Within bacterial populations, a small fraction of persister cells is transiently capable of surviving exposure to lethal doses of antibiotics. As a bet-hedging strategy, persistence levels are determined both by stochastic induction and by environmental stimuli called responsive diversification. Little is known about the mechanisms that link the low frequency of persisters to environmental signals. Our results support a central role for the conserved GTPase Obg in determining persistence in Escherichia coli in response to nutrient starvation. Obg-mediated persistence requires the stringent response alarmone (p)ppGpp and proceeds through transcriptional control of the hokB-sokB type I toxin-antitoxin module. In individual cells, increased Obg levels induce HokB expression, which in turn results in a collapse of the membrane potential, leading to dormancy. Obg also controls persistence in Pseudomonas aeruginosa and thus constitutes a conserved regulator of antibiotic tolerance. Combined, our findings signify an important step toward unraveling shared genetic mechanisms underlying persistence.
Advanced fluorescence imaging, including subdiffraction microscopy, relies on fluorophores with controllable emission properties. Chief among these fluorophores are the photoactivatable fluorescent proteins capable of reversible on/off photoswitching or irreversible green-to-red photoconversion. IrisFP was recently reported as the first fluorescent protein combining these two types of phototransformations. The introduction of this protein resulted in new applications such as super-resolution pulse-chase imaging. However, the spectroscopic properties of IrisFP are far from being optimal and its tetrameric organization complicates its use as a fusion tag. Here, we demonstrate how four-state optical highlighting can be rationally introduced into photoconvertible fluorescent proteins and develop and characterize a new set of such enhanced optical highlighters derived from mEosFP and Dendra2. We present in particular NijiFP, a promising new fluorescent protein with photoconvertible and biphotochromic properties that make it ideal for advanced fluorescence-based imaging applications.
We used scanning force microscopy (SFM) to study the binding and excited state reactions of the intercalating photoreagent Ru[(TAP)(2)PHEHAT](2+) (TAP = 1,4,5,8-tetraazaphenanthrene; PHEHAT = 1,10-phenanthrolino[5,6-b]1,4,5,8,9,12-hexaazatriphenylene) with DNA. In the ground state, this ruthenium complex combines a strong intercalative binding mode via the PHEHAT ligand, with TAP-mediated hydrogen bonding capabilities. After visible irradiation, SFM imaging of the photoproducts revealed both the structural implications of photocleavages and photoadduct formation. It is found that the rate of photocleaving is strongly increased when the complex can interact with DNA via hydrogen bonding. We demonstrated that the photoadduct increases DNA rigidity, and that the photo-biadduct can crosslink two separate DNA segments in supercoiled DNA. These mechanical and topological effects might have important implications in future therapeutic applications of this type of compounds.
Polyamide 11(PA 11)/sodium niobate nanowire (NW) 0-3 composites with different volume fractions of NWs were synthesized. The electric polarization (P) was measured as a function of the applied electric field (E). The P-E hysteresis loop was used to work out the remanent polarization P r of these materials. The dielectric permittivity and the piezoelectric strain constant were determined. Good impedance matching between inorganic and organic phases leads to higher electroactivity than conventional lead-free 0-3 composites. The piezoelectric voltage of the PA 11/NaNbO 3 NW composites is of the same order as those obtained for fluorinated piezoelectric polymers. These composites could have some applications in flexible, low-cost, environmentally friendly piezoelectric sensors and actuators.
Upon exchanging long chain alkylamine ligands with a carbazole terminated fatty acid as 6-(N-carbazolyl)-hexanoic acid (C6) and 11-(N-carbazolyl) undecanoic acid (C11), efficient photoluminescence (PL) of CdSe/ZnS colloidal quantum dots (QDs) was observed upon excitation in the absorption band of the carbazole moiety at 330 nm. This effect, which occurred both in solution and in a poly(N-vinylcarbazole) (PVK) matrix doped with the QDs, is attributed to sensitization of the QDs by PVK and the ligands. More efficient energy transfer was observed in solution for the shorter ligand (C6) capped QDs, due to a shorter average distance between the donor (carbazole) and the acceptor (QD). The binding of C6 and C11 to the QDs was confirmed by 1H solution nuclear magnetic resonance, which showed line broadening of the carbazole signal due to a decrease of the mobility of the carbazoles upon binding to the QDs compared with the sharp lines observed for the free molecules in solution. In doped PVK films, the significant enhancement of the energy transfer to the QD core could also be related to a better miscibility between the QDs and the PVK as confirmed by optical transmission and confocal microscopy images. In contrast to the experiment in solution, the overall energy transfer in the doped films was found more efficient for QDs capped with C11. To study in more detail the energy transfer between the carbazole moieties and the QDs, time-resolved fluorescence measurements were performed for solutions of C6 and C11, capped QDs and PVK films doped with the QDs. In contrast to the large enhancement of the QD emission indicated by steady-state PL spectra, the latter experiments suggested only a relatively low efficiency (19.6% and 10.8%) for singlet transfer from the carbazole ligands to the QDs. This suggests that the enhancement of the QD emission must be largely due to triplet transfer.
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