AIM Identification of a novel gene in mouse testis and its relation to spermatogenesis. METHODS Genes expressed during different developmental stages of the mouse testis were screened by DNA microarray. The results of chip analysis were authenticated by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) technique, as well as the tissue distribution of the selected genes. The characteris...

MOTIVATION Accurate prediction of protein stability is important for understanding the molecular underpinnings of diseases and for the design of new proteins. We introduce a novel approach for the prediction of changes in protein stability that arise from a single-site amino acid substitution; the approach uses available data on mutations occurring in the same position and in other positions. O...

The ability of enteric bacteria to protect themselves against reactive nitrogen species generated by their own metabolism, or as part of the innate immune response, is critical to their survival. One important defence mechanism is their ability to reduce NO (nitric oxide) to harmless products. The highest rates of NO reduction by Escherichia coli K-12 were detected after anaerobic growth in the...

MOTIVATION Programs that evaluate the quality of a protein structural model are important both for validating the structure determination procedure and for guiding the model-building process. Such programs are based on properties of native structures that are generally not expected for faulty models. One such property, which is rarely used for automatic structure quality assessment, is the tend...

The present study aimed to develop a symbiotic selection-marker-free plasmid and host system that would allow successful plasmid maintenance and amplification for use in gene therapy. Initially, the chromosomal aspartate‑semialdehyde dehydrogenase (asd) gene was disrupted in DH10B Escherichia coli using Red recombinase‑mediated homologous recombination. This method required the use of linear DN...

We have found the in vivo-regulated nirB promoter (PnirB) to be effective for directing expression of a number of antigens in salmonella in vivo. We wished to determine if other in vivo-regulated promoters have utility for antigen expression in salmonella and to compare the effectiveness of these promoters with that of PnirB. To this end, we have devised a scheme that allows the promoter elemen...

Gram-negative bacterial proteins which are exported from the cytosol to the external environment by the type V secretion system are also known as autotransporters. Once translocated to the periplasmic compartment by the sec-dependent general secretory pathway, their C-terminal domain forms a pore through which the N-terminal domain travels to the outer membrane without the need of other accesso...