β-barrel membrane proteins play important structural and functional roles in Gram negative bacteria and in mitochondria and chloroplasts of eukaryotes. A conserved machine is responsible for the folding and insertion of β-barrel membrane proteins but its mechanism remains largely unknown. In E. coli, a five protein β-barrel assembly machine (Bam) assembles β-barrel proteins into the outer membrane (OM). Among all β-barrel membrane proteins in E. coli , the β-barrel component of the OM LPS translocon is one of only two essential β-barrels, the other being the central component of the Bam machinery itself. The OM LPS translocon, which consists of OM β-barrel protein LptD (lipopolysaccharide transport) and OM lipoprotein LptE, is responsible for the final export of LPS molecules into the outer leaflet of the OM, resulting in an asymmetric bilayer that blocks the entry of toxic molecules such as antibiotics. This thesis describes the characterization of the biogenesis pathway of the OM LPS translocon and its folding and insertion into the OM by the Bam machinery. An in vivo S35-Methionine pulse-labeling assay was developed to identify intermediates along the biogenesis of the OM LPS translocon. Seven intermediates were identified along the pathway. We show that proper assembly of the OM LPS translocon involves an oxidative disulfide bond rearrangement from a nonfunctional intermediate containing non-native disulfides. We also found that the rate determining step of OM LPS translocon biogenesis is β-barrels folding process by the Bam machinery. Using in vivo chemical crosslinking, we accumulated and trapped a mutant form of LptD on BamA, the central component of the Bam machinery. We extended the S35-Methionine pulse-labeling method to allow chemical crosslinking of substrates on the Bam complex and trapped LptD while it was being folded on the Bam machine. We demonstrated that the interaction between LptD and BamA is independent of LptE, while that between LptD and BamD, the other essential component of the Bam complex beside BamA, is LptE dependent. Based on these findings, we proposed a model of Bam-assisted folding of the OM LPS translocon in which LptE templates the folding of LptD. / Chemistry and Chemical Biology

The ß-lactam antibiotics are the most important antibacterial agents in the treatment of infectious diseases. A severe problem in ß-lactam therapy is the emergence of ß-lactam resistant bacteria. Clinical ß-lactam resistance is most often due to the production of ß-lactamases. ß-lactamase genes reside either on plasmids or on the chromosome. The aim of this study was to acquire an understanding of organisation and regulation of chromosomal ß- lactamase genes in different Gram negative species and to elucidate the mechanisms for ampC hyperproduction in the in vivo situation. By DNA hybridization with an ampC probe from Escherichia coli K-12 it was shown that other Gram negative bacteria contained an artpC like chromosomal gene, suggesting a common evolutionary origin. Furthermore, the preceding frd operon that overlaps the ampC gene in E. coli K-12 was found to be much more conserved than the ampC gene in the bacterial species investigated. The ampC and frd opérons in Shigella sonnei and Citrobacter freundii were cloned and characterized by physical mapping. The respective maps were compared to the ampC and frd region in E. coli K-12. The physical map of Sh. sonnei was almost identical to the E. coli K-12 map, whereas in C. freundii only the frd region exhibited any considerable homology. Moreover, in C. freundii, the anpC and frd regions were separated by 1100 basepairs. It is suggested that this DNA is involved in the induction of ß-lactamase production in this organism. A hypothesis for the evolution of the anpC operon in enterobacteria is presented. By isolating and characterizing six ß-lactam resistant clinica], isolates of E. coli hyperproducing the dhrcmosomal ß-lactamase, genetic mechanisms for in vivo evolved resistance was aimed at. These isolates exhibited a 24-48 fold increase in ß-lactamase production. The ß-lactamase produced was found to be biochemically and immunologically identical to the ß-lactamase produced by E. coli K-12. The ampC control region of these six E. coli isolates was DNA-seqenced. The cause of ß-lactamase hyperproduction in five of the clinical E. coli isolates, identical in the DNA segment sequenced, was due to a strong novel ampC promoter displaced 5 bp upstream of the ampC promoter defined in E. coli K-12. The ß-lactamase hyperproduction in the sixth clinical isolate was shown to be caused by two mutations affecting both the promoter and the attenuator in the regulatory region defined by E. coli K- 12. The obtained changes were sufficient to explain the increase in ampC ß- 1 act ama se expression exhibited in these clinical E. coli isolates. Sequence analysis of the ampC control region in Sh. sonnei revealed that it was, with one exception, identical to the one found in the five clinical E. coli ß-lactamase hyperproducers. The only difference was in a position that creates the strong novel ampC promoter in the E. coli hyperproducers. By isolating spontaneous Sh. sonnei mutants with a 40-fold increase in ß-lactamase production carrying the same novel ampC promoter as the clinical E. coli isolates it was concluded that this DNA segment has been transferred in vivo frcm Shigella to E. coli across the species barrier. / <p>Diss. (sammanfattning) Umeå : Umeå universitet, 1983; Härtill 5 uppsatser</p> / digitalisering@umu

