Inflammatory dysbiotic diseases present an intriguing biological paradox. Like most other infectious disease processes, the alarm bells of the host are potently activated by tissue-destructive pathobionts, triggering a cascade of physiological responses that ultimately mobilize immune cells like neutrophils to sites of active infection. Typically, these inflammatory host responses are critical to inhibit and/or eradicate infecting microbes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFis a pathobiont of humans that is often found in abundance at sites of mucosal inflammation as well as within malignant tumors. Here, we report the complete genome sequence of strain JM503A, which is a genetically tractable clinical isolate derived from a human odontogenic abscess specimen.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMecA is a highly conserved adaptor protein encoded by prokaryotes from the phylum. MecA mutants exhibit similar pleiotropic defects in a variety of organisms, although most of these phenotypes currently lack a mechanistic basis. MecA mediates ClpCP-dependent proteolysis of its substrates, but only several such substrates have been reported in the literature and there are suggestions that proteolysis-independent regulatory mechanisms may also exist.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe role of historical contingency in evolution has been much debated, but rarely tested. Twelve initially identical populations of Escherichia coli were founded in 1988 to investigate this issue. They have since evolved in a glucose-limited medium that also contains citrate, which E.
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