A Bacteriophytochrome Mediates Interplay between Light Sensing and the Second Messenger Cyclic Di-GMP to Control Social Behavior and Virulence.

Bacteriophytochromes are the most abundant and ubiquitous light-sensing receptors in bacteria and are involved in time-of-day behavior or responses. However, their biological and regulatory role in non-photosynthetic bacteria is poorly understood, and even less is known about how they regulate diverse cellular processes. Here, we show that a bacteriophytochrome (XooBphP) from the plant pathogen Xanthomonas oryzae pv.

Dimerization ability, denaturation mechanism, and the stability of a staphylococcal phage repressor and its two domains.

The lysogenic growth of phage ф11 in Staphylococcus aureus is controlled by a repressor (CI) that harbors an N-terminal domain (NTD), and a C-terminal domain (CTD). Previously, NTD, like CI, showed DNA binding activity and dimerized in the aqueous solution. To precisely understand the folding mechanism, function, and the stability of CI, NTD, and CTD, we have investigated their recombinant forms, rCI, rNTD, and rCTD, using various probes.

HSF1 mediated TNF-α production during proteotoxic stress response pioneers proinflammatory signal in human cells.

The proteotoxic stress response that safeguards the cellular proteome from various stressors was shown to activate NF-κB signaling pathways (NκBS) with an underlying mechanism that is poorly understood. We show here that the TNF-α gene, a pleiotropic NκBS inducer, is a direct target of heat shock factor 1 (HSF1). Human HSF1 drives this process by assembling a multiprotein activation complex at a heat shock element (HSE) located at the 3'-UTR of the TNF-α gene (HSE5).

LINCRNA00273 promotes cancer metastasis and its G-Quadruplex promoter can serve as a novel target to inhibit cancer invasiveness.

Discovery of anti-metastatic drugs is of immense clinical significance as metastasis is responsible for 90% of all cancer deaths. Here we report the inhibitory effect of a bis schiff base (M2) on cancer cell migration and invasion and . M2 has shown good solubility and permeability across the intestinal cell wall and hence can be classified as BCS (Biopharmaceutical classification system) class I.

Identification and characterization of a CI binding operator at a distant location in the temperate staphylococcal phage ф11.

Bacteriophage ф11 encodes repressors CI and Cro for executing its growth in Staphylococcus aureus, a human pathogen. There are three homologous operators O1, O2 and O3 between the repressor-expressing genes. While CI binds to O1 and O2, Cro interacts only with O3.

Identification and characterization of a cyclosporin binding cyclophilin from Staphylococcus aureus Newman.

Cyclophilins, a class of peptidyl-prolyl cis-trans isomerase (PPIase) enzymes, are inhibited by cyclosporin A (CsA), an immunosuppressive drug. Staphylococcus aureus Newman, a pathogenic bacterium, carries a gene for encoding a putative cyclophilin (SaCyp). SaCyp shows significant homology with other cyclophilins at the sequence level.

A Surfactant-Induced Functional Modulation of a Global Virulence Regulator from Staphylococcus aureus.

Triton X-100 (TX-100), a useful non-ionic surfactant, reduced the methicillin resistance in Staphylococcus aureus significantly. Many S. aureus proteins were expressed in the presence of TX-100.

Quantum correlation with sandwiched relative entropies: Advantageous as order parameter in quantum phase transitions.

Quantum discord is a measure of quantum correlations beyond the entanglement-separability paradigm. It is conceptualized by using the von Neumann entropy as a measure of disorder. We introduce a class of quantum correlation measures as differences between total and classical correlations, in a shared quantum state, in terms of the sandwiched relative Rényi and Tsallis entropies.

Chemical and thermal unfolding of a global staphylococcal virulence regulator with a flexible C-terminal end.

SarA, a Staphylococcus aureus-specific dimeric protein, modulates the expression of numerous proteins including various virulence factors. Interestingly, S. aureus synthesizes multiple SarA paralogs seemingly for optimizing the expression of its virulence factors.

Benford's law gives better scaling exponents in phase transitions of quantum XY models.

Benford's law is an empirical law predicting the distribution of the first significant digits of numbers obtained from natural phenomena and mathematical tables. It has been found to be applicable for numbers coming from a plethora of sources, varying from seismographic, biological, financial, to astronomical. We apply this law to analyze the data obtained from physical many-body systems described by the one-dimensional anisotropic quantum XY models in a transverse magnetic field.

The N-terminal domain of the repressor of Staphylococcus aureus phage Φ11 possesses an unusual dimerization ability and DNA binding affinity.

Bacteriophage Φ11 uses Staphylococcus aureus as its host and, like lambdoid phages, harbors three homologous operators in between its two divergently oriented repressor genes. None of the repressors of Φ11, however, showed binding to all three operators, even at high concentrations. To understand why the DNA binding mechanism of Φ11 repressors does not match that of lambdoid phage repressors, we studied the N-terminal domain of the Φ11 lysogenic repressor, as it harbors a putative helix-turn-helix motif.

Biochemical characterization of L1 repressor mutants with altered operator DNA binding activity.

A mycobacteriophage-specific repressor with the enhanced operator DNA binding activity at 32°C and no activity at 42°C has not been generated yet though it has potential in developing a temperature-controlled expression vector for mycobacterial system. To create such an invaluable repressor, here we have characterized four substitution mutants of mycobacteriophage L1 repressor by various probes. The W69C repressor mutant displayed no operator DNA binding activity, whereas, P131L repressor mutant exhibited very little DNA binding at 32°C.

Spectral fluctuation and 1/fα noise in the energy level statistics of interacting trapped bosons.

It has been recently shown numerically that the transition from integrability to chaos in quantum systems and the corresponding spectral fluctuations are characterized by 1/f^{α} noise with 1≤α≤2. The system of interacting trapped bosons is inhomogeneous and complex. The presence of an external harmonic trap makes it more interesting as, in the atomic trap, the bosons occupy partly degenerate single-particle states.

Domain structure and denaturation of a dimeric Mip-like peptidyl-prolyl cis-trans isomerase from Escherichia coli.

FKBP22, a protein expressed by Escherichia coli, possesses PPIase (peptidyl-prolyl cis-trans isomerase) activity, binds FK506 (an immunosuppressive drug), and shares homology with Legionella Mip (a virulence factor) and its related proteins. To understand the domain structure and the folding-unfolding mechanism of Mip-like proteins, we investigated a recombinant E. coli FKBP22 (His-FKBP22) as a model protein.

Pair-correlation properties and momentum distribution of finite number of interacting trapped bosons in three dimensions.

We study the ground state pair-correlation properties of a weakly interacting trapped Bose gas in three dimensions by using a correlated many-body method. The use of the van der Waals interaction potential and an external trapping potential shows realistic features. We also test the validity of shape-independent approximation in the calculation of correlation properties.