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Lysostaphin is a bacteriolytic enzyme targeting peptidoglycan, the essential component of the bacterial cell envelope. It displays a very potent and specific activity toward staphylococci, including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. Lysostaphin causes rapid cell lysis and disrupts biofilms, and is therefore a therapeutic agent of choice to eradicate staphylococcal infections. The C-term

Self-replication of amyloid fibrils via secondary nucleation is an intriguing physicochemical phenomenon in which existing fibrils catalyze the formation of their own copies. The molecular events behind this fibril surface-mediated process remain largely inaccessible to current structural and imaging techniques. Using statistical mechanics, computer modeling, and chemical kinetics, we show that th

The induced polarization (IP) effect can be studied using both galvanic and inductive methods. Here we study IP and its manifestation in transient electromagnetic (TEM) data from a tTEM system and in time-domain electric resistivity tomography (ERT) data. Since the two methods are sensitive to two different frequency ranges, a direct IP spectrum comparison is not possible. Instead, we assess the I

Pyridoxal 5′-phosphate (PLP), the biologically active form of vitamin B6, is an essential cofactor in many biosynthetic pathways. The emergence of PLP-dependent enzymes as drug targets and biocatalysts, such as tryptophan synthase (TS), has underlined the demand to understand PLP-dependent catalysis and reaction specificity. The ability of neutron diffraction to resolve the positions of hydrogen a

Long-term tall-tower eddy-covariance (EC) measurements have been recently established in three European pilot cities as part of the ICOS-Cities project. We conducted a comparison of EC software to ensure a reliable generation of interoperable flux estimates, which is the prerequisite for avoiding methodological biases and improving the comparability of the results. We analyzed datasets covering 5

M1 aminopeptidases comprise a large family of biologically important zinc enzymes. We show that peptide turnover by the M1 prototype, leukotriene A4 hydrolase/aminopeptidase, involves a shift in substrate position associated with exchange of zinc coordinating groups, while maintaining the overall coordination geometry. The transition state is stabilized by residues conserved among M1 members and i

Nitric oxide (NO) can modulate both tumor growth and antitumor immune responses. In order to elucidate the mechanism of curative therapeutic immunization with IFNgamma-producing glioma cells, we examined the expression of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) in tissue sections from immunized animals. There was a significantly enhanced iNOS expression both intratumorally and at the immunization s

Calbindin D-28k, a highly conserved protein with Ca2+-sensing and Ca2+-buffering capabilities, is abundant in brain and sensory neurons. This protein contains six EF-hand subdomains, four of which bind Call with high affinity. Calbindin D28k can be reconstituted from six synthetic peptides corresponding to the six EF-hands, indicating a single-domain structure with multiple interactions between th

By growth of Si on substrates that have been pre-patterned by electron-beam induced carbon nano-growth masks, nano-holes form at the Si surface. We have grown self-assembled Ge quantum dots in these holes by ultra high vacuum chemical vapour phase deposition (UHV-CVD). We usually find four dots in each hole. By varying the amount of deposited Ge, we can obtain either four dome-shaped or four pyram

We have characterized a putative Ca(2+)-ATPase from the pathogenic bacterium Listeria monocytogenes with the locus tag lmo0841. The purified and detergent-solubilized protein, which we have named Listeria monocytogenes Ca(2+)-ATPase 1 (LMCA1), performs a Ca(2+)-dependent ATP hydrolysis and actively transports Ca(2+) after reconstitution in dioleoylphosphatidyl-choline vesicles. Despite a high sequ

We present a solution for long-term direct current resistivity and time-domain induced polarization (DCIP) monitoring, which consists of a monitoring system and the associated software that automates the data collection and processing. This paper describes the acquisition system that is used for remote data collection and then introduces the routines that have been developed for pre-processing of

1. Knowledge about species habitat requirements is important when designing conservation strategies as well as for predicting species distributions. For herbivorous insects, insights in oviposition preferences can provide important information on their habitat requirements. 2. The oviposition preferences of Oberthür's Grizzled Skipper butterfly Pyrgus armoricanus Oberthür at its northern range bou