Cytokinin flow from roots to shoots can serve as a long-distance signal important for root-to-shoot communication. In the past, changes in cytokinin flow from roots to shoots have been mainly attributed to changes in the rate of synthesis or breakdown in the roots. The present research tested the possibility that active uptake of cytokinin by root cells may also influence its export to shoots. ...

Alteration of platelet function contributes to microthrombus formation and may play an important role in the pathogenesis of diabetic micro- and macroangiopathies. However, the molecular mechanism for platelet dysfunction observed in patients with diabetes has not been fully elucidated. In this study, the direct effects of hyperglycemia on platelet function in vitro were investigated. Hyperglyc...

Free radicals run in lizard families without (and perhaps with) mitochondrial uncoupling Criscuolo & Bouillaud's (in press, hereafter 'CB') interesting comment on our recent papers on lizard reactive oxygen species (ROS) biology (Olsson et al. 2008a,b) is a nice demonstration of the complex mechanisms underlying the production and elimination of ROS (and other reactive molecules) and what makes...

OBJECTIVES Therapy of AIDS patients infected with Mycobacterium avium is problematic due to its intrinsic resistance to antibiotics. We have characterized the efflux pump activity of M. avium wild-type strain through an automated fluorometric method and correlated it with intrinsic resistance to antibiotics. METHODS M. avium ATCC 25291(T) and Mycobacterium smegmatis mc(2)155 were evaluated fo...

Twenty-five vital fluorescent dyes were tested for accumulation in haustoria of Erysiphe graminis (DC) Merat f. sp. hordei Em . Marchai when applied to coleoptile epidermal host cells of Hordeum vulgare L . Eight of the dyes gave fluorescence to structures judged to be haustorial mitochondria . The potentiometric cyanine dyes, DiOC4 (3) and DiOC 7 (3) gave best differentiation between the putat...

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) and mitophagy are profoundly implicated in the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Parkinson's disease (PD). Several studies have suggested that ROS are not involved in mitochondrial translocation of Parkin which primes mitochondria for autophagic elimination. However, whether ROS play a role in the execution of mitophagy is unknown. In the present ...

The sensitivity of 11 Mycoplasma and 5 Acholeplasma species to the bacteriocin nisin was determined. When applied on filter paper discs to lawns of acholeplasma cells, nisin (20 nmol per disc) gave 3.5- to 7.0-mm zones of growth inhibition. The inclusion of 0.2 mM nisin in agar medium reduced the number of Acholeplasma laidlawii colonies by a factor of more than 10(6), and in a salts solution, ...

Resistance to fluoroquinolones has been recently increased among bacterial strains isolated from outpatients. Multidrug-resistant K. pneumoniae is one of the major organisms isolated from burn patients and the AcrAB efflux pump is the principal pump contributing to the intrinsic resistance in K. pneumoniae against multiple antimicrobial agents including ciprofloxacin and other fluoroquinolones....

Hepatic lipase (HL) is an N-glycoprotein that acquires triglyceridase activity somewhere during maturation and secretion. To determine where and how HL becomes activated, the effect of drugs that interfere with maturation and intracellular transport of HL protein was studied using freshly isolated rat hepatocytes. Carbonyl cyanide m-chlorophenyl hydrazone (CCCP), castanospermine, monensin, and ...

OBJECTIVES To investigate phenotypically and genotypically the presence of MDR efflux pumps in 21 clinical isolates of Staphylococcus haemolyticus collected over a period of 10 years. METHODS MICs of different antibiotics and biocides were determined by the broth dilution method in the presence/absence of carbonyl cyanide-m-chlorophenylhydrazone (CCCP), an efflux pump inhibitor. PCR followed ...