BACKGROUND The unique cell wall of bacteria of the suborder Corynebacterineae is essential for the growth and survival of significant human pathogens including Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Mycobacterium leprae. Drug resistance in mycobacteria is an increasingly common development, making identification of new antimicrobials a priority. Recent studies have revealed potent anti-mycobacterial co...

Flying vertebrates have been hypothesized to rely heavily on paracellular absorption of nutrients to compensate for having smaller intestines than non-flyers. We tested this hypothesis in an insectivorous bat (Myotis lucifugus) and two insect-eating rodents (Onychomys leucogaster and Peromyscus leucopus). In intact animals, the fractional absorption of orally dosed l-arabinose (Mr 150) was 82% ...

Biofuels derived from lignocellulosic biomass offer promising alternative renewable energy sources for transportation fuels. Significant effort has been made to engineer Saccharomyces cerevisiae to efficiently ferment pentose sugars such as D-xylose and L-arabinose into biofuels such as ethanol through heterologous expression of the fungal D-xylose and L-arabinose pathways. However, one of the ...

The anatomy of Prunus dulcis was analyzed by applying several differential staining techniques and light microscopy. Prunus dulcis seed has a thin and structurally complex seed coat, with lignified cellulosic tissue. The embryo has two voluminous cotyledons. Cotyledon cells have a high number of protein and lipid bodies, some of which have phytin. The provascular tissue, located in the cotyledo...

An endogenous wheat (Triticum aestivum) flour endoxylanase was purified to homogeneity from a crude wheat flour extract by ammonium sulfate precipitation and cation-exchange chromatography. The 30-kD protein had an isoelectric point of 9.3 or higher. A sequence of 19 amino acids at the NH2 terminus showed 84.2% identity with an internal sequence of 15-kD grain-softness protein, friabilin. High-...

We examined the effects of chronic hypertension and acute reduction of arterial pressure on the susceptibility of the blood-brain barrier (BBB) to disruption. The BBB was disrupted with an intracarotid injection of 1.6 M arabinose in spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR), stroke-prone SHR (SHRSP), and normotensive Wistar-Kyoto (WKY) rats. Permeability of the BBB was determined from the ratio of...

Cells of proso millet (Panicum miliaceum L. cv Abarr) in liquid culture and leaves of maize seedlings (Zea mays L. cv LH51 x LH1131) readily incorporated d-[U-(14)C]glucose and l-[U-(14)C]arabinose into soluble and cell wall polymers. Radioactivity from arabinose accumulated selectively in polymers containing arabinose or xylose because a salvage pathway and C-4 epimerase yield both nucleotide-...