Monokaryotic haustoria (M-haustoria) of Uromyces vignae in Vigna sinensis cells are surrounded by an extrahaustorial matrix (ema) and the invaginated host plasmalemma, the extrahaustorial membrane (ehm). The ema was characterized with antibodies against components of the plant cell wall; the ema contained hydroxyproline-rich glycoproteins and arabinogalactans/arabinogalactan proteins, both at a...

The compositional complexity of the mycobacterial cell envelope differentiates Mycobacterium species from most other prokaryotes. Historically, research in this area has focused on the elucidation of the structure of the mycobacterial cell envelope with the result that the structures of the mycolic acid-arabinogalactan-peptidoglycan complex from M. tuberculosis are fairly well understood. Howev...

BACKGROUND Arabinogalactan proteins (AGPs) are complex proteoglycans of the cell wall found in the entire plant kingdom and in almost all plant organs. AGPs encompass a large group of heavily glycosylated cell-wall proteins which share common features, including the presence of glycan chains especially enriched in arabinose and galactose and a protein backbone particularly rich in hydroxyprolin...

In spite of effective antibiotics to treat TB (tuberculosis) since the early 1960s, we enter the new millennium with TB currently the leading cause of death from a single infectious agent, killing more than 3 million people worldwide each year. Thus an understanding of drug-resistance mechanisms, the immunobiology of cell wall components to elucidate host-pathogen interactions and the discovery...

The crude polysaccharide SSa, obtained from the roots of Sophora subprostrata by boiling-water extraction and ethanol precipitation, was fractionated by anion-exchange and gel permeation chromatography, giving four polysaccharide fractions termed SSa1, SSa2, SSa3, and SSa4. Their structural features were investigated by sugar analysis, methylation analysis, partial hydrolysis, and NMR spectrosc...