Bacillus is a genus of Gram-positive, rod-shaped bacteria, a member of the phylum Firmicutes, with 266 named species. The term is also used to describe the shape (rod) of certain bacteria; and the plural Bacilli is the name of the class of bacteria to which this genus belongs. Bacillus species can be either obligate aerobes: oxygen dependent; or facultative anaerobes: having the ability to continue living in the absence of oxygen. Cultured Bacillus species test positive for the enzyme catalase if oxygen has been used or is present.
Bacteriocins are proteinaceous or peptidic toxins produced by bacteria to inhibit the growth of similar or closely related bacterial strain(s). They are similar to yeast and paramecium killing factors, and are structurally, functionally, and ecologically diverse. Applications of bacteriocins are being tested to assess their application as narrow-spectrum antibiotics.
Lantibiotics are a class of polycyclic peptide antibiotics that contain the characteristic thioether amino acids lanthionine or methyllanthionine, as well as the unsaturated amino acids dehydroalanine, and 2-aminoisobutyric acid. They belong to ribosomally synthesized and post-translationally modified peptides.
Bacillus subtilis, known also as the hay bacillus or grass bacillus, is a Gram-positive, catalase-positive bacterium, found in soil and the gastrointestinal tract of ruminants and humans. As a member of the genus Bacillus, B. subtilis is rod-shaped, and can form a tough, protective endospore, allowing it to tolerate extreme environmental conditions. B. subtilis has historically been classified as an obligate aerobe, though evidence exists that it is a facultative anaerobe. B. subtilis is considered the best studied Gram-positive bacterium and a model organism to study bacterial chromosome replication and cell differentiation. It is one of the bacterial champions in secreted enzyme production and used on an industrial scale by biotechnology companies.
Eikenella corrodens is a Gram-negative facultative anaerobic bacillus that can cause severe invasive disease in humans. It was first identified by M. Eiken in 1958, who called it Bacteroides corrodens. E. corrodens is a rare pericarditis associated pathogen. It is a fastidious, slow growing, human commensal bacillus, capable of acting as an opportunistic pathogen and causing abscesses in several anatomical sites, including the liver, lung, spleen, and submandibular region. E. corrodens could independently cause serious infection in both immunocompetent and immunocompromised hosts.
A colicin is a type of bacteriocin produced by and toxic to some strains of Escherichia coli. Colicins are released into the environment to reduce competition from other bacterial strains. Colicins bind to outer membrane receptors, using them to translocate to the cytoplasm or cytoplasmic membrane, where they exert their cytotoxic effect, including depolarisation of the cytoplasmic membrane, DNase activity, RNase activity, or inhibition of murein synthesis.
In, molecular genetics, an ORFeome refers to the complete set of open reading frames (ORFs) in a genome. The term may also be used to describe a set of cloned ORFs. ORFs correspond to the protein coding sequences (CDS) of genes. ORFs can be found in genome sequences by computer programs such as GENSCAN and then amplified by PCR. While this is relatively trivial in bacteria the problem is non-trivial in eukaryotic genomes because of the presence of introns and exons as well as splice variants.
Thermolysin is a thermostable neutral metalloproteinase enzyme produced by the Gram-positive bacteria Bacillus thermoproteolyticus. It requires one zinc ion for enzyme activity and four calcium ions for structural stability. Thermolysin specifically catalyzes the hydrolysis of peptide bonds containing hydrophobic amino acids. However thermolysin is also widely used for peptide bond formation through the reverse reaction of hydrolysis. Thermolysin is the most stable member of a family of metalloproteinases produced by various Bacillus species. These enzymes are also termed 'neutral' proteinases or thermolysin -like proteinases (TLPs).
Halocins are bacteriocins produced by halophilic Archaea and a type of archaeocin.
