Daptomycin is an acidic lipopeptide antibiotic that, in the presence of calcium, forms oligomeric pores on membranes containing phosphatidylglycerol. It is clinically used against various Gram-positive bacteria such as Staphylococcus aureus and Enterococcus species. Genetic studies have indicated that an increased content of cardiolipin in the bacterial membrane may contribute to bacterial resi...

Cardiolipin (CL)-specific fluorescent dye 10-N-nonyl-acridine orange (NAO) was used to visualize CL distribution in Escherichia coli cells of different phospholipid compositions. In a filamentous mutant containing only anionic phospholipids, green fluorescent spots were observed along the filaments at approximately regular intervals. Three-dimensional image reconstruction obtained by optical se...

WaaG is a glycosyltransferase that is involved in the biosynthesis of lipopolysaccharide in Gram-negative bacteria. Inhibitors of WaaG are highly sought after as they could be used to inhibit the biosynthesis of the core region of lipopolysaccharide, which would improve the uptake of antibiotics. Herein, we establish an activity assay for WaaG using 14C-labeled UDP-glucose and LPS purified from...

A haemolytic assay was used to test the complement fixation ability of 16 serum samples with high concentrations of anti-cardiolipin antibodies. Fourteen patients had clinical complications usually associated with these antibodies--namely, recurrent abortions, thrombosis, or thrombocytopenia. Complement fixation by anticardiolipin antibodies was shown in only four of these patients and was not ...

Physicians and serologists have faced a number of questions associated with sero-diagnostic reactions in syphilis which have been difficult to answer. For example, it may be asked how is it possible for serum reactions employing lipid antigens, apparently unrelated to the Treponema pallidum, to behave as though they were specifically associated with syphilis, as shown by the remarkable parallel...

In certain cell types, apoptosis in response to extracellular stimuli like Fas depends on a mitochondrial amplificatory loop: the apical caspase-8 cleaves and activates the BH3-only member of the Bcl-2 family BID. In turn, BID induces the release of cytochrome c from mitochondria to the cytoplasm, where it is required to fully activate effector caspases. In this issue of The Journal of Cell Bio...

Cardiolipin is a prominent component of the mitochondrial inner membranes contributing to the regulation of multiple discrete mitochondrial functions. Here, we extend shotgun lipidomics to identify and quantitate cardiolipin molecular species directly from lipid extracts of biological samples. Three shotgun lipidomics approaches for analyses of cardiolipin molecular species were developed using...

Membrane degradation was observed in lipid bodies isolated from soybean seeds and incubated at 30°C for 6and 18-day periods. Three events occurred during degradation. Phosphatidylcholine and phosphatidylethanolamine (PE) were converted to phosphatidic acid presumably by phospholipase D, but PE decreased even in the absence of phospholipase D enzymic activity. A substance that cochromatographed ...

The basic processes harvesting chemical energy for life are driven by proton (H(+)) movements. These are accomplished by the mitochondrial redox complex V, integral membrane supramolecular aggregates, whose structure has recently been described by advanced studies. These did not identify classical aqueous pores. It was proposed that H(+) transfer for oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) does not ...

BACKGROUND β2GPI is a major antigen for autoantibodies associated with antiphospholipid syndrome (APS), an autoimmune disease characterized by thrombosis and recurrent pregnancy loss. Only the dimeric form of β2GPI generated by anti-β2GPI antibodies is pathologically important, in contrast to monomeric β2GPI which is abundant in plasma. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS We created a dimeric inhibitor, A1-A1...