Type 1 fimbriae of E. coli, a chaperon-usher bacterial adhesin, are synthesized by the majority of strains of the bacterium. Although frequently produced by commensal strains, the adhesin is nevertheless a virulence factor in Extraintestinal Pathogenic E. coli (ExPEC). The role of the adhesin in pathogenesis is best understood in Uropathogenic E. coli (UPEC). Host attachment and invasion by typ...

BACKGROUND Efficient expression systems exist for antibody (Ab) molecules, which allow for characterization of large numbers of individual Ab variants. In contrast, such expression systems have been lacking for soluble T cell receptors (TCRs). Attempts to generate bacterial systems have generally resulted in low yields and material which is prone to aggregation and proteolysis. Here we present ...

Melatonin, a product of the pineal gland, is released from the gut mucosa in response to food ingestion. Specific receptors for melatonin have been detected in many gastrointestinal tissues including the pancreas. Melatonin as well as its precursor, L-tryptophan, attenuates the severity of acute pancreatitis and protects the pancreatic tissue from the damage caused by acute inflammation. The be...

AIM Out of various members of heat shock protein (HSP) superfamily which act a molecular chaperon by binding to the denaturing protein thus stabilizing them and preserving their activity, HSP70 are of major importance in thermotolerance development. Thus, present investigation aimed at a screening of HSP70 gene for polymorphisms and possible differences in thermotolerance in Tharparkar breed of...

Mitochondrial function declines with age and is associated with age-related disorders and cell death. In the retina this is critical as photoreceptor energy demands are the greatest in the body and aged cell loss large (~30%). But mitochondria can fuse or divide to accommodate changing demands. We explore ageing mitochondrial dynamics in young (1 month) and old (12 months) mouse retina, investi...

Establishment of the functional pulmonary vasculature requires intimate interaction between the epithelium and mesenchyme. Previous genetic studies have led to inconsistent conclusions about the contribution of epithelial Wnts to pulmonary vasculature development. This discrepancy is possibly due to the functional redundancy among different Wnts. Here, we use Shh-Cre to conditionally delete Gpr...

Although heat shock response is ubiquitous in bacterial cells, the underlying physical chemistry behind heat shock response remains poorly understood. To study the response of cell populations to heat shock we employ a physics-based ab initio model of living cells where protein biophysics (i.e., folding and protein-protein interactions in crowded cellular environments) and important aspects of ...

Sigma-1 receptor (Sig-1R) functions as a chaperon that interacts with multiple proteins and lipids and is implicated in neurodegenerative and psychiatric diseases. Here, we used Sig-1R KO mice to examine brain expression profiles of astrocytes and ubiquitinated proteins, which are both hallmarks of central nervous system (CNS) pathologies. Our results showed that Sig-1R KO induces increased gli...

Calreticulin (CRT) plays crucial roles in the regulation of Ca 2+ homeostasis, immune responses and molecular chaperon. In this study, a new member of the CRT gene (denoted as AjCRT) was cloned and characterized from the sea cucumber Apostichopus japonicus. The full-length of the gene was of 3316 bp, which consisted of 204 bp 5’ untranslated region (UTR), 1870 bp of 3’-UTR and a putative 1242-b...

Effects of chemically-passive fire suppressants on laminar premixed hydrogen flames were investigated by combined use of microgravity experiments and computations. The experiments used a short-drop freefall laboratory facility that provides at least 450 ms of 10 2 g. Near-limit laminar burning velocities were measured for outwardly propagating spherical stoichiometric hydrogen-air flames with v...