BACKGROUND Many microorganisms, including myxobacteria, cyanobacteria, and flexibacteria, move by gliding. Although gliding always describes a slow surface-associated translocation in the direction of the cell's long axis, it can result from two very different propulsion mechanisms: social (S) motility and adventurous (A) motility. The force for S motility is generated by retraction of type 4 p...

BACKGROUND Whereas most bacteria move by means of flagella, some prokaryotes move by gliding. In cyanobacteria, gliding motility is a slow uniform motion which is invariably accompanied by a continuous secretion of slime. On the basis of these characteristics, a model has been proposed in which the gliding motility of cyanobacteria depends on the steady secretion of slime using specific pores, ...

Hagfishes are benthic marine protovertebrates that secrete copious quantities of slime when threatened. The slime originates as a two-component glandular exudate comprised of coiled bundles of cytoskeletal intermediate filaments (thread skeins) and mucin vesicles. Holocrine secretion of the slime into seawater results in the rapid deployment of both fibrous and mucin components, resulting in ab...

The slime mould Physarum polycephalum has been used in developing unconventional computing devices for in which the slime mould played a role of a sensing, actuating, and computing device. These devices treated the slime mould rather as an active living substrate yet the slime mould is a selfconsistent living creature which evolved for millions of years and occupied most part of the world, but ...

The ability to produce slime and to express a slime-associated antigen was examined in a collection of staphylococcal clinical isolates. Slime-producing strains were found among coagulase-negative staphylococci in percentages comparable to those reported in other studies; surprisingly, a high percentage of Staphylococcus aureus strains also were able to produce this extracellular material. In t...

INTRODUCTION Staphylococcus epidermidis strains are frequently associated with catheter-related infection, acute bacteremia, and hospital-acquired infection. Some isolates produce an extracellular matrix called slime that may make them more resistant to antibiotics. The aim of this study was to determine antimicrobial resistance patterns, the prevalence of slime production, and the distribution...

Slime mould of Physarum polycephalum is a large cell exhibiting rich spatial non-linear electrical characteristics. We exploit the electrical properties of the slime mould to implement logic gates using a flexible hardware platform designed for investigating the electrical properties of a substrate (Mecobo). We apply arbitrary electrical signals to ‘configure’ the slime mould, i.e. change shape...

A simple and sensitive method for the separation and preconcentration of gold, palladium and platinum has been established prior to their atomic absorption spectrometric determinations. Analytes from 0.5 mol dm(-3) KI in a 2 mol dm(-3) HCl solution were recovered using an Amberlite XAD-7 column as halogeno complexes. The effects of some analytical parameters, including reagent amounts, sample v...