Hanna Engelberg Kulka

..We also show that this process takes place only during logarithmic growth and requires an intact relA gene...

..Our results reported here support our view that the mazEF module mediates cell death and is part of a programmed cell death network...

..The mazEF-mediated death pathway can act as a defense mechanism that prevents the spread of bacterial phage infection, allowing bacterial populations to behave like multicellular organisms...

..These results further support our previous conclusion that E. coli mazEF mediation of cell death is not a passive process, but an active and genetically "programmed" death response...

..We relate these two bacterial PCD systems to the ways in which bacterial populations resemble multicellular organisms...

..Thus, the rex operon may be considered as the "survival operon" of phage lambda...

..Because multi-drug resistance among bacterial pathogens is becoming more widespread, the results obtained might be useful as a basis for producing alternative drugs...

..Depending on the availability of selenium the SECIS enables one of two alternatives for the translational machinery: Either selenocysteine incorporation into a polypeptide or termination of the polypeptide chain...

..Finally, we discuss the similarities between basic features of programmed cell death and antideath in both prokaryotes and eukaryotes and the possibility that they share a common evolutionary origin...

..Our results, which describe thymine starvation as a trigger for a built-in death program, have implications for programmed cell death in both prokaryotes and eukaryotes...

..Furthermore, our results showed that the mode of action of antibiotics was determined by the ability of E. coli cells to communicate through the signaling molecule Extracellular Death Factor (EDF) participating in mazEF induction...

..Deletion of rpoS, the gene encoding sigma(S) from the bacterial chromosome, permitted mazEF-mediated cell death during stationary growth phase...

..Structural analysis revealed that EDF is a linear pentapeptide, Asn-Asn-Trp-Asn-Asn. Each of the five amino acids of EDF is important for its activity...

..Significant strain differences in EDF production and response explain variations in the induction of mazEF-mediated cell death...

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..Cell death governed by mazEF and dinJ-YafQ seems to participate in biofilm formation through a novel mechanism...

..This hydrophobic core consists exclusively of short aliphatic residues. The folded part of MazE contains a novel DNA binding motif. A model for DNA binding that is consistent with the available biochemical data is presented...

..Both binding and stability studies lead to a picture of MazE solution structure that is significantly more unfolded than the structure observed in a crystal of the MazE-cAbMaz1 complex...

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..Practically, the results of our study may be useful as a basis for a novel strategy for generating a new class of antibiotics that trigger bacterial PCD, and thereby to help what has become a public health problem. ..

..Practically, the results of our study may be useful as a basis for a novel strategy for generating a new class of antibiotics that trigger bacterial PCD, and thereby to help what has become a public health problem. ..

..Practically, the results of our study may be useful as a basis for a novel strategy for generating a new class of antibiotics that trigger bacterial PCD, and thereby to help what has become a public health problem. ..