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“Department of Agronomical Microbiology, Institute of Soil Science and Plant Cultivation, State Research Institute, Puławy, Poland Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland Ensifer (Sinorhizobium) arboris is a symbiont of salt-tolerant leguminous trees in the genera Acacia and Prosopis that are utilized in the prevention of soil erosion and desertification and in phytoremediation of salinized soil. Signalling between the plant and the rhizobia is essential for the formation MI-503 solubility dmso of effective symbiosis

that increases the success of reclaiming saline sites. We assessed the effect of salt stress on the growth and the production of lipochitooligosaccharide signalling molecules (LCOs) of S. arboris HAMBI 2361, an LCO-overproducing

derivative of the S. arboris type strain HAMBI 1552. The strain tolerated NaCl up to 750 mM. To obtain both qualitative and quantitative information on the LCO production under salt stress, we devised a method where LCOs were differentially labelled GSK-3 inhibition by stable isotopes of nitrogen, 14N and 15N, and analysed by mass spectrometry. Under control conditions, the strain produced altogether 27 structural LCO variants. In 380 mM NaCl, 13 LCO variants were produced in detectable amounts, and six of these were reliably quantified, ranging from one-tenth to one-third of the non-stressed one. “
“Gene knockout and transgenic mice are important tools that are widely used to dissect the mammalian hosts’ responses to microbial invasion. A novel alternative is to engineer the pathogen itself to secrete host factors that stimulate or suppress specific immune defense mechanisms. Herein, we have described and validated an approach to facilitate the production and export of ectopic host proteins, from the most prevalent human fungal pathogen, Candida albicans. Our strategy utilized a prepropeptide from the C. albicans secreted aspartic proteinase, Sap2p. The Quisqualic acid prepeptide facilitates entry of Sap2p into the secretory pathway, while the propeptide maintains

the protease as an inactive precursor, until proteolytic cleavage in the Golgi apparatus releases the mature protein. The Sap2p prepropeptide coding sequence was linked to that of two mammalian calcium-binding proteins, S100A8 and S100A9, which are associated with symptomatic vaginal candidiasis. The resulting expression constructs were then introduced into C. albicans. While the S100A8 protein is secreted into the growth medium intact, the S100A9 protein is apparently degraded during transit. Nonetheless, culture supernatants from both S100A8 and S100A9 expressing C. albicans strains acted as potent chemoattractants for a macrophage-like cell line and polymorphonuclear leukocytes. Thus, the pathogen-derived mammalian proteins possessed the expected biological activity. “
“We identified the minimal locus of 163-kb plasmid pSV1 of Streptomyces violaceoruber for the replication in S.