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The Effect Of Dexmedetomidine On The Mini-Cog Score And High-Mobility Group Box 1 Levels In Elderly Patients With Postoperative Neurocognitive Disorders Undergoing Orthopedic Surgery, Joan M Mastrobattista, Mark A Klebanoff, J Christopher Carey, John C Hauth, Cora A Macpherson, J Ernest, Margaret Cotroneo, Kenneth J Leveno, Ronald Wapner, Michael Varner, Jay D Iams, Atef Moawad, Baha M Sibai, Menachem Miodovnik, Mitchell Dombrowski, Mary J O'Sullivan, J Peter Vandorsten, Oded Langer

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Our objective was to determine the effect of body mass index (BMI) on response to bacterial vaginosis (BV) treatment. A secondary analysis was conducted of two multicenter trials of therapy for BV and TRICHOMONAS VAGINALIS. Gravida were screened for BV between 8 and 22 weeks and randomized between 16 and 23 weeks to metronidazole or placebo. Of 1497 gravida with asymptomatic BV and preconceptional BMI, 738 were randomized to metronidazole; BMI was divided into categories: < 25, 25 to 29.9, and > or = 30. Rates of BV persistence at follow-up were compared using the Mantel-Haenszel chi square. Multiple logistic regression was used to evaluate the effect …

Clinical And Microbiological Aspects Of Linezolid Resistance Mediated By The Cfr Gene Encoding A 23s Rrna Methyltransferase, Cesar A Arias, Martha Vallejo, Jinnethe Reyes, Diana Panesso, Jaime Moreno, Elizabeth Castañeda, Maria V Villegas, Barbara E Murray, John P Quinn

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The cfr (chloramphenicol-florfenicol resistance) gene encodes a 23S rRNA methyltransferase that confers resistance to linezolid. Detection of linezolid resistance was evaluated in the first cfr-carrying human hospital isolate of linezolid and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (designated MRSA CM-05) by dilution and diffusion methods (including Etest). The presence of cfr was investigated in isolates of staphylococci colonizing the patient's household contacts and clinical isolates recovered from patients in the same unit where MRSA CM-05 was isolated. Additionally, 68 chloramphenicol-resistant Colombian MRSA isolates recovered from hospitals between 2001 and 2004 were screened for the presence of the cfr gene. In addition to erm(B), …

Cryo-Electron Tomography Of Kaposi's Sarcoma-Associated Herpesvirus Capsids Reveals Dynamic Scaffolding Structures Essential To Capsid Assembly And Maturation, Binbin Deng, Christine M O'Connor, Dean H Kedes, Z Hong Zhou

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Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) is a recently discovered DNA tumor virus that belongs to the gamma-herpesvirus subfamily. Though numerous studies on KSHV and other herpesviruses, in general, have revealed much about their multilayered organization and capsid structure, the herpesvirus capsid assembly and maturation pathway remains poorly understood. Structural variability or irregularity of the capsid internal scaffolding core and the lack of adequate tools to study such structures have presented major hurdles to earlier investigations employing more traditional cryo-electron microscopy (cryoEM) single particle reconstruction. In this study, we used cryo-electron tomography (cryoET) to obtain 3D reconstructions of individual KSHV capsids, allowing …

Activation Of Heat Shock And Antioxidant Responses By The Natural Product Celastrol: Transcriptional Signatures Of A Thiol-Targeted Molecule, Amy Trott, James D West, Lada Klaić, Sandy D Westerheide, Richard B Silverman, Richard I Morimoto, Kevin A Morano

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Stress response pathways allow cells to sense and respond to environmental changes and adverse pathophysiological states. Pharmacological modulation of cellular stress pathways has implications in the treatment of human diseases, including neurodegenerative disorders, cardiovascular disease, and cancer. The quinone methide triterpene celastrol, derived from a traditional Chinese medicinal herb, has numerous pharmacological properties, and it is a potent activator of the mammalian heat shock transcription factor HSF1. However, its mode of action and spectrum of cellular targets are poorly understood. We show here that celastrol activates Hsf1 in Saccharomyces cerevisiae at a similar effective concentration seen in mammalian cells. Transcriptional …

Verb Generation In Children With Spina Bifida, Maureen Dennis, Derryn Jewell, Ross Hetherington, Christine Burton, Michael E. Brandt, Susan E. Blaser, Jack M Fletcher

