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Endotoxin
Lipopolysaccharide (LPS), now more commonly known as endotoxin, is a collective term for components of the outermost membrane of the cell envelope of gram-negative bacteria, such as '' E. coli'' and ''Salmonella'' with a common structural architecture. Lipopolysaccharides are large molecules consisting of three parts: an outer core polysaccharide termed the O-antigen, an inner core oligosaccharide and Lipid A (from which toxicity is largely derived), all covalently linked. In current terminology, the term endotoxin is often used synonymously with LPS, although there are a few endotoxins (in the original sense of toxins that are inside the bacterial cell that are released when the cell disintegrates) that are not related to LPS, such as the so-called delta endotoxin proteins produced by '' Bacillus thuringiensis''. Lipopolysaccharides can have substantial impacts on human health, primarily through interactions with the immune system. LPS is a potent activator of the immune sys ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Delta Endotoxin
Delta endotoxins (δ-endotoxins) are a family of pore-forming toxins produced by '' Bacillus thuringiensis'' species of bacteria. They are useful for their insecticidal action and are the primary toxin produced by the genetically modified (GM) Bt maize/corn and other GM crops. During spore formation the bacteria produce crystals of such proteins (hence the name Cry toxins) that are also known as parasporal bodies, next to the endospores; as a result some members are known as a parasporin. The Cyt (cytolytic) toxin group is another group of delta-endotoxins formed in the cytoplasm. VIP toxins (vegetative insecticidal proteins) are formed at other stages of the life cycle. Mechanism of action When an insect ingests these proteins, they are activated by proteolytic cleavage. The N-terminus is cleaved in all of the proteins and a C-terminal extension is cleaved in some members. Once activated, the endotoxin binds to the gut epithelium and causes cell lysis by the formati ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Virulence Factor
Virulence factors (preferably known as pathogenicity factors or effectors in botany) are cellular structures, molecules and regulatory systems that enable microbial pathogens (bacteria, viruses, fungi, and protozoa) to achieve the following: * colonization of a niche in the host (this includes movement towards and attachment to host cells) * immunoevasion, evasion of the host's immune response * immunosuppression, inhibition of the host's immune response (this includes leukocidin-mediated cell death) * entry into and exit out of cells (if the pathogen is an intracellular one) * obtain nutrition from the host Specific pathogens possess a wide array of virulence factors. Some are chromosomally encoded and intrinsic to the bacteria (e.g. capsules and endotoxin), whereas others are obtained from mobile genetic elements like plasmids and bacteriophages (e.g. some exotoxins). Virulence factors encoded on mobile genetic elements spread through horizontal gene transfer, and can con ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Richard Friedrich Johannes Pfeiffer
Richard Friedrich Johannes Pfeiffer FRS (27 March 1858 – 15 September 1945) was a German physician and bacteriologist. Pfeiffer was born to Otto Pfeiffer, a German pastor of the local Evangelical parish, and Natalia née Jüttner, in Treustädt, Province of Posen (Prussia), and died in Bad Landeck (Prussia, now Poland). Career Pfeiffer is remembered for his many fundamental discoveries in immunology and bacteriology, particularly for the phenomenon of bacteriolysis. In 1894 he found that live cholera bacteria could be injected without ill effects into guinea pigs previously immunised against cholera, and that blood plasma from these animals added to live cholera bacteria caused them to become motionless and to lyse. This could be inhibited by previously heating the blood plasma. He called this bacteriolysis and it became known as the Pfeiffer Phenomenon, or Isayev-Pfeiffer phenomenon. Working with Robert Koch in Berlin he intellectually and experimentally conceived t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cell Membrane
The cell membrane (also known as the plasma membrane or cytoplasmic membrane, and historically referred to as the plasmalemma) is a biological membrane that separates and protects the interior of a cell from the outside environment (the extracellular space). The cell membrane consists of a lipid bilayer, made up of two layers of phospholipids with cholesterols (a lipid component) interspersed between them, maintaining appropriate membrane fluidity at various temperatures. The membrane also contains membrane proteins, including integral proteins that span the membrane and serve as membrane transporters, and peripheral proteins that loosely attach to the outer (peripheral) side of the cell membrane, acting as enzymes to facilitate interaction with the cell's environment. Glycolipids embedded in the outer lipid layer serve a similar purpose. The cell membrane controls the movement of substances in and out of a cell, being selectively permeable to ions and organic mole ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Salmonella
''Salmonella'' is a genus of bacillus (shape), rod-shaped, (bacillus) Gram-negative bacteria of the family Enterobacteriaceae. The two known species of ''Salmonella'' are ''Salmonella enterica'' and ''Salmonella bongori''. ''S. enterica'' is the type species and is further divided into six subspecies that include over 2,650 serotypes. ''Salmonella'' was named after Daniel Elmer Salmon (1850–1914), an American veterinary surgeon. ''Salmonella'' species are non-Endospore, spore-forming, predominantly motility, motile enterobacteriaceae, enterobacteria with cell diameters between about 0.7 and 1.5 micrometre, μm, lengths from 2 to 5 μm, and peritrichous flagella (all around the cell body, allowing them to move). They are chemotrophs, obtaining their energy from Redox, oxidation and reduction reactions, using organic sources. They are also facultative aerobic organism, facultative anaerobes, capable of generating adenosine triphosphate with oxygen ("aerobically") ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Core Oligosaccharide
75px, Lipopolysaccharide. The core includes both the inner and outer core. Core oligosaccharide (or Core-OS) is a short chain of sugar residues within Gram-negative lipopolysaccharide (LPS). Core-OS are highly diverse among bacterial species and even within strains of species Structure 600px, Core-OS Structure and Metabolic Pathways: oligosaccharide from '' Escherichia coli'' R1. Inner core is represented in green and outer core is represented in blue. The core domain always contains an oligosaccharide component which attaches directly to lipid A and commonly contains sugars such as heptose and 3-deoxy-D-mannooctulosonic acid (also known as KDO or keto-deoxyoctulosonate). The LPS Cores of many bacteria also contain non-carbohydrate components, such as phosphate, amino acids, and ethanolamine substituents. Many core structures have been described in the literature, this description is based on the ''traditional'' general structure (as found in enteric bacteria and ''Pseudomon ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lipid A
