Deactivation of the sporulation transcription factor Spo0A by the Spo0E protein phosphatase.

The spo0E locus of Bacillus subtilis codes for a negative regulator of sporulation that, when overproduced, represses sporulation and, if deleted, results in inappropriate timing of sporulation. The product of this locus, Spo0E, was purified and found to be a protein phosphatase, which specifically dephosphorylated the sporulation transcription factor Spo0A-P, converting it to an inactive form. Spo0E was not significantly active as a phosphatase on other components of the phosphorelay signal-transduction pathway producing Spo0A-P.

Combined use of cerebral spinal fluid drainage and naloxone reduces the risk of paraplegia in thoracoabdominal aneurysm repair.

Purpose: This report summarizes our experience with the use of cerebral spinal fluid drainage (CSFD) and naloxone for prevention of postoperative neurologic deficit (paraplegia or paraparesis).

Methods: We reviewed 110 consecutive patients with 86 thoracoabdominal aneurysms and 24 thoracic aneurysms. The status of 47 patients (43%) was acute (rupture or dissection), and the status of 52 (47%) was Crawford type I or II.

[Transfusion associated acute pulmonary insufficiency. Diagnostic confirmation by the demonstration of granulocytic antibodies].

In two patients, a 50-year-old woman (case 1) and a 2-year-old girl (case 2) acute shortness of breath requiring artificial ventilation developed 3-5 hours after infusion of two erythrocyte concentrates in case 1 and unfiltered platelet-enriched plasma (20 ml/kg) in case 2. The chest radiograph showed diffuse infiltrations in the lungs of both patients. After administration of catecholamines and respirator therapy, extubation was possible in the first patient after two days, in the second after five days.

[Transfusion-associated acute pulmonary insufficiency: a rare, but life-threatening transfusion reaction].

Two patients developed within several hours after blood transfusion severe shortness of breath which required temporary artificial ventilation. X-ray pictures of the chest showed pulmonary edema in both patients. No cardiac causes for edema were found.

[Prenatal substitution therapy in fetal alloimmune thrombocytopenia].

Fetal alloimmune thrombocytopenia is caused by maternofetal transfer of platelet antibodies. Since the thrombocytopenic fetus is threatened by intracranial hemorrhage, prenatal observation and, if necessary, treatment is required. However, the benefit of therapeutic options, including intravenous IgG (ivIgG) or platelet transfusions, is still controversial.

Genetic analysis of the marine manganese-oxidizing Bacillus sp. strain SG-1: protoplast transformation, Tn917 mutagenesis, and identification of chromosomal loci involved in manganese oxidation.

Mature spores of the marine Bacillus sp. strain SG-1 bind and oxidize manganese(II), thereby becoming encrusted with a manganese(IV) oxide. Both the function and mechanism of this oxidation are unknown, although evidence suggests that spore coat proteins are involved.

Magnetic resonance angiography and duplex imaging: noninvasive tests for selecting symptomatic carotid endarterectomy candidates.

Background: This report describes our experience with the use of duplex imaging and magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) in the diagnosis and management of 70 patients with symptomatic carotid artery disease. Prospective evaluation of our first 30 patients showed that duplex imaging and MRA accurately correlated with conventional cerebral arteriograms (XRA) in patients with symptoms with greater than 70% ipsilateral carotid artery stenoses. In MRA versus XRA accuracy was 94%, sensitivity 100%, and specificity 93%.

[Arterial embolization in the care of massive hemorrhage from the rectum].

Haemorrhage from distal parts of the GIT is as a rule associated with diagnostic and therapeutic difficulties, in particular when massive haemorrhage is involved. The authors describe a group of three patients where the source of haemorrhage was an inoperable rectal tumour. This problematic condition was successfully treated by embolization of the upper rectal artery.

[Can the system for ordering blood for elective surgery be improved?].

The authors investigated the effectiveness of ordering of blood for elective surgery. Analysis of a group of 333 operated patients revealed that blood was administered only in 9% of the operations, i.e when compared with the number ordered the ratio ordered: issued was 13:1.

Application of nonlinear sampling schemes to COSY-type spectra.

Nonlinear sampling along the t1 dimension is applied to COSY-type spectra. The sine dependence of the time domain signals for the cross peaks is matched by a nonlinear sampling scheme that samples most densely around the maximum of the sine function. Data are processed by maximum entropy reconstruction, using a modified implementation of the 'Cambridge' algorithm of Skilling and Bryan.

Phosphorylation of Spo0A activates its stimulation of in vitro transcription from the Bacillus subtilis spoIIG operon.

The spoIIG operon of Bacillus subtilis codes for a sporulation-specific sigma factor, sigma E. In vivo expression of the spoIIG promoter is activated shortly after the onset of sporulation and is dependent on kinA, spo0F, spo0B and spo0A genes. The products of these genes have been shown to participate in a phosphorelay reaction in vitro, culminating in phosphorylation of the transcription factor, Spo0A.

[Correction of post-traumatic adduction insufficiency of the small finger by transposition of the tendon of the extensor indicis muscle].

The m. interosseus palmaris III adducts the small finger. Injuries of this muscle and lesions of the ulnar nerve lead to the small finger assuming an abducted posture.

Bacillus subtilis transcription regulator, Spo0A, decreases alkaline phosphatase levels induced by phosphate starvation.