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We investigated verb generation in children with spina bifida meningomyelocele (SBM; n = 55) and in typically developing controls (n = 32). Participants completed 6 blocks (40 trials each) of a task requiring them to produce a semantically related verb in response to a target noun and an additional 40 trials on which they were simply required to read target nouns aloud. After controlling for reading response time, groups did not differ significantly in verb generation response time or learning. Children with SBM produced more non-verb errors than controls and tended to repeat their mistakes over blocks. Verb generation performance …

Unique Structures In A Tumor Herpesvirus Revealed By Cryo-Electron Tomography And Microscopy, Wei Dai, Qingmei Jia, Eric Bortz, Sanket Shah, Jun Liu, Ivo Atanasov, Xudong Li, Kenneth A Taylor, Ren Sun, Z Hong Zhou

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Gammaherpesviruses, including the human pathogens Epstein-Barr virus and Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus, are causative agents of lymphomas and other malignancies. The structural characterization of these viruses has been limited due to difficulties in obtaining adequate amount of virion particles. Here we report the first three-dimensional structural characterization of a whole gammaherpesvirus virion by an emerging integrated approach of cryo-electron tomography combined with single-particle cryo-electron microscopy, using murine gammaherpesvirus-68 (MHV-68) as a model system. We found that the MHV-68 virion consists of distinctive envelope and tegument compartments, and a highly conserved nucleocapsid. Two layers of tegument are identified: an inner tegument layer …

Sp1 Up-Regulates Camp-Response-Element-Binding Protein Expression During Retinoic Acid-Induced Mucous Differentiation Of Normal Human Bronchial Epithelial Cells, Jeong Soo Hong, Seung-Wook Kim, Ja Seok Koo

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CREB [CRE (cAMP-response element)-binding protein] is an important transcription factor that is differentially regulated in cells of various types. We recently reported that RA (retinoic acid) rapidly activates CREB without using RARs (RA receptors) or RXRs (retinoid X receptors) in NHTBE cells (normal human tracheobronchial epithelial cells). However, little is known about the role of RA in the physiological regulation of CREB expression in the early mucous differentiation of NHTBE cells. In the present study, we report that RA up-regulates CREB gene expression and that, using 5'-serial deletion promoter analysis and mutagenesis analyses, two Sp1 (specificity protein 1)-binding sites located …

Focal White Matter Changes In Spasmodic Dysphonia: A Combined Diffusion Tensor Imaging And Neuropathological Study, Kristina Simonyan, Fernanda Tovar-Moll, John Ostuni, Mark Hallett, Victor F Kalasinsky, Michael R Lewin-Smith, Elisabeth J Rushing, Alexander O Vortmeyer, Christy L Ludlow

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Spasmodic dysphonia is a neurological disorder characterized by involuntary spasms in the laryngeal muscles during speech production. Although the clinical symptoms are well characterized, the pathophysiology of this voice disorder is unknown. We describe here, for the first time to our knowledge, disorder-specific brain abnormalities in these patients as determined by a combined approach of diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and postmortem histopathology. We used DTI to identify brain changes and to target those brain regions for neuropathological examination. DTI showed right-sided decrease of fractional anisotropy in the genu of the internal capsule and bilateral increase of overall water diffusivity in …

Repeat Length And Rna Expression Level Are Not Primary Determinants In Cug Expansion Toxicity In Drosophila Models, Gwenn Le Mée, Nader Ezzeddine, Michèle Capri, Ounissa Aït-Ahmed

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Evidence for an RNA gain-of-function toxicity has now been provided for an increasing number of human pathologies. Myotonic dystrophies (DM) belong to a class of RNA-dominant diseases that result from RNA repeat expansion toxicity. Specifically, DM of type 1 (DM1), is caused by an expansion of CUG repeats in the 3'UTR of the DMPK protein kinase mRNA, while DM of type 2 (DM2) is linked to an expansion of CCUG repeats in an intron of the ZNF9 transcript (ZNF9 encodes a zinc finger protein). In both pathologies the mutant RNA forms nuclear foci. The mechanisms that underlie the RNA pathogenicity …

Molecular Studies In Treponema Pallidum Evolution: Toward Clarity?, Connie J. Mulligan, Steven J. Norris, Sheila A. Lukehart

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No abstract provided.

