Electron microscopy and persistence length analysis of semi-rigid smooth muscle tropomyosin strands.

The structural mechanics of tropomyosin are essential determinants of its affinity and positioning on F-actin. Thus, tissue-specific differences among tropomyosin isoforms may influence both access of actin-binding proteins along the actin filaments and the cooperativity of actin-myosin interactions. Here, 40 nm long smooth and striated muscle tropomyosin molecules were rotary-shadowed and compared by means of electron microscopy.

Evidence for a "wattle and daub" model of the cyst wall of entamoeba.

The cyst wall of Entamoeba invadens (Ei), a model for the human pathogen Entamoeba histolytica, is composed of fibrils of chitin and three chitin-binding lectins called Jacob, Jessie3, and chitinase. Here we show chitin, which was detected with wheat germ agglutinin, is made in secretory vesicles prior to its deposition on the surface of encysting Ei. Jacob lectins, which have tandemly arrayed chitin-binding domains (CBDs), and chitinase, which has an N-terminal CBD, were each made early during encystation.

Structure of CFA/I fimbriae from enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli.

Adhesion pili (fimbriae) play a critical role in initiating the events that lead to intestinal colonization and diarrheal disease by enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC), an E. coli pathotype that inflicts an enormous global disease burden. We elucidate atomic structures of an ETEC major pilin subunit, CfaB, from colonization factor antigen I (CFA/I) fimbriae.