Amyloid fibers are filamentous proteinaceous structures commonly associated with mammalian neurodegenerative diseases. Nucleation is the rate-limiting step of amyloid propagation, and its nature remains poorly understood. Escherichia coli assembles functional amyloid fibers called curli on the cell surface using an evolved biogenesis machine. In vivo, amyloidogenesis of the major curli subunit ...

Molecular Interaction between Lipoteichoic Acids and Lactobacillus delbrueckii Phages Depends on D-Alanyl and -Glucose Substitution of Poly(Glycerophosphate) Backbones Liisa Räisänen,* Christian Draing, Markus Pfitzenmaier, Karin Schubert, Tiina Jaakonsaari, Sonja von Aulock, Thomas Hartung, and Tapani Alatossava Department of Biology, University of Oulu, P.O. Box 3000, FIN-90014 Oulu, Finland;...

Cells employ a plethora of signaling pathways to make their life-and-death decisions. Extensive genetic, biochemical, and physiological studies have led to the accumulation of knowledge about signaling components and their interactions within signaling networks. These conventional approaches, although useful, lack the ability to control the spatial and temporal aspects of signaling processes. T...

Peter Vanhoenacker, Walter Gommeren, Walter H.M.L. Luyten, Josée E. Leysen and Guy Haegeman 1 Unit of Eukaryotic Gene Expression and Signal Transduction, Department of Molecular Biology, University of Gent and Flanders Interuniversity Institute for Biotechnology, K.L. Ledeganckstraat 35, B-9000 Gent, Belgium. 2 Department of Biochemical Pharmacology, 3 Department of Functional Genomics, 2,3 Jan...

Organisms maintain the correct balance of intracellular metals primarily through metal-sensing proteins that control transport and storage of the target ion(s). Here, we reveal the basis of metal sensing and genetic control by a metalloregulatory RNA. Our data demonstrate that a previously uncharacterized orphan riboswitch, renamed the "M-box," is a divalent metal-sensing RNA involved in Mg(2+)...

A Martin, D Nolan, S Gaudieri, C Almeida, F Carvalho, C Witt, D Sayer , R Nolan , S Herrmann, F Christiansen and S Mallal Centre for Clinical Immunology and Biomedical Statistics, Murdoch University and Royal Perth Hospital, Perth, Western Australia; Department of Pathology, University of Western Australia; and Department of Clinical Immunology and Biochemical Genetics, Royal Perth Hospital, We...

In Escherichia coli, swimming behavior is mediated by the phosphorylation state of the response regulator CheY. In its active, phosphorylated form, CheY exhibits enhanced binding to a switch component, FliM, at the flagellar motor, which induces a change from counterclockwise to clockwise flagellar rotation. When Ile(95) of CheY is replaced by a valine, increased clockwise rotation correlates w...

Detecting patterns of horizontal gene transfer (HGT) in genomic sequences is an important problem, with implications for evolution, ecology, biotechnology and medicine. Extensive genetic, biochemical and genomic studies have provided a good understanding of sequence features that are associated with many (though not all) known mobile elements and mechanisms of gene transfer. This information, h...

The mechanism by which an aminoacyl ribonucleic acid synthetase recognizes its transfer ribonucleic acid substrate constitutes one of the central problems in biochemical genetics. Obviously this problem cannot be solved without a thorough understanding of the structure of both enzyme and substrate. Although work on the structure of tRNAr has yielded signal results during the last few years (l-3...

Here we review recent findings and offer a perspective on how the major variant RNA polymerase of bacteria, which contains the sigma54 factor, functions for regulated gene expression. We consider what gaps exist in our understanding of its genetic, biochemical and biophysical functioning and how they might be addressed.