Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: EC:3.2.1.31 (beta-glucuronidase)
 7,680 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Two cases of Aerococcus urinae endocarditis are reported. The organism is not included in any database of commercial identification systems at this time. Formation of tetrades and positive reactions for leucine arylamidase and beta-glucuronidase pointed strongly to A. urinae. The cellular fatty acid pattern was similar to that of Aerococcus viridans, with predominantly C16:0, C18:1 omega 9c and C18:0; the presence of C18:1 omega 7t differentiated our isolates from A. viridans and can support the diagnosis of A. urinae. Furthermore, susceptibility to penicillin but resistance to cotrimoxazole represents a pattern opposite to that of A. viridans. Minimal inhibition concentrations of gentamicin and netilmicin were < or = 64 mg/l but those of tobramycin were > or = 256 mg/l. Penicillin combined with either gentamicin or netilmicin showed distinct synergy in killing kinetics. These combinations seem to be the appropriate regimen to treat A. urinae endocarditis.
Infection
PMID:Endocarditis due to Aerococcus urinae: diagnostic tests, fatty acid composition and killing kinetics. 1021 43

Lactobacillus strains possess properties that make them attractive candidates as vehicles for oral administration of therapeutics. In this report we describe the construction and analysis of recombinant Lactobacillus casei applicable in oral vaccination against an infectious disease (tetanus) and in oral tolerance induction for intervention in an autoimmune disease, multiple sclerosis. Recombinant L. casei which express surface-anchored tetanus toxin fragment C (TTFC) were generated. Quantitative analysis by flow cytometry demonstrated a high level of cell wall-bound expression of TTFC and immunogenicity was demonstrated by parenteral immunization with whole cell extracts of the recombinants. A series of expression vectors was constructed to secrete human myelin basic protein (hMBP) or hMBP as a fusion protein with beta-glucuronidase from Escherichia coli. These heterologous products produced by L. casei were detected in the growth medium and parenteral immunization with this medium evoked antibodies against hMBP, confirming that secretion indeed had occurred. Based on the different localization of the heterologous proteins, lactobacilli expressing surface-anchored TTFC are ideally suited for the induction of antibody responses, whereas lactobacilli that secrete myelin proteins can be used for the induction of peripheral T-cell tolerance. In conclusion, the specific technology described here allows the construction of a wide array of safe live recombinant lactobacilli which may prove to be useful in oral intervention strategies for the prevention of infectious diseases or treatment of autoimmune diseases.
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PMID:Instruments for oral disease-intervention strategies: recombinant Lactobacillus casei expressing tetanus toxin fragment C for vaccination or myelin proteins for oral tolerance induction in multiple sclerosis. 1036 44

Cotyledon explants of 10 soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] cultivars were inoculated with Agrobacterium rhizogenes strain K599 with and without binary vectors pBI121 or pBINm-gfp5-ER possessing both neomycin phosphotransferase II (nptII) and beta-glucuronidase (gus) or nptII and green fluorescent protein (gfp) genes, respectively. Hairy roots were produced from the wounded surface of 54-95% of the cotyledon explants on MXB selective medium containing 200 microg ml(-1) kanamycin and 500 microg ml(-1) carbenicillin. Putative individual transformed hairy roots were identified by cucumopine analysis and were screened for transgene incorporation using polymerase chain reaction. All of the roots tested were found to be co-transformed with T-DNA from the Ri-plasmid and the transgene from the binary vectors. Southern blot analysis confirmed the presence of the 35S-gfp5 gene in the plant genomes. Transgene expression was also confirmed by histochemical GUS assay and Western blot analysis for the GFP. Attempts to induce shoot formation from the hairy roots failed. Infection of hairy roots of the soybean cyst nematode (Heterodera glycines Ichinohe)-susceptible cultivar, Williams 82, with eggs of H. glycines race 1, resulted in the development of mature cysts about 4-5 weeks after inoculation. Thus the soybean cyst nematode could complete its entire life cycle in transformed soybean hairy-root cultures expressing GFP. This system should be ideal for testing genes that might impart resistance to soybean cyst nematode.
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PMID:High-efficiency induction of soybean hairy roots and propagation of the soybean cyst nematode. 1066 25

A special recombinant of Autographa californica multicapsid nuclear polyhedrosis virus (AcNPV) was designed to study the early histopathological events of baculovirus infection in Spodoptera exigua larvae. This recombinant contained a Drosophila melanogaster heat shock 70 promoter driving an Escherichia coli beta-galactosidase (Lac-Z) reporter gene to monitor the presence of early viral gene expression and a second reporter gene, the E. coli beta-glucuronidase (GUS) gene, under control of the very late AcNPV p10 promoter to monitor viral replication. In S. exigua larvae, permissive Spodoptera spp. cultured cells, and nonpermissive D. melanogaster cultured cells early viral gene expression was indicated by the appearance of Lac-Z as early as 3 hr p.i. Late viral gene expression was indicated by the appearance of GUS and occurred only in the permissive cultured cells and larvae. Early and late viral gene expression could be detected simultaneously using differential enzyme histochemistry. Analysis of infected S. exigua larvae revealed that midgut columnar cells and, at a low frequency, midgut regenerative cells were the primary sites of infection. Parental nucleocapsids were apparently transported through columnar cells to underlaying regenerative cells before virus replication and progeny production. Infection of tissues beside the midgut epithelium was not detected prior to viral replication within the midgut, suggesting that infection of the midgut is an important prelude to systemic infection.
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PMID:Passage of Autographa californica nuclear polyhedrosis virus through the midgut epithelium of Spodoptera exigua larvae. 1183 15