Alkaline phosphatase (APase) is induced as a culture enters stationary phase because of limiting phosphate. The results presented here show that expression of APase is regulated both negatively and positively. PhoP, a homolog of a family of bacterial transcription factors, and PhoR, a homolog of bacterial histidine protein kinases, are required for induction of APases when phosphate becomes limiting.

[Antibody induction after intrauterine interventions].

Immunohematologic and clinical data, i.e., antibody profile, location of the placenta, mode of cordocentesis, obtained from 48 pregnant patients with irregular erythrocyte antibodies during the last 2 years have been retrospectively evaluated.

Combined use of duplex imaging and magnetic resonance angiography for evaluation of patients with symptomatic ipsilateral high-grade carotid stenosis.

Purpose: Advances in cerebral vascular imaging suggest that patients with critical levels of carotid artery stenosis (> 70%) who have symptoms can be identified accurately and necessary information about the intracranial and extracranial circulation obtained before surgery without conventional angiography. We have used carotid duplex imaging in combination with magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) to evaluate 20 patients with symptomatic ipsilateral high-grade carotid stenosis.

Methods: All patients underwent CT and magnetic resonance imaging brain scans, as well as MRA and conventional arteriography of the cerebral circulation.

Signal transduction in Bacillus subtilis sporulation.

The initiation of sporulation in Bacillus subtilis is regulated by a signal transduction system leading to activation (by phosphorylation) of the Spo0A transcription factor. Activated Spo0A controls the expression of genes encoding different RNA polymerase sigma factors, whose synthesis and activities are related to morphological events and intercompartmental communication between the developing forespore and the mother cell.

Multisensory activation of the phosphorelay initiating sporulation in Bacillus subtilis: identification and sequence of the protein kinase of the alternate pathway.

The phosphorelay is the signal-transduction system recognizing and integrating environmental signals to initiate sporulation. The major signal input to the phosphorelay is an ATP-dependent kinase, KinA, responsible for phosphorylating the SpoOF protein. Mutants lacking KinA, however, still sporulate, suggesting that other kinases can fulfil its role.

A positive feedback loop controls transcription of the spoOF gene, a component of the sporulation phosphorelay in Bacillus subtilis.

The spo0F gene of Bacillus subtilis encodes a protein that functions as a secondary messenger in a phosphorelay system controlling the initiation of sporulation. Transcription of the spo0F gene was known to be dependent on an intact gene for the transcription regulator Spo0A. In vitro footprint analysis revealed that Spo0A protein bound to two locations in the spo0F promoter region.

Transition-state regulators: sentinels of Bacillus subtilis post-exponential gene expression.

When Bacillus subtilis encounters a nutrient-depleted environment, it expresses a wide variety of genes that encode functions in alternative pathways of metabolism and energy production. Expression of these genes first occurs during the transition from active growth into stationary phase and is controlled by a class of proteins termed transition-state regulators. In several instances, a given gene is redundantly controlled by two or more of these regulators and many of these regulators control genes in numerous different pathways.

The phosphorelay signal transduction pathway in the initiation of Bacillus subtilis sporulation.

The formation of spores in Bacillus subtilis is a developmental process under genetic control. The decision to either divide or sporulate is regulated by the state of phosphorylation of the SpoOA transcription factor. Phosphorylated SpoOA (SpoOA approximately P) is both a repressor and an activator of transcription depending on the promoter it is affecting.

Regulation of the phosphorelay and the initiation of sporulation in Bacillus subtilis.

The initiation of sporulation of bacteria is a complex cellular event controlled by an extensive network of regulatory proteins that serve to ensure that a cell embarks on this differentiation process only when appropriate conditions are met. The major signal-transduction pathway for the initiation of sporulation is the phosphorelay, which responds to environmental, cell cycle, and metabolic signals, and phosphorylates the Spo0A transcription factor activating its function. Signal input into the phosphorelay occurs through activation of kinases to phosphorylate a secondary-messenger protein, Spo0F.

cis-unsaturated fatty acids specifically inhibit a signal-transducing protein kinase required for initiation of sporulation in Bacillus subtilis.

The initiation of sporulation in Bacillus subtilis is controlled by the Spo0A transcription factor which is activated by phosphorylation through a phosphorelay mechanism that is dependent upon the activity of one or more protein kinases. The enzymatic activity of one of these protein kinases, KinA, was found to be inhibited in vitro by certain fatty acids. The most potent inhibitors have at least one unsaturated double bond in the cis configuration and a chain length of 16-20 carbon atoms.

Sporulation in prokaryotes and lower eukaryotes.

During the past year, highlights in sporulation research include the demonstration that phosphorylation of SpoOA is a critical factor in Bacillus subtilis development; the identification of C alpha proteins, adenylyl cyclase and protein kinase A genes in Dictyostelium; proof that an endogenous antisense RNA regulates gene expression in Dictyostelium; and characterization of a second type of differentiated cell in Myxococcus.

Characterization and nucleotide binding properties of a mutant dihydropteridine reductase containing an aspartate 37-isoleucine replacement.

Kinetic constants for the interaction of NADH and NADPH with native rat dihydropteridine reductase (DHPR) and an Escherichia coli expressed mutant (D-37-I) have been determined. Comparison of kcat and Km values measured employing quinonoid 6,7-dimethyldihydropteridine (q-PtH2) as substrate indicate that the native enzyme has a considerable preference for NADH with an optimum kcat/Km of 12 microM-1 s-1 compared with a figure of 0.25 microM-1 s-1 for NADPH.