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No / Streptococcus agalactiae is a major neonatal pathogen that is able to colonise various host environments and is associated with both gastrointestinal and vaginal maternal carriage. Maternal vaginal carriage represents the major source for transmission of S. agalactiae to the foetus/neonate and thus is a significant risk factor for neonatal disease. In order to understand factors influencing maternal carriage we have investigated growth and long term survival of S. agalactiae under conditions of low pH and nutrient stress in vitro. Surprisingly, given that vaginal pH is normally <4.5, S. agalactiae was found to survive poorly at low pH and failed to grow at pH 4.3. However, biofilm growth, although also reduced at low pH, was shown to enhance survival of S. agalactiae. Proteomic analysis identified 26 proteins that were more abundant under nutrient stress conditions (extended stationary phase), including a RelE family protein, a universal stress protein family member and four proteins that belong to the Gls24 (PF03780) stress protein family. Cumulatively, these data indicate that novel mechanisms are likely to operate that allow S. agalactiae survival at low pH and under nutrient stress during maternal vaginal colonisation and/or that the bacteria may access a more favourable microenvironment at the vaginal mucosa. As current in vitro models for S. agalactiae growth appear unsatisfactory, novel methods need to be developed to study streptococcal colonisation under physiologically-relevant conditions.

Gas chromatography (GC) is an analytical chemistry tool used to determine the chemical composition of a gas sample by separating sample analytes as they travel through a GC column. Recent efforts have been made to understand and control gas chromatography separations with a negative thermal gradient on the column. The present work presents results from thermal gradient GC separations on two GC columns in different configurations (serpentine and radial) in a stainless-steel plate. Methods to fabricate the GC systems capable of isothermal, temperature programmed and thermal gradient separations are presented. Isothermal experimental data from the serpentine column were used to fit retention and dispersion parameters in a transport model that simulates GC separation for hydrocarbons C12-C14. Transport model simulated retention times and peak widths matched experimental values well for isothermal, temperature programmed and thermal gradient separations. The validated transport model was used to study the effect of static (not varying temporally) thermal gradients on GC separations with varying injection widths, injection band shapes and stationary phase thickness. Resolution results from different heating conditions were considered comparable if retention times for each analyte were within 5%. An optimal, static thermal gradient is shown to reduce analyte band spreading from axially-varying velocity gradients with resolution improvements over isothermal separations of up to 8% for analytes with similar retention factors. Static thermal gradients have a larger effect on fronting peak shape than tailing peak shape. Stationary phase distribution acts similar to a velocity gradient and can be corrected by a thermal gradient. Another transport model was created from isothermal experimental data on a commercial column for hydrocarbons C12-C20. An optimal, static thermal gradient does not improve resolution for all analyte pairs. An optimal, dynamic (varying tempo-rally) thermal gradient is created by uniformly increasing the temperature on an optimal, static thermal gradient. Improvements in resolution of up to 20% are achievable over temperature programmed GC separation. A dynamic thermal gradient can also correct for a poor sample injection by creating a temperature trap at the beginning of the column.

Haa1 is a transcription factor that adapts Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells to weak organic acid stresses by activating the expression of various genes. How Haa1 is activated by weak acids is not clear. This study proposes that Hrr25 is an important regulator of cellular adaptation to weak acid stress by inhibiting Haa1 through phosphorylation. YRO2, one of the targets of Haa1, shows increase in expression during stationary phase. This increase is due to basal activity of Haa1 and another, unknown, transcription factor. This study proposes that Gsm1 is another transcription factor that regulates YRO2 expression in the stationary phase. Finally, the mechanism of regulation of YRO2 by Haa1 is largely unknown. This study identifies two possible Haa1-medated cis-acting elements in the YRO2 promoter.

