Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis (MAP) is the etiologic agent of Johne's disease in ruminants and there has been a shift in the public health approach to MAP and human diseases like Crohn's disease. The prevention of infection by MAP in ruminants is thought to deter the high impact of economic losses in the level of dairy industry and possible spreading of this pathogen in dairy prod...

Atomic force microscopy (AFM) was used to assess a new chimeric protein consisting of a fusion protein of the consensus repeat for Nephila clavipes spider dragline protein and bone sialoprotein (6mer+BSP). The elastic modulus of this protein in film form was assessed through force curves, and film surface roughness was also determined. The results showed a significant difference among the elast...

Recently, a chimeric mouse line in which the liver could be replaced by more than 80% with human hepatocytes was established in Japan. Because the chimeric mouse produces human albumin (hAlb), replacement by human hepatocytes could be estimated by the hAlb concentration in the blood of chimeric mice. In this study, we investigated human major cytochrome P450 (P450) in the livers of chimeric mic...

The outer capsid protein of rotavirus, VP7, is a major neutralization antigen. A chimeric protein comprising Escherichia coli (E. coli) outer membrane protein A (OmpA) and part of porcine rotavirus VP7 containing all three antigenic regions (217 amino acids) was expressed in Salmonella and E. coli as an outer-membrane associated protein. Mice immunized intraperitoneally or orally, respectively,...

Neuroglobin (Ngb) is a heme protein expressed in the vertebrate brain. We previously engineered a chimeric Ngb protein, in which module M1 of human Ngb is replaced by that of zebrafish Ngb, and showed that the chimeric ZHHH Ngb has a cell membrane-penetrating activity similar to that of zebrafish Ngb and also rescues cells from death caused by hypoxia/reoxygenation as does human Ngb. Recently, ...

Chimeric genes form through the combination of portions of existing coding sequences to create a new open reading frame. These new genes can create novel protein structures that are likely to serve as a strong source of novelty upon which selection can act. We have identified 14 chimeric genes that formed through DNA-level mutations in Drosophila melanogaster, and we investigate expression prof...

In bacteria, glycogen or oligosaccharide accumulation involves glucose-1-phosphate partitioning into either ADP-glucose (ADP-Glc) or UDP-Glc. Their respective synthesis is catalyzed by allosterically regulated ADP-Glc pyrophosphorylase (EC 2.7.7.27, ADP-Glc PPase) or unregulated UDP-Glc PPase (EC 2.7.7.9). In this work, we characterized the UDP-Glc PPase from Streptococcus mutans. In addition, ...

Discovery of chimeric RNAs, which are produced by chromosomal translocations as well as the joining of exons from different genes by trans-splicing, has added a new level of complexity to our study and understanding of the transcriptome. The enhanced ChiTaRS-3.1 database (http://chitars.md.biu.ac.il) is designed to make widely accessible a wealth of mined data on chimeric RNAs, with easy-to-use...

The induction and inhibition of human cytochrome P450 (P450) enzymes are clinically responsible for drug interactions. Although the induction of P450s is investigated using human hepatocytes in the drug development process, there are some disadvantages, such as the decline of the enzyme activity during culture. In the present study, we examined the in vivo induction potency in chimeric mice wit...