322 research outputs found
Thermal nature of de Sitter spacetime and spontaneous excitation of atoms
We consider, in de Sitter spacetime, both freely falling and static two-level
atoms in interaction with a conformally coupled massless scalar field in the de
Sitter-invariant vacuum, and separately calculate the contributions of vacuum
fluctuations and radiation reaction to the atom's spontaneous excitation rate.
We find that spontaneous excitations occur even for the freely falling atom as
if there is a thermal bath of radiation at the Gibbons-Hawking temperature and
we thus recover, in a different physical context, the results of Gibbons and
Hawking that reveals the thermal nature of de Sitter spacetime. Similarly, for
the case of the static atom, our results show that the atom also perceives a
thermal bath which now arises as a result of the intrinsic thermal nature of de
Sitter spacetime and the Unruh effect associated with the inherent acceleration
of the atom.Comment: 11 page
Entanglement generation in atoms immersed in a thermal bath of external quantum scalar fields with a boundary
We examine the entanglement creation between two mutually independent
two-level atoms immersed in a thermal bath of quantum scalar fields in the
presence of a perfectly reflecting plane boundary. With the help of the master
equation that describes the evolution in time of the atom subsystem obtained,
in the weak-coupling limit, by tracing over environment (scalar fields) degrees
of freedom, we find that the presence of the boundary may play a significant
role in the entanglement creation in some circumstances and the new parameter,
the distance of the atoms from the boundary, besides the bath temperature and
the separation between the atoms, gives us more freedom in manipulating
entanglement generation. Remarkably, the final remaining entanglement in the
equilibrium state is independent of the presence of the boundary.Comment: 19 pages, 4 figures, to be published in PR
Generation of In-Frame Gene Deletion Mutants in Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Testing for Virulence Attenuation in a Simple Mouse Model of Infection
Microorganisms are genetically versatile and diverse and have become a major source of many commercial products and biopharmaceuticals. Though some of these products are naturally produced by the organisms, other products require genetic engineering of the organism to increase the yields of production. Avirulent strains of Escherichia coli have traditionally been the preferred bacterial species for producing biopharmaceuticals; however, some products are difficult for E. coli to produce. Thus, avirulent strains of other bacterial species could provide useful alternatives for production of some commercial products. Pseudomonas eruginosa is a common and well-studied Gram-negative bacterium that could provide a suitable alternative to E. coli. However, P. aeruginosa is an opportunistic human pathogen. Here, we detail a procedure that can be used to generate onpathogenic strains of P. aeruginosa through sequential genomic deletions using the pEX100TNotI plasmid. The main advantage of this method is to produce a marker-free strain. This method may be used to generate highly attenuated P. aeruginosa strains for the production of commercial products, or to design strains for other specific uses. We also describe a simple and reproducible mouse model of bacterial systemic infection via intraperitoneal injection of validated test strains to test the attenuation of the genetically engineered strain in comparison to the FDA-approved BL21 strain of E. coli
Stable Bacterial Cultures for Producing Alginates
Methods for mass producing bacterial alginate, bacterial cultures for producing alginate, and pharmaceutical compositions containing bacterial alginate are contemplated
Draft Genome Sequence for Pseudomonas aeruginosa Strain PAO579, a Mucoid Derivative of PAO381
Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an opportunistic pathogen that establishes a chronic lung infection in individuals afflicted with cystic fibrosis. Here, we announce the draft genome of P. aeruginosa strain PAO579, an alginate-overproducing derivative of strain PAO381
Evidence for Sigma Factor Competition in the Regulation of Alginate Production by Pseudomonas aeruginosa
