Large format polymer extrusion-based additive manufacturing has been studied recently due to its capacity for high throughput, customizable bead size and geometry, and ability to manufacture large parts. Samples from three fiber-filled amorphous thermoplastic materials 3D printed using a Masterprint 3X machine from Ingersoll Machine Tools were studied, along with their neat counterparts. Characterization techniques included thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), and thermo-mechanical analysis (TMA).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGene rv3722c of Mycobacterium tuberculosis is essential for in vitro growth, and encodes a putative pyridoxal phosphate-binding protein of unknown function. Here we use metabolomic, genetic and structural approaches to show that Rv3722c is the primary aspartate aminotransferase of M. tuberculosis, and mediates an essential but underrecognized role in metabolism: nitrogen distribution.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNew antibiotics are needed to combat rising levels of resistance, with new Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) drugs having the highest priority. However, conventional whole-cell and biochemical antibiotic screens have failed. Here we develop a strategy termed PROSPECT (primary screening of strains to prioritize expanded chemistry and targets), in which we screen compounds against pools of strains depleted of essential bacterial targets.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn bacteria, disulfide bonds confer stability on many proteins exported to the cell envelope or beyond, including bacterial virulence factors. Thus, proteins involved in disulfide bond formation represent good targets for the development of inhibitors that can act as antibiotics or anti-virulence agents, resulting in the simultaneous inactivation of several types of virulence factors. Here, we present evidence that the disulfide bond forming enzymes, DsbB and VKOR, are required for Pseudomonas aeruginosa pathogenicity and Mycobacterium tuberculosis survival respectively.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMotile cilia are an essential component of the mouse, zebrafish, and Xenopus laevis Left Right Organizers, generating nodal flow and allowing the reception and transduction of mechanosensory signals. Nonmotile primary cilia are also an important component of the Left Right Organizer's chemosensory mechanism. It has been proposed in the chicken that signaling in Hensen's node, the Left Right Organizer of the chicken, is independent of cilia, based on a lack of evidence of motile cilia or nodal flow.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUnlike most bacterial species, Mycobacterium tuberculosis depends on the Clp proteolysis system for survival even in in vitro conditions. We hypothesized that Clp is required for the physiologic turnover of mycobacterial proteins whose accumulation is deleterious to bacterial growth and survival. To identify cellular substrates, we employed quantitative proteomics and transcriptomics to identify the set of proteins that accumulated upon the loss of functional Clp protease.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFProc Natl Acad Sci U S A
January 2014
Errors are inherent in all biological systems. Errors in protein translation are particularly frequent giving rise to a collection of protein quasi-species, the diversity of which will vary according to the error rate. As mistranslation rates rise, these new proteins could produce new phenotypes, although none have been identified to date.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Francisella tularensis, the causative agent of tularemia, is a highly virulent microbe. One significant virulence factor of F. tularensis is the O-polysaccharide (O-PS) portion of the organism's lipopolysaccharide.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe O-antigen polymerase of gram-negative bacteria has been difficult to characterize. Herein we report the biochemical and functional characterization of the protein product (Wzy) of the gene annotated as the putative O-antigen polymerase, which is located in the O-antigen biosynthetic locus of Francisella tularensis. In silico analysis (homology searching, hydropathy plotting, and codon usage assessment) strongly suggested that Wzy is an O-antigen polymerase whose function is to catalyze the addition of newly synthesized O-antigen repeating units to a glycolipid consisting of lipid A, inner core polysaccharide, and one repeating unit of the O-polysaccharide (O-PS).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHerein we report studies with a novel combination vaccine that, when administered to mice, conferred protection against highly virulent strains of Francisella tularensis by stimulating both arms of the immune system. Our earlier studies with Ft.LVS::wbtA, an O-polysaccharide (OPS)-negative mutant derived from the available live vaccine strain of F.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe aim of this study was to analyze the psychosocial effects of severe caries in 4-year-old children in Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil. The clinical examination was conducted by a single examiner in order to select children with severe caries and caries-free (kappa = 1). Of the 861 children examined, 77 (8.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNickel-dependent superoxide dismutases (NiSODs) represent a novel solution to controlling the deleterious effects of reactive oxygen species derived from superoxide in biology. The expression of recombinant Streptomyces coelicolor NiSOD and its in vitro processing and reconstitution to yield fully active enzyme is reported. The results of studies of NiSODs involving mutations in two putative nickel binding ligands are also reported.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBiotechniques
December 2000
We have refined the regulated expression of UASGAL1, 10-driven genes in yeast by modifying a vector encoding the beta-estradiol inducible activator, GAL4.ER.VP16 (GEV).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFOne of the first conclusions offered by this article was that behavior management has been a pertinent theme in literature addressing clinical pediatric dentistry. This has been true for much of the twentieth century. Another conclusion stated that this literature generally focuses on the preschool child after the child has acquired sufficient development and maturity that he or she can be communicated to in conversation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUsing the information obtained from the Collegiate Patient Management System a comparison of average numbers of procedures performed by third year dental students from 1983/84 to 1996/97 was made. The data were grouped in order to compare Group I (1983/1989) to Group II (1990/1997). Student's t-tests were performed to determine significant differences between the groups for the various procedures.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPredicting sports-related traumatic injuries is an important concern for dental health professionals. A predictive index has been developed that determines the likelihood of a sports-related traumatic dental injury in children and adolescents. This index can be used to aid in the prevention of injury by understanding who is most likely to be injured and what factors influence the chance of injury.
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