Impact of chronic sub-lethal methylparaben exposure on cardiac hypoxia and alterations in neuroendocrine factors in zebrafish model

Molecular Biology Reports - Endocrine-disrupting chemicals have been shown to cause toxicity in different systems of the body including the endocrine, cardiovascular and nervous systems. This study...     

Plant Transformation Vectors Having Street Rabies Virus (Indian Strain) Glycoprotein Gene

Rabies, a serious health hazard, affects central nervous system of mammals and is caused by rabies virus. The viral glycoprotein forms the external surface of virus and is the most antigenic protein. Hence the rabies glycoprotein is an ideal candidate for use in the construction of a subunit marked vaccine. With the idea to substitute the total inactivated virus with G protein in the production of vaccine, the study was undertaken to clone the full-length glycoprotein gene under the control of various constitutive and expression promoters for its expression in bacterial background and its further cloning for plant transformation.     

Role of the Guanine Nucleotide Exchange Factor Rom2 in Cell Wall Integrity Maintenance of Aspergillus fumigatus

Aspergillus fumigatus is a mold and the causal agent of invasive aspergillosis, a systemic disease with high lethality. Recently, we identified and functionally characterized three stress sensors implicated in the cell wall integrity (CWI) signaling of this pathogen, namely, Wsc1, Wsc3, and MidA. Here, we functionally characterize Rom2, a guanine nucleotide exchange factor with essential function for the cell wall integrity of A. fumigatus. A conditional rom2 mutant has severe growth defects under repressive conditions and incorporates all phenotypes of the three cell wall integrity sensor mutants, e.g., the echinocandin sensitivity of the Δwsc1 mutant and the Congo red, calcofluor white, and heat sensitivity of the ΔmidA mutant. Rom2 interacts with Rho1 and shows a similar intracellular distribution focused at the hyphal tips. Our results place Rom2 between the cell surface stress sensors Wsc1, Wsc3, MidA, and Rho1 and their downstream effector mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase module Bck1-Mkk2-MpkA.