Alginate overproduction, or mucoidy, plays an important role in the pathogenesis of P. aeruginosa lung infection in cystic fibrosis (CF). Mucoid strains with mucA mutations predominantly populate in chronically-infected patients. However, the mucoid strains can revert to nonmucoidy in vitro through suppressor mutations. We screened a mariner transposon library using CF149, a non-mucoid clinical isolate with a misssense mutation in algU(AlgUA61V). The wild type AlgU is a stress-related sigma factor that activates transcription of alginate biosynthesis. Three mucoid mutants were identified with transposon insertions that caused 1) an overexpression of AlgUA61V, 2) an overexpression of the stringent starvation protein A (SspA), and 3) a reduced expression of the major sigma factor RpoD (σ70). Induction of AlgUA61V in trans caused conversion to mucoidy in CF149 and PAO1DalgU, suggesting that AlgUA61V is functional in activating alginate production. Furthermore, the level of AlgUA61V was increased in all three mutants relative to CF149. However, compared to the wild type AlgU, AlgUA61V had a reduced activity in promoting alginate production in PAO1ΔalgU. SspA and three other anti-σ70 orthologues, P. aeruginosa AlgQ, E. coli Rsd, and T4 phage AsiA, all induced mucoidy, suggesting that reducing activity of RpoD is linked to mucoid conversion in CF149. Conversely, RpoD overexpression resulted in suppression of mucoidy in all mucoid strains tested, indicating that sigma factor competition can regulate mucoidy. Additionally, an RpoD-dependent promoter (PssrA) was more active in non-mucoid strains than in isogenic mucoid variants. Altogether, our results indicate that the anti-σ70 factors can induce conversion to mucoidy in P. aeruginosa CF149 with algU-suppressor mutation via modulation of RpoD
Truncation of type IV pilin induces mucoidy in Pseudomonas aeruginosa strain PAO579
Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a Gram negative, opportunistic pathogen that uses the overproduction of alginate, a surface polysaccharide, to form biofilms in vivo. Overproduction of alginate, also known as mucoidy, affords the bacterium protection from the host\u27s defenses and facilitates the establishment of chronic lung infections in individuals with cystic fibrosis. Expression of the alginate biosynthetic operon is primarily controlled by the alternative sigma factor AlgU (AlgT/σ22). In a nonmucoid strain, AlgU is sequestered by the transmembrane antisigma factor MucA to the cytoplasmic membrane. AlgU can be released from MucA via regulated intramembrane proteolysis by proteases AlgW and MucP causing the conversion to mucoidy. Pseudomonas aeruginosastrain PAO579, a derivative of the nonmucoid strain PAO1, is mucoid due to an unidentified mutation (muc-23). Using whole genome sequencing, we identified 16 nonsynonymous and 15 synonymous single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP). We then identified three tandem single point mutations in the pilA gene (PA4525), as the cause of mucoidy in PAO579. These tandem mutations generate a premature stop codon resulting in a truncated version of PilA (PilA108), with a C-terminal motif of phenylalanine-threonine-phenylalanine (FTF). Inactivation of pilA108 confirmed it was required for mucoidy. Additionally, algW and algU were also required for mucoidy of PAO579. Western blot analysis indicated that MucA was less stable in PAO579 than nonmucoid PAO1 or PAO381. The mucoid phenotype and high PalgU and PalgD promoter activities of PAO579 require pilA108, algW, algU, and rpoN encoding the alternative sigma factor σ54. We also observed that RpoN regulates expression of algW and pilA in PAO579. Together, these results suggest that truncation in type IV pilin in P. aeruginosa strain PAO579 can induce mucoidy through an AlgW/AlgU-dependent pathway
Draft Genome Sequence of a Mucoid Isolate of Pseudomonas aeruginosa Strain C7447m from a Patient with Cystic Fibrosis
Alginate overproduction by Pseudomonas aeruginosa, or mucoidy, plays an important role in the pathogenesis of chronic lung infections in cystic fibrosis (CF) patients. Here we report the draft genome sequence of a clinical isolate of mucoid P. aeruginosa strain C7447m from a CF patient with chronic lung infection
Statefinder parameters for quintom dark energy model
We perform in this paper a statefinder diagnostic to a dark energy model with
two scalar fields, called "quintom", where one of the scalar fields has a
canonical kinetic energy term and the other has a negative one. Several kinds
of potentials are discussed. Our results show that the statefinder diagnostic
can differentiate quintom model with other dark energy models.Comment: 11 pages, including 8 figures, added reference
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