A genetic algorithm was employed to select the optimal combination of preprocessing variables, including data pretreatment, data manipulation and feature extraction procedures, for eventual clustering of a data set consisting of hyperspectral images acquired by a focal plane array Fourier transform infrared (FPA-FTIR) spectrometer. The data set consisted of infrared images of bacterial films, and the classification task investigated was the discrimination between Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. The genetic algorithm evaluated combinations of variables pertaining to bacterial film thickness tolerances, baseline correction, pixel co-addition, outlier removal, smoothing, mean centering, normalization, derivatization, integration and principal component selection. Following numerous iterations of unsupervised processing, the genetic algorithm arrived at a sub-optimal solution yielding a clustering accuracy of 97.8% and a data utilization of 28.6%. The results provided insight into the co-dependencies of the pre-processing variables and their consequential effect on the selected data. The robustness of the classification model was evaluated and reinforced by the successful classification of two distinct validation sets. The overall success of the genetic algorithm suggests that it is an effective time saving resource for the optimization of pre-processing variables that does not require operator intervention.

Ovine (strains 9L and 3384Y) and bovine (strains 649, 2336 and 8025) isolates of Histophilus somni were investigated for their ability to acquire iron from haemoglobin (Hb). Bovine isolates were capable of utilizing bovine, but not ovine, porcine or human Hb as a source of iron. Ovine isolates could not obtain iron from Hb. Bovine isolates bound bovine, ovine, and human Hbs by means of the same iron-repressible receptor(s) and produced a ~120-kDa iron-repressible, outer membrane protein. Using PCR approaches, an iron-regulated operon containing hugX and hugZ homologues and a gene (hgbA) that encodes a TonB-dependent, Hb-binding proteins were identified in strains 649, 9L and 3384Y. In strains 9L and 3384Y, HgbA is truncated offering a possible explanation for their lack of utilization of Hb as an iron source. In strains 2336 and 8025, expression of HgbA was also subject to a form of phase variation.

Thesis (M.S.)--Michigan State University. Dept. of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, 2008. / "Advisor, Todd A. Ciche"--Acknowledgements. Title from PDF t.p. (viewed on Aug. 5, 2009) Includes bibliographical references. Also issued in print.

Thesis (M.S.)--Mississippi State University. Department of Biological Sciences. / Title from title screen. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2005. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 155-166).

Made available in DSpace on 2015-03-03T11:52:42Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2014-02-07Bitstream added on 2015-03-03T12:07:10Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 000807003.pdf: 1969028 bytes, checksum: ffdf99374d166fada9ca950a025cb45d (MD5) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / O Brasil lidera o ranking de maior exportador de carne bovina no mundo desde 2008. Garantir a segurança microbiológica desses alimentos tem sido um dos principais focos da indústria processadora de carnes. A aplicação de análises nas diversas etapas do processo industrial tem sido vital para implantar e manter programas de autocontrole como o APPCC. Entre as enfermidades mais frequentes causadas pela ingestão de alimentos contaminados, especialmente os de origem animal, destacam-se as salmoneloses, sendo que sua transmissão se dá primariamente pela via fecal oral. Diante disso, esse trabalho teve como objetivo pesquisar a presença de Salmonella spp. em amostras de conteúdo ruminal coletadas durante o abate de bovinos em uma planta frigorífica localizada na região metropolitana de Curitiba - PR. Duzentos e dois animais distribuídos em oito lotes foram avaliados entre os meses de agosto a dezembro de 2013. Ao final do experimento, 37,5% dos lotes mostraram-se positivos para o agente sendo que 2,97% (6/202) das amostras de conteúdo ruminal isolaram o micro-organismo. A totalidade dos animais positivos recebia como alimento apenas pasto de azevém e aveia. Não foi observada a influência de fatores como o estresse do transporte ou temperatura ambiental sobre o isolamento do patógeno. Entretanto a detecção do mesmo sorovar, Salmonella Schwarzengrund na totalidade dos isolamentos nos permite levantar a hipótese de que a contaminação dos animais tenha se dado na própria indústria, a partir das estruturas físicas, responsáveis por conter os bovinos ou conduzi-los ao box de insensibilização / Brazil leads the world ranking of bovine meat exportation since 2008. To ensure the microbiological safety of these food products has been one of the primary focuses of the meat processing industry. The application of analyses on diverse stages of the industrial process has been vital for deploy and keeping of self-control programs like APPCC. Beyond the most frequent diseases caused by the ingestion of contaminated food, specially animal origin ones, the salmonellosis stand out being transmitted primarily via fecal-oral route. In light of this, the work had the objective to research the presence of Salmonella spp. in rumen fluid samples collected during cattle slaughter at a slaughtering plant localized in Curitiba’s metropolitan area. Two hundred animals distributed over eight lots was evaluated between august and december, 2013. At the end of the experiment, 37.5% of the lots were positive for the agent of which 2.97% (6/202) of samples of rumen contents isolated the micro-organism.The total of the positive animals had been feed with ryegrass pastures and oat. Not the influence of factors like transportation stress or environment temperature over pathogen isolation was observed. However, the detection of the same serovar, Salmonella Schwarzengrund on overall insulation allow us to raise the hypothesis that all animal contamination have been given inside the industry itself, from the infrastructure responsible of holding the cattle or conducting it to the stunning box

