Bacterial destruction of mica during bioleaching of kaolin and quartz sandsby Bacillus cereus

Growth and metabolic activities of Bacillus cereus were found to cause the extraction of iron atoms from the octahedral position in mica in the kaolin sample (49%) and in the quartz sands sample (17%) after 3 months of bioleaching, while aluminium removal was only 5%. Mica destruction was detected in kaolin and quartz sands samples by X-ray diffraction analysis and also by i.r. adsorption spectroscopy in quartz sands samples. The structural changes obtained were confirmed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis. The SEM pictures show a different morphology in the boundary region of mica grains before and after bioleaching. Bacterial destruction effects were feeble in the interlayer sites and were specially directed to split planes, which are occupied by a number of bacterial cells. The biological destruction of mica with phengite composition after iron removal led to development of illite, which was detected by energy-dispersion microanalysis (EDS). Illite development caused also the enrichment of the kaolin sample by fine-grained fraction.     

Quantification of nisin in flow-injection immunoassay systems

A monoclonal-antibody-based, sequential competitive-flow-injection immunoassay system in expanded-bed mode has been developed for the determination of nisin. The system allows the determination of nisin in the presence of suspended particles without any significant interference, illustrating its potential for on-line monitoring of fermentation processes or the analysis of food matrices. The dose response range of the system when operated in expanded-bed mode was 6-90 microM. The detection limit under packed-bed conditions was 3 microM. The results correlated well with the results from conventional ELISA in the analysis of samples of processed cheese. When milk samples, fermentation samples and buffer were spiked with nisin, the mean recoveries were 86% for milk samples, 96% for fermentation samples and 98% for buffer solution.     

AFM stiffness nanotomography of normal, metaplastic and dysplastic human esophageal cells

The mechanical stiffness of individual cells is important in tissue homeostasis, cell growth, division and motility, and the epithelial-mesenchymal transition in the initiation of cancer. In this work, a normal squamous cell line (EPC2) and metaplastic (CP-A) as well as dysplastic (CP-D) Barrett's Esophagus columnar cell lines are studied as a model of pre-neoplastic progression in the human esophagus. We used the combination of an atomic force microscope (AFM) with a scanning confocal fluorescence lifetime imaging microscope to study the mechanical properties of single adherent cells. Sixty four force indentation curves were taken over the nucleus of each cell in an 8 x 8 grid pattern. Analyzing the force indentation curves, indentation depth-dependent Young's moduli were found for all cell lines. Stiffness tomograms demonstrate distinct differences between the mechanical properties of the studied cell lines. Comparing the stiffness for indentation forces of 1 nN, most probable Young's moduli were calculated to 4.7 kPa for EPC2 (n = 18 cells), 3.1 kPa for CP-A (n = 10) and 2.6 kPa for CP-D (n = 19). We also tested the influence of nuclei and nucleoli staining organic dyes on the mechanical properties of the cells. For stained EPC2 cells (n = 5), significant stiffening was found (9.9 kPa), while CP-A cells (n = 5) showed no clear trend (2.9 kPa) and a slight softening was observed (2.1 kPa) in the case of CP-D cells (n = 16). Some force-indentation curves show non-monotonic discontinuities with segments of negative slope, resembling a sawtooth pattern. We found the incidence of these 'breakthrough events' to be highest in the dysplastic CP-D cells, intermediate in the metaplastic CP-A cells and lowest in the normal EPC2 cells. This observation suggests that the microscopic explanation for the increased compliance of cancerous and pre-cancerous cells may lie in their susceptibility to 'crumble and yield' rather than their ability to 'bend and flex'.     

Affinity isolation of a cold-adapted enzyme: lactate dehydrogenase from Bacillus psychrosaccharolyticus

A simple, economical and rapid affinity chromatography procedure with dyes as the ligand has been described for the one-step purification of a cold-adapted lactate dehydrogenase. Non-specific elution of Procion blue H-ERD-modified Sepharose yielded homogeneous preparations of lactate dehydrogenase both in column based procedures and in batch wise operations. Low operational temperatures resulted in the enhanced binding of the enzyme to the blue dye. The dissociation constants of the enzyme-dye complexes were 7.2±0.2 M and 11.2±0.2 M at 5 °C and 20°C respectively.This revised version was published online in October 2005 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Antibody-induced arthritis: disease mechanisms and genes involved at the effector phase of arthritis

