Publications by authors named "Francesca Spazzali"

Fucus virsoides is an ecologically important canopy-forming brown algae endemic to the Adriatic Sea. Once widespread in marine coastal areas, this species underwent a rapid population decline and is now confined to small residual areas. Although the reasons behind this progressive disappearance are still a matter of debate, F.

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A 15-kDa lectin, termed SeviL, was isolated from Mytilisepta virgata (purplish bifurcate mussel). SeviL forms a noncovalent dimer that binds strongly to ganglio-series GM1b oligosaccharide (Neu5Acɑ2-3Galβ1-3GalNAcβ1-4Galβ1-4Glc) and its precursor, asialo-GM1 (Galβ1-3GalNAcβ1-4Galβ1-4Glc). SeviL also interacts weakly with the glycan moiety of SSEA-4 hexaose (Neu5Acα2-3Galβ1-3GalNAcβ1-3Galα1-4Galβ1-4Glc).

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Background: Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are multifunctional effector molecules that often combine direct antimicrobial activities with signaling or immunomodulatory functions. The skin secretions of anurans contain a variety of such bioactive peptides. The identification of AMPs from frog species often requires sacrificing several specimens to obtain small quantities of crude peptides, followed by activity based fractionation to identify the active principles.

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Background: Mytilisepta virgata is a marine mussel commonly found along the coasts of Japan. Although this species has been the subject of occasional studies concerning its ecological role, growth and reproduction, it has been so far almost completely neglected from a genetic and molecular point of view. In the present study we present a high quality de novo assembled transcriptome of the Japanese purplish mussel, which represents the first publicly available collection of expressed sequences for this species.

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