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:24:15Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2013-08-02Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T18:51:59Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 000749221.pdf: 6598265 bytes, checksum: f3ea8b6c7b5316028539f3dcc741df58 (MD5) / Estudos recentes identificaram comportamento sazonal de alguns microrganismos implicados na etiologia das Infecções Hospitalares ou Relacionadas à Assistência em Saúde (IH/IRAS). A maior parte desses estudos foi conduzida em países de clima temperado. Para identificar a sazonalidade de patógenos hospitalares em uma região tropical, nós conduzimos um estudo ecológico e um caso-controle, envolvendo hemoculturas positivas de presumível origem hospitalar (colhidas após o terceiro dia de internação) do Hospital das Clínicas da Faculdade de Medicina de Botucatu no período de 2005 a 2010. O estudo foi realizado em duas fases. No estudo ecológico, foram realizadas: (a) comparações de incidência de bacteremias por microrganimos ou grupos específicos em meses “quentes/úmidos” (outubro-março) e “frios/secos” (abril a setembro); (b) análise de regressão para identificar relação entre temperatura e umidade médias e incidência mensal de bacteremias; (c) análise de séries temporais para identificação de sazonalidade.No “casocontrole”, foram abordados fatores climáticos (temperatura e umidade médias dos sete dias que precederam a coleta de cada hemocultura) para identificar preditores do isolamento de microrganismos e grupos específicos, em modelo de regressão logística. Os resultados demonstraram consistência entre as diversas abordagens, identificando para três grupos (Gram-negativos como um todo, Acinetobacter baumannii e Enterobacter spp) um aumento de incidência nos meses “quentes/úmidos”, relação significante entre temperatura média mensal e incidência e sazonalidade em modelos estocásticos. Neste último teste, também se detectou sazonalidade para estafilococos coagulase-negativa, aparentemente não relacionada a fatores climáticos. No estudo de base individual (“caso-controle”) identificamos correlação entre temperaturas elevadas na semana anterior... / Recent studies identified seasonal behavior of some microorganisms implicated in the etiology of Healthcare-associated Infections (HAIs). Most of these studies were conducted in developed countries with temperate climate. In order to identify the seasonality of nosocomial pathogens in a tropical region, we conducted an ecological study involving positive blood cultures of suspected nosocomial origin (collected after the third day of hospitalization) in the Hospital das Clinicas from Faculdade de Medicina de Botucatu in the period 2005-2010. The study was conducted in two phases. In the first (“ecologic study”) we performed: (a) comparisons of the incidence of bacteremia caused by specific organisms or groups during “warm” (October to March) and cold” (April to September) months; (b) regression analysis, aimed at identifying the association between temperature and humidity and the average monthly incidence of bacteremia, (c) time series analysis. In the second phase, (“casecontrol”), weather factors (temperature and humidity averages of the seven days preceding the collection of each blood cultures) were addressed in order to identify predictors of isolation of specific microorganisms and groups in the logistic regression model. The results showed consistency between the various approaches. Three groups (Gram-negative as a whole, Acinetobacter baumannii and Enterobacter spp) presented increased incidence in “warm” months, significant relation between mean temperature and monthly incidence and seasonality in stochastic models. Those models also detected seasonality for coagulase-negative staphylococci, apparently not related to climatic factors. In individualbased analysis (case-control) we identified correlation between high temperatures in the past week and recovery of Gram-negatives in general, and among these, A. baumannii. The findings are consistent with the literature, showing ...

