The results showed that certain Ca2+ concentrations enhanced the heat resistance of the LAB strains to different

extents, that is produced higher survival and shorter regrowth lag times of the bacterial cells. In some cases, the improvements were dramatic. More scientifically insightful and more intensive instrumental study of the Ca2+ behavior around and in the cells should be carried out in the near future. In the meantime, this work may lead to the development of more cost-effective wall materials with Ca2+ added as a prime NU7441 mw factor. “
“Mip (macrophage infectivity potentiator) and Mip-like proteins have been demonstrated to be involved in virulence of several animal pathogens, but as yet none of their native bacterial targets has been identified. Our previous work demonstrated that the Mip-like protein found in the plant pathogen Xanthomonas campestris pv. campestris (Xcc) (hereafter called

MipXcc) is also involved in virulence. Inactivation of the mipXcc gene leads to a significant reduction in exopolysaccharide production and extracellular protease activity via an unknown mechanism. The Xcc genome encodes six extracellular proteases, all of which are secreted via the type II secretion system. The serine protease PrtA makes the largest contribution to Xcc’s www.selleckchem.com/products/Erlotinib-Hydrochloride.html total extracellular proteolytic activity. In this study, Western blotting analysis demonstrated that MipXcc was located in the periplasm. Bacterial two-hybrid and far-Western analysis indicated that MipXcc interacted with PrtA directly. Purified MipXcc was found to be able to rescue the protease activity of periplasmic proteins extracted from the mipXcc mutant. These findings show that MipXcc plays a role in

the maturation of PrtA, which is the novel native target for at least one Mip or Mip-like protein. Mip (macrophage infectivity potentiator) and Mip-like proteins make up a family of bacterial proteins that comprises two domains: Thiamet G an N-terminal dimerization region and a C-terminal PPIase (peptidyl prolyl cis/trans isomerase) region exhibiting similarity to the human FK506-binding protein (Riboldi-Tunnicliffe et al., 2001). In 1989, Mip was first identified as an important virulence factor in Legionella pneumophila (Cianciotto et al., 1989). Since then, Mip and Mip-like proteins have been found to be associated with the virulence of several other animal pathogens, such as Chlamydia trachomatis, Trypanosoma cruzi, Neisseria gonorrhoeae, and Chlamydophila pneumoniae, as well as the plant pathogen Xanthomonas campestris pv. campestris (Xcc) (Lundemose et al., 1993; Moro et al., 1995; Leuzzi et al., 2005; Herrmann et al., 2006; Zang et al., 2007).