Search Results - (Author, Cooperation:N. R. Thomson)

2011-08-26

Nature Publishing Group (NPG)

0028-0836

1476-4687

Biology

Chemistry and Pharmacology

Medicine

Natural Sciences in General

Physics

Cholera/*epidemiology/microbiology/*transmission ; Genome, Bacterial/genetics ; Haiti/epidemiology ; Humans ; Likelihood Functions ; Molecular Epidemiology ; Pandemics/*statistics & numerical data ; Phylogeny ; Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide/genetics ; Vibrio cholerae/classification/*genetics/*isolation & purification ; Zimbabwe/epidemiology

2013-09-14

American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

0036-8075

1095-9203

Biology

Chemistry and Pharmacology

Computer Science

Medicine

Natural Sciences in General

Physics

Animals ; Drug Resistance, Multiple, Bacterial/*genetics ; Epidemics ; Genome, Bacterial ; *Host-Pathogen Interactions ; Humans ; Molecular Sequence Data ; Phylogeny ; Salmonella Infections/epidemiology/*microbiology ; Salmonella Infections, Animal/epidemiology/*microbiology ; Salmonella typhimurium/*classification/drug effects/genetics ; Zoonoses/*microbiology

1365-2958

Blackwell Publishing Journal Backfiles 1879-2005

Biology

Medicine

The enteric bacterium Serratia marcescens is an opportunistic human pathogen. The strain ATCC39006 makes the red pigment, prodigiosin (Pig), and the β-lactam antibiotic carbapenem (Car). Mutants were isolated that were concomitantly defective for Pig and Car production. These mutants were found to have a mutation in the rap gene (regulation of antibiotic and pigment). Sequence analysis of the rap gene revealed a predicted protein product showing strong homology to SlyA, originally thought to be a haemolytic virulence determinant in Salmonella typhimurium. Homologues of rap were detected in several bacterial genera, including Salmonella, Yersinia, Enterobacter, and species of the plant pathogen, Erwinia. The Erwinia horEr (homologue of rap) and the Yersinia horYe genes were also found to be very similar to rap and slyA. Marker exchange mutagenesis of horEr revealed that it encoded a regulatory protein controlling the production of antibiotic and exoenzyme virulence determinants in the phytopathogen, Erwinia carotovora subspecies carotovora. We have shown that these new homologues of SlyA form a highly conserved subgroup of a growing superfamily of bacterial regulatory proteins controlling diverse physiological processes in human, animal and plant pathogens.

Electronic Resource

1365-2958

Blackwell Publishing Journal Backfiles 1879-2005

Biology

Medicine

Serratia sp. ATCC 39006 produces the carbapenem antibiotic, carbapen-2-em-3-carboxylic acid and the red pigment, prodigiosin. We have previously reported the characterization of a gene, carR, controlling production of carbapenem in this strain. We now describe further characterization of the carR locus to locate the genes encoding carbapenem biosynthetic and resistance functions. A novel family of diverse proteins showing sequence similarity to the C-terminal domain of CarF (required for carbapenem resistance) is described. We also report the isolation of the locus involved in the biosynthesis of the red pigment, prodigiosin. A cosmid containing ≈ 35 kb of the Serratia chromosome encodes synthesis of the pigment in the heterologous host, Erwinia carotovora, demonstrating, for the first time, that the complete prodigiosin biosynthetic gene cluster had been cloned and functionally expressed. We report the isolation of a third locus in Serratia, containing convergently transcribed genes, smaI and smaR, encoding LuxI and LuxR homologues respectively. SmaI directs the synthesis of N-acyl homoserine lactones involved in the quorum sensing process. We demonstrate that biosynthesis of the two secondary metabolites, carbapenem antibiotic and prodigiosin pigment, is under pheromone-mediated transcriptional regulation in this bacterium. Finally, we describe a new prodigiosin-based bioassay for detection of some N-acyl homoserine lactones.

Electronic Resource

1476-4687

Nature Archives 1869 - 2009

Biology

Chemistry and Pharmacology

Medicine

Natural Sciences in General

Physics

[Auszug] We report here one result of an experiment for which we set up a transportable v.l.f. transmitter in Alaska and a receiving station in New Zealand located so as to be approximately geomagnetically conjugate. Since the Otago group already had v.l.f. receiving facilities at Dunedin, New Zealand, the ...

Electronic Resource

1476-4687

Nature Archives 1869 - 2009

Biology

Chemistry and Pharmacology

Medicine

Natural Sciences in General

Physics

[Auszug] Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi (S. typhi) is the aetiological agent of typhoid fever, a serious invasive bacterial disease of humans with an annual global burden of approximately 16 million cases, leading to 600,000 fatalities. Many S. enterica serovars actively invade the mucosal surface of ...

Electronic Resource

1476-4687

Nature Archives 1869 - 2009

Biology

Chemistry and Pharmacology

Medicine

Natural Sciences in General

Physics

[Auszug] Streptomyces coelicolor is a representative of the group of soil-dwelling, filamentous bacteria responsible for producing most natural antibiotics used in human and veterinary medicine. Here we report the 8,667,507 base pair linear chromosome of this organism, containing the largest number of genes ...

