FAS Center for Systems Biology, Harvard University, Northwest Labs, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
Published: November 2008
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Article Abstract
The budding yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, has emerged as an archetype of eukaryotic cell biology. Here we show that S. cerevisiae is also a model for the evolution of cooperative behavior by revisiting flocculation, a self-adherence phenotype lacking in most laboratory strains. Expression of the gene FLO1 in the laboratory strain S288C restores flocculation, an altered physiological state, reminiscent of bacterial biofilms. Flocculation protects the FLO1 expressing cells from multiple stresses, including antimicrobials and ethanol. Furthermore, FLO1(+) cells avoid exploitation by nonexpressing flo1 cells by self/non-self recognition: FLO1(+) cells preferentially stick to one another, regardless of genetic relatedness across the rest of the genome. Flocculation, therefore, is driven by one of a few known "green beard genes," which direct cooperation toward other carriers of the same gene. Moreover, FLO1 is highly variable among strains both in expression and in sequence, suggesting that flocculation in S. cerevisiae is a dynamic, rapidly evolving social trait.
Histatin 5 (Hst5) is a 24-amino-acid peptide naturally present in human saliva that has been proposed as a potential antifungal therapeutic. However, Hst5 is susceptible to degradation by secreted aspartyl proteases (Saps) produced by Candida albicans, which could limit its efficacy as a therapeutic. To better understand the role of the lysine residues of Hst5 in proteolysis by C.
Introduction: Fungi, including , may be a trigger or exacerbate psoriasis, especially in difficult to treat (DTT) areas, through the activation of IL-17/23 axis.
Methods: In this study, seventy patients with DDT psoriasis were enrolled to evaluate species and/or other opportunistic fungi colonization rate at baseline (T0) and the impact of apremilast on fungal load, clinical outcome, serum cytokine levels and biochemical serum profile of patients after 16, 24 and 52 weeks of treatment.
Results: In our population, 33 (47%) patients were colonized by spp.
Beijing Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China; Beijing Institute of Chinese Medicine, Beijing, China; Beijing Key Laboratory of Basic Research with Traditional Chinese Medicine on Infectious Diseases, Beijing, China. Electronic address:
A striking characteristic of the human fungal pathogen Candida albicans is its ability to switch between budding yeast morphology and the filamentous form, facilitating its adaptation to changing host environments. The filamentous growth of C. albicans is mediated by various environmental factors, such as carbon dioxide (CO), N-acetylglucosamine (GlcNAc), serum, and high temperature.
The directional and sequential flow of cytokinin in plants is organized by a complex network of transporters. Genes involved in several aspects of cytokinin transport have been characterized; however, much of the elaborate system remains elusive. In this study, we used a transient expression system in tobacco (Nicotiana benthamiana) leaves to screen Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) transporter genes and isolated ATP-BINDING CASSETTE TRANSPORTER C4 (ABCC4).
In the present investigation, 13% ± 0.84 of the extracted and purified phycocyanin from Phormidium versicolor was obtained, with a purity of 0.69 following dialysis.
