Exploring clonality and virulence gene associations in bloodstream infections using whole-genome sequencing and clinical data.

Background: Bloodstream infections (BSIs) remain a significant cause of mortality worldwide. Causative pathogens are routinely identified and susceptibility tested but only very rarely investigated for their resistance genes, virulence factors, and clonality. Our aim was to gain insight into the clonality patterns of different species causing BSI and the clinical relevance of distinct virulence genes.

New insights into the resistance mechanism for the BceAB-type transporter SaNsrFP.

Treatment of bacterial infections is one of the major challenges of our time due to the evolved resistance mechanisms of pathogens against antibiotics. To circumvent this problem, it is necessary to understand the mode of action of the drug and the mechanism of resistance of the pathogen. One of the most potent antibiotic targets is peptidoglycan (PGN) biosynthesis, as this is an exclusively occurring and critical feature of bacteria.

Phosphoglycerol-type wall and lipoteichoic acids are enantiomeric polymers differentiated by the stereospecific glycerophosphodiesterase GlpQ.

The cell envelope of Gram-positive bacteria generally comprises two types of polyanionic polymers linked to either peptidoglycan (wall teichoic acids; WTA) or to membrane glycolipids (lipoteichoic acids; LTA). In some bacteria, including strain 168, both WTA and LTA are glycerolphosphate polymers yet are synthesized through different pathways and have distinct but incompletely understood morphogenetic functions during cell elongation and division. We show here that the exolytic -glycerol-3-phosphodiesterase GlpQ can discriminate between WTA and LTA.

Load Measurement in Linear Guides for Machine Tools.

Process force determination in machine tools is an important topic for both optimization of manufacturing processes as well as predictive maintenance purposes. This work aims at providing a short overview of existing methods, motivating the integration of sensors into a linear guide, and then showing the results of an implemented new method for capturing the load on a rolling element linear guide by measuring the stresses resulting from the rolling element contact at the side of the runner block. The implementation of the approach is based on the piezoresistive diamond like carbon (DLC) coating DiaForce provided by the Fraunhofer Institute for Surface Engineering and Thin Films (IST), Braunschweig, Germany.