability genes is associated with gene transfer agents in the genome of mouse-infecting Bartonella grahamii
- 2009
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Ingår i: PLoS genetics. - : Public Library of Science (PLoS). - 1553-7404. ; 5:7, s. e1000546-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The genus Bartonella comprises facultative intracellular bacteria adapted to mammals, including previously recognized and emerging human pathogens. We report the 2,341,328 bp genome sequence of Bartonella grahamii, one of the most prevalent Bartonella species in wild rodents. Comparative genomics revealed that rodent-associated Bartonella species have higher copy numbers of genes for putative host-adaptability factors than the related human-specific pathogens. Many of these gene clusters are located in a highly dynamic region of 461 kb. Using hybridization to a microarray designed for the B. grahamii genome, we observed a massive, putatively phage-derived run-off replication of this region. We also identified a novel gene transfer agent, which packages the bacterial genome, with an over-representation of the amplified DNA, in 14 kb pieces. This is the first observation associating the products of run-off replication with a gene transfer agent. Because of the high concentration of gene clusters for host-adaptation proteins in the amplified region, and since the genes encoding the gene transfer agent and the phage origin are well conserved in Bartonella, we hypothesize that these systems are driven by selection. We propose that the coupling of run-off replication with gene transfer agents promotes diversification and rapid spread of host-adaptability factors, facilitating host shifts in Bartonella.
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| 8. |
- Craig, Marina, 1978, et al.
(författare)
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Polypeptide Multilayer Self-Assembly Studied by Ellipsometry
- 2014
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Ingår i: Journal of Drug Delivery. - : Hindawi Limited. - 2090-3014 .- 2090-3022. ; 2014, s. (article ID) 424697-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- A polypeptide nanofilm made by layer-by-layer (LbL) self-assembly was built on a surface that mimics nonwoven, a material commonly used in wound dressings. Poly-L-lysine (PLL) and poly-L-glutamic acid (PLGA) are the building blocks of the nanofilm, which is intended as an enzymatically degradable lid for release of bactericides to chronic wounds. Chronic wounds often carry infection originating from bacteria such as Staphylococcus aureus and a release system triggered by the degree of infection is of interest. The dry nanofilm was studied with ellipsometry. The thickness of the nanofilm was 60% less in its dry state than in its wet state. The measurements showed that a primer was not necessary to build a stable nanofilm, which is practically important in our case because a nondegradable primer is highly unwanted in a wound care dressing. Added V8 (glutamyl endopeptidase) enzymes only showed adsorption on the nanofilm at room temperature, indicating that the PLL/PLGA “lid” may remain intact until the dressing has been filled with wound exudate at the elevated temperature typical of that of the wound.
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| 9. |
- Gamier, P., et al.
(författare)
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Deriving the characteristics of warm electrons (100-500 eV) in the magnetosphere of Saturn with the Cassini Langmuir probe
- 2014
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Ingår i: Planetary and Space Science. - : Elsevier BV. - 0032-0633 .- 1873-5088. ; 104, s. 173-184
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Though Langmuir probes (LP) are designed to investigate cold plasma regions (e.g. ionospheres), a recent analysis revealed a strong sensitivity of the Cassini LP measurements to hundreds of eV electrons. These warm electrons impact the surface of the probe and generate a significant current of secondary electrons, that impacts both the DC level and the slope of the current-voltage curve of the LP (for negative potentials) through energetic contributions that may be modeled with a reasonable precision. We show here how to derive information about the incident warm electrons from the analysis of these energetic contributions, in the regions where the cold plasma component is small with an average temperature in the range similar to [100-500] eV. First, modeling the energetic contributions (based on the incident electron flux given by a single anode of the CAPS spectrometer) allows us to provide information about the pitch angle anisotropies of the incident hundreds of eV electrons. The modeling reveals indeed sometimes a large variability of the estimated maximum secondary electron yield (which is a constant for a surface material) needed to reproduce the observations. Such dispersions give evidence for strong pitch angle anisotropies of the incident electrons, and using a functional form of the pitch angle distribution even allows us to derive the real peak angle of the distribution. Second, rough estimates of the total electron temperature may be derived in the regions where the warm electrons are dominant and thus strongly influence the LP observations, i.e. when the average electron temperature is in the range similar to [100-500] eV. These regions may be identified from the LP observations through large positive values of the current-voltage slope at negative potentials. The estimated temperature may then be used to derive the electron density in the same region, with estimated densities between similar to 0.1 and a few particles/cm(3) (cc). The derived densities are in better agreement with the CAPS measurements than the values derived from the proxy technique (Morooka et al., 2009) based on the floating potential of the LP. Both the electron temperature and the density estimates lie outside the classical capabilities of the LP, which are essentially n(e) > 5 cc and T-e <5 eV at Saturn. This approximate derivation technique may be used in the regions where the cold plasma component is small with an average temperature in the range similar to [100-500] eV, which occurs often in the L range 6.4-9.4 R-S when Cassini is off the equator, but may occur anywhere in the magnetosphere. This technique may be all the more interesting since the CAPS instrument was shut down, and, though it cannot replace the CAPS instrument, the technique can provide useful information about the electron moments, with probably even better estimates than CAPS in some cases (when the plasma is strongly anisotropic). Finally, a simple modeling approach allows us to predict the impact of the energetic contributions on LP measurements in any plasma environment whose characteristics (density, temperature, etc.) are known. LP observations may thus be influenced by warm electrons in several planetary plasma regions in the solar system, and ambient magnetospheric electron density and temperature could be estimated in some of them (e.g. around several galilean satellites) through the use of Langmuir probes.
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| 10. |
- Holmberg, Sara K S, et al.
(författare)
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Localization of neuropeptide Y receptor Y5 mRNA in the guinea pig brain
- 2004
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Ingår i: Regulatory Peptides. - : Elsevier BV. - 0167-0115 .- 1873-1686. ; 117, s. 61-67
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Neuropeptide Y (NPY) has prominent stimulatory effects on food intake in virtually all animals that have been studied. In mammals, the effect is primarily mediated by receptors Y1 and Y5, which seem to contribute to different aspects of feeding behavior in guinea pigs and rats/mice. Interestingly, differences in receptor distribution among mammalian species have been reported. To get a broader perspective on the role of Y5, we describe here studies of guinea pig (Cavia porcellus), a species which due to its phylogenetic position in the mammalian radiation is an interesting complement to previous studies in rat and mouse. Guinea pig brain sections were hybridized with two 35S-labeled oligonucleotides complementary to Y5 mRNA. The highest expression levels of Y5 mRNA were observed in the hippocampus and several hypothalamic and brain stem nuclei implicated in the regulation of feeding, such as the paraventricular, arcuate and ventromedial hypothalamic nuclei. This contrasts with autoradiography studies that detected low Y5-like binding in these areas, a discrepancy observed also in rat and human. Y5 mRNA expression was also seen in the striatum, in great contrast to mouse and rat. Taken together, these data show that Y5 mRNA distribution displays some interesting species differences, but that its expression in feeding centers seems to be essentially conserved among mammals, adding further support for an important role in food intake.
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