# | Rank | Similarity | Title + Abs. | Year | PMID |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| 331 | 0 | 0.9528 | MmpS4 promotes glycopeptidolipids biosynthesis and export in Mycobacterium smegmatis. The MmpS family (mycobacterial membrane protein small) includes over 100 small membrane proteins specific to the genus Mycobacterium that have not yet been studied experimentally. The genes encoding MmpS proteins are often associated with mmpL genes, which are homologous to the RND (resistance nodulation cell division) genes of Gram-negative bacteria that encode proteins functioning as multidrug efflux system. We showed by molecular genetics and biochemical analysis that MmpS4 in Mycobacterium smegmatis is required for the production and export of large amounts of cell surface glycolipids, but is dispensable for biosynthesis per se. A new specific and sensitive method utilizing single-chain antibodies against the surface-exposed glycolipids was developed to confirm that MmpS4 was dispensable for transport to the surface. Orthologous complementation demonstrated that the MmpS4 proteins are exchangeable, thus not specific to a defined lipid species. MmpS4 function requires the formation of a protein complex at the pole of the bacillus, which requires the extracytosolic C-terminal domain of MmpS4. We suggest that MmpS proteins facilitate lipid biosynthesis by acting as a scaffold for coupled biosynthesis and transport machinery. | 2010 | 21062372 |
| 527 | 1 | 0.9509 | Characterization of the bagremycin biosynthetic gene cluster in Streptomyces sp. Tü 4128. Bagremycin A and bagremycin B isolated from Streptomyces sp. Tü 4128 have activities against Gram-positive bacteria, fungi and also have a weak antitumor activity, which make them have great potential for development of novel antibiotics. Here, we report a draft genome 8,424,112 bp in length of S. sp. Tü 4128 by Illumina Hiseq2000, and identify the bagremycins biosynthetic gene cluster (BGC) by bioinformatics analysis. The putative bagremycins BGC includes 16 open reading frames (ORFs) with the functions of biosynthesis, resistance and regulation. Disruptions of relative genes and HPLC analysis of bagremycins production demonstrated that not all the genes within the BGC are responsible for the biosynthesis of bagremycins. In addition, the biosynthetic pathways of bagremycins are proposed for deeper inquiries into their intriguing biosynthetic mechanism. | 2019 | 30526412 |
| 558 | 2 | 0.9504 | Thiamine pyrophosphate riboswitches are targets for the antimicrobial compound pyrithiamine. Thiamine metabolism genes are regulated in numerous bacteria by a riboswitch class that binds the coenzyme thiamine pyrophosphate (TPP). We demonstrate that the antimicrobial action of the thiamine analog pyrithiamine (PT) is mediated by interaction with TPP riboswitches in bacteria and fungi. For example, pyrithiamine pyrophosphate (PTPP) binds the TPP riboswitch controlling the tenA operon in Bacillus subtilis. Expression of a TPP riboswitch-regulated reporter gene is reduced in transgenic B. subtilis or Escherichia coli when grown in the presence of thiamine or PT, while mutant riboswitches in these organisms are unresponsive to these ligands. Bacteria selected for PT resistance bear specific mutations that disrupt ligand binding to TPP riboswitches and derepress certain TPP metabolic genes. Our findings demonstrate that riboswitches can serve as antimicrobial drug targets and expand our understanding of thiamine metabolism in bacteria. | 2005 | 16356850 |
| 8204 | 3 | 0.9495 | Cecropins contribute to Drosophila host defense against a subset of fungal and Gram-negative bacterial infection. Cecropins are small helical secreted peptides with antimicrobial activity that are widely distributed among insects. Genes encoding Cecropins are strongly induced upon infection, pointing to their role in host defense. In Drosophila, four cecropin genes clustered in the genome (CecA1, CecA2, CecB, and CecC) are expressed upon infection downstream of the Toll and Imd pathways. In this study, we generated a short deletion ΔCecA-C removing the whole cecropin locus. Using the ΔCecA-C deficiency alone or in combination with other antimicrobial peptide (AMP) mutations, we addressed the function of Cecropins in the systemic immune response. ΔCecA-C flies were viable and resisted challenge with various microbes as wild-type. However, removing ΔCecA-C in flies already lacking 10 other AMP genes revealed a role for Cecropins in defense against Gram-negative bacteria and fungi. Measurements of pathogen loads confirm that Cecropins contribute to the control of certain Gram-negative bacteria, notably Enterobacter cloacae and Providencia heimbachae. Collectively, our work provides the first genetic demonstration of a role for Cecropins in insect host defense and confirms their in vivo activity primarily against Gram-negative bacteria and fungi. Generation of a fly line (ΔAMP14) that lacks 14 immune inducible AMPs provides a powerful tool to address the function of these immune effectors in host-pathogen interactions and beyond. | 2022 | 34791204 |
