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Cell death-inducing DFF[DNA fragmentation factor]-like effector-a (CIDEa), may initiate apoptosis by disrupting a complex consisting of 40-kDa caspase-3-activated nuclease (DFF40/CAD) and its 45-kDa inhibitor (DFF45/ICAD). CIDEa, however, was found to be localized in mitochondria. We have performed immunodetection of CIDEa in whole cells and subcellular fractions of HeLa cells adapted for a tetracycline-inducible CIDEa expression. Using immunocytochemistry we observed redistribution, enhanced upon treatment with camptothecin or valinomycin, of CIDEa to nucleus. Similarly, CIDEa content increased in the nuclear fraction but decreased in cytosolic fraction in cells treated to initiate apoptosis. We hypothesize that CIDEa is sequestered in mitochondria while transfer of this potentially dangerous protein from mitochondria into nucleus intensifies or even initiates apoptosis.

To determine antibiotic resistance and incidence of multidrug resistance among Nontyphoidal salmonellae serovars isolated from humans.Consecutive Salmonella isolates from patients, recovered in 48 microbiology laboratories in May 2012, were analyzed in the respective reference laboratories at the National Institute of Public Health. Strains were re-identified and differentiated into serovars. Their minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) to 11 antibiotics were determined by the microdilution method.Of 25 serovars identified among 637 strains of Salmonella enterica, the most frequent were Enteritidis (87.0 %), Typhimurium (4.9 %), and monophasic Typhimurium 4,[5],12:i:- (2.0 %) and Mbandaka (0.6 %); other serovars were rare. Altogether 558 strains (87.6 %) were susceptible to all antibiotics tested and the remaining 79 strains were resistant to one or more antibiotics. The prevalence rates of resistance to individual antibiotics among 637 study strains were as follows: ampicillin 8.5%, tetracycline 5.7%, sulfamethoxazole 5.2%, cipro-floxacin 3.8%, and chloramphenicol 2.5%. Resistance to gentamicin, trimethoprim, and third and fourth generation cephalosporins was rare ( 0.5%) and none of the study strains showed resistance to meropenem. Three producers of extended spectrum beta-lactamase were multidrug resistant and two of them recovered from twins exhibited a different pattern of resistance. Resistant strains were most often assigned to the following serovars: Enteritidis (49.4%), Typhimurium (26.6%), and monophasic Typhimurium (15.2%). While only 7% (39 of 554 strains) of Enteritidis strains were resistant, the serovars Typhimurium and its monophasic variant 4,[5],12:i:- showed high rates of resistance, i.e. 66.7 and 92.3%, respectively. Furthermore, resistance was revealed in all strains of the serovars Virchow (n = 3), Kentucky (n = 1), and Newport (n = 1), in two of three strains of the serovar Infantis, and in one of two strains of the serovar Stanley. All five blood isolates were assigned to the serovar Enteritidis and one of them showed resistance to ciprofloxacin. Of 79 resistant strains, 26.6% showed resistance to ampicillin only and 24.1% to ciprofloxacin only, with multidrug resistance, i.e. resistance to three or more antibiotics, confirmed in 43.0% of strains.Despite a relatively low prevalence of resistance to the antibiotics tested among 637 study strains, the following alarming findings were made: Detection of Salmonella enterica strains resistant to ciprofloxacin as the drug of choice or to higher generation cephalosporins and multidrug resistance revealed in two thirds of the strains of the serovar Typhimurium and in all but one strains of its monophasic variant 4,[5],12:i:-.

The uncoupling protein generates heat by catalyzing electrophoretic proton transport across the inner membrane of brown adipose tissue mitochondria. It also transports Cl- and other monovalent anions, and both proton and anion transport are inhibited by purine nucleotides. Several long-standing hypotheses bear on specific aspects of Cl- transport, H+ transport, and nucleotide gating mechanisms in uncoupling protein. We reevaluated these hypotheses in mitochondria and liposomes reconstituted with purified uncoupling protein; GDP inhibition is strictly noncompetitive with Cl- and unaffected by either transmembrane electrical potential or fatty acids. The Km and Vmax values for Cl- are independent of pH, arguing against a common binding site for Cl- and OH- ions. Cl- transport was inhibited by fatty acids and stimulated by fatty acid removal, refuting the consensus hypothesis that there is no interaction between fatty acids and anion transport through uncoupling protein. These results support a mechanism in which the transport pathway for anions is identical with the fatty acid binding site and distinct from the nucleotide binding site.

Three-dimensional (3D) super-resolution microscopy, using a biplane detection scheme, termed biplane photo-activated localization microscopy (Biplane FPALM), enables imaging of volumes as thick as whole cells and could reveal unknown details of cellular organization. Hence, we attempted to visualize mitochondrial reticulum via the matrix space loaded with mitochondria-addressed Eos, while transfecting cells by lentiviral expression. Our 3D images of single Eos molecules in the matrix space have proven the continuous character of mitochondrial reticulum tubules, i.e., an existence of a highly interconnected major mitochondrial reticulum in insulinoma Ins1E and oxidative-phosphorylation-dependent glutaminolytic hepatoma HepG2 cells (Fig.1). Also, using Eos-conjugate of mitochondrial transcription factor-A (TFAM), we have imaged nucleoids of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) in which TFAM represents a major assessor protein. Using PA-CFP2-TFAM and mitochondria-addressed Eos, the first 3D two color super-resolution images were obtained for mitochondrial reticulum together with the distribution of mt nucleoids in it. In intact cells we have found mt nucleoids of a narrow size distribution.Supported by grants No. M200110902, IAA500110701, from Acad.Sciences, and AMVIS/ME09029 from Czech Ministry of Education.View Large Image | View Hi-Res Image | Download PowerPoint Slide