Nongenetic individuality in the host-phage interaction.

Isogenic bacteria can exhibit a range of phenotypes, even in homogeneous environmental conditions. Such nongenetic individuality has been observed in a wide range of biological processes, including differentiation and stress response. A striking example is the heterogeneous response of bacteria to antibiotics, whereby a small fraction of drug-sensitive bacteria can persist under extensive antibiotic treatments.

[Hospitalizations associated with rotavirus gastroenteritis in Israel--a retrospective study].

Background: Rotavirus is a major cause of infantile gastroenteritis worldwide and remains a common cause of hospitalizations in developed countries. The study aimed to assess the hospitalizations due to rotavirus gastroenteritis in Israel and their characteristics.

Methods: A retrospective review of the records of children < 18 years hospitalized in six medical centers in Israel between April 2004 and March 2006 with acute gastroenteritis (AGE) and stool positive for rotavirus.

A critical three-way junction is conserved in budding yeast and vertebrate telomerase RNAs.

The telomerase ribonucleoprotein copies a short template within its integral RNA moiety onto eukaryotic chromosome ends, compensating for incomplete replication and degradation. Non-template regions of telomerase RNA (TER) are also crucial for telomerase function, yet they are highly divergent in sequence among species and their roles are largely unclear. Using both phylogenetic and mutational analyses, we predicted secondary structures for TERs from Kluyveromyces budding yeast species.

A universal telomerase RNA core structure includes structured motifs required for binding the telomerase reverse transcriptase protein.

Telomerase synthesizes telomeric DNA by copying a short template sequence within its telomerase RNA component. We delineated nucleotides and base-pairings within a previously mapped central domain of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae telomerase RNA (TLC1) that are important for telomerase function and for binding to the telomerase catalytic protein Est2p. Phylogenetic comparison of telomerase RNA sequences from several budding yeasts revealed a core structure common to Saccharomyces and Kluyveromyces yeast species.