Developing a Policy and Procedure Framework and Manual for a National Comprehensive Implantable Medical Device Registry in Saudi Arabia.

Policy and procedure manuals provide guidance on the operation and governance of medical device registries. In Saudi Arabia, the Saudi Food and Drug Authority (SFDA) has been developing and implementing a comprehensive national registry for implantable medical devices to facilitate the monitoring of device outcomes through post-market surveillance studies. To help guide the operations of this registry, the SFDA developed a policy and procedure manual.

Construction of an rsmX co-variance model and identification of five rsmX non-coding RNAs in Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato DC3000.

Non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) are important components of many regulatory pathways and have key roles in regulating diverse functions. In the Pseudomonads, the two-component system, GacA/S, directly regulates at least two well-characterized ncRNAs, RsmZ and RsmY, which act by sequestration of translation repressor proteins to control expression of various exoproducts. Pseudomonas fluorescens CHA0 possesses a third ncRNA, RsmX, which also participates in this regulatory pathway.

Transcriptome analysis of Pseudomonas syringae identifies new genes, noncoding RNAs, and antisense activity.

To fully understand how bacteria respond to their environment, it is essential to assess genome-wide transcriptional activity. New high-throughput sequencing technologies make it possible to query the transcriptome of an organism in an efficient unbiased manner. We applied a strand-specific method to sequence bacterial transcripts using Illumina's high-throughput sequencing technology.

Thaxtomin biosynthesis: the path to plant pathogenicity in the genus Streptomyces.

Streptomyces species are best known for their ability to produce a wide array of medically and agriculturally important secondary metabolites. However, there is a growing number of species which, like Streptomyces scabies, can function as plant pathogens and cause scab disease on economically important crops such as potato. All of these species produce the phytotoxin thaxtomin, a nitrated dipeptide which inhibits cellulose synthesis in expanding plant tissue.

Streptomyces turgidiscabies secretes a novel virulence protein, Nec1, which facilitates infection.

Emergence of new, economically important plant-pathogenic species in the mostly saprophytic genus Streptomyces involves acquisition of a large, mobile pathogenicity island (PAI). Biosynthetic genes for a phytotoxin, thaxtomin A, are contained on this PAI. The Nec1 protein has necrogenic activity on excised potato tuber tissue, and the encoding gene is highly conserved in plant-pathogenic Streptomyces spp.