Prevalence of Staphylococcus argenteus among food handlers, kitchen utensils, and food samples in Japan.

Staphylococcus argenteus has received increased attention from an aspect of food safety since several food poisoning outbreaks caused by the bacterium were reported in Japan. However, S. argenteus prevalence among food handlers and utensils has not yet been investigated.

Stimulation of Tomato Drought Tolerance by and Mutations.

Drought stress is a severe environmental issue that threatens agriculture at a large scale. PHYTOCHROMES (PHYs) are important photoreceptors in plants that control plant growth and development and are involved in plant stress response. The aim of this study was to identify the role of in the tomato cv.

Functional Characterization of Tomato and Mutants in Response to Heat Stress.

Heat stress (HS) is a prevalent negative factor affecting plant growth and development, as it is predominant worldwide and threatens agriculture on a large scale. PHYTOCHROMES (PHYs) are photoreceptors that control plant growth and development, and the stress signaling response partially interferes with their activity. PHYA, B1, and B2 are the most well-known PHY types in tomatoes.

Improving carotenoid production in recombinant yeast, , using ultrasound-irradiated two-phase extractive fermentation.

Carotenoids are hydrophobic compounds that exhibit excellent bioactivity and can be produced by recombinant . Irradiating microorganisms with ultrasonic waves increase the productivity of various useful chemicals. Ultrasonic waves are also used to extract useful chemicals that accumulate in microbial cells.

Isolation and characterization of Staphylococcus argenteus strains from retail foods and slaughterhouses in Japan.

Staphylococcus argenteus has been recently established as a novel species of Staphylococcus aureus complex. It is known to cause various human diseases, such as skin and soft-tissue infections, sepsis, and staphylococcal food poisoning, although the source of infection has not been clearly described. In food poisoning cases, the source of bacterial contamination in food is unknown.

Improvement of 2,3-butanediol tolerance in Saccharomyces cerevisiae by using a novel mutagenesis strategy.

Although the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae has been used to produce various bio-based chemicals, including solvents and organic acids, most of these products inhibit yeast growth at high concentrations. In general, it is difficult to rationally improve stress tolerance in yeast by modifying specific genes, because many of the genes involved in stress response remain unidentified. Previous studies have reported that various forms of stress tolerance in yeast were improved by introducing random mutations, such as DNA point mutations and DNA structural mutations.

Construction of lactic acid-tolerant Saccharomyces cerevisiae by using CRISPR-Cas-mediated genome evolution for efficient D-lactic acid production.

Lactic acid (LA) is chemically synthesized or fermentatively produced using glucose as substrate, mainly using lactic acid bacteria. Polylactic acid is used as a biodegradable bioplastic for packaging materials, medical materials, and filaments for 3D printers. In this study, we aimed to construct a LA-tolerant yeast to reduce the neutralization cost in LA production.

A specific combination of dual index adaptors decreases the sensitivity of amplicon sequencing with the Illumina platform.

Amplicon sequencing is a powerful approach in microbiome studies as it detects live organisms with high sensitivity. This approach determines the composition of sequence variants of marker genes using high-throughput DNA sequencers. The use of dual index adaptors is the fundamental technique for pooling DNA libraries for Illumina sequencers and is believed not to affect the results.

Molecular shape under far-red light and red light-induced association of Arabidopsis phytochrome B.

Phytochrome B (phyB) is a plant photoreceptor protein that regulates various photomorphogenic responses to optimize plant growth and development. PhyB exists in two photoconvertible forms: a red light-absorbing (Pr) and a far-red light-absorbing (Pfr) form. Therefore, to understand the mechanism of phototransformation, the structural characterization of full-length phyB in these two forms is necessary.

The linker between LOV2-Jα and STK plays an essential role in the kinase activation by blue light in Arabidopsis phototropin1, a plant blue light receptor.

Phototropin (phot), a blue light receptor in plants, is composed of several domains: LOV1, LOV2, and a serine/threonine kinase (STK). LOV2 is the main regulator of light activation of STK. However, the detailed mechanism remains unclear.

Novel photosensory two-component system (PixA-NixB-NixC) involved in the regulation of positive and negative phototaxis of cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803.

Two wild-type substrains of a motile cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 show positive phototaxis toward a light source (PCC-P) and negative phototaxis away from light (PCC-N). In this study, we found that a novel two-component system of photoresponse is involved in the phototactic regulation.

CccS and CccP are involved in construction of cell surface components in the cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. strain PCC 6803.

We have previously identified two target genes (slr1667 and slr1668) for transcriptional regulation by a cAMP receptor protein, SYCRP1, in a cAMP-dependent manner. For this study we investigated the localizations of products of slr1667 and slr1668 (designated cccS and cccP, respectively) biochemically and immunocytochemically, and examined the phenotypes of their disruptants. CccS protein was detected in the culture medium and the acid-soluble fraction containing proteins derived from outside the outer membrane.