Electronic Resource

1476-4687

Nature Archives 1869 - 2009

Biology

Chemistry and Pharmacology

Medicine

Natural Sciences in General

Physics

[Auszug] The Gram-negative bacterium Yersinia pestis is the causative agent of the systemic invasive infectious disease classically referred to as plague, and has been responsible for three human pandemics: the Justinian plague (sixth to eighth centuries), the Black Death (fourteenth to nineteenth ...

Electronic Resource

1476-4687

Nature Archives 1869 - 2009

Biology

Chemistry and Pharmacology

Medicine

Natural Sciences in General

Physics

[Auszug] Leprosy, a chronic human neurological disease, results from infection with the obligate intracellular pathogen Mycobacterium leprae, a close relative of the tubercle bacillus. Mycobacterium leprae has the longest doubling time of all known bacteria and has thwarted every effort at culture in the ...

Electronic Resource

0992-7689

Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000

Geosciences

Physics

Abstract Whistler-mode signals from a single VLF transmitter that have propagated in the same duct, have been observed simultaneously at Faraday, Antarctica (65°S, 64°W) and Dunedin, New Zealand (46°S, 171°E). The signals received have group-delay times that differ in the order of 10 ms, which can be explained by the differences in southern-hemisphere sub-ionospheric propagation time from duct exit region to receiver for the two sites. This difference has been used to determine the location of the duct exit region, with confirmation provided by arrival-bearing information from both sites. The whistler-mode signals typically occur one or two days after geomagnetic activity, with Kp\geq5. The sub-ionospheric-propagation model, LWPC, is used to estimate the whistler-mode power radiated from the duct exit region. These results are then combined with estimated loss values for ionospheric and ducted transmission to investigate the role of wave-particle amplification or absorption. On at least half of the events studied, plasmaspheric amplification of the signals appears to be needed to explain the observed whistler-mode signal strengths.

Electronic Resource

0992-7689

Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000

Geosciences

Physics

Abstract In a previous study it was reported that whistler- mode signals received at Faraday, Antarctica (65°S,64°W) and Dunedin, New Zealand (46°S, 171°E) with entry regions in Pacific longitudes (typically from the VLF transmitter NLK, Seattle, USA) showed an increase in transmission of wave energy as magnetic activity increased. However, signals with entry regions in Atlantic longitudes (typically from the NSS transmitter, Annapolis, USA) did not appear to show such a relationship. This paper reports the results of a study of the same two longitude ranges but with the opposite transmitter providing additional whistler-mode signal information, with L-values in the range 1.8–2.6. Transmissions from NLK once again indicate a relationship between the transmission of wave energy and magnetic activity even though the signals were propagating in Atlantic longitudes, not Pacific. Any trend in NSS events observed at Dunedin was obscured by a limited range of magnetic activity, and duct exit regions so close to the receiver that small-scale excitation effects appeared to be occurring. However, by combining data from both longitudes, i.e Pacific and Atlantic, and using only ducts with exit regions that were 〉 500 km from the receiver, NSS events were found to show the same trend as NLK events. No significant longitude-dependent or transmitter-dependent variations in duct efficiency could be detected. Duct efficiency increases by a factor of about 30 with Kp = 2–8 and this result is discussed in terms of changes in wave-particle interactions and duct size.

Electronic Resource

1573-2932

Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000

Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering

Abstract The development of relationships for predicting the impact of highway stormwater runoff is described. The predictive relationships are regression-based equations reflecting variations in the magnitude of the constituents of interest. The objective is to identify a subset of constituents that can be used as surrogates for the remaining constituents as a means of decreasing the costs of collection and measurement of highway stormwater runoff quality data. The Minnesota highway stormwater quality database complied in the late 1970's and early 1980's is employed in identifying the set of surrogate parameters. The findings indicate that total suspended solids, total dissolved solids, total volatile solids, and total organic carbon are effective surrogate parameters for numerous metals, ionic species, and nutrients. The findings also indicated that the developed ionic species constituent relationships are portable, while the metal and nutrient constituent relationships were limited to urban sites with similar environmental conditions. The development of these relationships represents a step towards remediating and preventing the problem of nonpoint source highway pollution.

Electronic Resource

1573-2932

Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000

Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering

Abstract The development of relationships for predicting the impact of highway stormwater runoff is described. The predictive relationships are regression-based equations reflecting variations in the magnitude of the constituents of interest. The objective is to identify a subset of constituents that can be used as surrogates for the remaining constituents as a means of decreasing the costs of collection and measurement of highway stormwater runoff quality data. The Minnesota highway stormwater quality database complied in the late 1970's and early 1980's is employed in identifying the set of surrogate parameters. The findings indicate that total suspended solids, total dissolved solids, total volatile solids, and total organic carbon are effective surrogate parameters for numerous metals, ionic species, and nutrients. The findings also indicated that the developed ionic species constituent relationships are portable, while the metal and nutrient constituent relationships were limited to urban sites with similar environmental conditions. The development of these relationships represents a step towards remediating and preventing the problem of nonpoint source highway pollution.

Electronic Resource