Amyloid Fibrils as Bionanomaterials from Jared K. Raynes and Juliet A. Gerrard writing in Bionanotechnology: Biological Self-assembly and its Applications : It is becoming increasingly clear that nature employs amyloid fibrils in a functional role for a range of processes, from immune responses, to aiding in the colonisation of bacteria. These functional amyloid fibrils have inspired researchers to investigate the potential of amyloid fibrils as novel bionanomaterials. The amyloid fibril structure possesses many features that make it an read more ...

ADARs and the Viral Life Cycle from Sara Tomaselli, Federica Galeano, Franco Locatelli and Angela Gallo writing in RNA Editing: Current Research and Future Trends : All viruses that have dsRNA structures at any stages of their life cycle may potentially undergo RNA editing mediated by ADAR enzymes. Indeed, a number of reports describe A-to-I sequence changes in viral genomes and/or transcripts that are consistent with ADAR activity. These modifications can appear as either hyperediting during persistent viral infections or specific RNA read more ...

Adaptive Cellular Immunity to Human Cytomegalovirus from Mark R. Wills, Gavin M. Mason and J. G. Patrick Sissons writing in Cytomegaloviruses: From Molecular Pathogenesis to Intervention : Primary HCMV infection induces robust CD8 + cytotoxic, and CD4 + helper, T cell mediated immune responses, which are associated with the resolution of acute primary infection: these responses are maintained at high frequency in long-term memory as the virus establishes persistent infection, with latency and periodic reactivation. Many of these T cells are read more ...

Excerpt from a book review of Essentials of Veterinary Parasitology : "There has long been a need for a concise parasitology textbook covering essential and emerging topics of clinical importance. This book fulfils this requirement and is an excellent up to date resource for researchers, veterinarians and students. The topics are clearly and precisely presented in an easy to read format. There are six sections and each is accompanied by very good pictorial presentations of life cycles and photographs of the major parasites to assist with read more ...

The new book on Neurospora edited by Durgadas P. Kasbekar and Kevin McCluskey will be available for dispatch within the next 2 or 3 read more ...

Acellular Vaccines Against Plague from E. Diane Williamson and Petra C.F. Oyston writing in Yersinia : Systems Biology and Control : In this review we review the progress to date on the development of acellular vaccines to protect against plague; we examine the pathogenicity of the causative organism and how an understanding of this has led to the identification of these new vaccine candidates. The approaches available to demonstrate the potential benefit arising from the use of such candidate vaccines in a human population, where vaccine read more ...

A Systems Pathway View of Cytomegalovirus Infection from Peter Ghazal, Alexander Mazein, Steven Watterson, Ana Angulo and Kai A. Kropp writing in Cytomegaloviruses: From Molecular Pathogenesis to Intervention : This review discusses the use of systems biology towards understanding the combinatorially complex set of molecular interactions that underpin the infection process by CMV. A hallmark of systems biology is the elucidation of pathways rather than single gene or protein activities. This generally involves the use of bioinformatics and read more ...

A Holistic View of Inter-species Bacterial Interactions within Human Dental Plaque from Alexander H. Rickard, Adam J. Underwood and William Nance writing in Oral Microbial Ecology: Current Research and New Perspectives : Mature dental-plaque biofilm communities contain hundreds of bacterial species. The potential for these communities to cause caries or periodontal disease relates to bacterial spatiotemporal biofilm development and species composition. At least three forms of inter-species interactions can conceivably mediate altered biofilm read more ...

A Bird's Eye View of Microbial Community Dynamics from Zhanshan (Sam) Ma, Jiawei Geng, Zaid Abdo and Larry J. Forney writing in Microbial Ecological Theory: Current Perspectives : Microbial community dynamics is one of the most important central themes of microbial community ecology, which seems to be experiencing its first golden era thanks to the rapidly expanding datasets derived using metagenomic and other "omics" methods in microbial biology. For example, much of the ongoing NIH-HMP (Human Microbiome Project) focus has been centered on read more ...

