A wide variety of stresses have been proposed to exert killing effects upon bacteria by stimulating the intracellular formation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). A key part of the supporting evidence has often been the ability of antioxidant compounds to protect the cells. In this study, some of the most-used antioxidants-thiourea, glutathione, N-acetylcysteine, and ascorbate-have been examined.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe structure of free cysteine makes it vulnerable to oxidation by molecular oxygen; consequently, organisms that live in oxic habitats have acquired the ability to import cystine as a sulfur source. We show that cystine imported into Escherichia coli can transfer disulfide bonds to cytoplasmic proteins. To minimize this problem, the imported cystine is rapidly reduced.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBacteria release cysteine to moderate the size of their intracellular pools. They can also evolve hydrogen sulfide, either through dissimilatory reduction of oxidized forms of sulfur or through the deliberate or inadvertent degradation of intracellular cysteine. These processes can have important consequences upon microbial communities, because excreted cysteine autoxidizes to generate hydrogen peroxide, and hydrogen sulfide is a potentially toxic species that can block aerobic respiration by inhibiting cytochrome oxidases.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUsing a specially designed Monte Carlo algorithm with directed loops, we investigate the triangular lattice Ising antiferromagnet with coupling beyond the nearest neighbors. We show that the first-order transition from the stripe state to the paramagnet can be split, giving rise to an intermediate nematic phase in which algebraic correlations coexist with a broken symmetry. Furthermore, we demonstrate the emergence of several properties of a more topological nature such as fractional edge excitations in the stripe state, the proliferation of double domain walls in the nematic phase, and the Kasteleyn transition between them.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWhen sulfur compounds are scarce or difficult to process, Escherichia coli adapts by inducing the high-level expression of sulfur-compound importers. If cystine then becomes available, the cystine is rapidly overimported and reduced, leading to a burgeoning pool of intracellular cysteine. Most of the excess cysteine is exported, but some is adventitiously degraded, with the consequent release of sulfide.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUnlabelled: When cystine is added to Escherichia coli, the bacterium becomes remarkably sensitive to hydrogen peroxide. This effect is due to enlarged intracellular pools of cysteine, which can drive Fenton chemistry. Genetic analysis linked the sensitivity to YdjN, a secondary transporter that along with the FliY-YecSC ABC system is responsible for cystine uptake.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn order to confirm the taxonomic position of environmental strains determined based on their biochemical, cultural, andmorphological characteristics, molecular genetic identification was carried out. A number of problems in identification of microorganisms were shown to be associated with contamination of the cultures in the course of isolation. Advantages of a comprehensive approach, combining 16S rRNA gene sequencing with a set of biochemical, cultural, and morphological parameters; for identification of microorganisms isolated from environmental objects and clinical samples are discussed.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUsing extensive classical and quantum Monte Carlo simulations, we investigate the ground-state phase diagram of the fully frustrated transverse field Ising model on the square lattice. We show that pure columnar order develops in the low-field phase above a surprisingly large length scale, below which an effective U(1) symmetry is present. The same conclusion applies to the quantum dimer model with purely kinetic energy, to which the model reduces in the zero-field limit, as well as to the stacked classical version of the model.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFStomatologiia (Mosk)
August 2012
Several options for bone tissue augmentation by dental implant procedures in upper incisors, canines and bicuspids area are described were are discussed in the study. Seventy-three patients were included in the study. Bone auto- and allogenic grafts, Β-3-calcium phosphate as well as their combination were used as osteoplastic materials.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMechanisms of hydrogen peroxide generation in Escherichia coli were investigated using a strain lacking scavenging enzymes. Surprisingly, the deletion of many abundant flavoenzymes that are known to autoxidize in vitro did not substantially lessen overall H(2)O(2) formation. However, H(2)O(2) production diminished by 25-30% when NadB turnover was eliminated.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPhys Rev E Stat Nonlin Soft Matter Phys
September 2009
The free-energy distribution function of an elastic string in a quenched random potential, PL(F) , is investigated with the help of the optimal fluctuation approach. The form of the far-right tail of PL(F) is found by constructing the exact solution of the nonlinear saddle-point equations describing the asymptotic form of the optimal fluctuation. The solution of the problem is obtained for two different types of boundary conditions and for an arbitrary dimension of the imbedding space 1+d with d from the interval 0