During the development of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) autoantibodies to IgG-Fc, citrullinated proteins, collagen type II (CII), glucose 6 phosphoisomerase (G6PI) and some other self-antigens appear. Of these, a pathogenic effect of the anti-CII and anti-G6PI antibodies is well demonstrated using animal models. These new antibody mediated arthritis models have proven to be very useful for studies involved in understanding the molecular pathways of the induction of arthritis in joints. Both the complement and FcγR systems have been found to play essential roles. Neutrophils and macrophages are important inflammatory cells and the secretion of tumour necrosis factor-α and IL-1β is pathogenic. The identification of the genetic polymorphisms predisposing to arthritis is important for understanding the complexity of arthritis. Disease mechanisms and gene regions studied using the two antibody-induced arthritis mouse models (collagen antibody-induced arthritis and serum transfer-induced arthritis) are compared and discussed for their relevance in RA pathogenesis.     

The C-terminal domain of T4 RNA ligase 1 confers specificity for tRNA repair

T4 RNA ligase 1 (Rnl1) is a tRNA repair enzyme that thwarts a tRNA-damaging host response to virus infection. The 374-aa Rnl1 protein consists of an N-terminal nucleotidyltransferase domain fused to a unique C-terminal domain composed of 10 alpha helices. We exploited an in vitro tRNA splicing system to demonstrate that Rnl1 has an inherent specificity for sealing tRNA with a break in the anticodon loop. The tRNA specificity is imparted by the C domain, any deletion of which caused the broken tRNA to be sealed as poorly as the linear intron in vitro and also abolished Rnl1 tRNA splicing activity in vivo. Deletion analysis demarcated Rnl1-(1-254) as a minimal catalytic domain of Rnl1, capable of all chemical steps of the nonspecific RNA ligation reaction. Alanine scanning of the N domain identified Ser103, Leu104, Lys117, and Ser118 as important for pRNA ligation in vitro and tRNA repair in vivo.     

Last stop on the road to repair: structure of E. coli DNA ligase bound to nicked DNA-adenylate

NAD(+)-dependent DNA ligases (LigA) are ubiquitous in bacteria and essential for growth. Their distinctive substrate specificity and domain organization vis-a-vis human ATP-dependent ligases make them outstanding targets for anti-infective drug discovery. We report here the 2.3 A crystal structure of Escherichia coli LigA bound to an adenylylated nick, which captures LigA in a state poised for strand closure and reveals the basis for nick recognition. LigA envelopes the DNA within a protein clamp. Large protein domain movements and remodeling of the active site orchestrate progression through the three chemical steps of the ligation reaction. The structure inspires a strategy for inhibitor design.     

Capacity-speed relationships in prefrontal cortex

Working memory (WM) capacity and WM processing speed are simple cognitive measures that underlie human performance in complex processes such as reasoning and language comprehension. These cognitive measures have shown to be interrelated in behavioral studies, yet the neural mechanism behind this interdependence has not been elucidated. We have carried out two functional MRI studies to separately identify brain regions involved in capacity and speed. Experiment 1, using a block-design WM verbal task, identified increased WM capacity with increased activity in right prefrontal regions, and Experiment 2, using a single-trial WM verbal task, identified increased WM processing speed with increased activity in similar regions. Our results suggest that right prefrontal areas may be a common region interlinking these two cognitive measures. Moreover, an overlap analysis with regions associated with binding or chunking suggest that this strategic memory consolidation process may be the mechanism interlinking WM capacity and WM speed.     

Inactivation of phytotoxin produced by the rice sheath blight pathogen Rhizoctonia solani

The rice sheath blight pathogen, Rhizoctonia solani, produces a toxin designated as RS-toxin, a carbohydrate compound containing mainly alpha-glucose and mannose. Different microflora were tested for RS-toxin inactivation. Isolates of Trichoderma viride inactivated this toxin when it was provided as the sole food source, and these isolates reduced the severity of toxin-induced symptoms and electrolyte leakage from rice cells. The best-performing isolate, TvMNT7, produced two extracellular proteins of 110 and 17 kDa. The high molecular mass protein was shown to have alpha-glucosidase activity. The purified 110 kDa protein was able to reduce RS-toxin activity.     

Fluorimetric quantification of intracellular lactate dehydrogenase during fermentation using flow injection analysis

A flow injection system for the on-line detection of the intracellular enzyme lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) during fermentation has been developed. The system is comprised of an on-line cell disintegration part, an immobilised dye based expanded bed column for the affinity capture of LDH and a fluorimetric detection unit. The system with a linearity of 0.1–5.4 U LDH ml^–1 was applied for the detection of intracellular accumulation of LDH during Lactococcus lactis subsp.lactis cultivation.