A modular toolkit for environmental , , and enables complex metabolic manipulation.

Soil-dwelling Actinomycetes are a diverse and ubiquitous component of the global microbiome but largely lack genetic tools comparable to those available in model species such as or , posing a fundamental barrier to their characterization and utilization as hosts for biotechnology. To address this, we have developed a modular plasmid assembly framework, along with a series of genetic control elements for the previously genetically intractable Gram-positive environmental isolate C208, and demonstrate conserved functionality in 11 additional environmental isolates of , , and . This toolkit encompasses five Mycobacteriale origins of replication, five broad-host-range antibiotic resistance markers, transcriptional and translational control elements, fluorescent reporters, a tetracycline-inducible system, and a counter-selectable marker.

Interrogating the Function of Bicistronic Translational Control Elements to Improve Consistency of Gene Expression.

Context independent gene expression is required for genetic circuits to maintain consistent and predicable behavior. Previous efforts to develop context independent translation have leveraged the helicase activity of translating ribosomes via bicistronic design translational control elements (BCDs) located within an efficiently translated leader peptide. We have developed a series of bicistronic translational control elements with strengths that span several orders of magnitude, maintain consistent expression levels across diverse sequence contexts, and are agnostic to common ligation sequences used in modular cloning systems.

A randomized comparison of retention balloon and standard tip rectal catheters in preventing incontinence during double-contrast barium enema.

Objective: The objective of this comparison was to determine if retention balloon catheters are more effective than standard tip catheters in preventing barium incontinence during double-contrast barium enemas.

Subjects And Methods: A prospective randomized study was conducted over a 1-year period after institutional review board approval. Two hundred twenty-three patients (102 men, 121 women; median age, 68 years; age range, 50-94 years) were randomized to retention balloon or standard tip catheter after giving informed consent.