psp phylogeny

Eleven multiresistant Escherichia coli strains of animal and human origin were assayed for the presence of antimicrobial resistance genes, integrons and associated gene cassettes, as well as plasmid content. Ciprofloxacin-resistant strains were screened for amino acid changes in GyrA and ParC proteins. The E. coli strains were found to harbor a variety of genes including cmlA, aac (3)-II, aac (3)-IV, aadA, strA-strB, tet (A), tet (B), bla(TEM), sul1, sul2 and sul3. Four of the eight int I1-positive strains were also positive for qacE Δ1 -sul1 region and the following gene cassettes were detected: dfrA7, dfrA12 + orfF + aadA2 and bla(OXA1)+ aadA1...

Cyanobacterial morphology is diverse, ranging from unicellular spheres or rods to multicellular structures such as colonies and filaments. Multicellular species represent an evolutionary strategy to differentiate and compartmentalize certain metabolic functions for reproduction and nitrogen (N(2)) fixation into specialized cell types (e.g. akinetes, heterocysts and diazocytes). Only a few filamentous, differentiated cyanobacterial species, with genome sizes over 5 Mb, have been sequenced. We sequenced the genomes of two strains of closely related filamentous cyanobacterial species to yield further insights into the molecular basis of the traits of N(2) fixation, filament formation and cell differentiation...

Neurotoxic paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP) toxins, anatoxin-a (ATX), and hepatotoxic cylindrospermopsin (CYN) have been detected in several lakes in northeast Germany during the last 2 decades. They are produced worldwide by members of the nostocalean genera Anabaena, Cylindrospermopsis, and Aphanizomenon. Although no additional sources of PSP toxins and ATX have been identified in German water bodies to date, the observed CYN concentrations cannot be produced solely by Aphanizomenon flos-aquae, the only known CYN producer in Germany...

Fifty-three faecal samples from yellow-legged gulls (Larus cachinnans) at the Berlengas nature reserve in Portugal were cultured on Levine agar plates not supplemented with antimicrobial agents, and one Escherichia coli colony was isolated and identified from each sample. The percentages of resistant isolates for each of the drugs were ampicillin (43.4 per cent), tetracycline (39.6 per cent), nalidixic acid (34.0 per cent), streptomycin (32.1 per cent), trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (SXT) (26.4 per cent), ciprofloxacin (18...

Fifty-five Escherichia coli isolates were acquired from chicken and turkey meat obtained from two slaughterhouses in Tunis. Eighty-nine percent, 80%, 78%, 67%, 45%, 27%, 7%, 4%, and 2% of these isolates showed resistance to tetracycline, trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole, streptomycin, nalidixic acid, ampicillin, chloramphenicol, ciprofloxacin, colistine, and gentamicin, respectively. No resistance was detected to cefotaxime, ceftazidime, or amikacin. bla(TEM) gene was found in 22 of 25 ampicillin-resistant isolates, and 1 isolate harbored bla(OXA-1) gene...

BACKGROUND: Paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP) is a potentially fatal syndrome associated with the consumption of shellfish that have accumulated saxitoxin (STX). STX is produced by microscopic marine dinoflagellate algae. Little is known about the origin and spread of saxitoxin genes in these under-studied eukaryotes. Fortuitously, some freshwater cyanobacteria also produce STX, providing an ideal model for studying its biosynthesis. Here we focus on saxitoxin-producing cyanobacteria and their non-toxic sisters to elucidate the origin of genes involved in the putative STX biosynthetic pathway...

Chronic bee paralysis virus (CBPV) is responsible for chronic paralysis, an infectious and contagious disease of adult honey bees (Apis mellifera L.). The full-length nucleotide sequences of the two major RNAs of CBPV have previously been characterized. The Orf3 of RNA1 has shown significant similarities to the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) of positive single-stranded RNA viruses, whereas the Orf3 of RNA2 encodes a putative structural protein (pSP). In the present study, honey bees originating from 9 different countries (Austria, Poland, Hungary, Spain, Belgium, Denmark, Switzerland, Uruguay and France) were analysed for the presence of CBPV genome...

Some species of marine dinoflagellates belonging to genera Alexandrium and Prorocentrum have been responsible for paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP) and diarrheic shellfish poisoning (DSP), respectively Morphological and molecular studies of 4 species including Alexandrium sp. 5, Alexandrium sp. 16, Prorocentrum sp. 1 and Prorocentrum sp. 3 that were collected in Northern coast of Vietnam were presented for the first time. By morphologic observations, we identifiedAlexandrium sp. 5 and Alexandrium sp. 16 as Alexandrium minutum, Alexandrium affine, respectively; Prorocentrum sp...

The paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP) toxins, saxitoxin, and its derivatives, are produced by a complex and unique biosynthetic pathway. It involves reactions that are rare in other metabolic pathways, however, distantly related organisms, such as dinoflagellates and cyanobacteria, produce these toxins by an identical pathway. Speculative explanations for the unusual phylogenetic distribution of this metabolic pathway have been proposed, including a polyphyletic origin, the involvement of symbiotic bacteria, and horizontal gene transfer...

