It has been suggested that the two basic amine sites of Az

interact with the negatively charged heptose-phosphate region of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) in order to enter gram-negative bacteria [9]. F. novicida transposon insertion mutants in the genes involved in lipopolysaccharide (LPS) production (wbtN, wbtE, wbtQ and wbtA) were tested to determine if there might be a role of LPS in Az binding and penetration. Mutations in genes responsible for the synthesis LDN-193189 ic50 of the O-antigen in F. novicida have been previously shown to decrease virulence and resistance to serum killing while macrophage uptake and replication remained unaffected [10]. A primary mode of bacterial resistance to antibacterial drugs is the

expression of drug efflux selleck pumps such as ATP-binding cassette (ABC), the Major Facilitator Superfamily (MFS) transporters, and Resistance-Nodulation-Division (RND) efflux system. These inner membrane transport Selleckchem PD173074 systems are often coupled to the outer membrane TolC system [11]. Francisella novicida has two tolC-like proteins, tolC and the highly related fltC [12]. The ABC Superfamily is thought to be responsible for the export of many different antibiotics. For example, in E. coli, macrolides are thought to be transported by the ABC transporter MacAB [13]. Although a potential macA gene was identified in F. novicida (FTN_1692), no gene corresponding to macB could be identified in the F. novicida genome. The RND efflux system consists of a tripartite transporter with an RND pump protein located in the cytoplasmic membrane (AcrB) and a periplasmic membrane fusion protein (AcrA) coupled to the TolC protein in the outer membrane (Figure 1). The RND system can pump many compounds, including macrolides [14]. The AcrAB

this website RND efflux pump was recently demonstrated to be required for F. tularensis LVS virulence in mice [15], but not in F. tularensis Schu S4 [16]. The function of the RND efflux system is the removal of harmful substances from inside the cytosol of the bacteria directly to the external medium bypassing the periplasm [15]. Thus we hypothesized that mutants in the RND efflux system would have altered sensitivity to Az. Transposon insertion mutants of components of the RND efflux system in F. novicida, including tolC, fltC, acrA, and acrB, were tested for their sensitivity to Az. The dsbB gene encodes the cytoplasmic membrane protein that is involved in disulfide bond formation in the periplasm. A dsbB mutant in F. novicida was tested because it is transcriptionally linked in an operon with acrA and acrB in Francisella. Mutants ΔacrA and ΔacrB were also tested in the fully virulent strain, F. tularensis Schu S4 [16]. Figure 1 RND efflux pump. A schematic of the RND efflux pump, following [59], to illustrate the relationship between TolC, AcrA and AcrB.

Five microliters of each amplified product was electrophoresed in 2% (wt/vol) agarose gel and Tris-borate-EDTA buffer, with molecular size marker (GeneRuler 50-bp DNA ladder; Fermentas) in parallel, at 100 volts for 1 h. Five PCR products were randomly selected, gel-purified and sequenced with an ABI Prism 3700 DNA Analyzer (Applied Biosystems), using the PCR primers. Statistical STA-9090 concentration analysis Statistical analyses were performed using Prism 5.01 (GraphPad). CFU counts were logarithmically transformed prior to analysis. Unless stated otherwise, data generated

were expressed as mean +/- standard error of the mean (SEM). Statistically significance was calculated learn more using the unpaired student’s t-test. p < 0.05 was considered statistically significant (*, p < 0.05; **, p < 0.01; ***, p < 0.001). Results Examination of L. hongkongensis strains for urease activity With the exception of native urease-negative L. hongkongensis HLHK30, the urease test broth incubated with all human strains,

including HLHK9, began to turn pink after 4 h (Figure  2A), and the color became more intense after 24 h of incubation. Similar to the natural urease-negative strain HLHK30, mutant strains HLHK9∆ureA, HLHK9∆ureC, HLHK9∆ureD and HLHK9∆ureE elicited no color change after prolonged incubation (Figure  2A). These results indicated that these four urease genes were all essential for the urease enzyme activity. Figure 2 Examination of L . hongkongensis strains for urease and ADI activities. A, A color change from yellow to pink was indicative BAY 80-6946 datasheet of positive urease activity. The photo was taken at 8 h post-inoculation. B,