| 9991 | 4 | 0.9487 | A bifunctional dihydrofolate synthetase--folylpolyglutamate synthetase in Plasmodium falciparum identified by functional complementation in yeast and bacteria. Folate metabolism in the human malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum is an essential activity for cell growth and replication, and the target of an important class of therapeutic agents in widespread use. However, resistance to antifolate drugs is a major health problem in the developing world. To date, only two activities in this complex pathway have been targeted by antimalarials. To more fully understand the mechanisms of antifolate resistance and to identify promising targets for new chemotherapies, we have cloned genes encoding as yet uncharacterised enzymes in this pathway. By means of complementation experiments using 1-carbon metabolism mutants of both Escherichia coli and Saccharomyces cerevisiae, we demonstrate here that one of these parasite genes encodes both dihydrofolate synthetase (DHFS) and folylpolyglutamate synthetase (FPGS) activities, which catalyse the synthesis and polyglutamation of folate derivatives, respectively. The malaria parasite is the first known example of a eukaryote encoding both DHFS and FPGS activities in a single gene. DNA sequencing of this gene in antifolate-resistant strains of P. falciparum, as well as drug-inhibition assays performed on yeast and bacteria expressing PfDHFS--FPGS, indicate that current antifolate regimes do not target this enzyme. As PfDHFS--FPGS harbours two activities critical to folate metabolism, one of which has no human counterpart, this gene product offers a novel chemotherapeutic target with the potential to deliver a powerful blockage to parasite growth. | 2001 | 11223131 |
| 541 | 5 | 0.9480 | A Teleost Bactericidal Permeability-Increasing Protein Kills Gram-Negative Bacteria, Modulates Innate Immune Response, and Enhances Resistance against Bacterial and Viral Infection. Bactericidal/permeability-increasing protein (BPI) is an important factor of innate immunity that in mammals is known to take part in the clearance of invading Gram-negative bacteria. In teleost, the function of BPI is unknown. In the present work, we studied the function of tongue sole (Cynoglossus semilaevis) BPI, CsBPI. We found that CsBPI was produced extracellularly by peripheral blood leukocytes (PBL). Recombinant CsBPI (rCsBPI) was able to bind to a number of Gram-negative bacteria but not Gram-positive bacteria. Binding to bacteria led to bacterial death through membrane permeabilization and structural destruction, and the bound bacteria were more readily taken up by PBL. In vivo, rCsBPI augmented the expression of a wide arrange of genes involved in antibacterial and antiviral immunity. Furthermore, rCsBPI enhanced the resistance of tongue sole against bacterial as well as viral infection. These results indicate for the first time that a teleost BPI possesses immunoregulatory effect and plays a significant role in antibacterial and antiviral defense. | 2016 | 27105425 |
| 8745 | 6 | 0.9477 | Enhanced resistance to seed-transmitted bacterial diseases in transgenic rice plants overproducing an oat cell-wall-bound thionin. Bacterial attack is a serious agricultural problem for growth of rice seedlings in the nursery and field. The thionins purified from seed and etiolated seedlings of barley are known to have antimicrobial activity against necrotrophic pathogens; however, we found that no endogenous rice thionin genes alone are enough for resistance to two major seed-transmitted phytopathogenic bacteria, Burkholderia plantarii and B. glumae, although rice thionin genes constitutively expressed in coleoptile, the target organ of the bacteria. Thus, we isolated thionin genes from oat, one of which was overexpressed in rice. When wild-type rice seed were germinated with these bacteria, all seedlings were wilted with severe blight. In the seedling infected with B. plantarii, bacterial staining was intensively marked around stomata and intercellular spaces. However, transgenic rice seedlings accumulating a high level of oat thionin in cell walls grew almost normally with bacterial staining only on the surface of stomata. These results indicate that the oat thionin effectively works in rice plants against bacterial attack. | 2002 | 12059099 |
| 198 | 7 | 0.9477 | The Drosophila immune defense against gram-negative infection requires the death protein dFADD. Drosophila responds to Gram-negative infections by mounting an immune response that depends on components of the IMD pathway. We recently showed that imd encodes a protein with a death domain with high similarity to that of mammalian RIP. Using a two-hybrid screen in yeast, we have isolated the death protein dFADD as a molecule that associates with IMD. Our data show that loss of dFADD function renders flies highly susceptible to Gram-negative infections without affecting resistance to Gram-positive bacteria. By genetic analysis we show that dFADD acts downstream of IMD in the pathway that controls inducibility of the antibacterial peptide genes. | 2002 | 12433364 |
