Introduction: Ticks are important ectoparasites of livestock. Ticks and tick-borne diseases (TBDs) cause losses to the animal husbandry industry and also present a major hidden danger to public health and safety. However, the tick species and prevalence of TBDs in border regions of China, Russia, and North Korea remain unknown.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Neospora caninum is an intracellular parasitic protozoon that can infect pregnant animals and cause symptoms such as miscarriage, stillbirth and mummified fetuses. It is one of the main causes of miscarriage in bovines. Apical membrane antigen (AMA) and dense granule protein (GRA) are two major antigenic proteins of N.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFProtein A075L is a β-xylosyltransferase that participates in producing the core of the N-glycans found in VP54, the major viral capsid protein of Paramecium bursaria chlorella virus-1 (PBCV-1). In this study, we present an X-ray crystallographic analysis of the apo form of A075L, along with its complexes with the sugar donor and with a trisaccharide acceptor. The protein structure shows a typical GT-B folding, with two Rossmann-like fold domains, in which the acceptor substrate binds to the N-terminal region, and the nucleotide-sugar donor binds to the C-terminal region.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe photoluminescent properties of atomically precise metal nanoclusters (MCs) have garnered significant attention in the fields of chemical sensing and biological imaging. However, the limited brightness of single-component nanoclusters hinders their practical applications, and the conventional ligand engineering approaches have proven insufficient in enhancing the emission efficiency of MCs. Here, we present a DNA framework-guided strategy to prepare highly luminescent metal cluster nanoaggregates.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFChloroviruses produce a capsid protein containing -linked glycans differing in structure from those found in all other organisms. These species feature a core "hyper-branched" fucose residue in which every hydroxyl group is glycosylated. We describe the synthesis of a nonasaccharide from chlorella virus 1, one of most complex chlorovirus -glycans reported, using a "counterclockwise" strategy involving the sequential addition of trisaccharide, disaccharide, and monosaccharide motifs to a trisaccharide containing the core fucose residue.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: microRNAs (miRNAs) are small noncoding RNAs that regulate gene expression by mRNA cleavage or translational repression. The miR-200 family is involved in the regulation of various tumor biologic processes including apoptosis, proliferation, invasion, and metastasis. They function mainly as tumor suppressors.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe chlorovirus chlorella virus 1 (PBCV-1) is a large dsDNA virus that infects the microalga NC64A. Unlike most other viruses, PBCV-1 encodes most, if not all, of the machinery required to glycosylate its major capsid protein (MCP). The structures of the four -linked glycans from the PBCV-1 MCP consist of nonasaccharides, and similar glycans are not found elsewhere in the three domains of life.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFChlorella viruses produce N-linked glycoproteins with carbohydrate moieties that differ in structure from all other N-linked glycans. In addition, unlike most viruses, these organisms do not hijack the biosynthetic machinery of the host to make glycocoproteins; instead, they produce their own carbohydrate-processing enzymes. A better understanding of the function and assembly of these fascinating and structurally-unprecedented glycans requires access to probe molecules.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBacterial biofilms are precursors to biofouling by other microorganisms. Understanding their initiation may allow us to design better ways to inhibit them, and thus to inhibit subsequent biofouling. In this study, the ability of confocal Raman microscopy to follow the initiation of biofouling by a marine bacterium, Pseudoalteromonas sp.
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