Genus Lyssavirus from Ivan V. Kuzmin and Noel Tordo writing in Rhabdoviruses: Molecular Taxonomy, Evolution, Genomics, Ecology, Host-Vector Interactions, Cytopathology and Control : Viruses from the genus Lyssavirus cause rabies: an acute progressive encephalomyelitis, with the highest fatality rate among conventional infectious diseases. Despite millennia of recognition and centuries of control attempts, rabies still kills over 55,000 people in the world every year. In contrast to the majority of rhabdoviruses, lyssaviruses do not require read more ...

Genus Vesiculovirus from Luis L. Rodriguez and Steven J. Pauszek writing in Rhabdoviruses: Molecular Taxonomy, Evolution, Genomics, Ecology, Host-Vector Interactions, Cytopathology and Control : The vesiculovirus genus of the Rhabdoviridae includes viruses infecting mammals, insects and fish that have been taxonomically classified using a combination of serological relatedness, host range, genome organization, pathobiology and phylogenetic analysis of sequence data. There are 10 viruses assigned to the genus vesiculovirus and a number of read more ...

Germination of Bacillus anthracis Spores from Jonathan D. Giebel, Katherine A. Carr and Philip C. Hanna writing in Bacterial Spores: Current Research and Applications : Bacillus anthracis exists in two morphologically distinct states, the spore and the vegetative cell. B. anthracis spores, not the vegetative bacilli, are the etiologic agent of the disease anthrax. Anthrax infections result from these inert spores entering a suitable host, recognizing that the environment is suitable for growth, and then transitioning to the rapidly growing, read more ...

H-NS, Global Regulator of Gene Expression and Organizer of the Bacterial Nucleoid from Charles J. Dorman writing in Bacterial Regulatory Networks : H-NS is an abundant DNA binding protein that has been found to influence the expression of hundreds of genes in those Gram-negative bacteria, chiefly Escherichia coli and Salmonella enterica , where its regulatory effects have been investigated. It also has the potential to organize the structure of the nucleoid. H-NS has a preference for binding to A+T-rich DNA and this preference underlies its read more ...

Stefan Maas presents a new book on RNA Editing: Current Research and Future Trends This major new work presents an up-to-date overview of RNA editing. All the chapters here have been written by experts in the various research areas and describe key recent findings as well as exploring current frontiers in the mechanisms and functional roles of RNA editing. The chapters span the editing of protein coding mRNAs, small regulatory RNAs, tRNAs and non-coding sequences. Also included are studies employing bioinformatics to identify and predict RNA read more ...

from Theron et al. in Nanotechnology in Water Treatment Applications Metal nanoparticles, such as gold, silver and iron, constitute one of the most researched branches of nanotechnology due to their electronic, optical, catalytic and thermal properties. Among these, gold nanoparticles are intensively used in a variety of colorimetric and fluorescence biodetection assays. Specific focus has been directed at colloidal gold nanoparticles ranging from 3 to 100 nm in size, since they are rather stable and their properties can be easily tailored read more ...

Glycoconjugate Vaccines from Robert Pon writing in Bacterial Glycomics: Current Research, Technology and Applications : Abstract to follow Further reading: Bacterial Glycomics: Current Research, Technology and read more ...

Glycosyl Hydrolases: Modular Structure, Physiological Roles, Gene Amplification and Evolution from Alan Radford writing in Neurospora : Genomics and Molecular Biology : The ascomycete fungus Neurospora crassa has a profusion of glycosyl hydrolase genes encoding a wide range of physiological roles. Domain structure of glycosyl hydrolases is considered in the context of domain shuffling within and between families. Mechanisms of action of glycosyl hydrolases are illustrated. The conservation of sequence and structure of the cellulose-binding read more ...

from Carla Kuiken and Richard Scheuermann writing in Hepatitis C: Antiviral Drug Discovery and Development : Sequence databases provide a resource for scientific researchers worldwide that is especially important for highly variably pathogens such as HCV. There are currently a number of HCV sequence databases, two of which will be discussed in detail in this review. The Los Alamos HCV sequence database has been widely used since 2004, and still is a commonly used resource. A new addition is the Virus Pathogen Resource, which contains read more ...

from Takaji Wakita writing in Hepatitis C: Antiviral Drug Discovery and Development : Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection causes chronic liver disease and is a health problem worldwide. Recent rapid progress in HCV research has been largely dependent on the development of an HCV culture system and infectious small animal model. The most important part of the HCV infection system is the discovery of the JFH-1 clone isolated from a fulminant hepatitis C patient. The JFH-1strain fits into the cluster of genotype 2a, and its viral genome sequence read more ...