| 533 | 8 | 0.9476 | Construction of broad-host-range cosmid cloning vectors: identification of genes necessary for growth of Methylobacterium organophilum on methanol. Four new cloning vectors have been constructed from the broad-host-range cloning vector pRK290. These vectors, pLA2901, pLA2905, pLA2910, and pLA2917, confer resistance to kanamycin and tetracycline. The latter two are cosmid derivatives of pLA2901. The new vectors can be mobilized into, and are stably maintained in, a variety of gram-negative bacteria. A Sau3A genomic bank of Methylobacterium organophilum strain xx DNA has been constructed in pLA2917, and complementation analysis, with a variety of mutants unable to grow on methanol, revealed at least five separate regions necessary for growth on methanol. Complementation analysis and Tn5 mutagenesis data suggest that at least three genes are responsible for expression of active methanol dehydrogenase. | 1985 | 2982796 |
| 579 | 9 | 0.9475 | Control of expression of a periplasmic nickel efflux pump by periplasmic nickel concentrations. There is accumulating evidence that transenvelope efflux pumps of the resistance, nodulation, cell division protein family (RND) are excreting toxic substances from the periplasm across the outer membrane directly to the outside. This would mean that resistance of Gram-negative bacteria to organic toxins and heavy metals is in fact a two-step process: one set of resistance factors control the concentration of a toxic substance in the periplasm, another one that in the cytoplasm. Efficient periplasmic detoxification requires periplasmic toxin sensing and transduction of this signal into the cytoplasm to control expression of the periplasmic detoxification system. Such a signal transduction system was analyzed using the Cnr nickel resistance system from Cupriavidus (Wautersia, Ralstonia, Alcaligenes) metallidurans strain CH34. Resistance is based on nickel efflux mediated by the CnrCBA efflux pump encoded by the cnrYHXCBAT metal resistance determinant. The products of the three genes cnrYXH transcriptionally regulate expression of cnr. CnrY and CnrX are membrane-bound proteins probably functioning as anti sigma factors while CnrH is a cnr-specific extracytoplasmic functions (ECF) sigma factors. Experimental data provided here indicate a signal transduction chain leading from nickel in the periplasm to transcription initiation at the cnr promoters cnrYp and cnrCp, which control synthesis of the nickel efflux pump CnrCBA. | 2005 | 16158236 |
| 806 | 10 | 0.9471 | A two-component small multidrug resistance pump functions as a metabolic valve during nicotine catabolism by Arthrobacter nicotinovorans. The genes nepAB of a small multidrug resistance (SMR) pump were identified as part of the pAO1-encoded nicotine regulon responsible for nicotine catabolism in Arthrobacter nicotinovorans. When [(14)C]nicotine was added to the growth medium the bacteria exported the (14)C-labelled end product of nicotine catabolism, methylamine. In the presence of the proton-motive force inhibitors 2,4-dinitrophenol (DNP), carbonyl cyanide m-chlorophenylhydrazone (CCCP) or the proton ionophore nigericin, export of methylamine was inhibited and radioactivity accumulated inside the bacteria. Efflux of [(14)C]nicotine-derived radioactivity from bacteria was also inhibited in a pmfR : cmx strain with downregulated nepAB expression. Because of low amine oxidase levels in the pmfR : cmx strain, gamma-N-methylaminobutyrate, the methylamine precursor, accumulated. Complementation of this strain with the nepAB genes, carried on a plasmid, restored the efflux of nicotine breakdown products. Both NepA and NepB were required for full export activity, indicating that they form a two-component efflux pump. NepAB may function as a metabolic valve by exporting methylamine, the end product of nicotine catabolism, and, in conditions under which it accumulates, the intermediate gamma-N-methylaminobutyrate. | 2007 | 17464069 |
