Inhibition of DNA replication in E. coli results in coordinate expression of a cluster of diverse functions, including prophage induction and filamentous growth, many of which are thermally inducible, without inhibition of DNA synthesis, in strains carrying a mutation in the "tif" locus. It has been proposed that one of the inducible functions in this cluster is responsible for the ultraviolet ...

Macrophage dysfunction is considered an important contributory factor for increased propensity of infections in uremia. Because nitric oxide (NO) is believed to be an effector molecule of macrophage cytotoxicity, we propose that the dysfunction may be related to impaired NO synthesis. To verify this hypothesis, we evaluated macrophage NO synthesis in the presence of urea, a compound that accumu...

Inducible transgene expression provides a useful tool to analyze gene function. The moss Physcomitrellapatens is a model basal land plant with well-developed research tools, including a high efficiency of gene targeting and substantial genomics resources. However, current systems for controlled transgene expression remain limited. Here we report the development of an estrogen receptor mediated ...

Ribonucleic acid interference (RNAi) based on microRNA (miRNA) may provide efficient and safe therapeutic opportunities. However, natural microRNAs can not easily be regulated and usually cause few phenotypic changes. Using the engineering principles of synthetic biology, we provided a novel and standard platform for the generation of tetracycline (Tet)-inducible vectors that express artificial...

Endothelial progenitor cells (EPC) are able to migrate to tumor vasculature. These cells, if genetically modified, can be used as vehicles to deliver toxic material to, or express anticancer proteins in tumor. To test this hypothesis, we developed several single, endothelial-specific, and doxycycline-inducible self-inactivating (SIN) lentiviral vectors. Two distinct expression cassettes were in...

BACKGROUND As engineered biological systems become more complex, it is increasingly common to express multiple operons from different plasmids and inducible expression systems within a single host cell. Optimizing such systems often requires screening combinations of origins of replication, expression systems, and antibiotic markers. This procedure is hampered by a lack of quantitative data on ...

Previously we described the antinociceptive effect of magnesium sulfate and dizocilpine (MK-801) in the visceral and somatic rat models of pain. In the somatic model of pain, we established the influence of selective inhibitors of neuronal and inducible nitric oxide synthase on the antihyperalgesic effects of magnesium sulfate and dizocilpine. Therefore, the objective of the present study was t...

DEAD box protein, DDX3, is aberrantly expressed in breast cancer cells ranging from weakly invasive to aggressive phenotypes and functions as an important regulator of cancer cell growth and survival. Here, we demonstrate that hypoxia inducible factor-1α is a transcriptional activator of DDX3 in breast cancer cells. Within the promoter region of the human DDX3 gene, we identified three putative...

Characterization and standardization of inducible transcriptional regulators has transformed how scientists approach biology by allowing precise and tunable control of gene expression. Despite their utility, only a handful of well-characterized regulators exist, limiting the complexity of engineered biological systems. We apply a characterization pipeline to four genetically encoded sensors tha...