A biosensor-based phage display selection method for automated, high-throughput Nanobody discovery.

Biopanning methods to select target-specific Nanobodies® (Nbs) involve presenting the antigen, immobilized on plastic plates or magnetic beads, to Nb libraries displayed on phage. Most routines are operator-dependent, labor-intensive and often material- and time-consuming. Here we validate an improved panning strategy that uses biosensors to present the antigen to phage-displayed Nbs in a well.

A nanobody-based microfluidic chip for fast and automated purification of protein complexes.

Many proteins, especially eukaryotic proteins, membrane proteins and protein complexes, are challenging to study because they are difficult to purify in their native state without disrupting the interactions with their partners. Hence, our lab developed a novel purification technique employing Nanobodies® (Nbs). This technique, called nanobody exchange chromatography (NANEX), utilises an immobilised low-affinity Nb to capture the target protein, which is subsequently eluted - along with its interaction partners - by introducing a high-affinity Nb.

Effects of grazing strategy on facultative grassland bird nesting on native grassland pastures of the Mid-South USA.

Understanding how livestock grazing strategies of native warm season grasses (NWSG) can impact facultative grassland bird nesting can provide insight for conservation efforts. We compared pre and post treatment effects of rotational grazing (ROT) and patch-burn grazing (PBG) for facultative grassland bird species nest success and nest-site selection on NWSG pastures at three Mid-South research sites. We established 14, 9.

Urea fertilization and grass species alter microbial nitrogen cycling capacity and activity in a C native grassland.

Soil microbial transformation of nitrogen (N) in nutrient-limited native C grasslands can be affected by N fertilization rate and C grass species. Here, we report dynamics of the population size (gene copy abundances) and activity (transcript copy abundances) of five functional genes involved in soil N cycling (, bacterial , , , and ) in a field experiment with two C grass species (switchgrass () and big bluestem ()) under three N fertilization rates (0, 67, and 202 kg N ha). Diazotroph () abundance and activity were not affected by N fertilization rate nor grass species.

Ammonia-oxidizing bacterial communities are affected by nitrogen fertilization and grass species in native C grassland soils.

Background: Fertilizer addition can contribute to nitrogen (N) losses from soil by affecting microbial populations responsible for nitrification. However, the effects of N fertilization on ammonia oxidizing bacteria under C perennial grasses in nutrient-poor grasslands are not well studied.

Methods: In this study, a field experiment was used to assess the effects of N fertilization rate (0, 67, and 202 kg N ha) and grass species (switchgrass () and big bluestem ()) on ammonia-oxidizing bacterial (AOB) communities in C grassland soils using quantitative PCR, quantitative reverse transcription-PCR, and high-throughput amplicon sequencing of genes.