Uma característica associada à capacidade de Pseudomonas aeruginosa sobreviver e disseminar-se frente a situações adversas encontradas no ambiente e no organismo de hospedeiros é a regulação de genes de resposta a condições de estresse celular, que incluem o evento de choque térmico. A exposição do microrganismo a um ambiente de alta temperatura resulta na indução da síntese de proteínas específicas, representadas por chaperonas e proteases, que conferem um aumento da viabilidade celular microbiana em condições consideradas letais. Presume- se que o gene PA 0657 de P. aeruginosa O1 possa estar associado à indução ou supressão do processo transcricional de genes envolvidos na resposta ao choque térmico. Neste contexto, o objetivo deste trabalho foi caracterizar a função do gene PA0657 de P. aeruginosa O1. Para isso, análises bioinformáticas foram realizadas e o gene foi clonado e expresso em sistema bacteriano, produzindo uma proteína recombinante que foi purificada e caracterizada enzimaticamente. Além disso, uma linhagem de P. aeruginosa O1 com o gene PA0657 rompido por recombinação homóloga foi construída, sendo submetida, juntamente com a linhagem selvagem, a uma condição de estresse térmico, permitindo que a expressão de diversos genes associados ao evento de choque térmico pudessem ser avaliadas por qRT-PCR. Os resultados mostraram que a proteína recombinante PA0657 foi capaz de degradar adenosina trifosfato (ATP), dependente do íon Zn2+. Foi possível verificar também que a linhagem rompida perdeu a capacidade de produzir o pigmento piocianina quando crescida em meio cetrimida e não apresentou seu fenótipo mucóide. Em análise in silico observou-se que a região promotora do gene PA0657 é dependente de σ32 e a análise de expressão gênica evidenciou uma diminuição de expressão do gene rpoH na linhagem selvagem de PAO1 após choque térmico, sendo este gene significativamente expresso na linhagem rompida. Observou-se também um acentuado aumento na expressão do gene algU, nestas mesmas condições, na linhagem selvagem PAO1, com ausência de expressão na linhagem rompida. É possível concluir, dessa forma, que o gene PA0657 exerce participação importante no processo de regulação de resposta ao choque térmico e está relacionado com a conversão do fenótipo mucóide. / Submitted by Ana Guimarães Pereira (agpereir@ucs.br) on 2015-02-12T16:39:42Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao Franciele Maria Zanol.pdf: 2049257 bytes, checksum: 659cf19a6ee79184c9f91b239ba09a19 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-02-12T16:39:42Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao Franciele Maria Zanol.pdf: 2049257 bytes, checksum: 659cf19a6ee79184c9f91b239ba09a19 (MD5) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior, CAPES / A feature associated with the ability of Pseudomonas aeruginosa survive and dissemination in adverse conditions found in the environment and in hosts‘ organisms is a specific genes regulation of stress response, including heat shock event. The exposure of microorganisms to a high temperature environment results in the induction of synthesis os specific proteins, represent by chaperones and proteases, conferring an increase og the microbial cell viability under conditions considered lethal. . It is presumed that the PA0657 gene of P. aeruginosa O1 can be related to the induction or suppression of transcriptional process of genes that are involved in a response to heat shock. In this context, the aim of this work was to characterize the function of the PA0657 gene of P. aeruginosa O1. In this way, bioinformatic analyzes were performed and the gene was cloned and expressed in bacterial system, producing recombinant protein which was purified and enzymatically characterized. Moreover, the PA0657 gene of P. aeruginosa O1 strain was disrupted by homologous recombination. The wild type strain and the disrupted strain were submitted to a thermal stress and the expression of various genes associated with heat shock event could be evaluated by qRT -PCR. The results showed that the PA0657 recombinant protein was capable of degrading adenosine triphosphate (ATP) of Zn2+ dependent manner. It was also verified that the ruptured strain lost its ability to produce pyocyanin pigment when grown on cetrimide means and its mucoid phenotype. It was possible to find in computational analysis that the promoter region of the PA0657 gene is dependent on σ32. The gene expression analysis showed a decrease in expression of the rpoH gene in the wild type strain after heat shock, this gene is significantly expressed in the disrupted strain. A significant increase in expression of the algU gene was observed, on the wild type strain with absence of expression in the disrupted strain. Therefore, it was possible to conclude that the PA0657 gene cts in the regulatory process of thermal shock response and is related to the conversion of the mucoid phenotype.