Devices In Heart Failure: Potential Methods For Device-Based Monitoring Of Congestive Heart Failure, Shahzeb M Munir, Roberta C Bogaev, Ed Sobash, K J Shankar, Sreedevi Gondi, Igor V Stupin, Jillian Robertson, M Alan Brewer, S Ward Casscells, Reynolds M Delgado, Amany Ahmed

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Congestive heart failure has long been one of the most serious medical conditions in the United States; in fact, in the United States alone, heart failure accounts for 6.5 million days of hospitalization each year. One important goal of heart-failure therapy is to inhibit the progression of congestive heart failure through pharmacologic and device-based therapies. Therefore, there have been efforts to develop device-based therapies aimed at improving cardiac reserve and optimizing pump function to meet metabolic requirements. The course of congestive heart failure is often worsened by other conditions, including new-onset arrhythmias, ischemia and infarction, valvulopathy, decompensation, end-organ damage, and …

Juvenile Onset Central Nervous System Folate Deficiency And Rheumatoid Arthritis, Mary Kay Koenig, Maria Perez, Sheldon Rothenberg, Ian J Butler

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Isolated cerebral folate deficiency was detected in a 13-year-old girl with cognitive and motor difficulties and juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. Her serum contains autoantibodies that block membrane-bound folate receptors that are on the choroid plexus and diminish the uptake of folate into the spinal fluid. Whereas her serum folate exceeded 21 ng/mL, her spinal fluid contained 3.2 ng/mL of 5-methyltetrahydrofolate as a consequence of the autoantibodies diminishing the uptake of this folate.

Large Scale Variation In Enterococcus Faecalis Illustrated By The Genome Analysis Of Strain Og1rf, Agathe Bourgogne, Danielle A Garsin, Xiang Qin, Kavindra V Singh, Jouko Sillanpaa, Shailaja Yerrapragada, Yan Ding, Shannon Dugan-Rocha, Christian Buhay, Hua Shen, Guan Chen, Gabrielle Williams, Donna Muzny, Arash Maadani, Kristina A Fox, Jason Gioia, Lei Chen, Yue Shang, Cesar A Arias, Sreedhar R Nallapareddy, Meng Zhao, Vittal P Prakash, Shahreen Chowdhury, Huaiyang Jiang, Richard A Gibbs, Barbara E Murray, Sarah K Highlander, George M Weinstock

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: Enterococcus faecalis has emerged as a major hospital pathogen. To explore its diversity, we sequenced E. faecalis strain OG1RF, which is commonly used for molecular manipulation and virulence studies.

RESULTS: The 2,739,625 base pair chromosome of OG1RF was found to contain approximately 232 kilobases unique to this strain compared to V583, the only publicly available sequenced strain. Almost no mobile genetic elements were found in OG1RF. The 64 areas of divergence were classified into three categories. First, OG1RF carries 39 unique regions, including 2 CRISPR loci and a new WxL locus. Second, we found nine replacements where a sequence …

Dominance Of The Proximal Coordinate Frame In Determining The Locations Of Hippocampal Place Cell Activity During Navigation, Jennifer J Siegel, Joshua P Neunuebel, James J Knierim

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The place-specific activity of hippocampal cells provides downstream structures with information regarding an animal's position within an environment and, perhaps, the location of goals within that environment. In rodents, recent research has suggested that distal cues primarily set the orientation of the spatial representation, whereas the boundaries of the behavioral apparatus determine the locations of place activity. The current study was designed to address possible biases in some previous research that may have minimized the likelihood of observing place activity bound to distal cues. Hippocampal single-unit activity was recorded from six freely moving rats as they were trained to perform …

Multifactor Effects And Evidence Of Potential Interaction Between Complement Factor H Y402h And Loc387715 A69s In Age-Related Macular Degeneration, Sanna P. Seitsonen, Päivi Onkamo, Gang Peng, Momiao Xiong, Petri V. Tommila, Päivi H. Ranta, Juha M. Holopainen, Jukka A. Moilanen, Tapani Palosaari, Kai Kaarniranta, Seppo Meri, Ilkka R. Immonen, Irma E. Järvelä

