The highly radiation-resistant tetracoccal bacterium Deinococcus radiodurans exhibited a reversible multi-cell-form transition which depended on the NaCl concentration in the medium. In response to 0.8% NaCl addition into the medium, the pair/tetrad (designated 2/4) cells in a young culture grew and divided but did not separate and became 8-, 16-, and 32-cell units successively. In exponential ...

Predicted highly expressed (PHX) and putative alien genes determined by codon usages are characterized in the genome of Deinococcus radiodurans (strain R1). Deinococcus radiodurans (DEIRA) can survive very high doses of ionizing radiation that are lethal to virtually all other organisms. It has been argued that DEIRA is endowed with enhanced repair systems that provide protection and stability....

Glutathione is a nearly ubiquitous, low-molecular-mass thiol and antioxidant, but it is conspicuously absent from most Gram-positive bacteria. We identify here the structure of bacillithiol, a newly described and abundant thiol produced by Bacillus species, Staphylococcus aureus and Deinococcus radiodurans. Bacillithiol is the alpha-anomeric glycoside of L-cysteinyl-D-glucosamine with L-malic a...

Deinococcus radiodurans exhibits an extraordinary resistance to the effects of exposure to ionizing radiation (IR). DdrB is one of five proteins induced to high levels in Deinococcus following extreme IR exposure and that play a demonstrable role in genome reconstitution. Although homology is limited, DdrB is a bacterial single-stranded DNA-binding protein. DdrB features a stable core with a pu...

The multiple extremes resistant bacterium Deinococcus radiodurans is able to withstand harsh conditions of simulated outer space environment. The Tanpopo orbital mission performs a long-term space exposure of D. radiodurans aiming to investigate the possibility of interplanetary transfer of life. The revealing of molecular machinery responsible for survivability of D. radiodurans in the outer s...

The insertion sequence element IS8301 isolated from the radiation resistant bacterium Deinococcus radiodurans strain KD8301 was characterized. IS8301 is comprised of 1,736-bp, lacks terminal inverted repeats and does not duplicate target DNA upon its insertion. The amino acid sequence homology of two open reading frames encoded in IS8301 indicates that this insertion sequence element belongs to...

Deinococcus radiodurans (DR) is an extremophile that is well known for its resistance to radiation, oxidants and desiccation. The gene dr1790 of D. radiodurans was predicted to encode a yellow-related protein. The primary objective of the present study was to characterize the biological function of the DR1790 protein, which is a member of the ancient yellow/major royal jelly (MRJ) protein famil...

Transmission electron microscopy revealed that the nucleoid of the extremely radioresistant bacteria Deinococcus radiodurans may adopt an unusual ring shape. This led to the hypothesis that the tight toroidal package of the D. radiodurans genome might contribute to radioresistance by preventing diffusion of ends of double-stranded DNA breaks. The molecular arrangement of DNA in the nucleoid, wh...

Protein oxidation can contribute to radiation-induced cell death by two mechanisms: (1) by reducing the fidelity of DNA repair, and (2) by decreasing cell viability directly. Previously, we explored the first mechanism by developing a mathematical model and applying it to data on Deinococcus radiodurans . Here we extend the model to both mechanisms, and analyze a recently published data set of...