Comprehensive detection of immunorelevant Borrelia garinii antigens by two-dimensional electrophoresis.

Lyme disease is caused by spirochetes of the Borrelia burgdofferi complex and has been reported in many temperate parts of the Northern Hemisphere. The B. burgdorferi complex consists of at least five different species and five genotypes with different pathogenicity.

Immune response to natural and recombinant antigens of Helicobacter pylori in patients with dyspeptic complaints.

Sera of 223 dyspeptic patients with endoscopic findings of nonulcer dyspepsia (72%), gastric ulcer (15%) and duodenal ulcer (13%) were tested for antibodies against Helicobacter pylori with an enzyme immunoassay and an immunoblot technique using lysates of Helicobacter pylori cells as antigen source. One hundred and fifty-one (68%) sera were found to be positive for Helicobacter pylori IgG with both methods; 5% of the positive results in the enzyme immunoassay were false-positive due to cross-reactions mainly of proteins with a molecular mass of 43-66 kDa. Since cross-reactivity not only reduces the diagnostic value of the immunoassay but also complicates evaluation of the immunoblot results, an attempt was made to overcome these problems by using specific purified recombinant proteins instead of the crude cell preparations as antigens.

Proteomics in human disease: cancer, heart and infectious diseases.

In recent years, genomics has increased the understanding of many diseases. Proteomics is a rapidly growing research area that encompasses both genetic and environmental factors. The protein composition represents the functional status of a biological compartment.

Expression of atrC - encoding a novel member of the ATP binding cassette transporter family in Aspergillus nidulans - is sensitive to cycloheximide.

A new member of the ABC superfamily of transmembrane proteins in Aspergillus nidulans has been cloned and characterized. The topology of conserved motifs subgroups AtrC in the P-glycoprotein cluster of ABC permeases, the members of this subfamily, are known to participate in multidrug resistance (MDR) in diverse organisms. Alignment results display significant amino acid similarity to AfuMDR1 and AflMDR1 from Aspergillus fumigatus and flavus, respectively.

The Aspergillus nidulans GATA factor SREA is involved in regulation of siderophore biosynthesis and control of iron uptake.

A gene encoding a new GATA factor from Aspergillus nidulans, sreA, was isolated and characterized. SREA displays homology to two fungal regulators of siderophore biosynthesis: about 30% overall identity to SRE from Neurospora crassa and about 50% identity to URBS1 from Ustilago maydis over a stretch of 200 amino acid residues containing two GATA-type zinc finger motifs and a cysteine-rich region. This putative DNA binding domain, expressed as a fusion protein in Escherichia coli, specifically binds to GATA sequence motifs.