We performed GeneChip analyses on RNA from Bacillus anthracis lethal toxin (LeTx)-treated RAW 264.7 murine macrophages to investigate global effects of anthrax toxin on host cell gene expression. Stringent analysis of data revealed that the expression of several mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase-regulatory genes was affected within 1.5 h post-exposure to LeTx. By 3.0 h, the expression of ...

Vibrio cholerae causes the potentially lethal disease cholera through the elaboration of the intestinal secretogen cholera toxin. A second toxin of V. cholerae, Zot, decreases intestinal tissue resistance by modifying intercellular tight junctions. In this report, a third toxin of V. cholerae, Ace (accessory cholera enterotoxin), is described. Ace increases short-circuit current in Ussing chamb...

There has been a great expansion in the number of small regulatory RNAs identified in bacteria. Some of these small RNAs repress the synthesis of potentially toxic proteins. Generally the toxin proteins are hydrophobic and less than 60 amino acids in length, and the corresponding antitoxin small RNA genes are antisense to the toxin genes or share long stretches of complementarity with the targe...

We have determined the nucleotide sequence of the sltA and sltB genes that encode the Shiga-like toxin (SLT) produced by Escherichia coli phage H19B. The amino acid composition of the A and B subunits of SLT is very similar to that previously established for Shiga toxin from Shigella dysenteriae 1, and the deduced amino acid sequence of the B subunit of SLT is identical with that reported for t...

Because bacteriophages generally parasitize only closely related bacteria, it is assumed that phage-mediated genetic exchange occurs primarily within species. Here we report that staphylococcal pathogenenicity islands, containing superantigen genes, and other mobile elements transferred to Listeria monocytogenes at the same high frequencies as they transfer within Staphylococcus aureus. Several...

Abstract Background Toxin-antitoxin (TA) systems, abundant in prokaryotes, are composed of a toxin gene and its cognate antitoxin. Several toxins implied to affect the physiological state stress tolerance bacteria population. We previously identified chromosomally encoded hok - sok type I TA system Erwinia amylovora , causative agent fire blight disease on pome fruit trees. A high-level inducti...

The host-selective ACT toxin is essential for the pathogenesis of citrus fungal pathogen Alternaria alternata . However, mechanism ACT-toxin gene clusters biosynthesis regulated by still poorly understood. mainly multiple genes located in secondary metabolite cluster. In this study, we reported a transcription regulator ACTR contributes through mediating synthesis ACTS4 alternata. We generated ...

Nine Clostridium perfringens strains were isolated from fifteen intestinal content samples collected from commercial broilers which suffered from necrotic enteritis NE. Molecular typing of C. perfringens was performed by PCR using three sets of primers specific for toxin -producing genes of C. perfringens [alpha (900bp), beta (236bp) and epsilon (541bp)]. Six strains of C. perfringens type A an...

Trichothecenes are isoprenoid mycotoxins produced in wheat infected with the filamentous fungus Fusarium graminearum. Some fungal genes for trichothecene biosynthesis (Tri genes) are known to be under control of transcription factors encoded by Tri6 and Tri10. Tri6 and Tri10 deletion mutants were constructed in order to discover additional genes regulated by these factors in planta. Both mutant...