Upper-level inter-disciplinary microbiology CUREs increase student's scientific self-efficacy, scientific identity, and self-assessed skills.

Course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) provide opportunities for undergraduate students to engage in authentic research and generally increase the participation rate of students in research. Students' participation in research has a positive impact on their science identity and self-efficacy, both of which can predict integration of students in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM), especially for underrepresented students. The main goal of this study was to investigate instructor-initiated CUREs implemented as upper-level elective courses in the Biomedical Sciences major.

Draft genome sequence of . SK3692.

Whole-genome sequencing was performed for a . isolate. This bacterium was of interest because of its vibrant orange pigmentation.

Whole-genome sequence of sp. isolated from soil, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA.

A whole genome sequence of a sp. bacterium isolated from soil in Fort Collins, Colorado was obtained. This bacterium was of particular interest due to its antibiotic potential against Gram-positive pathogen surrogates.

An essential role for bacterial nitric oxide synthase in Staphylococcus aureus electron transfer and colonization.

Nitric oxide (NO) is a ubiquitous molecular mediator in biology. Many signalling actions of NO generated by mammalian NO synthase (NOS) result from targeting of the haem moiety of soluble guanylate cyclase. Some pathogenic and environmental bacteria also produce a NOS that is evolutionary related to the mammalian enzymes, but a bacterial haem-containing receptor for endogenous enzymatically generated NO has not been identified previously.

The Staphylococcus aureus SrrAB two-component system promotes resistance to nitrosative stress and hypoxia.

Unlabelled: Staphylococcus aureus is both a commensal and a pathogen of the human host. Survival in the host environment requires resistance to host-derived nitric oxide (NO·). However, S.

The Moraxella catarrhalis nitric oxide reductase is essential for nitric oxide detoxification.

Moraxella catarrhalis is a Gram-negative obligate aerobe that is an important cause of human respiratory tract infections. The M. catarrhalis genome encodes a predicted truncated denitrification pathway that reduces nitrate to nitrous oxide.

Humanized nonobese diabetic-scid IL2rgammanull mice are susceptible to lethal Salmonella Typhi infection.

Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi, the cause of typhoid fever, is host-adapted to humans and unable to cause disease in mice. Here, we show that S. Typhi can replicate in vivo in nonobese diabetic (NOD)-scid IL2rgamma(null) mice engrafted with human hematopoietic stem cells (hu-SRC-SCID mice) to cause a lethal infection with pathological and inflammatory cytokine responses resembling human typhoid.

TrxR, a new CovR-repressed response regulator that activates the Mga virulence regulon in group A Streptococcus.

Coordinate regulation of virulence factors by the group A streptococcus (GAS) Streptococcus pyogenes is important in this pathogen's ability to cause disease. To further elucidate the regulatory network in this human pathogen, the CovR-repressed two-component system (TCS) trxSR was chosen for further analysis based on its homology to a virulence-related TCS in Streptococcus pneumoniae. In a murine skin infection model, an insertion mutation in the response regulator gene, trxR, led to a significant reduction in lesion size, lesion severity, and lethality.

CcpA-mediated repression of streptolysin S expression and virulence in the group A streptococcus.

CcpA is the global mediator of carbon catabolite repression (CCR) in gram-positive bacteria, and growing evidence from several pathogens, including the group A streptococcus (GAS), suggests that CcpA plays an important role in virulence gene regulation. In this study, a deletion of ccpA in an invasive M1 GAS strain was used to test the contribution of CcpA to pathogenesis in mice. Surprisingly, the DeltaccpA mutant exhibited a dramatic "hypervirulent" phenotype compared to the parental MGAS5005 strain, reflected as increased lethality in a model of systemic infection (intraperitoneal administration) and larger lesion size in a model of skin infection (subcutaneous administration).

The catabolite control protein CcpA binds to Pmga and influences expression of the virulence regulator Mga in the Group A streptococcus.

Carbon catabolite repression (CCR) allows bacteria to alter metabolism in response to the availability of specific sugar sources, and increasing evidence suggests that CCR is involved in regulating virulence gene expression in many pathogens. A scan of the M1 SF370 group A streptococcus (GAS) genome using a Bacillus subtilis consensus identified a number of potential catabolite-responsive elements (cre) important for binding by the catabolite control protein A (CcpA), a mediator of CCR in gram-positive bacteria. Intriguingly, a putative cre was identified in the promoter region of mga upstream of its distal P1 start of transcription.