A fully automated anthrax smoke detector (ASD) has been developed and tested. The ASD is intended to serve as a cost effective front-end monitor for anthrax surveillance systems. The principle of operation is based on measuring airborne endospore concentrations, where a sharp concentration increase signals an anthrax attack. The ASD features an air sampler, a thermal lysis unit, a syringe pump,...

Bacteriophage T7 terminator Tϕ is a class I intrinsic terminator coding for an RNA hairpin structure immediately followed by oligo(U), which has been extensively studied in terms of its transcription termination mechanism, but little is known about its physiological or regulatory functions. In this study, using a T7 mutant phage, where a 31-bp segment of Tϕ was deleted from the genome, we disco...

Two novel conditional broad-host-range cell lysis systems have been developed for the study of natural transformation in bacteria and the environmental fate of DNA released by cell death. Plasmid pDKL02 consists of lysis genes S, R, and Rz from bacteriophage lambda under the control of the Ptac promoter. The addition of inducer to Escherichia coli, Acinetobacter calcoaceticus, or Pseudomonas st...

Seldom has the study of a set of genes contributed more to our understanding of molecular genetics than has the characterization of the rapid-lysis genes of bacteriophage T4. For example, T4 rII mutants were used to define gene structure and mutagen effects at the molecular level and to help unravel the genetic code. The large-plaque morphology of these mutants reflects a block in expressing ly...

•Tumor lysis syndrome is an oncologic emergency with profound metabolic derangements.•Germ cell tumors with large disease burden increase the risk for tumor lysis syndrome.•Herein we present a case of tumor lysis syndrome prior to initiation of cytotoxic chemotherapy for ovarian yolk sac tumor.

The role of the complement receptor type 3 (CR3) on thioglycollate-elicited peritoneal macrophages (TG-PM) in the destruction of opsonized particles was studied. We found that sheep red blood cells (E) that were opsonized with an IgM monoclonal antiForssman antibody and complement (E-IgM-C) were lysed by TG-PM, whereas there was little lysis of E pretreated with either the antibody or the eompl...

1. A new strain of B. coli and of phage active against it is described, and the relation between phage growth and lysis has been studied. It has been found that the phage can lyse these bacteria in two distinct ways, which have been designated lysis from within and lysis from without. 2. Lysis from within is caused by infection of a bacterium by a single phage particle and multiplication of thi...

AIMS Isolation of Salmonella Typhi from blood culture is the standard diagnostic for confirming typhoid fever but it is unavailable in many developing countries. We previously described a Microwave Accelerated Metal Enhanced Fluorescence (MAMEF)-based assay to detect Salmonella in medium. Attempts to detect Salmonella in blood were unsuccessful, presumably due to the interference of erythrocyte...

The cyanobacterium semi-filamentous multicellular strain ABRG5-3 undergoes cell lysis as a unique feature that occurs due to growth condition changes from normal cultivation with shaking to static cultivation without shaking in liquid culture (Nishizawa et al., 2010). Microscopic observation and energy dispersive X-ray spectrometer (EDX) analysis have revealed that lysis is involved in the accu...

A lysis filtration system was used in conjunction with conventional broth culture for 1112 blood cultures. The system, which entailed collection of 5 ml of blood into bottles containing 50 ml isotonic phosphate buffer, Tween 20, and Rhozyme with subsequent filtration using a 0.45 micron Millipore field monitor, was simple and economical to use. Positive results were obtained earlier than those ...