Diversity of plasmid-mediated carbapenem-hydrolysing oxacillinases among carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii is...

Msx genes define a population of mural cell precursors required for head blood vessel maturation.

Vessels are primarily formed from an inner endothelial layer that is secondarily covered by mural cells, namely vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) in arteries and veins and pericytes in capillaries and veinules. We previously showed that, in the mouse embryo, Msx1(lacZ) and Msx2(lacZ) are expressed in mural cells and in a few endothelial cells. T...

Partial MCM4 deficiency in patients with growth retardation, adrenal insufficiency, and natural killer cell deficiency.

Natural killer (NK) cells are circulating cytotoxic lymphocytes that exert potent and nonredundant antiviral activity and antitumoral activity in the mouse; however, their function in host defense in humans remains unclear. Here, we investigated 6 related patients with autosomal recessive growth retardation, adrenal insufficiency, and a selective N...

ISCR2, another vehicle for bla(VEB) gene acquisition.

The expanded-spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL) gene bla(VEB-1), identified worldwide in Enterobacteriaceae and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, is associated with either class 1 integrons or repeated elements. We report here the first association of bla(VEB-1a) with the insertion sequence ISCR2 in six Acinetobacter species isolates recovered from Argentina. Th...

Regulation of epithelial polarity by the E3 ubiquitin ligase Neuralized and the Bearded inhibitors in Drosophila.

Understanding how epithelial polarity is established and regulated during tissue morphogenesis is a major issue. Here, we identify a regulatory mechanism important for mesoderm invagination, germ-band extension and transepithelial migration in the Drosophila melanogaster embryo. This mechanism involves the inhibition of the conserved E3 ubiquitin l...

Hard out there: understanding archaeal virus biology

Published in Future Virology

KEYWORDS • Archaea • hyperthermophiles • Sulfolobus rod-shaped virus 2 • virus evolution • virus–host interactions Each of the three domains of life, Archaea, Bacteria and Eukarya, is associated with a specific virosphere. Despite the fact that archaeal viruses represent only a minute portion of the characterized virosphere, they have recently gain...

Pax8 and Pax2 are specifically required at different steps of Xenopus pronephros development.

Published in Developmental Biology Journal

The respective role of Pax2 and Pax8 in early kidney development in vertebrates is poorly understood. In this report, we have studied the roles of Pax8 and Pax2 in Xenopus pronephros development using a loss-of-function approach. Our results highlight a differential requirement of these two transcription factors for proper pronephros formation. Pax...

Heterospecific transgenesis in Drosophila suggests that engrailed.a is regulated by POU proteins in the crustacean Saccu...

Published in Development Genes and Evolution

Almost all knowledge of the regulation of seg-mentation genes in arthropods comes from Drosophila. In order to study the regulation of the segment-polarity gene engrailed in a non-insect arthropod we focussed on puta-tive regulatory regions of the engrailed.a (en.a) gene in the barnacle crustacean Sacculina carcini. In this animal, en.a is expresse...

The Tumor Suppressor Smad4/DPC4 Is Regulated by Phosphorylations that Integrate FGF, Wnt, and TGF-β Signaling

Published in Cell Reports

Graphical Abstract Highlights The tumor suppressor Smad4 is regulated by FGF/MAPK and Wnt/GSK3 phosphorylations Sequential phosphorylations control both Smad4 activity and degradation by b-TrCP In the presence of FGF, Wnt potentiates TGF-b at low physiolog-ical concentrations This mechanism controls germ layer and organizer specification in Xenopus...