Lipid A is a lipid component of an endotoxin held responsible for the toxicity of gram-negative bacteria. It is the innermost of the three regions of the lipopolysaccharide (LPS), also called endotoxin molecule, and its hydrophobic nature allows it to anchor the LPS to the outer membrane. While its toxic effects can be damaging, the sensing of lipid A by the immune system may also be critical for the onset of immune responses to gram-negative infection, and for the subsequent successful fight against the infection. Chemical composition Lipid A consists of two glucosamine ( aminosugar) units, in a β(1→6) linkage, with attached acyl chains ("fatty acids"), and normally containing one phosphate group on each carbohydrate. The optimal immune activating lipid A structure is believed to contain 6 acyl chains. Four acyl chains attached directly to the glucosamine sugars are beta hydroxy acyl chains usually between 10 and 16 carbons in length. Two additional acyl chains are often ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Toxin
A toxin is a naturally occurring poison produced by metabolic activities of living cells or organisms. They occur especially as proteins, often conjugated. The term was first used by organic chemist Ludwig Brieger (1849–1919), derived from '' toxic''. Toxins can be small molecules, peptides, or proteins that are capable of causing disease on contact with or absorption by body tissues interacting with biological macromolecules such as enzymes or cellular receptors. They vary greatly in their toxicity, ranging from usually minor (such as a bee sting) to potentially fatal even at extremely low doses (such as botulinum toxin). Terminology Toxins are often distinguished from other chemical agents strictly based on their biological origin. Less strict understandings embrace naturally occurring inorganic toxins, such as arsenic. Other understandings embrace synthetic analogs of naturally occurring organic poisons as toxins, and may or may not embrace naturally oc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gram Negative
Gram-negative bacteria are bacteria that, unlike gram-positive bacteria, do not retain the crystal violet stain used in the Gram staining method of bacterial differentiation. Their defining characteristic is that their cell envelope consists of a thin peptidoglycan cell wall sandwiched between an inner (cytoplasmic) membrane and an outer membrane. These bacteria are found in all environments that support life on Earth. Within this category, notable species include the model organism ''Escherichia coli'', along with various pathogenic bacteria, such as ''Pseudomonas aeruginosa'', ''Chlamydia trachomatis'', and '' Yersinia pestis''. They pose significant challenges in the medical field due to their outer membrane, which acts as a protective barrier against numerous antibiotics (including penicillin), detergents that would normally damage the inner cell membrane, and the antimicrobial enzyme lysozyme produced by animals as part of their innate immune system. Furthermore, the outer ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Membrane Vesicle Trafficking
Membrane vesicle trafficking in eukaryotic animal cells involves movement of biochemical signal molecules from synthesis-and-packaging locations in the Golgi body to specific release locations on the inside of the plasma membrane of the secretory cell. It takes place in the form of Golgi membrane-bound micro-sized vesicles, termed membrane vesicles (MVs). In this process, the packed cellular products are released or secreted outside the cell, across its membrane. On the other hand, the vesicular membrane is retained and recycled by the secretory cells. This phenomenon has a major role in synaptic neurotransmission, endocrine secretion, mucous secretion, granular-product secretion by neutrophils, and other phenomena. The scientists behind this discovery were awarded Nobel Prize for the year 2013. In prokaryotic, gram-negative bacterial cells, membrane vesicle trafficking is mediated through bacterial outer membrane bounded nano-sized vesicles, called outer membrane vesicles (OMVs). ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bacterial Outer Membrane Vesicles
Outer membrane vesicles (OMVs) are vesicles released from the outer membranes of Gram-negative bacteria. While Gram-positive bacteria release vesicles as well, those vesicles fall under the broader category of bacterial membrane vesicles (MVs). OMVs were the first MVs to be discovered, and are distinguished from outer inner membrane vesicles (OIMVs), which are gram-negative bacterial vesicles containing portions of both the outer and inner bacterial membrane. Outer membrane vesicles were first discovered and characterized using transmission-electron microscopy by Indian Scientist Prof. Smriti Narayan Chatterjee and J. Das in 1966-67. OMVs are ascribed the functionality to provide a manner to communicate among themselves, with other microorganisms in their environment and with the host. These vesicles are involved in trafficking bacterial cell signaling biochemicals, which may include DNA, RNA, proteins, endotoxins and allied virulence molecules. This communication happens in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cell Envelope
The cell envelope comprises the inner cell membrane and the cell wall of a bacterium. In Gram-negative bacteria an bacterial outer membrane, outer membrane is also included. This envelope is not present in the Mollicutes where the cell wall is absent. Bacterial cell envelopes fall into two major categories: a Gram-positive type which stains purple during Gram staining and a Gram-negative type which stains pink during Gram staining. Either type may have an enclosing bacterial capsule, capsule of polysaccharides for extra protection. As a group these are known as polysaccharide encapsulated bacteria. Function As in other organisms, the bacterial cell wall provides structural integrity to the cell. In prokaryotes, the primary function of the cell wall is to protect the cell from internal turgor pressure caused by the much higher concentrations of proteins and other molecules inside the cell compared to its external environment. The bacterial cell wall differs from that of all other or ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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