New tools for chloroplast genetic engineering allow the synthesis of human growth hormone in the green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii.

In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in the exploitation of microalgae in industrial biotechnology. Potentially, these phototrophic eukaryotes could be used for the low-cost synthesis of valuable recombinant products such as bioactive metabolites and therapeutic proteins. The algal chloroplast in particular represents an attractive target for such genetic engineering, both because it houses major metabolic pathways and because foreign genes can be targeted to specific loci within the chloroplast genome, resulting in high-level, stable expression.

The complete sequence of the chloroplast genome of the green microalga Lobosphaera (Parietochloris) incisa.

We hereby report the complete chloroplast genome sequence of the green unicellular alga Lobosphaera (Parietochloris) incisa (strain SAG 2468). The genome consists of a circular chromosome of 156,028 bp, which is 72% A-T rich and does not contain a large rRNA-encoding inverted repeat. It is predicted to encode a total of 111 genes including 78 protein-coding, three rRNA, and 30 tRNA genes.

Human platelets recognize a novel surface protein, PadA, on Streptococcus gordonii through a unique interaction involving fibrinogen receptor GPIIbIIIa.

The concept of an infectious agent playing a role in cardiovascular disease is slowly gaining attention. Among several pathogens identified, the oral bacterium Streptococcus gordonii has been implicated as a plausible agent. Platelet adhesion and subsequent aggregation are critical events in the pathogenesis and dissemination of the infective process.

Dispensable genes and foreign DNA in Streptococcus mutans.

A range of properties, including the ability to utilize various sugars, bind macromolecules and produce mutacins, are known to vary in their occurrence in different strains of Streptococcus mutans. In addition, insertion-sequence elements show a limited distribution and sequencing of the genome of S. mutans UA159 has revealed the presence of putative genomic islands of atypical base composition indicative of foreign DNA.