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BACKGROUND: Variants in the complement cascade genes and the LOC387715/HTRA1, have been widely reported to associate with age-related macular degeneration (AMD), the most common cause of visual impairment in industrialized countries. METHODS/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We investigated the association between the LOC387715 A69S and complement component C3 R102G risk alleles in the Finnish case-control material and found a significant association with both variants (OR 2.98, p = 3.75 x 10(-9); non-AMD controls and OR 2.79, p = 2.78 x 10(-19), blood donor controls and OR 1.83, p = 0.008; non-AMD controls and OR 1.39, p = 0.039; blood donor controls), respectively. Previously, …

Searching For The Majority: Algorithms Of Voluntary Control, Jin Fan, Kevin G. Guise, Xun Liu, Hongbin Wang

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Voluntary control of information processing is crucial to allocate resources and prioritize the processes that are most important under a given situation; the algorithms underlying such control, however, are often not clear. We investigated possible algorithms of control for the performance of the majority function, in which participants searched for and identified one of two alternative categories (left or right pointing arrows) as composing the majority in each stimulus set. We manipulated the amount (set size of 1, 3, and 5) and content (ratio of left and right pointing arrows within a set) of the inputs to test competing hypotheses …

Correlates Of Tobacco Cessation Counseling Among Hispanic Physicians In The Us: A Cross-Sectional Survey Study, Francisco G Soto Mas, Héctor G Balcázar, Julia Valderrama Alberola, Chiehwen Ed Hsu

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BACKGROUND: Physician advice is an important motivator for attempting to stop smoking. However, physicians' lack of intervention with smokers has only modestly improved in the last decade. Although the literature includes extensive research in the area of the smoking intervention practices of clinicians, few studies have focused on Hispanic physicians. The purpose of this study was to explore the correlates of tobacco cessation counseling practices among Hispanic physicians in the US. METHODS: Data were collected through a validated survey instrument among a cross-sectional sample of self-reported Hispanic physicians practicing in New Mexico, and who were members of the New Mexico …

Differential Dynamic Properties Of Scleroderma Fibroblasts In Response To Perturbation Of Environmental Stimuli, Momiao Xiong, Frank C. Arnett, Xinjian Guo, Hao Xiong, Xiaodong Zhou

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Diseases are believed to arise from dysregulation of biological systems (pathways) perturbed by environmental triggers. Biological systems as a whole are not just the sum of their components, rather ever-changing, complex and dynamic systems over time in response to internal and external perturbation. In the past, biologists have mainly focused on studying either functions of isolated genes or steady-states of small biological pathways. However, it is systems dynamics that play an essential role in giving rise to cellular function/dysfunction which cause diseases, such as growth, differentiation, division and apoptosis. Biological phenomena of the entire organism are not only determined by …

The Role Of Sse1 In The De Novo Formation And Variant Determination Of The [Psi+] Prion, Jaou-Chen Huang

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In several species, a family of nuclear receptors, the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors (PPARs) composed of three isotypes, is expressed in somatic cells and germ cells of the ovary as well as the testis. Invalidation of these receptors in mice or stimulation of these receptors in vivo or in vitro showed that each receptor has physiological roles in the gamete maturation or the embryo development. In addition, synthetic PPAR gamma ligands are recently used to induce ovulation in women with polycystic ovary disease. These results reveal the positive actions of PPAR in reproduction. On the other hand, xenobiotics molecules (in herbicides, …

Cyan Fluorescent Protein Expression In Ganglion And Amacrine Cells In A Thy1-Cfp Transgenic Mouse Retina, Iona D Raymond, Alejandro Vila, Uyen-Chi N Huynh, Nicholas C Brecha

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PURPOSE: To characterize cyan fluorescent protein (CFP) expression in the retina of the thy1-CFP (B6.Cg-Tg(Thy1-CFP)23Jrs/J) transgenic mouse line.

METHODS: CFP expression was characterized using morphometric methods and immunohistochemistry with antibodies to neurofilament light (NF-L), neuronal nuclei (NeuN), POU-domain protein (Brn3a) and calretinin, which immunolabel ganglion cells, and syntaxin 1 (HPC-1), glutamate decarboxylase 67 (GAD(67)), GABA plasma membrane transporter-1 (GAT-1), and choline acetyltransferase (ChAT), which immunolabel amacrine cells.

