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1.
Subtelomeric expression regions of Borrelia hermsii linear plasmids are highly polymorphic 总被引:10,自引:0,他引:10
B. I. Restrepo T. Kitten C.J. Carter D. Infante A. G. Barbour 《Molecular microbiology》1992,6(22):3299-3311
Borrelia hermsii, a relapsing fever agent, undergoes multiphasic antigenic variation to evade its host's immune response. Serotype specificity is determined by variable membrane lipoproteins, Vmps, which are expressed from genes located near the end of a linear plasmid. Using the polymerase chain reaction and primers representing the promoter of the active vmp and a conserved telomeric sequence, we characterized the subtelomeric expression regions of the 25 known serotypes of strain HS1. The distance from the promoter to the telomere fell into three size classes of approximately 1.0, 1.5, and 2.5 kilobases. In the sequenced serotypes the size differences were accounted for by variable lengths of the vmp genes and intervening sequences between 3' end of the vmp gene and the start of a downstream homology block. The degree of nucleotide identity between different vmp genes, or between the different 3' flanking DNA varied from 39-78%. Thus, there is length and sequence variability not only between vmp genes themselves but also between the 3' flanking regions of vmp genes. 相似文献
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Streptococci resident in the oral cavity have been linked to infective endocarditis (IE). While other viridans streptococci are commonly studied in relation to IE, less research has been focused on Streptococcus pneumoniae. We established for the first time an animal model of S. pneumoniae IE, and examined the virulence of the TIGR4 strain in this model. We hypothesized that two-component systems (TCS) may mediate S. pneumoniae TIGR4 strain virulence in IE and examined TCS response regulator (RR) mutants of TIGR4 in vivo with the IE model. Thirteen of the 14 RR protein genes were mutagenized, excluding only the essential gene SP_1227. The requirement of the 13 RRs for S. pneumoniae competitiveness in the IE model was assessed in vivo through use of quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR) and competitive index assays. Using real-time PCR, several RR mutants were detected at significantly lower levels in infected heart valves compared with a control strain suggesting the respective RRs are candidate virulence factors for IE. The virulence reduction of the ΔciaR mutant was further confirmed by competitive index assay. Our data suggest that CiaR is a virulence factor of S. pneumoniae strain TIGR4 for IE. 相似文献
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Isoproterenol-induced impairment of heart function and remodeling are attenuated by the nonpeptide angiotensin-(1-7) analogue AVE 0991 总被引:2,自引:0,他引:2
Ferreira AJ Oliveira TL Castro MC Almeida AP Castro CH Caliari MV Gava E Kitten GT Santos RA 《Life sciences》2007,81(11):916-923
The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of AVE 0991 (AVE), a nonpeptide compound that mimics Ang-(1-7) actions, on cardiac remodeling. Heart hypertrophy and heart dysfunction were induced by isoproterenol (ISO) (2 mg/kg i.p./day for 7 days) in male Wistar rats. At the end of the 7-day period, the hearts were perfused according to the Langendorff method to evaluate cardiac function. The hearts, atria, and right and left ventricles wet weights were recorded, normalized for body weight and then expressed as muscle mass index (mg/g). In addition, serial sections from left ventricle were stained with hematoxylin-eosin for cell morphometry and with collagen-specific Masson's trichrome for detection of fibrosis. Immunofluorescence-labeling and confocal microscopy were used to investigate the distribution and deposition of collagen types I, III, VI, and fibronectin. AVE reduced the ISO-induced hypertrophy as quantified by myocyte diameter measurements (Control: 10.60+/-0.08 microm; ISO: 14.60+/-0.11 mum; ISO+AVE: 11.22+/-0.08 microm, n = 5). In addition, AVE markedly attenuated the increase of extracellular matrix proteins induced by ISO. AVE treatment also attenuated the decrease in systolic tension and +/-dT/dt and exacerbated the vasodilatation induced by ISO. These results show that AVE has a cardioprotective effect on ISO-induced cardiac remodeling. 相似文献
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JG Hansen W Gao J Dupuis GT O’Connor W Tang M Kowgier A Sood SA Gharib LJ Palmer M Fornage SR Heckbert BM Psaty SL Booth SUNLIGHT Consortium Patricia A Cassano 《Respiratory research》2015,16(1)
Background
Vitamin D is associated with lung function in cross-sectional studies, and vitamin D inadequacy is hypothesized to play a role in the pathogenesis of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Further data are needed to clarify the relation between vitamin D status, genetic variation in vitamin D metabolic genes, and cross-sectional and longitudinal changes in lung function in healthy adults.Methods
