The galacto-oligosaccharide (GOS) OLIGOMATE 55N (Yakult) is a mixture of oligosaccharides, the main component of which is 4'-galactosyllactose (4'-GL). Numerous reports have shown that GOSs are non-digestible, reach the colon and selectively stimulate the growth of bifidobacteria. The product has been used as a food ingredient and its applications have expanded rapidly. However, the bifidobacte...

BACKGROUND: Colibacillosis, caused by different serotypes of avian pathogenic Escherichia coli (APEC), is one of the important diseases in poultry industry. The isolate O78 is the most prevalent serotype of APEC in Iran. One of the APEC virulence factors, increased serum survival (iss) gene, is related to serum resistance. The usual form of colibacillosis in avian is extraintestinal, and serum ...

UTANT strains of Neurospora crassa that are unable to utilize inorganic sulfur, but which are capable of growth on minimal medium supplemented with either cysteine or methionine, are obtained readily. It is surprising, therefore, that little genetic information has been available for cysteine mutants of Neurospora, other than those located in linkage group VI (STADLER 1956a,b, 1959a,b; STADLER ...

Changes in the intensity of the electron spin resonaince signal of divalent manganese were found to occur in suspensions of wild-type Chlamydamonas reinhardi. The dbserved manganese signal decreased in the light and increased in the dark. Through the use of a continuous-flow system it was possiible to determlline that the manganous ions responsible for the observed, signal were localized solely...

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) and trans-acting siRNAs (ta-siRNAs) in plants form through distinct pathways, although they function as negative regulators of mRNA targets by similar mechanisms . Three ta-siRNA gene families (TAS1, TAS2, and TAS3) are known in Arabidopsis thaliana. Biogenesis of TAS3 ta-siRNAs, which target mRNAs encoding several AUXIN RESPONSE FACTORs (including ARF3/ETTIN and ARF4 ) invol...

2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D), a chemical analogue of indole-3-acetic acid (IAA), is widely used as a growth regulator and exogenous source of auxin. Because 2,4-D evokes physiological and molecular responses similar to those evoked by IAA, it is believed that they share a common response pathway. Here, we show that a mutant, antiauxin resistant1 (aar1), identified in a screen for resi...

PDE9 inhibitors show potential for treatment of diseases such as diabetes. To help with discovery of PDE9 inhibitors, we performed mutagenesis, kinetic, crystallographic, and molecular dynamics analyses on the active site residues of Gln453 and its stabilizing partner Glu406. The crystal structures of the PDE9 Q453E mutant (PDE9Q453E) in complex with inhibitors IBMX and (S)-BAY73-6691 showed as...

Clinical trials show that some probiotic effects are observed with specific strains but not in control strains. The strains compared were often members of different species or even genus. There is a tendency to believe that some extrapolation of results could be possible for microorganisms of the same species, and this is especially done by some companies selling products that were not studied ...

Psychrotroph microorganisms have developed cellular mechanisms to cope with cold stress. Cell envelopes are key components for bacterial survival. Outer membrane is a constituent of Gram negative bacterial envelopes, consisting of several components, such as lipopolysaccharides (LPS). In this work we investigated the relevance of envelope characteristics for cold adaptation in the Antarctic bac...

The reuteransucrase enzymes of Lactobacillus reuteri strain 121 (GTFA) and L. reuteri strain ATCC 55730 (GTFO) convert sucrose into alpha-d-glucans (labelled reuterans) with mainly alpha-(1-->4) glucosidic linkages (50% and 70%, respectively), plus alpha-(1-->6) linkages. In the present study, we report a detailed analysis of various hybrid GTFA/O enzymes, resulting in the identification of spe...