Mitochondria-targeted cationic plastoquinone derivative SkQ1 (10-(6'-plastoquinonyl) decyltriphenylphosphonium) has been investigated as a potential tool for treating a number of ROS-related ocular diseases. In OXYS rats suffering from a ROS-induced progeria, very small amounts of SkQ1 (50 nmol/kg per day) added to food were found to prevent development of age-induced cataract and retinopathies of the eye, lipid peroxidation and protein carbonylation in skeletal muscles, as well as a decrease in bone mineralization. Instillation of drops of 250 nM SkQ1 reversed cataract and retinopathies in 3-12-month-old (but not in 24-month-old) OXYS rats.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe consider two configurations of a random directed polymer of length L confined to a plane and ending in two points separated by 2u. Defining the mean free-energy F[over ] and the free-energy difference F;{'} of the two configurations, we determine the joint distribution function P(L,u)(F[over ],F(')) using the replica approach. We find that for large L and large negative free energies F[over ], the joint distribution function factorizes into longitudinal [P(L,u)(F[over ])] and transverse [P(u)(F('))] components, which furthermore coincide with results obtained previously via different independent routes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMany gram-negative bacteria harbor a copper/zinc-containing superoxide dismutase (CuZnSOD) in their periplasms. In pathogenic bacteria, one role of this enzyme may be to protect periplasmic biomolecules from superoxide that is released by host phagocytic cells. However, the enzyme is also present in many nonpathogens and/or free-living bacteria, including Escherichia coli.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe uniformly frustrated XY model with f=1/3 on a dice lattice is shown to possess an accidental degeneracy of its ground states so well developed that the difference between the free energies of fluctuations does not lead to the stabilization of a particular vortex pattern down to zero temperature. Nonetheless, at low temperatures the system is characterized by a finite helicity modulus whose vanishing (at a finite temperature) is related to the dissociation of half-vortex pairs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe accidental degeneracy of various ground states of a fully frustrated XY model with a honeycomb lattice is shown to survive even when the free energy of the harmonic fluctuations is taken into account. The reason for that consists in the existence of a hidden gauge symmetry between the Hamiltonians describing the harmonic fluctuations in all these ground states. A particular vortex pattern is selected only when anharmonic fluctuations are taken into account.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe unbinding of kink pairs on domain walls in the fully frustrated XY model (on square or triangular lattices) is shown to induce the vanishing of phase coupling across the walls. This forces the phase transition, associated with unbinding of vortex pairs, to take place at a lower temperature than the other phase transition, associated with proliferation of the Ising-type domain walls. The results are applicable for a description of superconducting junction arrays and wire networks in a perpendicular magnetic field, as well as of planar antiferromagnets with a triangular lattice.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSuperoxide is a key component of the antibacterial weaponry of phagocytes. Presumably, for this reason, strains of Salmonella typhimurium express a periplasmic superoxide dismutase (SOD) that is essential for full virulence. Because most anions cannot easily penetrate lipid membranes, it is thought that the phagosomal superoxide either damages an unknown target on the bacterial surface or reacts with nitric oxide to form peroxynitrite (HOONO), a toxic oxidant that can freely enter bacteria.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe linear dynamic response of the two-dimensional (2D) vortex medium in ultrathin YBa2Cu3O7 films was studied by measuring their ac sheet impedance Z over a broad range of frequencies omega. With decreasing temperature the dissipative component of Z exhibits, at a temperature T*(omega) well above the melting temperature of a 2D vortex crystal, a crossover from a thermally activated regime involving single vortices to a regime where the response has features consistent with a description in terms of a collectively pinned vortex manifold. This suggests the idea of a vortex liquid which, below T*(omega), appears to be frozen at the time scales 1/omega of the experiments.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLow (C(1/2) = 1.5 x 10(-7) M) concentrations of horse cytochrome c strongly inhibit H(2)O(2) production by rat heart mitochondria under conditions of reverse electron transfer from succinate to NAD(+). The effect is abolished by binding of cytochrome c with liposomes and is not prevented by SOD.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBoth natural (laurate) and artificial (m-chlorocarbonylcyanide phenylhydrazone; CCCP) uncouplers strongly inhibit O2.- and H2O2 formation by rat heart mitochondria oxidizing succinate. Carboxyatractylate, an ATP/ADP antiporter inhibitor, abolishes the laurate inhibition, the CCCP inhibition being unaffected.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFormation of H2O2 has been studied in rat heart mitochondria, pretreated with H2O2 and aminotriazole to lower their antioxidant capacity. It is shown that the rate of H2O2 formation by mitochondria oxidizing 6 mM succinate is inhibited by a protonophorous uncoupler, ADP and phosphate, malonate, rotenone and myxothiazol, and is stimulated by antimycin A. The effect of ADP is abolished by carboxyatractylate and oligomycin.
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