Mundticin KS, a bacteriocin produced by Enterococcus mundtii NFRI 7393 isolated from grass silage in Thailand, is active against closely related lactic acid bacteria and the food-borne pathogen Listeria monocytogenes. In this study, biochemical and genetic characterization of mundticin KS was done. Mundticin KS was purified to homogeneity by ammonium sulfate precipitation, sequential ion-exchange chromatography, and solid-phase extraction. The gene cluster (mun locus) for mundticin KS production was cloned, and DNA sequencing revealed that the mun locus consists of three genes, designated munA, munB, and munC. The munA gene encodes a 58-amino-acid mundticin KS precursor, munB encodes a protein of 674 amino acids involved in translocation and processing of the bacteriocin, and munC encodes a mundticin KS immunity protein of 98 amino acids. Amino acid and nucleotide sequencing revealed the complete, unambiguous primary structure of mundticin KS; mundticin KS comprises a 43-amino-acid peptide with an amino acid sequence similar to that of mundticin ATO6 produced by E. mundtii ATO6. Mundticin KS and mundticin ATO6 are distinguished by the inversion of the last two amino acids at their respective C termini. These two mundticins were expressed in Escherichia coli as recombinant peptides and found to be different in activity against certain Lactobacillus strains, such as Lactobacillus plantarum and Lactobacillus curvatus. Mundticin KS was successfully expressed by transformation with the recombinant plasmid containing the mun locus in heterogeneous hosts such as E. faecium, L. curvatus, and Lactococcus lactis. Based on our results, the mun locus is located on a 50-kb plasmid, pML1, of E. mundtii NFRI 7393.

We generated the PEDE (Pig EST Data Explorer; http://pede.dna.affrc.go.jp/) database using sequences assembled from porcine 5' ESTs from oligo-capped full-length cDNA libraries. Thus far we have performed EST analysis of various organs (thymus, spleen, uterus, lung, liver, ovary and peripheral blood mononuclear cells) and assembled 68,076 high-quality sequences into 5546 contigs and 28,461 singlets. PEDE provides a search interface for getting results of homology searches and enables users to obtain information on sequence data and cDNA clones of interest. Single-nucleotide polymorphisms detected through comparison of the EST sequences are classified by origin (western and oriental breeds) and are searchable in the database. This database system can accelerate analyses of livestock traits and yields information that can lead to new applications in pigs as model systems for medical research.

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Enterococcus sp. K-4, with a bacteriocin-like activity against E. faecium, was isolated from grass silage in Thailand. Morphological, physiological, and phylogenetic studies clearly identified strain K-4 as a strain of E. faecalis. Strain K-4 produced a maximal amount of bacteriocin at 43-45 degrees C. We purified, for the first time, the bacteriocin produced at high temperature by E. faecalis to homogeneity, using adsorption on cells of the producer strain and reversed-phase liquid chromatography. The bacteriocin, designated enterocin SE-K4, is a peptide of about 5 kDa as measured by SDS-PAGE, and Mass spectrometry analysis found the molecular mass of 5356.2, which is in good agreement. The amino acid sequencing of the N-terminal end of enterocin SE-K4 showed apparent sequence similarity to class IIa bacteriocins. Enterocin SE-K4 was active against E. faecium, E. faecalis, Bacillus subtilis, Clostridium beijerinckii, and Listeria monocytogenes. Enterocin SE-K4 is very heat stable.

The influence of microbubbles on sonochemical efficiencies has been investigated under 28, 45, and 100 kHz ultrasound irradiation. For the 28 and 100 kHz ultrasound frequencies, microbubbles suppressed the I3(-) formation from KI solution as well as the 7-hydroxycoumarin formation from coumarin solution caused by the ultrasonic irradiation. On the other hand, for the 45 kHz ultrasound frequency, microbubbles enhanced the I3(-) formation from KI solution as well as 7-hydroxycoumarin formation from coumarin solution caused by the ultrasonic irradiation. Detection of H2O2 after the irradiation of ultrasound in the presence or absence of microbubbles was also performed, and it was found that H2O2 formation was enhanced only when microbubbles were introduced under the 45 kHz ultrasonic irradiation, which was in good agreement with the results of KI oxidation dosimetry measurements and of coumarin fluorescent probe measurements. Based on these present results, plausible mechanisms that explain the dependence of the ultrasound frequency on the enhancement and suppression of free radical formation in the presence of MBs were proposed.

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Amorphous indium zinc oxide (IZO) thin film structures of varying amounts of Zn content were investigated using X-ray diffraction measurements and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. The characteristic amorphous structure having high oxygen coordination number and edge-shared polyhedra were confirmed using both techniques. Detailed analysis of the structural model revealed that the oxygen close-packed structure was almost realized in the nanometer range. It was also found that the number of Zn ions occupying the tetrahedral site of the oxygen close-packed structure increased with increasing ZnO content although In ions occupied the octahedral site. We conclude that the amorphous structure stability of the indium zinc oxide thin films is enhanced by the existence of Zn ions in the tetrahedral site, which block In ions in the octahedral site ordering similar to that in an In(2)O(3) crystal.

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