Suchergebnisse

Greek military recruits (993) were examined for carriage of meningococci during July 1990. Blood, saliva and throat swab specimens were obtained and each recruit answered a questionnaire providing information on age, education (a measure of socioeconomic level), place of residence, smoking habits and recent infections. The overall carriage rate was 25% but differed between the two camps: 79/432 (18%) in Camp A and 168/561 (30%) in Camp B (P less than 0.0005). In Camp B, there were significantly higher proportions of recruits who were non-secretors (P less than 0.0005), and/or heavy smokers (P less than 0.0005). They were also younger (less than 19 years old) (P less than 0.001), and on the whole had fewer years of education (P less than 0.0005). By univariate analysis, carriage was significantly associated with smoking. By multiple logistic regression analysis, carriage was associated with smoking (P less than 0.001), age (P less than 0.01) and the camp in which the recruits were based (P less than 0.01). Among recruits in Camp B, 15/38 (40%) of those with recent viral infections were carriers compared with 30% for the camp in general.

This work was funded by BBSRC grants BB/I014373/1 and BB/I014039/1, by BBSRC and EPSRC through the Bristol Centre for Synthetic Biology (BB/L01386X) and NPRONET PoC10. JAC and MdiM were funded by BBSRC MIBTP (BB/J014532/1) studentships. MY was funded by an Indian State Scholarship. HHM was funded by an Iraqi Government Scholarship (HCED). ; The mupirocin trans-AT polyketide synthase pathway, provides a model system for manipulation of antibiotic biosynthesis. Its final phase involves removal of the tertiary hydroxyl group from pseudomonic acid B, PA-B, producing the fully active PA-A in a complex series of steps. To further clarify requirements for this conversion, we fed extracts containing PA-B to mutants of the producer strain singly deficient in each mup gene. This additionally identified mupM and mupN as required plus the sequence but not enzymic activity of mupL and ruled out need for other mup genes. A plasmid expressing mupLMNOPVCFU + macpE together with a derivative of the producer P. fluorescens strain NCIMB10586 lacking the mup cluster allowed conversion of PA-B to PA-A. MupN converts apo-mAcpE to holo-form while MupM is a mupirocin-resistant isoleucyl tRNA synthase, preventing self-poisoning. Surprisingly, the expression plasmid failed to allow the closely related P. fluorescens strain SBW25 to convert PA-B to PA-A. ; Publisher PDF ; Peer reviewed