实验基础

Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV), a human herpesvirus, is the leading viral cause of birth defects (1,2). In acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) patients, HCMV can cause severely debilitating colitis and retinitis; it is now an increasingly common cause of life-threatening pneumo ...

One characteristic of human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) is the high complexity of its genome: the double-stranded DNA of approx 240 kbp contains the coding capacity for more than 200 different proteins (1,2). The genes encoding those proteins are expressed coordinately during the replicati ...

A key area in the study of infection by cytomegalovirus (CMV), or that of any other virus, is to gain an understanding of the manner in which viral proteins interact with those of the host cell. The most widely used method to identify interactions between viral and cellular proteins in the infected cell is th ...

The study of strategies for the treatment of human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) infection starts with the discovery of compounds that are potent and selective inhibitors of HCMV replication. Selectivity means that the window between the concentrations that block viral replication on the o ...

Inferential evidence from studies of immunosuppressed humans indicates the control of disease due to human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) in the persistently infected host (virus carrier) depends on the cellular immune response: cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) appear to be a particularly i ...

The family Pseudomonadaceae incorporates a broad range of species that are common inhabitants of soil, fresh water, and marine environments, where they are active in organic matter mineralization. Some species can cause diseases of plants, with various host specificities, whereas ot ...

Species within the genus Xanthomonas demonstrate pathogenesis to a variety of plant types, including rice, crucifers, cotton, wheat, peppers, tomatoes, and geraniums. However, Xanthomonas species do not respond well to chemical treatments that induce competence necessary for tr ...

The six species that make up the genus Brucella infect a wide variety of animals and humans (1). This bacterial species is gram-negative and classified as a facultative intracellular pathogen (reviewed in ref. 2). In the livestock industry of the United States and numerous countries throughout ...

Francisella tularensis is the gram-negative cocco-bacillus that is the etiologic agent of the highly infectious zoonosis, tularemia. In North America, tularemia presents as an acute febrile lymphadenitis that can progress into a life-threatening pneumonic illness (1). The disea ...

Vibrios are facultative anaerobes. They are gram-negative, oxidase-positive rods, and they are distributed in seawater and in the water at the mouths of rivers. According to Bergey’s Manual of Systematic Bacteriology, there are 20 species in the genus Vibrio, including the human pathogens V. ...

The greatest progress in development of methods for genetic manipulation of obligate anaerobic bacteria has been with the Bacteroides and Clostridium, which have become the model systems for gram-negative and gram-positive anaerobes, respectively. Advancement in the design of g ...

Agrobacterium tumefaciens and Agrobacterium rhizogenes are plant soil-borne pathogens. Plants infected by Agrobacterium develop symptoms of tumor formation or adventitious hairy roots (1). These symptoms result from the integration of a fragment of DNA (T-DNA) from the bacteri ...

Methods to microencapsulate enzymes and cells including recombinant enzymes, stem cells, and genetically engineered cells have been described in this chapter. More specific examples of enzyme encapsulation include the microencapsulation of xanthine oxidase for Lesch Nyhan ...

Enzymes are finding increasing use for the production of agrochemicals, pharmaceuticals, and fine chemicals. They are almost always used in the immobilized form in order to simplify their removal from the product stream. In addition, immobilization often enhances the stability of the e ...

Proteases from halophilic microorganisms present the advantage of being stable at high salinities, constituting interesting enzymes from a biotechnological point of view. To maintain osmolarity in saline environments the microorganisms adopt mainly two strategies, one fo ...

Optically pure amino acids are of increasing industrial importance as chiral building blocks for the synthesis of food ingredients, pharmaceuticals, drugs, and drug intermediates. Highly stereoselective enzymatic processes have been developed to obtain either D- or L-amino aci ...

Natural selection has created optimal catalysts that exhibit their convincing performance even with a number of sometimes counteracting constraints. Nucleic acid polymerases, for example, provide for the maintenance, transmission, and expression of genetic information a ...

Over the last century, microorganisms have been a great source of metabolic and enzymatic diversity. In recent years, emerging recombinant DNA techniques have facilitated the development of new efficient expression systems, modification of biosynthesis pathways leading to dif ...

Enterococci are the focus of increasing academic and clinical research because of their importance as agents in nosocomial infections that are frequently refractory to many commonly used antimicrobial agents (1–3). To facilitate studies on the pathogenic and drug resistance mech ...

The importance of the Clostridia both in terms of their pathogenicity toward humans and their potential role in biotechnological processes has prompted many studies of the genetic manipulation of these organisms. Obviously, a prerequisite for such studies is a means of introducing rec ...