Oligomeric structure of LOV domains in Arabidopsis phototropin.

Oligomeric structures of the four LOV domains in Arabidopsis phototropin1 (phot1) and 2 (phot2) were studied using crosslinking. Both LOV1 domains of phot1 and phot2 form a dimer independently on the light conditions, suggesting that the LOV1 domain can be a stable dimerization site of phot in vivo. In contrast, phot1-LOV2 is in a monomer-dimer equilibrium and phot2-LOV2 exists as a monomer in the dark.

Characterization of cyanobacteriochrome TePixJ from a thermophilic cyanobacterium Thermosynechococcus elongatus strain BP-1.

A putative photoreceptor gene, TepixJ, of a thermophilic cyanobacterium is homologous to SypixJ1 that mediates positive phototaxis in the unicellular motile cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803. The putative chromophore-binding GAF domain of TePixJ protein was overexpressed as a fusion with a polyhistidine tag (His-TePixJ_GAF) in Synechocystis cells and isolated to homogeneity.

Reconstitution of blue-green reversible photoconversion of a cyanobacterial photoreceptor, PixJ1, in phycocyanobilin-producing Escherichia coli.

PixJ1, a photoreceptor in the unicellular cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803, mediates positive phototactic motility and contains two GAF domains, the latter of which binds a bilin chromophore. Full-length PixJ1 expressed and purified from Synechocystis showed unique reversible photoconversion between a blue light-absorbing (Pb) form and a green light-absorbing (Pg) form (1) in contrast to the reversible phototransformation between the red light-absorbing form and far-red light-absorbing form of the other GAF-containing photoreceptors such as plant or bacterial phytochromes.

Biochemical and functional characterization of BLUF-type flavin-binding proteins of two species of cyanobacteria.

BLUF (a sensor of Blue-Light Using FAD) is a novel putative photoreceptor domain that is found in many bacteria and some eukaryotic algae. As found on genome analysis, certain cyanobacteria have BLUF proteins with a short C-terminal extension. As typical examples, Tll0078 from thermophilic Thermosynechococcus elongatus BP-1 and Slr1694 from mesophilic Synechocystis sp.

Cyanobacterial phytochrome-like PixJ1 holoprotein shows novel reversible photoconversion between blue- and green-absorbing forms.

The gene, pixJ1 (formerly pisJ1), is predicted to encode a phytochrome-like photoreceptor that is essential for positive phototaxis in the unicellular cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 [Yoshihara et al. (2000) Plant Cell Physiol.

Phototactic motility in the unicellular cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803.

Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 is a unicellular motile cyanobacterium that shows positive and negative phototaxis on agar plates under lateral illumination. Recent studies on the molecular mechanisms of the phototactic motility of Synechocystis have revealed that a number of genes are responsible for its pilus-dependent motility and phototaxis.

Use of segment-based microarray in the analysis of global gene expression in response to various environmental stresses in the cyanobacterium Anabaena sp. PCC 7120.

We prepared microarrays that contain genomic sequences of a heterocyst-forming filamentous cyanobacterium Anabaena sp. PCC 7120. The complete genome of this cyanobacterium codes for about 5,368 protein-coding genes in the main chromosome of 6.

Extrinsic proteins of photosystem II: an intermediate member of PsbQ protein family in red algal PS II.

The oxygen-evolving photosystem II (PS II) complex of red algae contains four extrinsic proteins of 12 kDa, 20 kDa, 33 kDa and cyt c-550, among which the 20 kDa protein is unique in that it is not found in other organisms. We cloned the gene for the 20-kDa protein from a red alga Cyanidium caldarium. The gene consists of a leader sequence which can be divided into two parts: one for transfer across the plastid envelope and the other for transfer into thylakoid lumen, indicating that the gene is encoded by the nuclear genome.

Biochemical and functional characterization of a eukaryotic-type protein kinase, SpkB, in the cyanobacterium, Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803.

On the basis of the genome sequence, the unicellular motile cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 harbors seven putative genes for eukaryotic-type protein kinase belonging to Pkn2 subfamily ( spkA approximately spkG). Previously, SpkA was shown to have protein kinase activity and to be required for cell motility.

pilG Gene cluster and split pilL genes involved in pilus biogenesis, motility and genetic transformation in the cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803.

The unicellular motile cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 exhibits phototactic motility that depends on the type IV-like thick pilus structure. By gene disruption analysis, we showed that a gene cluster of slr1041, slr1042, slr1043 and slr1044, whose predicted products are homologous to PatA, CheY, CheW and MCP, respectively, was more or less required for pilus assembly, motility and natural transformation competency with extraneous DNA.

A cAMP receptor protein, SYCRP1, is responsible for the cell motility of Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803.

Disruption of the sycrp1 gene encoding a cyanobacterial cAMP receptor protein makes cells of Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 non-motile. Electron microscopy showed that the sycrp1-deficient strain had a reduced number of thick pili on the cell surface compared with the wild-type strain.