A color change to orange was indicative of positive ADI activity. Examination of L. hongkongensis strains for ADI activity Nintedanib (BIBF 1120) In the qualitative assay, similar to the positive control (citrulline standard), cellular extracts prepared from all 30 human strains, including wild type L. hongkongensis HLHK9, also generated an orange color, confirming that citrulline was being produced (Figure  2B). Cell extracts from both single knockout mutant strains, HLHK9∆arcA1 and HLHK9∆arcA2, also yielded an orange color, whereas deletion of both arcA1 and arcA2 abolished the ADI activity (Figure  2B). These results showed that both the arcA1 and arcA2 genes encode functional ADI enzymes, which could complement the functions of each other. In vitro susceptibility of urease-negative mutants to acid HLHK9 and mutant strains HLHK9∆ureA, HLHK9∆ureC, HLHK9∆ureD and HLHK9∆ureE were subjected to a range of acidic pHs (from pH 2 to 6) in the presence and absence of 50 mM urea, respectively. Since the four urease mutant strains exhibited similar survival abilities under different acidic conditions, only the viable counts of HLHK9∆ureA are shown.

The argument will be made that the different categories of traditional knowledge and of knowledge holders have remained vaguely LGX818 defined, which leads to overlap in the various laws that provide protection and

to local, regional and international conflicts. Further, national governments continue to play substantial roles in implementing benefit sharing schemes. It will be argued that these benefits must be passed on to the knowledge holding communities, if they are meant to become real stakeholders in such “bottom up” environmental governance schemes. Further, to have real effects for biodiversity protection, intellectual property based rights to traditional knowledge should not lose sight of the broader aims of the Convention on Biological Diversity and not become mere instruments

used at the central administrative level for royalty collection and opposition to patenting of local knowledge abroad, as important as these tasks may be. The article will use various examples from Southeast Asia with a particular focus on Indonesia to discuss the experiences thus far in linking traditional knowledge and biodiversity protection. International treaties for the protection of biodiversity Access to genetic resources and related traditional knowledge, the topic of this article, has been regulated in and is affected by several international agreements. The selleck compound most important are the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) concluded in 1992, the WTO Agreement on

Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) of 1994 and the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGR) negotiated under the auspices of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Currently under discussion are further international framework provisions dealing with animal genetic resources and marine genetic resources (WIPO 2008, pp. 19–20). Perhaps most Cyclin-dependent kinase 3 important for the current paradigms for national and local governance related to genetic resources and traditional knowledge are several provisions of the CBD. The link between trade and commercial exploitation, on the one hand, and conservation and protection, on the other hand, is Tucidinostat purchase explicitly made in Article 1 that lists as objectives of the CBD “the conservation of biological diversity, the sustainable use of its components and the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising out of the utilization of genetic resources, including by appropriate access to genetic resources and by appropriate transfer of relevant technologies, taking into account all rights over those resources and to technologies, and by appropriate funding.

Methods Strains and culture conditions Nostoc punctiforme ATCC 29133 cultures were grown in CYT387 purchase BG110 medium [40] either in 100 ml Erlenmeyer flasks on a shaking table or on plates containing BG110 medium solidified by 1% noble agar (Difco). Larger volumes of N. punctiforme cultures were grown in 1 L Erlenmeyer

flask containing BG110 medium under continuous stirring and sparging with air. All cultures were grown at 25°C at a continuous irradiance of 40 μmol of photons m-2 s-1 (29). For cultures treated by sonication or were electroporated, the BG110 medium was supplemented with 5 mM MOPS (pH 7.8) and 5 mM NH4Cl as Selleck INCB28060 a combined nitrogen source. 10 μg/ml ampicillin

was used for selection of positive clones after electroporation with the vector constructs. All cloning was done using Escherichia coli strain DH5α grown at 37°C in Luria broth (LB) liquid medium [41], supplemented with 100 μg/ml ampicillin, and on plates containing LB medium solidified with 1% agar and supplemented with 100 μg/ml ampicillin. PCR, DNA sequencing and sequence analysis Genomic DNA was isolated from N. punctiforme cultures as previously described [12]. The concentration was determined by absorbance measurements using Cary Win UV (Varian). PCR amplifications were carried out using the high fidelity DNA polymerase Phusion (Finnzymes), according to manufacturer’s protocol, in a GeneAmp PCR system 2400 (Applied Biosystem). The primers used in this pheromone work are listed in Table 1. All primers were designed

using the Primer3 program http://​frodo.​wi.​mit.​edu/​cgi-bin/​primer3/​primer3_​www.​cgi and blasted against the N. punctiforme genome [42] (JGI Microbial genomes, http://​genome.​jgi-psf.​org/​mic_​home.​html), or in the case of sequencing primers against their CB-839 price corresponding vector sequence (Table 1), to check their specificity. Secondary structure of the primers was analysed with the Primer design utility program http://​www.​cybergene.​se/​primerdesign/​. Amplified DNA fragments were isolated from agarose gels using the GFX PCR DNA and Gel Band Purification Kit (GE Healthcare), following the manufacturer’s instructions. Sequencing reactions were performed by Macrogen Inc. and computer-assisted sequence analyses were performed using BioEdit Sequence Alignment Editor Version 7.0.5.3.