RESULTS: CFP was extensively expressed in the inner retina, primarily in the inner plexiform layer (IPL), ganglion cell layer (GCL), nerve fiber layer, and optic nerve. CFP fluorescent cell bodies were in all …

Eomesodermin, A Target Gene Of Pou4f2, Is Required For Retinal Ganglion Cell And Optic Nerve Development In The Mouse, Chai-An Mao, Takae Kiyama, Ping Pan, Yasuhide Furuta, Anna-Katerina Hadjantonakis, William H Klein

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The mechanisms regulating retinal ganglion cell (RGC) development are crucial for retinogenesis and for the establishment of normal vision. However, these mechanisms are only vaguely understood. RGCs are the first neuronal lineage to segregate from pluripotent progenitors in the developing retina. As output neurons, RGCs display developmental features very distinct from those of the other retinal cell types. To better understand RGC development, we have previously constructed a gene regulatory network featuring a hierarchical cascade of transcription factors that ultimately controls the expression of downstream effector genes. This has revealed the existence of a Pou domain transcription factor, Pou4f2, that …

Messenger Rna Half-Life Measurements In Mammalian Cells, Chyi-Ying A Chen, Nader Ezzeddine, Ann-Bin Shyu

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The recognition of the importance of mRNA turnover in regulating eukaryotic gene expression has mandated the development of reliable, rigorous, and "user-friendly" methods to accurately measure changes in mRNA stability in mammalian cells. Frequently, mRNA stability is studied indirectly by analyzing the steady-state level of mRNA in the cytoplasm; in this case, changes in mRNA abundance are assumed to reflect only mRNA degradation, an assumption that is not always correct. Although direct measurements of mRNA decay rate can be performed with kinetic labeling techniques and transcriptional inhibitors, these techniques often introduce significant changes in cell physiology. Furthermore, many critical mechanistic …

Genes In Glucose Metabolism And Association With Spina Bifida, Christina M Davidson, Hope Northrup, Terri M King, Jack M Fletcher, Irene Townsend, Gayle H Tyerman, Kit Sing Au

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The authors test single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in coding sequences of 12 candidate genes involved in glucose metabolism and obesity for associations with spina bifida. Genotyping was performed on 507 children with spina bifida and their parents plus anonymous control DNAs from Hispanic and Caucasian individuals. The transmission disequilibrium test was performed to test for genetic associations between transmission of alleles and spina bifida in the offspring (P < .05). A statistically significant association between Lys481 of HK1 (G allele), Arg109Lys of LEPR (G allele), and Pro196 of GLUT1 (A allele) was found ( P = .019, .039, and .040, respectively). Three SNPs on 3 genes involved with glucose metabolism and obesity may be associated with increased susceptibility to spina bifida.

Application Of In Vivo Induced Antigen Technology (Iviat) To Bacillus Anthracis, Sean M Rollins, Amanda Peppercorn, John S Young, Melissa Drysdale, Andrea Baresch, Margaret V Bikowski, David A Ashford, Conrad P Quinn, Martin Handfield, Jeffrey D Hillman, C Rick Lyons, Theresa M Koehler, Stephen B Calderwood, Edward T Ryan

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In vivo induced antigen technology (IVIAT) is an immuno-screening technique that identifies bacterial antigens expressed during infection and not during standard in vitro culturing conditions. We applied IVIAT to Bacillus anthracis and identified PagA, seven members of a N-acetylmuramoyl-L-alanine amidase autolysin family, three P60 family lipoproteins, two transporters, spore cortex lytic protein SleB, a penicillin binding protein, a putative prophage holin, respiratory nitrate reductase NarG, and three proteins of unknown function. Using quantitative real-time PCR comparing RNA isolated from in vitro cultured B. anthracis to RNA isolated from BALB/c mice infected with virulent Ames strain B. anthracis, we confirmed induced …

Illusory Predictors: Generalizability Of Findings In Cocaine Treatment Retention Research, Angela L Stotts, Marc E Mooney, Shelly L Sayre, Meredith Novy, Joy M Schmitz, John Grabowski

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Treatment retention is of paramount importance in cocaine treatment research as treatment completion rates are often 50% or less. Failure to retain cocaine patients in treatment has both significant research and clinical implications. In this paper we qualitatively and quantitatively demonstrate the inconsistency found across analyses of retention predictors in order to highlight the problem. First, a qualitative review of the published literature was undertaken to identify the frequency of predictors studied and their relations to treatment retention. Second, an empirical demonstration of predictor stability was conducted by testing a common set of variables across three similar 12-week cocaine clinical …

Neurogranin Controls The Spatiotemporal Pattern Of Postsynaptic Ca2+/Cam Signaling, Yoshihisa Kubota, John A Putkey, M Neal Waxham

