Mature bacterial spores can be manipulated by chemical pretreatments between states sensitive and resistant to dry heat. The two chemical forms of the spore differ in dry-heat resistance by about an order of magnitude. Log survivor curves for each chemical state were approximately straight lines. The temperature dependence of dry-heat resistance for each chemical state was similar to that usual...

Melanin is a ubiquitous biological pigment found in bacteria, fungi, plants, and animals. It has a diverse range of ecological and biochemical functions, including display, evasion, photoprotection, detoxification, and metal scavenging. To date, evidence of melanin in fossil organisms has relied entirely on indirect morphological and chemical analyses. Here, we apply direct chemical techniques ...

Currently, most profile control agents would be degraded in strong alkaline condition. They could not be applied in ASP (alkaline, surfactant and partially hydrolyzed polyacrylamide) flooding. To solve this problem, a new kind of alkali-resistant gel for deep profile has been studied. Based on the profile control mechanism of profile agent and the crosslinking mechanism of the polymer, the sele...

Introduction Vulcanization refers to a specific curing process of rubber involving high heat and the addition of sulfur or other equivalent curatives. It is a chemical process in which polymer molecules are linked to other polymer molecules by atomic bridges composed of sulfur atoms or carbon-to-carbon bonds. The end result is that the springy rubber molecules become cross-linked to a greater o...

Tamoxifen, an antineoplastic agent, is active in vitro and in vivo against the parasitic protozoa Leishmania. As part of our efforts to unravel this drug's mechanisms of action against the parasite and understand how resistance could arise, we tried to select tamoxifen-resistant Leishmania amazonensis. Three different strategies to generate tamoxifen resistant mutants were used: stepwise increa...

Huge yield losses and deterioration of quality of cultivated plants occur due to continuous exposure of plants to pathogens and insect pests. The excessive use of chemical pesticides and fertilizers in modern agriculture result in a deterioration of soil fertility and through intracellular accumulation pesticide-resistant mutants of insects and plant pathogens have emerged worldwide. A number o...

We studied the in vitro emergence of resistance to daptomycin using three methods: spontaneous resistance incidence, serial passage in the presence of increasing drug concentrations, and chemical mutagenesis. No spontaneously resistant mutants were obtained for any organism tested (<10(-10) for Staphylococcus aureus, <10(-9) for Staphylococcus epidermidis, <10(-9) for Enterococcus faecalis, <10...