In the food processing industry, unwanted occurrence and growth of spoilage and pathogenic microorganisms is a key concern. A prime example is the extremely heat resistant bacterial endospores, ...microbial survival structures, that create problems due to their ability to survive classical thermal treatments and their ability to subsequently germinate and form actively growing vegetative cells. Research on food spoilage
Bacillus subtilis isolates using the Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphism (AFLP) technology and micro-array technology has identified a number of genomic factors correlated to the level of spore heat resistance. Strains could be classified according to these genomic markers. In addition, it was shown with the sequenced
B. subtilis laboratory strain that sporulation in the presence of in particular calcium ions in a cocktail of calcium, magnesium, iron, manganese and potassium promotes thermal resistance of developing spores. This physiological observation correlated with an increased expression during sporulation of genes encoding small acid soluble spore proteins.
Screening of ingredients using DNA-chip based techniques identifying the above indicated molecular markers, should allow in the future the identification of the occurrence of spoilage and pathogenic bacteria and prediction of their thermal preservation stress resistance. Currently various projects aiming at the integration of genomics data and micro(nano)-technology, a prerequisite if the alluded to ingredient Quality Control is going to succeed, are running or are being set-up. Information from these projects will be used together with the requirements of product organoleptic quality to derive robust integrated food safety and food quality processing parameters. Such parameters should form the basis of future food Quality Assurance systems.
The holistic study of the keystone biomolecules by applied genomics is one of the intellectual products of the current molecular biology revolution. These applied genomics technologies ...(transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics) aim at analyzing the components of a cell in its entirety and have, together with the developments in computing, ushered in a new era in scientific methodology for the life sciences.
The thn (thin) mutant strain of Schizophyllum commune, which normally lacks aerial mycelium, produced excessive aerial hyphae when
surrounded by multiple wild-type (wt) colonies. When thn and wt ...mycelia were grown together, the radial growth rate of the thn
strain was increased, whereas the wt strain was clearly expressed in its growth, resulting in complete overgrowth of wt by thn
hyphae. Overgrowing even occurred when mixtures of fragmented hyphae of both strains with a hundred times excess of wt
hyphae over thn hyphae were grown from a single inoculum. Growth stimulation was also observed when thn and wt colonies were
separated by dialysis membrane (cut-off 6–8 kDa) suggesting that low molecular weight molecules may be involved. The observed
phenomena may explain the apparently very high frequency of occurrence of the recessive thn mutation in S. commune.
Comparison of the partial sequences of the human beta B2-1- and beta B2-2-crystallin genes with orthologous rat or calf sequences shows that the fourth exon sequence of the human beta B2-2 gene ...contains a one triplet deletion and a mutated splice acceptor site. No transcripts from the beta B2-2-crystallin gene could be detected in the human lens. These data suggest that the human beta B2-2-crystallin gene is a pseudogene.
The Sc7 and Sc14 genes are specifically expressed in the dikaryon of the basidiomycete fungus Schizophyllum commune during fruiting. These genes are closely linked (within 6 kb) and highly similar in ...gene structure and nucleotide sequence (70% identical nucleotides in their coding regions). The encoded proteins (204 and 214 amino acids, respectively) have 87% similarity in amino acids (56% of the amino acids are identical). They contain putative signal sequences for secretion, are rich in aromatic amino acids which are generally located at similar positions, and they are generally hydrophilic. Inspection of databanks showed similarities with pathogenesis-related proteins (PR1) from plants, testis-specific proteins from mammals and venom allergen proteins from insects. An antibody raised against a Sc7 fusion protein showed the presence of the Sc7 protein in the culture medium and in the fruit bodies where it is apparently loosely associated with hyphal walls.
Following the increasing use of tricyclic antidepressants, numerous side effects of these drugs are reported, e.g. ECG changes and cases of "sudden death". Because of the fact that haemodynamic ...studies in man and studies on the possible correlation between the structure of these drugs and their negative inotropic effect are lacking, we have investigated the influence on myocardial contractility of cat papillary muscle induced by impramine and dimetacrin as well as their desmethyl compounds (n = 42). Furthermore, the effects of i.v. administration of imipramine and dimetacrine on cardiovascular functions were investigated in 18 patients at cardiac catheterization. In addition, four patients were studied during ergometric exercise before and 45 min after injection of both drugs. Finally, fluorimetric determination of norepinephrine plasma concentrations were carried out in 8 patients.
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