1. Kinetic studies on the binding of 125I-streptolysin-O exhibited immediate fixation of activation toxin to natural and artificial membranes. Once fixed to the membrane no release of Streptolysin-O or Streptolysin-O-lipid-complexes has been observed. 2. In contrast to activated toxin (free SH-groups!), oxidized Streptolysin-O was shown to become also fixed to membranes, however, with different...

Clostridium perfringens type D-producing epsilon toxin is a common cause of death in sheep and goats worldwide. Although anti-epsilon toxin serum antibodies have been detected in healthy non-vaccinated sheep, the information regarding naturally acquired antibodies in ruminants is scanty. The objective of the present report was to characterize the development of naturally acquired antibodies aga...

All tested proteolytic Clostridium botulinum type A, B, and F strains and certain non-proteolytic B and F cultures produced a protease having trypsin-like substrate specificity; none of the tested type E (non-proteolytic) strains produced the enzyme. Progenitor toxin (toxic form whose specific toxicity is increased by treatment with trypsin) was found in culture fluid concentrates of all strain...

Microbes produce a variety of compounds that are used to kill or suppress other species. Traditional antibiotics have their origins in these natural products, as do many types of compounds being pursued today in the quest for new antibacterial drugs. When a potential toxin can be encoded by and exported from a species that is not harmed, the opportunity exists to use directed evolution to impro...

The actin cytoskeleton is an attractive target for bacterial toxins. The ADP-ribosyltransferase TccC3 from the insect bacterial pathogen Photorhabdus luminescence modifies actin to force its aggregation. We intended to transport the catalytic part of this toxin preferentially into cancer cells using a toxin transporter (Protective antigen, PA) which was redirected to Epidermal Growth Factor Rec...

The protein toxins produced by Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) are the most widely used natural insecticides in agriculture. Despite successful and extensive use of these toxins in transgenic crops, little is known about toxicity and resistance pathways in target insects since these organisms are not ideal for molecular genetic studies. To address this limitation and to investigate the potential us...

2 Characterization of Escherichia coli dinJ-yafQ toxin-antitoxin system: 3 insights from mutagenesis data 4 5 Julija Armalytė, Milda Jurėnaitė , Gina Beinoravičiūtė, Justinas Teišerskas, and Edita 6 Sužiedėlienė* 7 8 Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Faculty of Natural Sciences of Vilnius 9 University, Čiurlionio 21, LT-03101, Vilnius, Lithuania; 10 11 12 13 Running title: characteriza...

The profile of tetrahydropurine neurotoxins associated with paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP) was determined from a Chilean strain of the marine dinoflagellate Alexandrium catenella. The toxin composition was compared with that of toxic shellfish, presumably contaminated by natural blooms of A. catenella from the same region in southern Chile. Ion pair-liquid chromatography with post-column d...

There is a need to develop food-compatible conditions to alter the structures of fungal, bacterial, and plant toxins, thus transforming toxins to nontoxic molecules. The term 'chemical genetics' has been used to describe this approach. This overview attempts to survey and consolidate the widely scattered literature on the inhibition by natural compounds and plant extracts of the biological (tox...