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Neurogranin (Ng) is a postsynaptic IQ-motif containing protein that accelerates Ca(2+) dissociation from calmodulin (CaM), a key regulator of long-term potentiation and long-term depression in CA1 pyramidal neurons. The exact physiological role of Ng, however, remains controversial. Two genetic knockout studies of Ng showed opposite outcomes in terms of the induction of synaptic plasticity. To understand its function, we test the hypothesis that Ng could regulate the spatial range of action of Ca(2+)/CaM based on its ability to accelerate the dissociation of Ca(2+) from CaM. Using a mathematical model constructed on the known biochemistry of Ng, we calculate the cycle …

Wingless Activity In The Precursor Cells Specifies Neuronal Migratory Behavior In The Drosophila Nerve Cord, Krishna Moorthi Bhat

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Neurons and their precursor cells are formed in different regions within the developing CNS, but they migrate and occupy very specific sites in the mature CNS. The ultimate position of neurons is crucial for establishing proper synaptic connectivity in the brain. In Drosophila, despite its extensive use as a model system to study neurogenesis, we know almost nothing about neuronal migration or its regulation. In this paper, I show that one of the most studied neuronal pairs in the Drosophila nerve cord, RP2/sib, has a complicated migratory route. Based on my studies on Wingless (Wg) signaling, I report that the …

Human Tob, An Antiproliferative Transcription Factor, Is A Poly(A)-Binding Protein-Dependent Positive Regulator Of Cytoplasmic Mrna Deadenylation, Nader Ezzeddine, Tsung-Cheng Chang, Wenmiao Zhu, Akio Yamashita, Chyi-Ying A Chen, Zhenping Zhong, Yukiko Yamashita, Dinghai Zheng, Ann-Bin Shyu

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In mammalian cells, mRNA decay begins with deadenylation, which involves two consecutive phases mediated by the PAN2-PAN3 and the CCR4-CAF1 complexes, respectively. The regulation of the critical deadenylation step and its relationship with RNA-processing bodies (P-bodies), which are thought to be a site where poly(A)-shortened mRNAs get degraded, are poorly understood. Using the Tet-Off transcriptional pulsing approach to investigate mRNA decay in mouse NIH 3T3 fibroblasts, we found that TOB, an antiproliferative transcription factor, enhances mRNA deadenylation in vivo. Results from glutathione S-transferase pull-down and coimmunoprecipitation experiments indicate that TOB can simultaneously interact with the poly(A) nuclease complex CCR4-CAF1 and …

The Routine Use Of Preoperative Non-Contrast Chest Computerized Tomography And Carotid Arteries Doppler Prior To Cardiac Surgery, Qing Fan, Kyung-Won Park, Zhiqiang Du, Kevin A Morano, Liming Li

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Yeast prions are a group of non-Mendelian genetic elements transmitted as altered and self-propagating conformations. Extensive studies in the last decade have provided valuable information on the mechanisms responsible for yeast prion propagation. How yeast prions are formed de novo and what cellular factors are required for determining prion "strains" or variants--a single polypeptide capable of existing in multiple conformations to result in distinct heritable phenotypes--continue to defy our understanding. We report here that Sse1, the yeast ortholog of the mammalian heat-shock protein 110 (Hsp110) and a nucleotide exchange factor for Hsp70 proteins, plays an important role in regulating [PSI+] …

Relative Contributions Of Enterococcus Faecalis Og1rf Sortase-Encoding Genes, Srta And Bps (Srtc), To Biofilm Formation And A Murine Model Of Urinary Tract Infection, Kelvin D Kemp, Kavindra V Singh, Sreedhar R Nallapareddy, Barbara E Murray

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Deletion mutants of the two sortase genes of Enterococcus faecalis OG1RF were constructed. srtC (renamed here bps for biofilm and pilus-associated sortase) was previously shown to be necessary for the production of Ebp pili and important for biofilm formation and endocarditis. Here, we report that a srtA deletion mutant showed a small (5%) yet significant (P = 0.037) reduction in biofilm relative to OG1RF, while a DeltasrtA Deltabps double mutant showed a much greater reduction (74% versus OG1RF and 44% versus the Deltabps mutant). In a murine urinary tract infection (UTI), the 50% infective doses of both the DeltasrtA Deltabps …