Development of a single-cell X-ray fluorescence flow cytometer.

An X-ray fluorescence flow cytometer that can determine the total metal content of single cells has been developed. Capillary action or pressure was used to load cells into hydrophilic or hydrophobic capillaries, respectively. Once loaded, the cells were transported at a fixed vertical velocity past a focused X-ray beam.

Effector T Cells Abrogate Stroma-Mediated Chemoresistance in Ovarian Cancer.

Effector T cells and fibroblasts are major components in the tumor microenvironment. The means through which these cellular interactions affect chemoresistance is unclear. Here, we show that fibroblasts diminish nuclear accumulation of platinum in ovarian cancer cells, resulting in resistance to platinum-based chemotherapy.

Fibroblasts from long-lived rodent species exclude cadmium.

Resistance to the lethal effects of cellular stressors, including the toxic heavy metal cadmium (Cd), is characteristic of fibroblast cell lines derived from long-lived bird and rodent species, as well as cell lines from several varieties of long-lived mutant mice. To explore the mechanism of resistance to Cd, we used inductively coupled plasma mass spectroscopy to measure the rate of Cd uptake into primary fibroblasts of 15 rodent species. These data indicate that fibroblasts from long-lived rodent species have slower rates of Cd uptake from the extracellular medium than those from short-lived species.

The MobM relaxase domain of plasmid pMV158: thermal stability and activity upon Mn2+ and specific DNA binding.

Protein MobM, the relaxase involved in conjugative transfer of the streptococcal plasmid pMV158, is the prototype of the MOB(V) superfamily of relaxases. To characterize the DNA-binding and nicking domain of MobM, a truncated version of the protein (MobMN199) encompassing its N-terminal region was designed and the protein was purified. MobMN199 was monomeric in contrast to the dimeric form of the full-length protein, but it kept its nicking activity on pMV158 DNA.

Tracking F plasmid TraI relaxase processing reactions provides insight into F plasmid transfer.

Early in F plasmid conjugative transfer, the F relaxase, TraI, cleaves one plasmid strand at a site within the origin of transfer called nic. The reaction covalently links TraI Tyr16 to the 5'-ssDNA phosphate. Ultimately, TraI reverses the cleavage reaction to circularize the plasmid strand.

Single-stranded DNA binding by F TraI relaxase and helicase domains is coordinately regulated.

Transfer of conjugative plasmids requires relaxases, proteins that cleave one plasmid strand sequence specifically. The F plasmid relaxase TraI (1,756 amino acids) is also a highly processive DNA helicase. The TraI relaxase activity is located within the N-terminal approximately 300 amino acids, while helicase motifs are located in the region comprising positions 990 to 1450.

Arc repressor-operator DNA interactions and contribution of Phe10 to binding specificity.

Solution properties of Arc repressors (wild-type and F10H variant) from Salmonella bacteriophage P22 and their complexes with operator DNA (Arc-wt-DNA and Arc-F10H-DNA) were characterized by circular dichroism, fluorescence, and Raman difference spectroscopy and compared with the crystal structures of free and DNA-bound Arc repressors (wild-type and F10V variant). From the crystal structure of Arc-wt-operator DNA complex, it is known that amino acids Phe10/10' flip out of the hydrophobic protein core, and in the Arc-F10V-DNA complex, the methyl groups of Val10/10' rotate toward the DNA. Arc-wt and Arc-F10H significantly perturb the Raman signatures of the operator DNA upon complex formation.

Partial B-to-A DNA transition upon minor groove binding of protein Sac7d monitored by Raman spectroscopy.

Members of the Sso7d/Sac7d protein family and other related proteins are believed to play an important role in DNA packaging and maintenance in archeons. Sso7d/Sac7d are small, abundant, basic, and nonspecific DNA-binding proteins of the hyperthermophilic archeon Sulfolobus. Structures of several complexes of Sso7d/Sac7d with DNA octamers are known.

Single-stranded DNA bound to bacterial cold-shock proteins: preliminary crystallographic and Raman analysis.

The cold-shock response has been described for several bacterial species. It is characterized by distinct changes in intracellular protein patterns whereby a set of cold-shock-inducible proteins become abundant. The major cold-shock proteins of Bacillus subtilis (Bs-CspB) and Bacillus caldolyticus (Bc-Csp) are small oligonucleotide/oligosaccharide-binding (OB) fold proteins that have been described as binding single-stranded nucleic acids.

RP4 repressor protein KorB binds to the major groove of the operator DNA: a Raman study.

KorB is a member of the ParB family of bacterial partitioning proteins. The protein encoded by the conjugative plasmid RP4 is part of the global control circuit and regulates the expression of plasmid genes, the products of which are involved in replication, transfer, and stable inheritance. KorB is a homodimeric protein which binds to palindromic 13 bp DNA sequences [5'-TTTAGC((G)/(C))GCTAAA-3'] present 12 times in the 60 kb plasmid.

Raman spectroscopy study of acid-base and structural properties of 9-[2-(phosphonomethoxy)ethyl]adenine in aqueous solutions.

The acid-base properties of the acyclic antiviral nucleotide analogue 9- [2-(phosphonomethoxy)ethyl] adenine (PMEA) in aqueous solutions are studied by means of Raman spectroscopy in a pH range of 1-11 and compared with the properties of its common adenosine monophosphate counterparts (5'-AMP, 3'-AMP, and 2'-AMP). Factor analysis is used to separate the spectra of pure ionic species (PMEA2-, HPMEA-, H2PMEA, H3PMEA+) in order to determine their abundance, sites of protonation, and corresponding spectroscopic pK(a) values. The characteristic Raman features of the neutral adenine moiety in PMEA2- and HPMEA- species resemble those of neutral adenine in the AMPs, whereas significant differences are observed between the Raman spectra of the N1-protonated adenine of the solute zwitterionic H2PMEA and its N1-protonated AMP counterparts.