Development of reagents and assays for the detection of pathogenic Burkholderia species.

Rapid detection of the category B biothreat agents Burkholderia pseudomallei and Burkholderia mallei in acute infections is critical to ensure that appropriate treatment is administered quickly to reduce an otherwise high probability of mortality (ca. 40% for B. pseudomallei).

Lipopolysaccharide from Burkholderia thailandensis E264 provides protection in a murine model of melioidosis.

Burkholderia thailandensis is a less virulent close relative of Burkholderia pseudomallei, a CDC category B biothreat agent. We have previously shown that lipopolysaccharide (LPS) extracted from B. pseudomallei can provide protection against a lethal challenge of B.

Protective response to subunit vaccination against intranasal and challenge.

and are Gram-negative pathogenic bacteria, responsible for the diseases glanders and melioidosis, respectively. Furthermore, there is currently no vaccine available against these species. In this study, we aimed to identify protective proteins against these pathogens.

Phosphoglycerate kinase 2 (PGK2) is essential for sperm function and male fertility in mice.

Phosphoglycerate kinase 2 (PGK2), an isozyme that catalyzes the first ATP-generating step in the glycolytic pathway, is encoded by an autosomal retrogene that is expressed only during spermatogenesis. It replaces the ubiquitously expressed phosphoglycerate kinase 1 (PGK1) isozyme following repression of Pgk1 transcription by meiotic sex chromosome inactivation during meiotic prophase and by postmeiotic sex chromatin during spermiogenesis. The targeted disruption of Pgk2 by homologous recombination eliminates PGK activity in sperm and severely impairs male fertility, but does not block spermatogenesis.

In silico analysis of potential diagnostic targets from Burkholderia pseudomallei.

Administration of appropriate therapeutic regimes for infections arising from pathogenic species of Burkholderia is critically dependent upon rapid and accurate diagnoses. The purpose of this work is to establish a bioinformatic pipeline to assess protein sequences for their potential as diagnostic targets for the detection of Burkholderia species. Data are presented showing both a bioinformatic methodology for prediction of surface-associated and secreted proteins and its application to a test dataset of proteins from the pathogen B.