Combating Multidrug-Resistant Bacteria by Integrating a Novel Target Site Penetration and Receptor Binding Assay Platform Into Translational Modeling.

Multidrug-resistant bacteria are causing a serious global health crisis. A dramatic decline in antibiotic discovery and development investment by pharmaceutical industry over the last decades has slowed the adoption of new technologies. It is imperative that we create new mechanistic insights based on latest technologies, and use translational strategies to optimize patient therapy.

is an indicator of PAO1 strain integrity.

Laboratory research with commonly involves the prototype strain PAO1. There is continued concern that PAO1 sublines maintained and propagated in the same laboratory or different laboratories exhibit genetic and phenotypic variability that may affect the reproducibility and validity of research. Whole-genome sequencing and other research identified the locus as a mutational hotspot, but the explication of the diverse mutations present in the various sublines and consequences remained rather cursory.

Mortality Effects of Three Bacterial Pathogens and Beauveria bassiana When Topically Applied or Injected Into House Flies (Diptera: Muscidae).

The house fly, Musca domestica L., is a global pest of public health and agricultural importance. The efficacy of conventional management has been waning due to increasing insecticide resistance.

Unique synteny and alternate splicing of the chitin synthases in closely related heliothine moths.

Chitin is an extracellular biopolymer that contributes to the cuticular structural matrix in arthropods. As a consequence of its rigid structure, the chitinous cuticle must be shed and replaced to accommodate growth. Two chitin synthase genes that encode for chitin synthase A (ChSA), which produces cuticular exoskeleton, and chitin synthase B (ChSB), which produces peritrophic membrane, were characterized in the genomes of two heliothine moths: the corn earworm/cotton bollworm, Helicoverpa zea (Boddie) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) and the cotton bollworm, Helicoverpa armigera (Hübner) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae).

Identifying Francisella tularensis genes required for growth in host cells.

Francisella tularensis is a highly virulent Gram-negative intracellular pathogen capable of infecting a vast diversity of hosts, ranging from amoebae to humans. A hallmark of F. tularensis virulence is its ability to quickly grow to high densities within a diverse set of host cells, including, but not limited to, macrophages and epithelial cells.