Publications

exploration of using antisense peptide nucleic acid (pna)-cell penetrating peptide (cpp) as a novel bactericide against fire blight pathogen erwinia amylovora.	erwinia amylovora is a gram-negative bacterial plant pathogen in the family enterobacteriaceae and is the causal agent of fire blight, a devastating disease of apple and pear. fire blight is traditionally managed by the application of the antibiotic streptomycin during bloom, but this strategy has been challenged by the development and spread of streptomycin resistance. thus, there is an urgent need for effective, specific, and sustainable control alternatives for fire blight. antisense antimicr ...	2017	28469617
the crystal structure of erwinia amylovora amyr, a member of the ybjn protein family, shows similarity to type iii secretion chaperones but suggests different cellular functions.	amyr is a stress and virulence associated protein from the plant pathogenic enterobacteriaceae species erwinia amylovora, and is a functionally conserved ortholog of ybjn from escherichia coli. the crystal structure of e. amylovora amyr reveals a class i type iii secretion chaperone-like fold, despite the lack of sequence similarity between these two classes of protein and lacking any evidence of a secretion-associated role. the results indicate that amyr, and ybjn proteins in general, function ...	2017	28426806
type vi secretion systems of erwinia amylovora contribute to bacterial competition, virulence, and exopolysaccharide production.	the type vi secretion system (t6ss) plays a major role in mediating interbacterial competition and might contribute to virulence in plant pathogenic bacteria. however, the role of t6ss in erwinia amylovora remains unknown. in this study, 33 deletion mutants within three t6ss clusters were generated in e. amylovora strain ncppb1665. our results showed that all 33 mutants displayed reduced antibacterial activities against escherichia coli as compared with that of the wild-type (wt) strain, indicat ...	2017	28421913
secondary metabolites from bacillus amyloliquefaciens isolated from soil can kill burkholderia pseudomallei.	bacillus species are gram-positive bacteria found in abundance in nature and their secondary metabolites were found to possess various potential activities, notably antimicrobial. in this study, bacillus amyloliquefaciens n2-4 and n3-8 were isolated from soil and their metabolites could kill burkholderia pseudomallei, a gram-negative pathogenic bacterium also found in soil in its endemic areas. moreover, the metabolites were able to kill drug resistant isolates of b. pseudomallei and also inhibi ...	2017	28050857
p13, the embl macromolecular crystallography beamline at the low-emittance petra iii ring for high- and low-energy phasing with variable beam focusing.	the macromolecular crystallography p13 beamline is part of the european molecular biology laboratory integrated facility for structural biology at petra iii (desy, hamburg, germany) and has been in user operation since mid-2013. p13 is tunable across the energy range from 4 to 17.5 kev to support crystallographic data acquisition exploiting a wide range of elemental absorption edges for experimental phase determination. an adaptive kirkpatrick-baez focusing system provides an x-ray beam with a h ...	2017	28009574
the expanding role of type ii secretion in bacterial pathogenesis and beyond.	type ii secretion (t2s) is one means by which gram-negative pathogens secrete proteins into the extracellular milieu and/or host organisms. based upon recent genome sequencing, it is clear that t2s is largely restricted to the proteobacteria, occurring in many, but not all genera in the α-, β-, γ-, and δ- classes. prominent human and/or animal pathogens that express a t2s system(s) include acinetobacter baumannii, burkholderia pseudomallei, chlamydia trachomatis, escherichia coli, klebsiella pne ...	2017	28264910
development of a sensitive and specific polyclonal antibody for serological detection of clavibacter michiganensis subsp. sepedonicus.	the quarantine bacterium clavibacter michiganensis subsp. sepedonicus (cms) causes bacterial ring rot (brr) in potato but is difficult to detect, hampering the diagnosis of this disease. elisa immunoassays have not been widely used to detect cms because commercially available anti-cms antibodies detect mainly eps-producing bacteria and can fail to detect strains that do not produce eps. in the current study, we developed a new type of polyclonal antibody that specifically detects clavibacter mic ...	2017	28068400