Oligonucleotides may become a new class of therapies with the potential of curing many today untreatable diseases. Oligonucleotides becomes increasingly more difficult to separate with an increase in length since the relative difference in retention of these very similar compounds becomes increasingly smaller. Therefore, coelution of impurities formed during synthesis may result in insufficient purity, which is necessary for therapeutic treatments. Oligonucleotides are also relatively large biomolecules, possibly consisting of hundreds of nucleotides. As a result, oligonucleotides may have limited diffusion through the stationary phase pores which affects separation performance. Surprisingly few studies have be published in this research area and a wider knowledge in how this affects separation is needed. In this master thesis, separation of deoxythymidine oligonucleotides with 5-30 mers in length were separated with 60, 100, 200 and 300 Å pore size reversed phase C4 columns. It was concluded that pore size resulted in more restricted diffusion if insufficient pore size was used. Poor peak performance was also observed with too large pore sizes which lead to less efficient separations.

Le travail présenté constitue une contribution méthodologique dans la séparation des anthraquinoïdes par chromatographie en phase liquide à haute performance à polarité inversée de phases. Cette amélioration a pour but ultime une meilleure détectabilité et caractérisation des composés constituant les colorants anthraquinoniques présents dans les objets du patrimoine culturel.Une série de 40 composés témoins, représentant un large éventail des structures possibles d’anthraquinoïdes a été utilisée pour la modélisation du comportement chromatographique de cette famille de composés.La première partie de cette recherche présente une étude comparative des performances des phases stationnaires greffées alkyle (C18). Ces performances sont décrites par le nombre de paires critiques ainsi que la symétrie de pics. Tenant compte de la dispersion des symétries de pic des différents composés sur différentes phases stationnaires nous avons proposé un nouvel indice global, le paramètre de symétrie d(TF;1) qui nous a permis de classer la totalité de phases selon leurs performances, et trouver celles se montrant les plus satisfaisantes.Face à des faibles différences de sélectivités des phases greffées octadécyle. Nous avons décidé de mettre en jeu d’autres mécanismes de rétention des anthraquinoïdes offerts par les phases fonctionnalisées.Le potentiel séparatif de phases fonctionnalisées a été évalué comme pour les précédentes et les phases les plus performantes ont été désignées.La comparaison globale des différentes phases stationnaires, aussi bien celles greffées octadécyle que celles fonctionnalisées, a été faite avec le coefficient de pertinence de colonnes (CSc), paramètre permettant d’englober le nombre de paires critiques et la symétrie de pics d’une manière univoque. Les diagrammes obtenus par projection des points correspondant aux coordonnées : coefficient de symétrie (Sc) et coefficient de paires critiques (CPc) – ont permis de choisir les phases aux propriétés désirées.Les différences de sélectivités des phases stationnaires étudiées, nous ont conduit à examiner leur orthogonalité en vue de la construction de systèmes séparatifs bi-dimensionnels. En se basant sur le critère de la qualité de séparation, nous avons employé une méthode de calcul de distances minimales et les moyennes arithmétique et harmonique de ces distances permettant de décrire l’étendue et l’homogénéité de la dispersion des pics sur une surface 2D. Cette méthode à été comparée avec les méthodes, classiques ou récentes, d’évaluation de la dispersion. Cette nouvelle approche a démontré son applicabilité à l’évaluation de pouvoir séparatif des systèmes 2D.Le travail expérimental mené principalement sur les standards est enrichi par quelques applications concrètes aux échantillons de colorants trouves dans des textiles historiques.Les résultats de cette recherche sont directement transférables dans des laboratoires impliqués dans l’analyse des anthraquinoïdes dans le but de l’identification des sources des colorants utilisées dans les objets du patrimoine culturel, mais aussi dans la caractérisation de ces composés dans le cadre de la recherche phytochimique, phytopharmacologique et autres. / This work contributes to the improvement in the separation of anthraquinoids by reversed phase high performance chromatography, the final target being setting down the detection limits and improving the characterisation of separated components of anthraquinoid dyes from the cultural heritage artefacts.A series of 40 standards representing large range of existing anthrquinoid structures was used for the modelling of chromatographic behaviour of that family of compounds.First part of that research show the comparative study of the performances of alkyl (C18) bonded stationary phases. These performances are expressed by number of critical pairs as well as by symmetry of peaks. Considering the dispersion of values of symmetry of various peaks on different stationary phases, we introduced a novel symmetry parameter d(TF;1), which allowed to range all stationary phases according to their “global” symmetry and to determine the most satisfactory ones.The selectivity of octadecyl bonded phases was little different each other, so it was decided to test the functionalised phases which could offer complementary retention mechanisms in the separation of anthraquinoid dyes in reversed phase systems.The separation efficiency of these phases was evaluated as before, and the most efficient phases were selected.The general comparison of all studied stationary phases, bonded with octadecyl and functionalised, was done with the column suitability coefficient (CSc), an univocal ranking parameter containing both descriptors: number of critical pairs and peaks’ symmetry. The diagrams obtained by projection of co-ordinates corresponding to the critical pairs’ coefficient (CPc) and symmetry coefficient (Sc) gives a choice of particular properties of phases.The different selectivity of several studied phases driven us to check out their orthogonality in the aim to built bi-dimensional separation systems. Using the separation efficiency criterion, we employed a minimal distances computation method as well as the arithmetic and harmonic means describing the extension and homogeneity of dispersion of peaks on 2D separation surface. This approach was compared with several other classical or recent methods of the evaluation of peak dispersion. It was demonstrated that our method is particularly useful in the comparison of separation power of 2D systems.The experimental work, mainly done with standards of anthraquinone derivatives, was illustrated by some applications to the real samples of dyestuffs found in historical textiles.The results of this research are directly transferable to the application laboratories involved in the analysis of anthraquinoids for the identification of sources of dyestuffs presents in cultural heritage artefacts, but also for their characterisation in phytochemistry, phytopharmacology and other research.

