26 research outputs found
Recommended from our members
Azotobacter genomes: the genome of Azotobacter chroococcum NCIMB 8003 (ATCC 4412)
The genome of the soil-dwelling heterotrophic N2-fixing Gram-negative bacterium Azotobacter chroococcum NCIMB 8003 (ATCC 4412) (Ac-8003) has been determined. It consists of 7 circular replicons totalling 5,192,291 bp comprising a circular chromosome of 4,591,803 bp and six plasmids pAcX50a, b, c, d, e, f of 10,435 bp, 13,852, 62,783, 69,713, 132,724, and 311,724 bp respectively. The chromosome has a G+C content of 66.27% and the six plasmids have G+C contents of 58.1, 55.3, 56.7, 59.2, 61.9, and 62.6% respectively. The methylome has also been determined and 5 methylation motifs have been identified. The genome also contains a very high number of transposase/inactivated transposase genes from at least 12 of the 17 recognised insertion sequence families. The Ac-8003 genome has been compared with that of Azotobacter vinelandii ATCC BAA-1303 (Av-DJ), a derivative of strain O, the only other member of the Azotobacteraceae determined so far which has a single chromosome of 5,365,318 bp and no plasmids. The chromosomes show significant stretches of synteny throughout but also reveal a history of many deletion/insertion events. The Ac-8003 genome encodes 4628 predicted protein-encoding genes of which 568 (12.2%) are plasmid borne. 3048 (65%) of these show > 85% identity to the 5050 protein-encoding genes identified in Av-DJ, and of these 99 are plasmid-borne. The core biosynthetic and metabolic pathways and macromolecular architectures and machineries of these organisms appear largely conserved including genes for CO-dehydrogenase, formate dehydrogenase and a soluble NiFe-hydrogenase. The genetic bases for many of the detailed phenotypic differences reported for these organisms have also been identified. Also many other potential phenotypic differences have been uncovered. Properties endowed by the plasmids are described including the presence of an entire aerobic corrin synthesis pathway in pAcX50f and the presence of genes for retro-conjugation in pAcX50c. All these findings are related to the potentially different environmental niches from which these organisms were isolated and to emerging theories about how microbes contribute to their communities
Recommended from our members
Perspective - Towards self-sterilizing medical devices: controlling infection
Recommended from our members
End-Functionalized ROMP Polymers for Biomedical Applications
We present two novel allyl-based terminating agents that can be used to end-functionalize living polymer chains obtained by ring-opening metathesis polymerization (ROMP) using Grubbs’ third generation catalyst. Both terminating agents can be easily synthesized and yield ROMP polymers with stable, storable activated ester groups at the chain-end. These end-functionalized ROMP polymers are attractive building blocks for advanced polymeric materials, especially in the biomedical field. Dye-labeling and surface-coupling of antimicrobially active polymers using these end-groups were demonstrated
Recommended from our members
Fast Disinfecting Antimicrobial Surfaces
Silicon wafers and glass surfaces were functionalized with facially amphiphilic antimicrobial copolymers using the grafting from technique. Surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) was used to grow poly(butylmethacrylate)-co-poly(Boc-aminoethyl methacrylate) from the surfaces. Upon Boc-deprotection, these surfaces became highly antimicrobial and killed S. aureus and E. coli 100% in less than 5 min. The molecular weight and grafting density of the polymer were controlled by varying the polymerization time and initiator surface density. Antimicrobial studies showed that the killing efficiency of these surfaces was independent of polymer layer thickness or grafting density within the range of surfaces studied
Recommended from our members
Antimicrobial Polymers Prepared by Ring-Opening Metathesis Polymerization: Manipulating Antimicrobial Properties by Organic Counterion and Charge Density Variation
Recommended from our members
Infectious disease: Connecting innate immunity to biocidal polymers
Infectious disease is a critically important global healthcare issue. In the U.S. alone there are 2 million new cases of hospital-acquired infections annually leading to 90,000 deaths and 5 billion dollars of added healthcare costs. Couple these numbers with the appearance of new antibiotic resistant bacterial strains and the increasing occurrences of community-type outbreaks, and clearly this is an important problem. Our review attempts to bridge the research areas of natural host defense peptides (HDPs), a component of the innate immune system, and biocidal cationic polymers. Recently discovered peptidomimetics and other synthetic mimics of HDPs, that can be short oligomers as well as polymeric macromolecules, provide a unique link between these two areas. An emerging class of these mimics are the facially amphiphilic polymers that aim to emulate the physicochemical properties of HDPs but take advantage of the synthetic ease of polymers. These mimics have been designed with antimicrobial activity and, importantly, selectivity that rivals natural HDPs. In addition to providing some perspective on HDPs, selective mimics, and biocidal polymers, focus is given to the arsenal of biophysical techniques available to study their mode of action and interactions with phospholipid membranes. The issue of lipid type is highlighted and the important role of negative curvature lipids is illustrated. Finally, materials applications (for instance, in the development of permanently antibacterial surfaces) are discussed as this is an important part of controlling the spread of infectious disease
Recommended from our members
Antimicrobial polymers prepared by ROMP with unprecedented selectivity: A molecular construction kit approach
Synthetic Mimics of Antimicrobial Peptides (SMAMPs) imitate natural host-defense peptides, a vital component of the body’s immune system. This work presents a molecular construction kit that allows the easy and versatile synthesis of a broad variety of facially amphiphilic oxanorbornene-derived monomers. Their ring-opening metathesis polymerization (ROMP) and deprotection provide several series of SMAMPs. Using amphiphilicity, monomer feed ratio, and molecular weight as parameters, polymers with 533 times higher selectivitiy (selecitviy = hemolytic concentration/minimum inhibitory concentration) for bacteria over mammalian cells were discovered. Some of these polymers were 50 times more selective for Gram-positive over Gram-negative bacteria while other polymers surprisingly showed the opposite preference. This kind of “double selectivity” (bacteria over mammalian and one bacterial type over another) is unprecedented in other polymer systems and is attributed to the monomer’s facial amphiphilicity
Recommended from our members
Synthetic Mimic of Antimicrobial Peptide with Nonmembrane-Disrupting Antibacterial Properties
[Image: see text] Polyguanidinium oxanorbornene (PGON) was synthesized from norbornene monomers via ring-opening metathesis polymerization. This polymer was observed to be strongly antibacterial against Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria as well as nonhemolytic against human red blood cells. Time-kill studies indicated that this polymer is lethal and not just bacteriostatic. In sharp contrast to previously reported SMAMPs (synthetic mimics of antimicrobial peptides), PGON did not disrupt membranes in vesicle-dye leakage assays and microscopy experiments. The unique biological properties of PGON, in same ways similar to cell-penetrating peptides, strongly encourage the examination of other novel guanidino containing macromolecules as powerful and selective antimicrobial agents