The peptide transport system Opt is involved in both nutrition and environmental sensing during growth of Lactococcus lactis in milk.

Lactococcus lactis is known to take up extracellular peptides via at least three distinct peptide transporters. The well-described oligopeptide transporter Opp alone is able to ensure the growth of L. lactis in milk, while the di- and tripeptide transporter DtpT is involved in a peptide-dependent signalling mechanism.

Proteomic investigation of the adaptation of Lactococcus lactis to the mouse digestive tract.

Lactic acid bacteria are used on an industrial scale for the manufacturing of dairy products. It is now intended to develop novel applications of lactic acid bacteria that could be used as living vehicles for the targeting of antigens or therapeutics to the digestive mucosa. The aim of this study was to analyze the adaptations of Lactococcus lactis, a model lactic acid bacteria to the digestive tract and to identify functions required for colonization of the intestine.

Metabolic adaptation of Lactococcus lactis in the digestive tract: the example of response to lactose.

Lactococcus lactis is a model of food-grade lactic acid bacterium, which can durably colonize the digestive tract of germ-free mice. To study in vivo the bacterial adaptation to a novel nutritional resource brought by alimentation, the lactose-catabolizing strain IL2661 of L. lactis was established in monoxeny in mice.

Diversity of lactic acid bacteria associated with fish and the fish farm environment, established by amplified rRNA gene restriction analysis.

Lactic acid bacteria have become a major source of concern for aquaculture in recent decades. In addition to true pathogenic species of worldwide significance, such as Streptococcus iniae and Lactococcus garvieae, several species have been reported to produce occasional fish mortalities in limited geographic areas, and many unidentifiable or ill-defined isolates are regularly isolated from fish or fish products. To clarify the nature and prevalence of different fish-associated bacteria belonging to the lactic acid bacterium group, a collection of 57 isolates of different origins was studied and compared with a set of 22 type strains, using amplified rRNA gene restriction analysis (ARDRA).

Resistance pattern and assessment of phenicol agents' minimum inhibitory concentration in multiple drug resistant Chryseobacterium isolates from fish and aquatic habitats.

Aims: To assess the susceptibility of Chryseobacterium isolates of fish and aquatic habitats to antimicrobial compounds. Special attention was paid to the resistance to chloramphenicol and florfenicol, a phenicol derivative recently licensed for use in veterinary medicine and fish farming.

Methods And Results: Sixty-seven Chryseobacterium spp.

The specificity of oligopeptide transport by Streptococcus thermophilus resembles that of Lactococcus lactis and not that of pathogenic streptococci.

Peptide transport is a crucial step in the growth of Streptococcus thermophilus in protein- or peptide-containing media. The objective of the present work was to determine the specificity of peptide utilization by this widely used lactic acid bacterium. To reach that goal, complementary approaches were employed.

Chloramphenicol and florfenicol susceptibility of fish-pathogenic bacteria isolated in France: comparison of minimum inhibitory concentration, using recommended provisory standards for fish bacteria.

Aim: To investigate the distribution of antimicrobial resistance to phenicols in the fish pathogenic bacteria Aeromonas salmonicida, motile Aeromonas, Yersinia ruckeri, lactic bacteria and the nutritionally fastidious Flavobacterium psychrophilum. The last species was screened on two media (diluted Mueller-Hinton and peptone-enriched Anacker and Ordal), both supplemented with horse serum.

Methods And Results: Minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) assessment, using the agar dilution method according to proposed standards, confirmed that chloramphenicol resistance was more frequent and expressed at higher levels than florfenicol resistance.

Virulence stability in Flavobacterium psychrophilum after storage and preservation according to different procedures.

Experimental infections and lethal dose 50% (LD 50) evaluation were conducted in rainbow trout fingerlings, using a virulent strain of Flavobacterium psychrophilum processed and stored or maintained in different ways; lyophilisation, freezing at -80 degrees C, maintenance in enriched Anacker and Ordal (EAO) medium at 4 degrees C, revival and subsequent in vivo passages in fish. Experiments were performed 1, 8 and 23 months after storing the bacteria. Out of a total of 12 cultures revived for experimentation, one failed to grow and another was found to express modified properties including decreased virulence in spite of in vivo passages.