| 196 | 11 | 0.9469 | A specialized citric acid cycle requiring succinyl-coenzyme A (CoA):acetate CoA-transferase (AarC) confers acetic acid resistance on the acidophile Acetobacter aceti. Microbes tailor macromolecules and metabolism to overcome specific environmental challenges. Acetic acid bacteria perform the aerobic oxidation of ethanol to acetic acid and are generally resistant to high levels of these two membrane-permeable poisons. The citric acid cycle (CAC) is linked to acetic acid resistance in Acetobacter aceti by several observations, among them the oxidation of acetate to CO2 by highly resistant acetic acid bacteria and the previously unexplained role of A. aceti citrate synthase (AarA) in acetic acid resistance at a low pH. Here we assign specific biochemical roles to the other components of the A. aceti strain 1023 aarABC region. AarC is succinyl-coenzyme A (CoA):acetate CoA-transferase, which replaces succinyl-CoA synthetase in a variant CAC. This new bypass appears to reduce metabolic demand for free CoA, reliance upon nucleotide pools, and the likely effect of variable cytoplasmic pH upon CAC flux. The putative aarB gene is reassigned to SixA, a known activator of CAC flux. Carbon overflow pathways are triggered in many bacteria during metabolic limitation, which typically leads to the production and diffusive loss of acetate. Since acetate overflow is not feasible for A. aceti, a CO(2) loss strategy that allows acetic acid removal without substrate-level (de)phosphorylation may instead be employed. All three aar genes, therefore, support flux through a complete but unorthodox CAC that is needed to lower cytoplasmic acetate levels. | 2008 | 18502856 |
| 549 | 12 | 0.9468 | Extracytoplasmic function sigma factor σ(D) confers resistance to environmental stress by enhancing mycolate synthesis and modifying peptidoglycan structures in Corynebacterium glutamicum. Mycolates are α-branched, β-hydroxylated, long-chain fatty acid specifically synthesized in bacteria in the suborder Corynebacterineae of the phylum Actinobacteria. They form an outer membrane, which functions as a permeability barrier and confers pathogenic mycobacteria to resistance to antibiotics. Although the mycolate biosynthetic pathway has been intensively studied, knowledge of transcriptional regulation of genes involved in this pathway is limited. Here, we report that the extracytoplasmic function sigma factor σ(D) is a key regulator of the mycolate synthetic genes in Corynebacterium glutamicum in the suborder. Chromatin immunoprecipitation with microarray analysis detected σ(D) -binding regions in the genome, establishing a consensus promoter sequence for σ(D) recognition. The σ(D) regulon comprised acyl-CoA carboxylase subunits, acyl-AMP ligase, polyketide synthase and mycolyltransferases; they were involved in mycolate synthesis. Indeed, deletion or overexpression of sigD encoding σ(D) modified the extractable mycolate amount. Immediately downstream of sigD, rsdA encoded anti-σ(D) and was under the control of a σ(D) -dependent promoter. Another σ(D) regulon member, l,d-transpeptidase, conferred lysozyme resistance. Thus, σ(D) modifies peptidoglycan cross-linking and enhances mycolate synthesis to provide resistance to environmental stress. | 2018 | 29148103 |
| 8434 | 13 | 0.9467 | A potent and selective antimicrobial poly(amidoamine) dendrimer conjugate with LED209 targeting QseC receptor to inhibit the virulence genes of gram negative bacteria. The pandemic of multidrug-resistant Gram negative bacteria (GNB) is a worldwide healthcare concern, and very few antibiotics are being explored to match the clinical challenge. Recently, amino-terminated poly(amidoamine) (PAMAM) dendrimers have shown potential to function as broad antimicrobial agents. However, PAMAM displays a generation dependent cytotoxicity to mammalian cells and low selectivity on bacterial cells, which limits PAMAM to be developed as an antibacterial agent for systemic administration. We conjugated G3 PAMAM with LED209, a specific inhibitor of quorum sensor QseC of GNB, to generate a multifunctional agent PAMAM-LED209. Intriguingly, PAMAM-LED209 showed higher selectivity on GNB and lower cytotoxicity to mammalian cells, yet remained strong antibacterial activity. PAMAM-LED209 also inhibited virulence gene expression of GNB, and did not induce antibiotic-resistance. The present work firstly demonstrated that PAMAM-LED209 conjugate had a highly selective anti-GNB activity and low cytotoxicity, which offered a feasible strategy for combating multidrug-resistant GNB infections. FROM THE CLINICAL EDITOR: This research team demonstrated that a novel PAMAM-LED209 conjugate had highly selective activity against Gram-negative bacteria, coupled with low cytotoxicity, offering a potential strategy for combating multidrug-resistant infections. | 2015 | 25461286 |
| 588 | 14 | 0.9466 | Enhanced aphid detoxification when confronted by a host with elevated ROS production. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) plays an important role in plant defense responses against bacteria, fungi and insect pests. Most recently, we have demonstrated that loss of Arabidopsis thaliana BOTRYTIS-INDUCED KINASE1 (BIK1) function releases its suppression of aphid-induced H2O2 production and cell death, rendering the bik1 mutant more resistant to green peach aphid (Myzus persicae) than wild-type plants. However, little is known regarding how ROS-related gene expression is correlated with bik1-mediated resistance to aphids, or whether these aphids biochemically respond to the oxidative stress. Here, we show that the bik1 mutant exhibited elevated basal expression of ROS-generating and -responsive genes, but not ROS-metabolizing genes. Conversely, we detected enhanced detoxification enzymatic activities in aphids reared on bik1 plants compared to those on wild-type plants, suggesting that aphids counter the oxidative stress associated with bik1 through elevated metabolic resistance. | 2015 | 25932782 |