Choosing a stationary phase is the first step in developing a liquid chromatography (LC) separation method, where the selectivity is governed by the differential interactions of the analytes with the stationary and mobile phases. Introducing a gradient in stationary phase functionality allows for tuning of analyte retention, translating to a possible improvement in selectivity and an increase in resolution versus that offered by uniform stationary phases. In this work, C18-silica, phenylbutyl-silica, and phenylbutyl-ammonium opposed continuous stationary phase gradients were fabricated using controlled rate infusion (CRI) on particle packed LC columns. Characterization of the stationary phase was carried out using spectroscopy and LC analysis to relate the ligand density gradient profile to the observed chromatographic parameters. C18-silica gradients were created with a time-dependent acid hydrolysis infusion and demonstrated an increase in resolution when combined with a mobile phase gradient. Phenylbutyl-silica and phenylbutyl-ammonium gradients were produced using an in-situ silanization CRI method. Phenylbutyl-silica gradients were confirmed to be stable and reproducible; however, produced tailing peak shapes. Phenylbutyl-ammonium gradients were utilized to incorporate an ion exchange model into a simulator built by Jeong et al. The phenylbutyl-ammonium gradient was not reproducible but did exhibit an increase in resolution when combined with a mobile phase gradient. Also, the ion exchange model was successfully added within the simulator, with percent differences for retention prediction all under 5 %. This dissertation serves as a proof-of-concept for gradient stationary phases on particle packed LC columns.

<p>Liquid chromatography is an important separation technique for a vast number of analytes. This thesis mainly focuses on the development of stationary phases for liquid chromatography based on zwitterionic sulfobetaine polymers.</p><p>In the thesis, various ways to prepare zwitterionic polymers in an aqueous environment using reversible addition fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization are described. Both telomers, i.e. short soluble polymer chains containing a functional terminal group, as well as graft polymers on various supports have been synthesized. The RAFT polymerization technique provides an increased degree of control of the final polymers, which may aid in the preparation of more specifically tailored separation materials.</p><p>Sulfobetaine polymers carry both a positive and a negative charge within a single entity, which results in interesting solution properties as well as highly biocompatible features. These unique features make them especially suited for separation of highly polar and/or charged compounds. An example of the successful separation of short peptides using a stationary phase synthesized with the RAFT technique is given.</p><p>The unusual properties of sulfobetaine-type polymers are believed to be associated with the structure of water close to the polymer. A study of water structure in some silica based stationary phase grafted with zwitterionic sulfobetaine polymers was conducted. The impact of water structure on retention characteristics was investigated.</p>