Expression of the fis1 gene from flax (Linum usitatissimum) is induced by a compatible rust (Melampsora lini) infection. Infection of transgenic plants containing a beta-glucuronidase (GUS) reporter gene under the control of the fis1 promoter showed that induction is highly localized to those leaf mesophyll cells within and immediately surrounding rust infection sites. The level of induction reflects the extent of fungal growth. In a strong resistance reaction, such as the hypersensitive fleck mediated by the L6 resistance gene, there is very little fungal growth and a microscopic level of GUS expression. Partially resistant flax leaves show levels of GUS expression that were intermediate to the level observed in the fully susceptible infection. Sequence and deletion analysis using both transient Agrobacterium tumefaciens expression and stable transformation assays have shown that the rust-inducible fis1 promoter is contained within a 580-bp fragment. Homologs of fis1 were identified in expressed sequence tag databases of a range of plant species including dicots, monocots, and a gymnosperm. Homologous genes isolated from maize (Zea mays; mis1), barley (Hordeum vulgare; bis1), wheat (Triticum aestivum; wis1), and Arabidopsis encode proteins that are highly similar (76%-82%) to the FIS1 protein. The Arabidopsis homologue has been reported to encode a delta1-pyrroline-5-carboxylate dehydrogenase that is involved in the catabolism of proline to glutamate. RNA-blot analysis showed that mis1 in maize and the bis1 homolog in barley are both up-regulated by a compatible infection with the corresponding species-specific rust. The rust-induced genes homologous to fis1 are present in many plants. The promoters of these genes have potential roles for the engineering of synthetic rust resistance genes by targeting transgene expression to the sites of rust infection.
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PMID:A plant gene up-regulated at rust infection sites. 1201 48

The effect of growth regulators and culture conditions on the morphogenetic response of cotyledonary leaf discs was studied in popular cucumber variety (Cucumis sativus cv. Sheetal). Organogenesis was induced directly without any intervening callus phase on Murashige and Skoog medium supplemented with different concentrations of benzyladenine and indole propionic acid. Best results (93%) were obtained in the presence of the 4 mg/L benzyladenine and 1 mg/L IPA. The elongated shoots were rooted in basal medium with 1 mg/L indole butyric acid, hardened and transferred to the field conditions. Genetic transformation system has been established for Cucumis sativus cv. Sheetal, plants by infecting cotyledonary explants with Agrobacterium tumefaciens strain LBA4404 carrying binary plasmid pBI121, which contains scorable marker, beta-glucuronidase and selectable marker nptII under the CaMV 35S promoter. Infection was most effective when explants were infected with Agrobacterium for 15 min and co-cultivated for 2 days in the co-cultivation medium. Shoots were regenerated directly from cotyledonary leaf explants in the presence of kanamycin (50 microg/ml) and analysed. Southern blot analysis confirmed that transformation had occurred. This method will allow genetic improvement of this crop by the introduction of agronomically important genes.
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PMID:In vitro organogenesis and genetic transformation in popular Cucumis sativus L. through Agrobacterium tumefaciens. 1263 5

A Coniothyrium minitans strain (T3) co-transformed with the genes for beta-glucuronidase (uidA) and hygromycin phosphotransferase (hph), the latter providing resistance to the antibiotic hygromycin B, was used to investigate the survival and infection of sclerotia of Sclerotinia sclerotiorum by C. minitans over time in four different soils. Infection of sclerotia was rapid in all cases, with the behaviour of transformant T3 and wild type parent A69 being similar. Differences were seen between the soils in the rate of infection of sclerotia by C. minitans and in their indigenous fungal populations. Amendment of agar with hygromycin B enabled the quantification of C. minitans in soil by dilution plating where there was a high background of other microorganisms. In Lincoln soil from New Zealand, which had a natural but low population of C. minitans, the hygromycin B resistance marker allowed the umambiguous discrimination of the applied transformed isolate from the indigenous hygromycin B sensitive one. In this soil, although the indigenous C. minitans population was detected from sclerotia, none were recovered on the dilution plates, indicating the increased sensitivity of C. minitans detection from soil using sclerotial baiting. C. minitans was a very efficient parasite, being able to infect a large proportion of sclerotia within a relatively short time from an initially low soil population. The addition of hygromycin B to agar also allowed the detection of C. minitans from decaying sclerotia by inhibiting secondary fungal colonisers. This is the first report to show that fungi colonising sclerotia already infected by C. minitans mask the detection of C. minitans from sclerotia rather than displacing the original parasite.
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PMID:Use of Coniothyrium minitans transformed with the hygromycin B resistance gene to study survival and infection of Sclerotinia sclerotiorum sclerotia in soil. 1282 95

Our objective is to produce a protein biosensor (or molecular switch) that is specifically activated in solution by a monoclonal antibody. Many effector-dependent enzymes have evolved in nature, but the introduction of a novel regulatory mechanism into a normally unregulated enzyme poses a difficult design problem. We used site-saturation mutagenesis and screening to generate effector-activated variants of the reporter enzyme beta-glucuronidase (GUS). The specific activity of the purified epitope-tagged GUS variant was increased by up to approximately 500-fold by the addition of an equimolar concentration of a monoclonal antibody. This molecular switch is modular in design, so it can easily be re-engineered for the detection of other peptide-specific antibodies. Such antibody-activated reporters could someday enable point-of-care serological assays for the rapid detection of infectious diseases.
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PMID:Antibody-induced oligomerization and activation of an engineered reporter enzyme. 1746 36


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