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Genes Escape Bacterial Host via “Moonlighting” Phage Proteins Print E-mail

Genes making up superantigen pathogenicity islands (SaPIs) can commandeer invading phage proteins and use them to disconnect from the genomes of staphylococcal cells, package themselves into highly transmissible particles, and then escape the infected bacteria, according to José R. Penadés from the Centro de Investigatiòn y Tecnologia Animal in Segorbe, Castellón, Spain.

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RNA Interference Appears Effective against Several Viruses Print E-mail
An experimentally developed small interfering RNA (siRNA) molecule protects macaques against the otherwise deadly Zaire Ebola virus, according to virologist Thomas Geisbert of the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston and formerly from Boston University School of Medicine in Boston, Mass., and his collaborators.
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Antibodies Loom as Key to Efficacy in Review Clarifying Vaccine Issues Print E-mail
The published record about vaccines is "scattered and confusing" on several critical issues, says Stanley A. Plotkin of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.
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AAM Report: Global Food Trade Complicates Food Safety Practices Print E-mail
Burgeoning global trade is contributing to outbreaks of foodborne illness and exposing weaknesses in the U.S. food safety system, according to Global Food Safety-Keeping Food Safe from Farm to Table, a recent report from the American Academy for Microbiology (AAM) in Washington, D.C.
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Engineered Microbes Convert Light to Electricity Print E-mail

"Light-driven reactions can be integrated into a nonphotosynthetic microorganism and used to generate an electric current," says Claudia Schmidt-Dannert of the University of Minnesota in St. Paul.

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Extending Friendly Fimbriae to Gut-Dwelling Whipworms Print E-mail

The eggs of Trichuris muris, a whipworm parasite of mice, cannot hatch without help from gut bacteria, according to Richard K. Grencis, Ian S. Roberts, and their colleagues at the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom.

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Minitopics Print E-mail

 

Click the title to view all the mini-topics for this issue.
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