Interferon-stimulated genes: a complex web of host defenses.

Interferon-stimulated gene (ISG) products take on a number of diverse roles. Collectively, they are highly effective at resisting and controlling pathogens. In this review, we begin by introducing interferon (IFN) and the JAK-STAT signaling pathway to highlight features that impact ISG production.

The tegument protein UL71 of human cytomegalovirus is involved in late envelopment and affects multivesicular bodies.

Morphogenesis of human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) is still only partially understood. We have characterized the role of HCMV tegument protein pUL71 in viral replication and morphogenesis. By using a rabbit antibody raised against the C terminus of pUL71, we could detect the protein in infected cells, as well as in virions showing a molecular mass of approximately 48 kDa.

Differentiation between polymorphisms and resistance-associated mutations in human cytomegalovirus DNA polymerase.

Specific mutations in the human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) DNA polymerase (pUL54) are known to confer resistance against all currently licensed drugs for treatment of HCMV infection and disease. Following the widespread use of antivirals, the occurrence of HCMV drug resistance is constantly increasing. Recently, diagnostic laboratories have started to replace phenotypic drug resistance testing with genotypic resistance testing.

A new tool linking human cytomegalovirus drug resistance mutations to resistance phenotypes.

Drug resistant strains of human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) in patients at risk may increasingly develop into a problem in the clinical setting. Genotypic resistance testing is becoming the method of choice, but requires previous phenotypic characterisation of each newly found mutation. In order to facilitate the interpretation of the patient's CMV sequence data, a web-based search tool was generated that links the sequence to a database containing all published UL97 (protein kinase) and UL54 (DNA polymerase) mutations and corresponding antiviral drug susceptibility phenotypes.

Fluorescence-based assay for phenotypic characterization of human cytomegalovirus polymerase mutations regarding drug susceptibility and viral replicative fitness.

One essential prerequisite for genotypic drug susceptibility testing of human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) is the phenotypic characterization of mutations identified in the viral protein kinase gene UL97 and the viral DNA polymerase gene UL54 regarding their quantitative impact on drug susceptibility. We developed a new method for phenotypic characterization of UL54 mutations with regard to polymerase activity, viral replication, and drug susceptibility. To determine the most suitable viral indicator gene, enhanced green fluorescence protein was C-terminally fused to the HCMV early-late protein UL83 (pp65) or the late proteins UL32 (pp150) and UL99 (pp28), resulting in reporter viruses vTB65g, vTB150g, and vTB28g.

Major tegument protein pp65 of human cytomegalovirus is required for the incorporation of pUL69 and pUL97 into the virus particle and for viral growth in macrophages.

The tegument protein pp65 of human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) represents the major component of mature virus particles. Nevertheless, deletion of pp65 has been shown to have no effects on virus replication and morphogenesis in fibroblasts in vitro. We have studied the HCMV virion composition in the absence of pp65 and viral growth of a pp65 stop mutant in different cell types, including monocyte-derived macrophages.

A quick and reliable method for monitoring gene expression in actinomycetes.

Amycolatopsis balhimycina DSM5908 is the producer of the vancomycin-type glycopeptide antibiotic balhimycin. Balhimycin production is controlled by transcriptional regulators and depends on different environmental factors. To analyse the regulatory network P(tba), a representative promoter of the balhimycin gene cluster, was fused to the reporter gene egfp and integrated into the genome of A.