We estimated the association between serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] and cross-sectional forced expiratory volume in the first second (FEV1) in Framingham Heart Study (FHS) Offspring and Third Generation participants and the association between serum 25(OH)D and longitudinal change in FEV1 in Third Generation participants using linear mixed-effects models. Using a gene-based approach, we investigated the association between 241 SNPs in 6 select vitamin D metabolic genes in relation to longitudinal change in FEV1 in Offspring participants and pursued replication of these findings in a meta-analyzed set of 4 independent cohorts.Results
We found a positive cross-sectional association between 25(OH)D and FEV1 in FHS Offspring and Third Generation participants (P = 0.004). There was little or no association between 25(OH)D and longitudinal change in FEV1 in Third Generation participants (P = 0.97). In Offspring participants, the CYP2R1 gene, hypothesized to influence usual serum 25(OH)D status, was associated with longitudinal change in FEV1 (gene-based P < 0.05). The most significantly associated SNP from CYP2R1 had a consistent direction of association with FEV1 in the meta-analyzed set of replication cohorts, but the association did not reach statistical significance thresholds (P = 0.09).Conclusions
Serum 25(OH)D status was associated with cross-sectional FEV1, but not longitudinal change in FEV1. The inconsistent associations may be driven by differences in the groups studied. CYP2R1 demonstrated a gene-based association with longitudinal change in FEV1 and is a promising candidate gene for further studies.Electronic supplementary material
The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12931-015-0238-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. 相似文献7.
Background
Available bacterial genomes provide opportunities for screening vaccines by reverse vaccinology. Efficient identification of surface antigens is required to reduce time and animal cost in this technology. We developed an approach to identify surface antigens rapidly in Streptococcus sanguinis, a common infective endocarditis causative species.Methods and Findings
We applied bioinformatics for antigen prediction and pooled antigens for immunization. Forty-seven surface-exposed proteins including 28 lipoproteins and 19 cell wall-anchored proteins were chosen based on computer algorithms and comparative genomic analyses. Eight proteins among these candidates and 2 other proteins were pooled together to immunize rabbits. The antiserum reacted strongly with each protein and with S. sanguinis whole cells. Affinity chromatography was used to purify the antibodies to 9 of the antigen pool components. Competitive ELISA and FACS results indicated that these 9 proteins were exposed on S. sanguinis cell surfaces. The purified antibodies had demonstrable opsonic activity.Conclusions
The results indicate that immunization with pooled proteins, in combination with affinity purification, and comprehensive immunological assays may facilitate cell surface antigen identification to combat infectious diseases. 相似文献8.
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Utility of the white gene in estimating phylogenetic relationships among mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae) 总被引:2,自引:0,他引:2
The utility of a nuclear protein-coding gene for reconstructing
phylogenetic relationships within the family Culicidae was explored.
Relationships among 13 species representing three subfamilies and nine
genera of Culicidae were analyzed using a 762-bp fragment of coding
sequence from the eye color gene, white. Outgroups for the study were two
species from the sister group Chaoboridae. Sequences were determined from
clone PCR products amplified from genomic DNA, and aligned following
conceptual intron splicing and amino acid translation. Third codon
positions were characterized by high levels of divergence and biased
nucleotide composition, the intensity and direction of which varied among
taxa. Equal weighting of all characters resulted in parsimony and
neighboring-joining trees at odds with the generally accepted phylogenetic
hypothesis based on morphology and rDNA sequences. The application of
differential weighting schemes recovered the traditional hypothesis, in
which the subfamily Anophelinae formed the basal clade. The subfamily
Toxorhynchitinae occupied an intermediate position, and was a sister group
to the subfamily Culicinae. Within Culicinae, the genera Sabethes and
Tripteroides formed an ancestral clade, while the Culex-Deinocerites and
Aedes- Haemagogus clades occupied increasingly derived positions in the
molecular phylogeny. An intron present in the Culicinae- Toxorhynchitinae
lineage and one outgroup taxon was absent in the basal Anophelinae lineage
and the second outgroup taxon, suggesting that intron insertions or
deletions may not always be reliable systematic characters.
相似文献
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Insulin-like growth factor-II (IGF-II): a potential autocrine/paracrine growth factor for human breast cancer acting via the IGF-I receptor 总被引:10,自引:0,他引:10