ABSTRACT
Burkholderia mallei, the etiologic agent of glanders, is a Gram-negative, nonmotile, facultative intracellular pathogen. Although glanders has been eradicated from many parts of the world, the threat of B. mallei being used as a weapon is very real. Here we present draft genome assemblies of 8 Burkholderia mallei strains that were isolated in Turkey.
ABSTRACT
Staphylococcus epidermidis causes a large number of catheter-related sepsis infections annually in the United States. We present the 2.54-Mbp complete genome assembly of reference strain S. epidermidis AmMS 205, including a single 37.7-kbp plasmid. The annotated assembly is available in GenBank under accession numbers CP009046 and CP009047.
ABSTRACT
Burkholderia is a genus of betaproteobacteria that includes three notable human pathogens: B. cepacia, B. pseudomallei, and B. mallei. While B. pseudomallei and B. mallei are considered potential biowarfare agents, B. cepacia infections are largely limited to cystic fibrosis patients. Here, we present 56 Burkholderia genomes from 8 distinct species.
ABSTRACT
Yersinia spp. are animal pathogens, some of which cause human disease. We sequenced 10 Yersinia isolates (from six species: Yersinia enterocolitica, Y. fredericksenii, Y. kristensenii, Y. pestis, Y. pseudotuberculosis, and Y. ruckeri) to high-quality draft or complete status. The genomes range in size from 3.77 to 4.94 Mbp.
ABSTRACT
Soft-tissue infection by Pasteurella multocida in humans is usually associated with a dog- or cat-related injury, and these infections can become aggressive. We sequenced the type strain P. multocida subsp. multocida ATCC 43137 into a single closed chromosome consisting of 2,271,840 bp (40.4% G+C content), which is currently available in the NCBI GenBank under the accession number CP008918.
ABSTRACT
Bacilli are genetically and physiologically diverse, ranging from innocuous to highly pathogenic. Here, we present annotated genome assemblies for 20 strains belonging to Bacillus anthracis, B. atrophaeus, B. cereus, B. licheniformis, B. macerans, B. megaterium, B. mycoides, and B. subtilis.
ABSTRACT
Primarily a zoonotic disease, Francisella tularensis is a fastidious intracellular pathogen and is listed as a CDC category A pathogen with notably high pathogenicity. Here we present the scaffolded genome assemblies of nine Francisella strains: eight F. tularensis and one F. philomiragia.
ABSTRACT
Listeria monocytogenes causes the food-borne illness listeriosis that primarily infects "vulnerable" groups (e.g., elderly adults, pregnant women, very young children, and the immunocompromised). We sequenced the genome of L. monocytogenes XXIII (ATCC 15313) and assembled it into a single scaffold (three contigs) and deposited the annotated assembly into GenBank as accession no. JOOX00000000.
ABSTRACT
An emerging nosocomial pathogen, Stenotrophomonas maltophila has a high mortality rate in those it infects. Here, we present the complete genome sequence of Stenotrophomonas maltophilia 810-2 (ATCC 13637), the type strain of the species. The 5-Mb (66.1% G+C content) genome has been deposited in NCBI under accession number CP008838.
ABSTRACT
Brucella species are intracellular zoonotic pathogens which cause, among other pathologies, increased rates of abortion in ruminants. Human infections are generally associated with exposure to contaminated and unpasteurized dairy products; however Brucellae have been developed as bioweapons. Here we present 17 complete and 7 scaffolded genome assemblies of Brucella strains.
ABSTRACT
The Delftia acidovorans 2167 (ATCC 15668, Delftia type strain) genome was sequenced into a 6-contig scaffolded assembly of 6.78-Mb. This environmental microbe, previously named to both the Comamonas and Pseudomonas genera, is an opportunistic pathogen and often the subject of phylogenetic placement debates.
ABSTRACT
Coffee quality is directly related to the harvest and post harvest conditions. Non-uniform maturation of coffee fruits, combined with inadequate harvest, negatively affects the final quality of the product. Pectin methylesterase (PME) plays an important role in fruit softening due to the hydrolysis of methylester groups in cell wall pectins. In order to characterize the changes occurring during coffee fruit maturation, the enzymatic activity of PME was measured during different stages of fruit ripening. PME activity progressively increased from the beginning of the ripening process to the cherry fruit stage. In silico analysis of expressed sequence tags of the Brazilian Coffee Genome Project database identified 5 isoforms of PME. We isolated and cloned a cDNA homolog of PME for further characterization. CaPME4 transcription was analyzed in pericarp, perisperm, and endosperm tissues during fruit development and ripening as well as in other plant tissues. Northern blot analysis revealed increased transcription of CaPME4 in the pericarp 300 days after flowering. Low levels of CaPME4 mRNAs were observed in the endosperm 270 days after flowering. Expression of CaPME4 transcripts was strong in the branches and lower in root and flower tissues. We showed that CaPME4 acts specifically during the later stages of fruit ripening and possibly contributes to the softening of coffee fruit, thus playing a significant role in pectin degradation in the fruit pericarp.
Subject(s)
Carboxylic Ester Hydrolases/genetics , Coffea/growth & development , Coffea/genetics , Fruit/growth & development , Fruit/genetics , Gene Expression Regulation, Plant , Amino Acid Sequence , Blotting, Northern , Carboxylic Ester Hydrolases/chemistry , Carboxylic Ester Hydrolases/metabolism , Coffea/enzymology , Computational Biology , Conserved Sequence/genetics , Expressed Sequence Tags , Fruit/enzymology , Gene Expression Profiling , Gene Expression Regulation, Enzymologic , Gene Library , Genes, Plant/genetics , Molecular Sequence Data , PhylogenyABSTRACT
Event-related brain potentials were recorded from healthy young adults during two paradigms calling for recall and recognition of previously presented words. In the first part of the study incidental learning was employed, i.e. the subject was unaware that he participated in a memory test and engaged in a semantic task instead. ERPs from the encoding phase were averaged according to whether a word was 1. subsequently recalled, 2. recognized or 3. neither recalled nor recognized. The intentional paradigm was identical in all respects except for the instructions to remember as many words as possible for subsequent memory testing. No semantic task was employed during intentional encoding. Both paradigms yielded significantly higher positivities for words which were later recalled.
Subject(s)
Electroencephalography , Learning/physiology , Memory/physiology , Adult , Evoked Potentials , Humans , MaleABSTRACT
The second part of this study deals with the behavioral und event-related potential (ERP) findings from the recognition phase of incidental and intentional learning paradigms. Correctly recognized old items were characterized by a significantly more positive ERP in the 400 to 800 ms range when compared to correctly identified new items. Furthermore old words, which had previously been remembered in a free recall test were associated with a more positive ERP when compared to both, correctly recognized and nonrecognized old words. This effect also had an earlier onset latency. The findings are considered in the context of recent results from continuous recognition memory and repetition priming studies. It is concluded that in the present paradigm ERP differences due to recognition can be attributed to unspecific phenomena.
Subject(s)
Electroencephalography , Learning/physiology , Memory/physiology , Vocabulary , Adult , Evoked Potentials , Humans , Male , Mental Recall/physiologyABSTRACT
The effects of two dosages (200 mg, 600 mg, placebo) of a cholinergic nootropic (WEB 1881 FU) were investigated in a visual spatial attention task. Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were used as a physiological measure of attention as they have previously been shown to be sensitive to allocation of attention to points in space. The typical enhancement of several peaks of the visual ERP due to attention was found in the present experiment. No systematic effect of the medication was revealed, suggesting that the effects of WEB 1881 FU do not extend to early perceptual processes.