In a screen of the Bacillus subtilis genome for genes encoding ncRNAs, Saito et al. focused on 123 intergenic regions (IGRs) over 500 base pairs in length, the authors analyzed expression from these regions. Seven IGRs termed bsrC, bsrD, bsrE, bsrF, bsrG, bsrH and bsrI expressed RNAs smaller than 380 nt. All the small RNAs except BsrD RNA were expressed in transformed Escherichia coli cells harboring a plasmid with PCR-amplified IGRs of B. subtilis, indicating that their own promoters independently express small RNAs. Under non-stressed condition, depletion of the genes for the small RNAs did not affect growth. Although their functions are unknown, gene expression profiles at several time points showed that most of the genes except for bsrD were expressed during the vegetative phase, but undetectable during the stationary phase. Mapping the 5' ends of the 6 small RNAs revealed that the genes for BsrE, BsrF, BsrG, BsrH, and BsrI RNAs are preceded by a recognition site for RNA polymerase sigma factor σA.
Thionins are a family of small proteins found solely in higher plants. Typically, a thionin consists of 45–48 amino acid residues. 6–8 of these are cysteine forming 3–4 disulfide bonds. Alpha- and beta- thionins are related to each other. The gamma thionins have a superficially similar structure but are an unrelated class of protein, now called plant defensins.
Computational Resources for Drug Discovery (CRDD) is one of the important silico modules of Open Source for Drug Discovery (OSDD). The CRDD web portal provides computer resources related to drug discovery on a single platform. It provides computational resources for researchers in computer-aided drug design, a discussion forum, and resources to maintain Wikipedia related to drug discovery, predict inhibitors, and predict the ADME-Tox property of molecules One of the major objectives of CRDD is to promote open source software in the field of chemoinformatics and pharmacoinformatics.
Norvaline (abbreviated as Nva) is an amino acid with the formula CH3(CH2)2CH(NH2)CO2H. The compound is a structural analog of valeric acid and also an isomer of the more common amino acid valine. Like most other α-amino acids, norvaline is chiral. It is a white, water-soluble solid.
Rsa RNAs are non-coding RNAs found in the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus. The shared name comes from their discovery, and does not imply homology. Bioinformatics scans identified the 16 Rsa RNA families named RsaA-K and RsaOA-OG. Others, RsaOH-OX, were found thanks to an RNomic approach. Although the RNAs showed varying expression patterns, many of the newly discovered RNAs were shown to be Hfq-independent and most carried a C-rich motif (UCCC).
Cronobacter turicensis is a bacterium. It is usually food-borne and pathogenic. It is named after Turicum, the Latin name of Zurich, as the type strain originates from there. Its type strain is strain 3032. This strain was first isolated from a fatal case of neonatal meningitis. C. Turicensis strains are indole negative but malonate, dulcitol and methyl-α-D-glucopyranoside positive.
Brucella pinnipedialis is a species of bacteria. It causes infections and related diseases primarily in pinnipeds and cetaceans.
Arcobacter halophilus is a species of obligate halophilic bacteria. It is Gram-negative, and its type strain is LA31BT(=ATCC BAA-1022T =CIP 108450T).
Streptomyces isolates have yielded the majority of human, animal, and agricultural antibiotics, as well as a number of fundamental chemotherapy medicines. Streptomyces is the largest antibiotic-producing genus of actinobacteria, producing chemotherapy, antibacterial, antifungal, antiparasitic drugs, and immunosuppressants. Streptomyces isolates are typically initiated with the aerial hyphal formation from the mycelium.
Ribosomally synthesized and post-translationally modified peptides (RiPPs), also known as ribosomal natural products, are a diverse class of natural products of ribosomal origin. Consisting of more than 20 sub-classes, RiPPs are produced by a variety of organisms, including prokaryotes, eukaryotes, and archaea, and they possess a wide range of biological functions.
Caenorhabditis elegans- microbe interactions are defined as any interaction that encompasses the association with microbes that temporarily or permanently live in or on the nematode C. elegans. The microbes can engage in a commensal, mutualistic or pathogenic interaction with the host. These include bacterial, viral, unicellular eukaryotic, and fungal interactions. In nature C. elegans harbours a variety of different microbes. In contrast, C. elegans strains that are cultivated in laboratories for research purposes have lost the natural associated microbial communities and are commonly maintained on a single bacterial strain, Escherichia coli OP50. However, E. coli OP50 does not allow for reverse genetic screens because RNAi libraries have only been generated in strain HT115. This limits the ability to study bacterial effects on host phenotypes. The host microbe interactions of C. elegans are closely studied because of their orthologs in humans. Therefore, the better we understand the host interactions of C. elegans the better we can understand the host interactions within the human body.