The new book on Bioremediation of Mercury edited by Irene Wagner-Döbler will be available for dispatch within the next 2 or 3 read more ...

Hendra and Nipah Viruses from Michael K. Lo, Melissa M. Coughlin and Paul A. Rota writing in The Biology of Paramyxoviruses : Nipah and Hendra viruses comprise the genus Henipavirus and are highly pathogenic paramyxoviruses, which cause fatal encephalitis and respiratory disease in humans. Since their respective initial outbreaks in 1998 and 1994, they have continued to cause sporadic outbreaks resulting in fatal disease. Due to their designation as Biosafety Level 4 pathogens, the level of containment required to work with live read more ...

from Jean-Michel Pawlotsky writing in Hepatitis C: Antiviral Drug Discovery and Development : In the last decade, insights into the virology of hepatitis C virus (HCV) have unraveled several targets for potential novel therapeutics that, unlike interferon (IFN)-alpha and ribavirin, are specifically targeted to HCV. Many such direct-acting antiviral (DAA) drugs are at the preclinical developmental stage and several are in clinical development. Initial clinical trials using some of these inhibitors, either alone or in combination with read more ...

from H.E. Drummer and J.A. McKeating writing in Hepatitis C: Antiviral Drug Discovery and Development : Glycoprotein E1 and E2 are type 1 transmembrane proteins that are cleaved from the polyprotein through the action of signal peptidases in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) where they form disulfide linked and non disulfide linked heterodimers. The native folding of E1 and E2 is highly dependent on their coexpression, although a subdomain of E2 can be expressed in isolation that retains receptor binding properties (sE2). The HCV glycoproteins read more ...

from Craig A. Belon and David N. Frick writing in Hepatitis C: Antiviral Drug Discovery and Development : The hepatitis C virus (HCV) nonstructural protein 3 (NS3) is a complex multifunctional enzyme. In addition to processing the viral polyprotein, NS3 functions as a viral helicase capable of separating duplex RNA and DNA in reactions fueled by ATP hydrolysis. A functioning helicase is necessary for HCV replication, showing that the NS3 helicase could be an antiviral drug target. Although early screens for HCV helicase inhibitors yielded read more ...

from Helene MinYi Liu and Michael Gale Jr writing in Viruses and Interferon: Current Research : Mammalian cells respond to virus challenge by initiating an intracellular innate immune response that is designed to limit virus replication and to inform and modulate the ensuing adaptive immune response. Innate immune defenses are characterized by pathogen recognition receptor signaling that mediates the expression of antiviral gene products, the production of interferon α/β (IFN) and interferon-stimulated genes, and the secretion of read more ...

from Zhuhui Huang, Zhaohui Cai and Michael G. Murray writing in Hepatitis C: Antiviral Drug Discovery and Development : Development of appropriate assays and model systems in Hepatitis C virus (HCV) research has been critical to the initial discovery of the etiological agent as well as having been integral to the discovery and development of antiviral therapies over the years that followed. The vast amount of protein structural data that has been developed greatly facilitated and guided the chemistry of antiviral development. Meanwhile, read more ...

Heterogeneity in Bacterial Spore Populations from Peter Setlow, Jintao Liu and James R. Faeder writing in Bacterial Spores: Current Research and Applications : Genetically identical populations of spores of Bacillus and Clostridium species invariably exhibit significant heterogeneity, including wide variation in individual spores' resistance to wet heat, speed of germination, and requirements for heat activation before germination. This heterogeneity appears due to both stochasticity in gene expression and variations in culture conditions read more ...

Heterotrimeric G Proteins from James D. Kim, Patrick Schacht, Amruta Garud, Gyungsoon Park and Katherine A. Borkovich writing in Neurospora : Genomics and Molecular Biology : One of the major systems used by Neurospora crassa to sense and respond to changes in the environment is the heterotrimeric G protein signaling pathway. This system translates signals detected by G protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) or the cytosolic protein RIC8 to an associated intracellular heterotrimeric G protein (α, β and Gγ subunit) to regulate read more ...