Versatile nourseothricin and streptomycin/spectinomycin resistance gene cassettes and their use in chromosome integration vectors.

An obstacle for the development of genetic systems for many bacteria is the limited number of antibiotic selection markers, especially for bacteria that are intrinsically antibiotic resistant or where utilization of such markers is strictly regulated. Here we describe the development of versatile cassettes containing nourseothricin, streptomycin/spectinomycin, and spectinomycin selection markers. The antibiotic resistance genes contained on these cassettes are flanked by loxP sites with allow their in vivo excision from the chromosome of target bacteria using Cre recombinase.

Curation accuracy of model organism databases.

Manual extraction of information from the biomedical literature-or biocuration-is the central methodology used to construct many biological databases. For example, the UniProt protein database, the EcoCyc Escherichia coli database and the Candida Genome Database (CGD) are all based on biocuration. Biological databases are used extensively by life science researchers, as online encyclopedias, as aids in the interpretation of new experimental data and as golden standards for the development of new bioinformatics algorithms.

WRAMPing up calcium in migrating cells by localized ER transport.

Morphological plasticity and front-rear polarity are essential for directed cell migration. In this issue of Developmental Cell, Witze et al. (2013) demonstrate that Wnt5a-mediated signaling induces localization of the cortical endoplasmic reticulum to the trailing edge of melanoma cells and mediates calcium flux, rear detachment, and motility.

Dengue virus-specific CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes target NS1, NS3 and NS5 in infected Indian rhesus macaques.

Every year, Dengue virus (DENV) infects approximately 100 million people. There are currently several vaccines undergoing clinical studies, but most target the induction of neutralizing antibodies. Unfortunately, DENV infection can be enhanced by subneutralizing levels of antibodies that bind virions and deliver them to cells of the myeloid lineage, thereby increasing viral replication (termed antibody-dependent enhancement [ADE]).