Colonization of the human nasopharynx exposes Moraxella catarrhalis, a common cause of otitis media in children and exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in adults, to sudden downshifts in temperature, occurring when the host breathes cold air. We investigated whether in vitro cold shock influences the expressions of the outer membrane adhesins UspA1 and hemagglutinin, which ar...

Infection of Escherichia coli cells by T4 phage at a multiplicity of infection (MOI) of 0.01 caused inhibition of cell lysis for up to 4 h. Such cells grown under aerobic condition were lysed by external stimuli such as cold shock, osmotic shock or addition of toxic substances, e.g., carbonyl cyanide m-chlorophenylhydrazone (CCCP). However, the effects of these external stimuli were reduced by ...

Most organisms experience environments that vary continuously over time, yet researchers generally study phenotypic responses to abrupt and sustained changes in environmental conditions. Gradual environmental changes, whether predictable or stochastic, might affect organisms differently than do abrupt changes. To explore this possibility, we exposed terrestrial isopods (Porcellio scaber) collec...

Two cold shock genes, cspL and cspP, have been cloned from two Lactobacillus plantarum strains. These genes, which are nonallelic, were present in all strains tested. The genes encode 66-amino-acid polypeptides related to each other and to the cold shock Csp family. Transcription of cspP rendered a single mRNA, while two cspL mRNAs were found with common 5' ends. The amounts of these transcript...

The Arabidopsis TCH genes, which encode calmodulin-related proteins and a xyloglucan endotransglycosylase, are shown to be up-regulated in expression following cold shock. We investigated a possible role of fluctuations in intracellular calcium ion concentrations ([CaZ+I) in the cold-shock-induced TCH gene expression. Transgenic plants harboring the apoaequorin gene were generated to monitor [C...

We analyze in detail the hydrodynamics and afterglow emission of an ultrarelativistic blast wave when it expands in a density-jump medium. Such a medium is likely to appear in the vicinity of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) associated with massive stars. The interaction of the blast wave with this medium is described through a reverse shock and a forward shock. We show that the reverse shock is initial...

Inverse PCR was used to amplify major cold shock protein (MCSP) gene families from a diverse range of bacteria, including the psychrotolerant Yersinia enterocolitica, which was found to have two almost identical MCSP coding regions (cspA1 and cspA2) located approximately 300 bp apart. This tandem gene duplication was also found in Y. pestis, Y. pseudotuberculosis, and Y. ruckeri but not in othe...

This study aimed to analyze the clinical course, timing of rupture and relationship with percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in patients with cardiac free wall rupture (FWR) following acute myocardial infarction (AMI). FWR was observed in 77 (2.3%) of 3, 284 patients with AMI in our CCU over 28 years. 47 (61.0%) cases were male and mean of age was 69.8 year old. Rupture occurred on Day 1 o...

Elevated temperature induces a rapid heat shock transcription factor (HSFs)-mediated expression of heat shock (hsp) genes. The effect of cold exposure on hsp gene expression has hardly been investigated, although ectothermic animals experience both cold and heat stress. We have previously shown in zebrafish that the expression of hsf1a and a unique isoform hsf1b vary in a tissue-specific manner...