Signal Peptide Efficiency: From High-Throughput Data to Prediction and Explanation.

The passage of proteins across biological membranes via the general secretory (Sec) pathway is a universally conserved process with critical functions in cell physiology and important industrial applications. Proteins are directed into the Sec pathway by a signal peptide at their N-terminus. Estimating the impact of physicochemical signal peptide features on protein secretion levels has not been achieved so far, partially due to the extreme sequence variability of signal peptides.

Safety evaluation of food enzymes produced by a safe strain lineage of Bacillussubtilis.

The safety of microbially-derived food enzymes must be carefully assessed before market introduction. The production strain's safety is central to the assessment. In this paper, we have determined that DSM's Bacillus subtilis strain lineage can be considered safe for food enzyme production.

GP4: an integrated Gram-Positive Protein Prediction Pipeline for subcellular localization mimicking bacterial sorting.

Subcellular localization is a critical aspect of protein function and the potential application of proteins either as drugs or drug targets, or in industrial and domestic applications. However, the experimental determination of protein localization is time consuming and expensive. Therefore, various localization predictors have been developed for particular groups of species.

Exploring the Nonconserved Sequence Space of Synthetic Expression Modules in Bacillus subtilis.

Increasing protein expression levels is a key step in the commercial production of enzymes. Predicting promoter activity and translation initiation efficiency based solely on consensus sequences have so far met with mixed results. Here, we addressed this challenge using a "brute-force" approach by designing and synthesizing a large combinatorial library comprising ∼12 000 unique synthetic expression modules (SEMs) for Bacillus subtilis.

Effect of Genome Position on Heterologous Gene Expression in Bacillus subtilis: An Unbiased Analysis.

A fixed gene copy number is important for the in silico construction of engineered synthetic networks. However, the copy number of integrated genes depends on their genomic location. This gene dosage effect is rarely addressed in synthetic biology.

Searching for microbial protein over-expression in a complex matrix using automated high throughput MS-based proteomics tools.

In the discovery of new enzymes genomic and cDNA expression libraries containing thousands of differential clones are generated to obtain biodiversity. These libraries need to be screened for the activity of interest. Removing so-called empty and redundant clones significantly reduces the size of these expression libraries and therefore speeds up new enzyme discovery.

Is proteomics a reliable tool to probe the oxidative folding of bacterial membrane proteins?

The oxidative folding of proteins involves disulfide bond formation, which is usually catalyzed by thiol-disulfide oxidoreductases (TDORs). In bacteria, this process takes place in the cytoplasmic membrane and other extracytoplasmic compartments. While it is relatively easy to study oxidative folding of water-soluble proteins on a proteome-wide scale, this has remained a major challenge for membrane proteins due to their high hydrophobicity.

Pip, a novel activator of phenazine biosynthesis in Pseudomonas chlororaphis PCL1391.

Secondary metabolites are important factors for interactions between bacteria and other organisms. Pseudomonas chlororaphis PCL1391 produces the antifungal secondary metabolite phenazine-1-carboxamide (PCN) that inhibits growth of Fusarium oxysporum f. sp.

A distant coilin homologue is required for the formation of cajal bodies in Arabidopsis.

Cajal bodies (CBs) are subnuclear bodies that are widespread in eukaryotes, being found in mammals, many other vertebrates and in all plant species so far examined. They are mobile structures, moving, fusing, and budding within the nucleus. Here we describe a screen for Arabidopsis mutants with altered CBs and describe mutants that have smaller Cajal bodies (ncb-2, ncb-3), lack them altogether (ncb-1), have increased numbers of CBs (pcb) or have flattened CBs (ccb).

Regulatory roles of psrA and rpoS in phenazine-1-carboxamide synthesis by Pseudomonas chlororaphis PCL1391.

Production of the secondary metabolite phenazine-1-carboxamide (PCN) by Pseudomonas chlororaphis PCL1391 is crucial for biocontrol activity against the phytopathogen Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. radicis lycopersici on tomato.

Influence of fusaric acid on phenazine-1-carboxamide synthesis and gene expression of Pseudomonas chlororaphis strain PCL1391.

Production of the antifungal metabolite phenazine-1-carboxamide (PCN) by Pseudomonas chlororaphis strain PCL1391 is essential for the suppression of tomato foot and root rot caused by the soil-borne fungus F. oxysporum f. sp.

Influence of environmental conditions on the production of phenazine-1-carboxamide by Pseudomonas chlororaphis PCL1391.

Pseudomonas chlororaphis PCL1391 produces the secondary metabolite phenazine-1-carboxamide (PCN), which is an antifungal metabolite required for biocontrol activity of the strain. Identification of conditions involved in PCN production showed that some carbon sources and all amino acids tested promote PCN levels. Decreasing the pH from 7 to 6 or decreasing the growth temperature from 21 to 16 degrees C decreased PCN production dramatically.