Investigating molecular recognition and biological function at interfaces using piscidins, antimicrobial peptides from fish.

We studied amidated and non-amidated piscidins 1 and 3, amphipathic cationic antimicrobial peptides from fish, to characterize functional and structural similarities and differences between these peptides and better understand the structural motifs involved in biological activity and functional diversity among amidated and non-amidated isoforms. Antimicrobial and hemolytic assays were carried out to assess their potency and toxicity, respectively. Site-specific high-resolution solid-state NMR orientational restraints were obtained from (15)N-labeled amidated and non-amidated piscidins 1 and 3 in the presence of hydrated oriented lipid bilayers.

Fine mapping in tomato using microsynteny with the Arabidopsis genome: the Diageotropica (Dgt) locus.

Background: The Arabidopsis thaliana genome sequence provides a catalog of reference genes applicable to comparative microsynteny analysis of other species, facilitating map-based cloning in economically important crops. We have applied such an analysis to the tomato expressed sequence tag (EST) database to expedite high-resolution mapping of the Diageotropica (Dgt) gene within the distal end of chromosome 1 in tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum).

Results: A BLAST search of the Arabidopsis database with nucleotide sequences of markers that flank the tomato dgt locus revealed regions of microsynteny between the distal end of chromosome 1 in tomato, two regions of Arabidopsis chromosome 4, and one on chromosome 2.