| 8155 | 15 | 0.9466 | Gut bacteria enable prostate cancer growth. Testosterone-synthetizing gut bacteria drive resistance to therapy. | 2021 | 34618567 |
| 506 | 16 | 0.9465 | A kiss of death--proteasome-mediated membrane fusion and programmed cell death in plant defense against bacterial infection. Eukaryotes have evolved various means for controlled and organized cellular destruction, known as programmed cell death (PCD). In plants, PCD is a crucial regulatory mechanism in multiple physiological processes, including terminal differentiation, senescence, and disease resistance. In this issue of Genes & Development, Hatsugai and colleagues (pp. 2496-2506) demonstrate a novel plant defense strategy to trigger bacteria-induced PCD, involving proteasome-dependent tonoplast and plasma membrane fusion followed by discharge of vacuolar antimicrobial and death-inducing contents into the apoplast. | 2009 | 19884251 |
| 592 | 17 | 0.9465 | Metabolism of Tryptophan and Tryptophan Analogs by Rhizobium meliloti. The alfalfa symbiont Rhizobium meliloti Rm1021 produces indole-3-acetic acid in a regulated manner when supplied with exogenous tryptophan. Mutants with altered response to tryptophan analogs still produce indole-3-acetic acid, but are Fix(-) because bacteria do not fully differentiate into the nitrogen-fixing bacteriod form. These mutations are in apparently essential genes tightly linked to a dominant streptomycin resistance locus. | 1990 | 16667364 |
| 8270 | 18 | 0.9463 | Francisella is sensitive to insect antimicrobial peptides. Francisella tularensis causes the zoonotic disease tularemia. Arthropod vectors are important transmission routes for the disease, although it is not known how Francisella survives the efficient arthropod immune response. Here, we used Drosophila melanogaster as a model host for Francisella infections and investigated whether the bacteria are resistant to insect humoral immune responses, in particular to the antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) secreted into the insect hemolymph. Moreover, we asked to what extent such resistance might depend on lipopolysaccharide (LPS) structure and surface characteristics of the bacteria. We analyzed Francisella novicida mutant strains in genes, directly or indirectly involved in specific steps of LPS biosynthesis, for virulence in wild-type and Relish(E20) immune-deficient flies, and tested selected mutants for sensitivity to AMPs in vitro. We demonstrate that Francisella is sensitive to specific fly AMPs, i.e. Attacin, Cecropin, Drosocin and Drosomycin. Furthermore, six bacterial genes, kpsF, manB, lpxF, slt, tolA and pal, were found to be required for resistance to Relish-dependent immune responses, illustrating the importance of structural details of Francisella lipid A and Kdo core for interactions with AMPs. Interestingly, a more negative surface charge and lack of O-antigen did not render mutant bacteria more sensitive to cationic AMPs and did not attenuate virulence in flies. | 2013 | 23037919 |
| 200 | 19 | 0.9463 | Drosophila Toll is activated by Gram-positive bacteria through a circulating peptidoglycan recognition protein. Microbial infection activates two distinct intracellular signalling cascades in the immune-responsive fat body of Drosophila. Gram-positive bacteria and fungi predominantly induce the Toll signalling pathway, whereas Gram-negative bacteria activate the Imd pathway. Loss-of-function mutants in either pathway reduce the resistance to corresponding infections. Genetic screens have identified a range of genes involved in these intracellular signalling cascades, but how they are activated by microbial infection is largely unknown. Activation of the transmembrane receptor Toll requires a proteolytically cleaved form of an extracellular cytokine-like polypeptide, Spätzle, suggesting that Toll does not itself function as a bona fide recognition receptor of microbial patterns. This is in apparent contrast with the mammalian Toll-like receptors and raises the question of which host molecules actually recognize microbial patterns to activate Toll through Spätzle. Here we present a mutation that blocks Toll activation by Gram-positive bacteria and significantly decreases resistance to this type of infection. The mutation semmelweis (seml) inactivates the gene encoding a peptidoglycan recognition protein (PGRP-SA). Interestingly, seml does not affect Toll activation by fungal infection, indicating the existence of a distinct recognition system for fungi to activate the Toll pathway. | 2001 | 11742401 |