Trypsin mediates growth phase-dependent transcriptional tegulation of genes involved in biosynthesis of ruminococcin A, a lantibiotic produced by a Ruminococcus gnavus strain from a human intestinal microbiota.

Ruminococcin A (RumA) is a trypsin-dependent lantibiotic produced by Ruminococcus gnavus E1, a gram-positive strict anaerobic strain isolated from a human intestinal microbiota. A 12.8-kb region from R.

A 11.7-kb deletion triggers intersexuality and polledness in goats.

Mammalian sex determination is governed by the presence of the sex determining region Y gene (SRY) on the Y chromosome. Familial cases of SRY-negative XX sex reversal are rare in humans, often hampering the discovery of new sex-determining genes. The mouse model is also insufficient to correctly apprehend the sex-determination cascade, as the human pathway is much more sensitive to gene dosage.

Valine transport and biodiversity of Leuconostoc wild strains from French raw milk cheeses.

The rate of L-valine transport in whole cells of Leuconostoc was at the maximum at 30 degrees C, pH 6.0 in the presence of an energy source. Transport was inhibited by 40-55%, in the presence of the ionophores (valinomycin, nigericin or monensin), and uncouplers (carbonyl cyanide-m-chloro-phenylhydrazone or 2,4-dinitrophenol) confirming the previously described delta p-driven branched-chain amino acid transport system described in cytoplasmic membranes (Winters et al.

Mammalian sex reversal and intersexuality: deciphering the sex-determination cascade.

The sex-determination cascade constitutes a model of the exquisite mechanisms of gene regulation that lead to the development of mammalian embryos. The discovery of the sex-determining region of the Y chromosome (SRY) in the early 1990s was the first crucial step towards a general understanding of sex determination. Since then, several genes that encode proteins with a role in this cascade, such as WT1, SF-1, SOX9, DAX-1 and WNT4, have been identified.

Production of viable cultures of Flavobacterium psychrophilum: approach and control.

Although the fish pathogen Flavobacterium psychrophilum is a major source of concern in salmonid hatcheries, few studies have been conducted on its pathogenicity. Difficulties are often experienced when trying to control or quantify standard procedures for in vitro culture of the bacterium. Plate enumeration and counting chamber enumeration combined with epifluorescent microscopy with fluorescent dyes determined that no more than 25% of the bacterial cells present in the cultures were able to produce colonies on agar media.

Effects of the bacterial status of rats on the changes in some liver cytochrome P450 (EC 1.14.14.1) apoproteins consequent to a glucosinolate-rich diet.

The aim of the present work was to investigate the influence of the intestinal microflora on the changes in hepatic cytochrome P450 apoproteins induced by dietary glucosinolates. Ten rats harbouring a conventional digestive microflora were offered either a diet containing 390 g myrosinase-free rapeseed meal/kg (n 5) or a control diet devoid of glucosinolates (n 5). A similar trial was performed using germ-free rats.

Specificity of milk peptide utilization by Lactococcus lactis.

To study the substrate specificity of the oligopeptide transport system of Lactococcus lactis for its natural substrates, the growth of L. lactis MG1363 was studied in a chemically defined medium containing milk peptides or a tryptic digest of alpha s2-casein as the source of amino acids. Peptides were separated into acidic, neutral, and basic pools by solid-phase extraction or by cation-exchange liquid chromatogrpaphy.

Efficient and specific ribozyme-mediated reduction of bovine alpha-lactalbumin expression in double transgenic mice.

Transgenic mice carrying a bovine alpha-lactalbumin (alpha-lac) specific ribozyme gene under the transcriptional control of the mouse mammary tumor virus long terminal repeat were generated and cross-bred with animals that highly express a bovine alpha-lac transgene (0.4 mg of alpha-lac/ml(-1) of milk). The ribozyme contains the hammerhead catalytic domain, flanked by 12-nt sequences complementary to the 3' untranslated region of bovine alpha-lac transcript.

