It is present on the vast majority of S. epidermidis strains, can bind to Dacron or other prosthetic materials via ionic interactions and is also capable of adhering to matrix molecules such as collagen that coat internal portion of these devices via specific receptor–ligand interactions. Further investigation of this and other S. epidermidis surface proteins

is warranted. This work was supported in part by the National check details Heart, Lung and Blood Institute-Specialized Center for Clinically Oriented Research (grant HL 077096-01). Thoratec Corporation (Pleasanton, CA) kindly provided the Dacron™ material currently used on the exterior surface of the Heartmate VAD DLs. None of the authors have a conflict of interest with any of the material in this manuscript. “
“The selleck products dasD gene is located just downstream of the dasABC gene cluster, encoding components of an ABC transporter for uptake of a chitin-degradation product N,N′-diacetylchitobiose [(GlcNAc)2] in Streptomyces coelicolor A3(2). To clarify the roles of the DasD protein in the degradation and assimilation of chitin, we obtained and characterized a recombinant DasD protein and a dasD-null mutant of S. coelicolor A3(2). The recombinant DasD protein produced in Escherichia coli showed N-acetyl-β-d-glucosaminidase (GlcNAcase) activity

and its optimum temperature and pH were 40 °C and 7, respectively. dasD transcription was strongly induced in the presence of chitin, weakly by chitosan, but not by cellulose or xylan in S. coelicolor A3(2). Immuno-blot analysis demonstrated that DasD is a cytoplasmic protein. The dasD-null mutant exhibited cellular GlcNAcase mafosfamide activity which was comparable with that of the parent strain M145. DasD, thus, did not seem to be a major GlcNAcase. Induced extracellular chitinase activity in the dasD-null mutant was, interestingly, higher than M145,

in the presence of colloidal chitin or (GlcNAc)2. In contrast to M145, (GlcNAc)2 temporally accumulated in the culture supernatant of the dasD-null mutant in the presence of colloidal chitin. “
“Legionella pneumophila is a gram-negative bacterium prevalent in fresh water which accidentally infects humans and is responsible for the disease called legionellosis. Intracellular growth of L. pneumophila in Tetrahymena is inconsistent; in the species Tetrahymena tropicalis stationary-phase forms (SPFs) of L. pneumophila differentiate into mature intracellular forms (MIFs) without apparent bacterial replication and are expelled from the ciliate as pellets containing numerous MIFS. In the present work, we tested the impact of L. pneumophila passage through T. tropicalis. We observed that MIFs released from T. tropicalis are more resistant to various stresses than SPFs. Under our conditions, MIFs harboured a higher gentamicin resistance, maintained even after 3 months as pellets.