As a consequence of immune pressure, influenza virus hemagglutinin presents some of its amino acids under positive selection. Several authors have reported the existence of influenza A hemagglutinin codons under positive selective pressure (PSP). In this framework, the present work objectives were to demonstrate the presence of PSP and evaluate its effects on Victoria- and Yamagata-like influenza B viruses. Methodology adopted consisted in estimating the acceptance rate of nonsynonymous substitutions (omega = dN/dS) that describe the strength of selective pressure and identifying codons that may be positively selected, applying a set of continuous-time Markov chain codon-substitution models...

Locomotion in humans and other vertebrates is based on spinal pattern generators, which are regulated by supraspinal control. Most of our knowledge about the hierarchical network of supraspinal locomotion centres derives from animal experiments, mainly in the cat. Here we summarize evidence that the supraspinal network of quadrupeds is conserved in humans despite their transition to bipedalism. By use of mental imagery of locomotion in fMRI we found (1), locomotion modulates sensory systems and is itself modulated by sensory signals...

Saxitoxin (STX) and its analogues cause the paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP) syndrome, which afflicts human health and impacts coastal shellfish economies worldwide. PSP toxins are unique alkaloids, being produced by both prokaryotes and eukaryotes. Here we describe a candidate PSP toxin biosynthesis gene cluster (sxt) from Cylindrospermopsis raciborskii T3. The saxitoxin biosynthetic pathway is encoded by more than 35 kb, and comparative sequence analysis assigns 30 catalytic functions to 26 proteins. STX biosynthesis is initiated with arginine, S-adenosylmethionine, and acetate by a new type of polyketide synthase, which can putatively perform a methylation of acetate, and a Claisen condensation reaction between propionate and arginine...

BACKGROUND: DING proteins constitute a conserved and broadly distributed set of proteins found in bacteria, fungi, plants and animals (including humans). Characterization of DING proteins from animal and plant tissues indicated ligand-binding ability suggesting a role for DING proteins in cell signaling and biomineralization. Surprisingly, the genes encoding DING proteins in eukaryotes have not been identified in the eukaryotic genome or EST databases. Recent discovery of a DING homologue (named Psp here) in the genome of Pseudomonas fluorescens SBW25 provided a unique opportunity to investigate the physiological roles of DING proteins...

BACKGROUND: Cattle and other ruminants have evolved the ability to derive most of their metabolic energy requirement from otherwise indigestible plant matter through a symbiotic relationship with plant fibre degrading microbes within a specialised fermentation chamber, the rumen. The genetic changes underlying the evolution of the ruminant lifestyle are poorly understood. The BPI-like locus encodes several putative innate immune proteins, expressed predominantly in the oral cavity and airways, which are structurally related to Bactericidal/Permeability Increasing protein (BPI)...

A comparative analysis of the morphology, toxin composition, and ribosomal DNA (rDNA) sequences was performed on a suite of clonal cultures of the potentially toxic dinoflagellate Alexandrium minutum Halim. These were established from resting cysts or vegetative cells isolated from sediment and water samples taken from the south and west coasts of Ireland. Results revealed that strains were indistinguishable, both morphologically and through the sequencing of the D1-D2 domain of the large subunit and the ITS1-5...

Blooms of the freshwater cyanobacterium Anabaena circinalis are recognised as an important health risk worldwide due to the production of a range of toxins such as saxitoxin (STX) and its derivatives, also known as paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP) toxins. In this study the transcriptional profile of PSP toxin-producing and non-toxic strains of A. circinalis was investigated by means of a DNA microarray approach. Additionally, gene expression was studied after exposure of toxic A. circinalis cultures to lidocaine hydrochloride at 1 microM for 2 h...

Members of the family of BPI (bactericidal/permeability-increasing protein)-like proteins are as yet incompletely characterized, particularly in cattle, where full-length sequence information is available for only three of the 13 family members known from other species. Structural bioinformatic analyses incorporating bovine homologues of several members of the BPI-like protein family, including two forms of bovine parotid secretory protein (PSP), showed that this family is also present in cattle. Expression analyses of several members of the BPI-like protein family in cattle, including PSP (Bsp30), von Ebner's minor salivary gland protein (VEMSGP) and lung-specific X protein (LUNX), showed a restricted pattern of expression, consistent with earlier hypotheses that these proteins function in the innate immune response to bacteria...

Ixodes didelphilis Fonseca & Aragão was described in Brazil in 1952 as a new tick species that differed from Ixodes loricatus Neumann by the spiracular plate pattern. We have reared four tick colonies from different geographic areas in the laboratory that were started from single engorged females originally identified as I. didelphidis (BMG, colony ) and I. Iocicatus (CSP, PSP, and TRJ colonies). We analyzed the spiracular plate morphology of F1 adult ticks from each tick colony, compared their biological 11th, and performed a molecular analysis of the second internal transcribed rDNA spacer (ITS2) to test the validity of the species I...

Blooms of the cyanobacterium Anabaena circinalis are a major worldwide problem due to their production of a range of toxins, in particular the neurotoxins anatoxin-a and paralytic shellfish poisons (PSPs). Although there is a worldwide distribution of A. circinalis, there is a geographical segregation of neurotoxin production. American and European isolates of A. circinalis produce only anatoxin-a, while Australian isolates exclusively produce PSPs. The reason for this geographical segregation of neurotoxin production by A...