Inactivation of tryptic activity by a human-derived strain of Bacteroides distasonis in the large intestines of gnotobiotic rats and mice.

Tryptic activity disappeared and trypsin was no longer detected with an antitrypsin antiserum in the large intestines of gnotobiotic rats and mice monoassociated with a human-derived strain of Bacteroides distasonis, whereas tryptic activity was not modified in the small intestines. This function was shown to be strain specific.

Occurrence of a growth hormone-releasing hormone-like messenger ribonucleic acid and immunoreactive peptide in the sheep placenta.

Growth hormone releasing factor (GHRH) has been described in the rat, mouse and human placentae. This study reports the presence of an immunoreactive GHRH activity (IR-GHRH) in the ovine placenta. This activity was detected by radioimmunoassay from day 50 (D50) until the end of pregnancy.

Purification, crystallization, and preliminary X-ray analysis of PepX, an X-prolyl dipeptidyl aminopeptidase from Lactococcus lactis.

The X-prolyl dipeptidyl aminopeptidase PepX, a serine peptidase isolated originally from Lactococcus lactis subsp lactis NCDO 763, was cloned and overproduced in Escherichia coli. The enzyme was isolated in its active form in two purification steps. Crystals of PepX were grown by the hanging drop vapor diffusion method using polyethyleneglycol 4000 as precipitant at pH 5.

Polymeric-Ig receptor gene expression in rabbit mammary gland during pregnancy and lactation: evolution and hormonal regulation.

The polymeric immunoglobulin receptor (poly Ig-R) mediates transcytosis of IgA and IgM antibodies produced by local plasma cells across epithelial cells of mucosal and glandular tissues. Gene expression of the poly-Ig R was analyzed in rabbit mammary gland during pregnancy and lactation. The poly Ig-R was expressed as early as day 8 (G8) of gestation and mRNA accumulation remained low until about G18.

Numerical comparison between powers of maximum likelihood and analysis of variance methods for QTL detection in progeny test designs: the case of monogenic inheritance.

Simulations are used to compare four statistics for the detection of a quantitative trait locus (QTL) in daughter and grand-daughter designs as defined by Soller and Genizi (1978) and Weller et al. (1990): (1) the Fisher test of a linear model including a marker effect within sire or grand-sire effect; (2) the likelihood ratio test of a segregation analysis without the information given by the marker; (3) the likelihood ratio test of a segregation analysis considering the information from the marker; and (4) the lod score which is the likelihood ratio test of absence of linkage between the marker and the QTL. In all cases the two segregation analyses are more powerful for QTL detection than are either the linear method or the lod score.

IGF-I and IGF-II receptors in the sheep placenta: evolution during the course of pregnancy.

The role of IGFs in placental growth is poorly understood. IGF-II receptors have been characterised in the ovine placenta and used extensively for radioreceptor assay, but their evolution during placental development has not been considered. In this study, binding sites for IGF-I were characterised in the ovine cotyledon by binding and cross-linking studies and the evolution of the number of IGF-I and IGF-II receptors on placentae collected on days 50, 75, 100 and 140 of pregnancy were compared.

Crystallization and preliminary X-ray analysis of PepC, a thiol aminopeptidase from Lactoccocus lactis homologous to bleomycin hydrolase.

Crystals of the recombinant thiol aminopeptidase PepC, from Lactoccocus lactis, have been obtained using the hanging-drop method of vapor diffusion from ammonium sulfate solutions. Crystals are rhombohedral, the space group is R32, a = 175.2 A, c = 94.

Molecular analysis of 60,XX pseudohermaphrodite polled goats for the presence of SRY and ZFY genes.

The polled mutation is characterized by a recessive, incompletely penetrant, hermaphroditic effect associated with the dominant genetic factor responsible for polledness in breeds of goat. The present study describes the external morphology, anatomy of the reproductive tract, histology, chromosomal constitution and Y chromosome screening of three intersex polled goats. The animals were tested for different Y-specific sequences, including SRY and ZFY.