BACKGROUND The antiphospholipid syndrome (APS), characterised by recurrent miscarriage and thrombosis, is a significant cause of morbidity and mortality. Domain I (DI) of human beta 2 glycoprotein I (beta2GPI) is thought to contain crucial antibody binding epitopes for antiphospholipid antibodies (aPL), which are critical to the pathogenesis of APS. Expressing this protein in bacteria could fac...

Erwinia chrysanthemi 3937 secretes an arsenal of pectinolytic enzymes, including at least eight endo-pectate lyases encoded by pel genes, which play a major role in the soft-rot disease caused by this bacterium on various plants. E. chrysanthemi also produces some hydrolases that cleave pectin. Three adjacent hydrolase genes, pehV, pehW, and pehX, encoding exo-poly-alpha-D-galacturonosidases, h...

Site selectivity of protein N-linked glycosylation is dependent on many factors, including accessibility of the modification site, amino acids that make up the glycosylation consensus sequence and cellular localization of target proteins. Previous studies have shown that the bacterial oligosaccharyltransferase, PglB, of Campylobacter jejuni favors acceptor proteins with consensus sequences (D/E...

Infections caused by Staphylococcus aureus and Staphylococcus epidermidis still play a major role in human and animal disease. In particular staphylococcal biofilms on indwelling devices are difficult to treat due to their inherent antibiotic resistance (5, 7, 26). In this context, it is important to develop alternative treatment strategies to combat staphylococcal infections, particularly in v...

A product of the adenovirus gene EIA is responsible for the stimulation of transcription from six viral promoters as well as at least two cellular promoters. We have detected a HeLa cell factor, termedE2 promoter binding factor (E2F), that appears to mediate the transcriptional stimulation of the viral E2 promoter. Competition experiments revealed that E2F did not recognize and bind to the EIB,...