Comparison of fecal biota from specific pathogen free and feral mice.

Specific pathogen free (SPF) rodents are derived from germfree animals that are colonized with Schaedler's flora, a cocktail of eight bacterial strains isolated from the natural biota of mice. During successive generations SPF animals acquire a complex biota, but it is not known how similar it is to natural mouse biota. Therefore, fecal pellets of two feral mice and three SPF mice were studied by small subunit ribosomal DNA sequence analysis.

In vivo determination of Neisseria meningitidis serogroup A capsular polysaccharide by whole cell high-resolution magic angle spinning NMR spectroscopy.

High resolution-magic angle spinning (HRMAS) NMR spectroscopy was applied to serogroup A Neisseria meningitidis (NMA) to determine precise structures of capsular polysaccharide (CPS) expressed on the meningococcal surface. Both the O-acetylated (OAc) NMA parent and a mynC::aphA3 OAc- mutant demonstrated characteristic CPS-derived NMR signals indicating cell-surface expression of CPS, but only the parent expressed O-3 and O-4 acetylation signals. A capsule-defective strain showed no NMR signals for CPS.

Human cytomegalovirus glycoprotein N (gpUL73-gN) genomic variants: identification of a novel subgroup, geographical distribution and evidence of positive selective pressure.

Human cytomegalvirus (HCMV) ORF UL73 is a polymorphic locus, encoding the viral glycoprotein gpUL73-gN, a component of the gC-II envelope complex. The previously identified gN genomic variants, denoted gN-1, gN-2, gN-3 and gN-4, were further investigated in this work by analysing a large panel of HCMV clinical isolates collected from all over the world (223 samples). Sequencing and phylogenetic analysis confirmed the existence of the four gN genotypes, but also allowed the identification of a novel subgroup belonging to the gN-3 genotype, which was designated gN-3b.