Figure 1 Immunohistochemical staining of HB using an antibody to β-catenin. (a) Cytoplasmic staining of βselleck compound -catenin in hepatoblastoma. (b) Nuclear and cytoplasmic accumulation of 17DMAG order β-catenin in hepatoblastoma.

(c) Normal staining of the liver cell membrane using an antibody to β-catenin. CTNNB1 mutation analysis of hepatoblastomas from SIOPEL clinical trial To identify CTNNB1 mutations we extracted total RNA from corresponding tissue cores of hepatoblastoma. A 150 pb region of the β-catenin regulatory region of exon 3 of the CTNNB1 gene (codons

32-45) was amplified successfully by RT-PCR in 92 of the samples. Lack of amplification in 6 samples may be due to deletion of exon 3 of CTNNB1. We attempted to amplify a region spanning exon 2 to exon 4 in these 6 samples but were unsuccessful. Therefore our estimation of samples containing deletions may be inaccurate. We identified 11 different point mutations in 14 of 98 samples (15%) (Table 1). These are all missense mutations affecting phosphorylation sites Pitavastatin mw in the regulatory region of the gene and have been previously reported [17, 38]. The mutations found, resulted in the following changes at the protein level; 32D > N, 32D > Y, 32D > V, 32D > A, 33S > P, 33S > C, 34G > R, 34G > E, 34G > V, 35I > P, 35I > S, 37S > Y. One HB patient (CCRG 64) showed the same sequence variation (missense 32D > V) in both diagnostic and post chemotherapy tumour samples. RNA from adjacent normal tissue was also analysed from

62 cases NADPH-cytochrome-c2 reductase including nine tumours that harboured mutations. All of these samples displayed wild type CTNNB1 showing that the mutations found were somatic variants (results not shown). The frequency of CTNNB1 mutations (14/98) and possible deletions (6/98) in our cohort was significantly lower than the frequency of aberrant expression of β-catenin protein and statistical analysis shows no correlation between aberrant β-catenin accumulation and gene mutation/deletion. This prompted us to investigate alternative pathways of β-catenin activation in hepatoblastomas in our patient cohort. Table 1 Histologic type and subtype, β-catenin and Y654 β-catenin IHC and CTNNB1 gene status of hepatoblastomas with mutations.

For instance, downregulation of receptor surface expression has been indicated in some studies as a mechanism of acquired drug resistance. A reduced expression of CD95 was found to play a role in treatment-resistant leukaemia [62] or neuroblastoma [63] cells. Reduced this website membrane expression of death receptors and abnormal expression of decoy receptors have also been reported to play a role in the evasion of the death signalling pathways

in various cancers [64]. In a study carried out to examine if changes in death ligand and death receptor expression during different stages of cervical carcinogenesis were related to an imbalance between proliferation and apoptosis, Reesink-Peters et al AZD5363 manufacturer MI-503 solubility dmso concluded that the loss of Fas and the dysregulation of FasL, DR4,

DR5, and tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL) in the cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN)-cervical cancer sequence might be responsible for cervical carcinogenesis [65]. 4. Targeting apoptosis in cancer treatment Like a double-edged sword, every defect or abnormality along the apoptotic pathways may also be an interesting target of cancer treatment. Drugs or treatment strategies that can restore the apoptotic signalling pathways towards normality have the potential to eliminate cancer cells, which depend on these defects to stay alive. Many recent and important discoveries have opened new doors into potential new classes of anticancer drugs. This Section emphasises on new treatment options targeting some of the apoptotic defects mentioned in Section 3. A summary of these drugs and treatment strategies is given in Table 2. Table 2 Summary of treatment strategies targeting apoptosis Treatment strategy Remarks Author/reference Targeting the Bcl-2 family of proteins     Agents that target the Bcl-2 family proteins Oblimersen sodium     Reported to show chemosensitising effects in combined treatment with conventional anticancer drugs in chronic myeloid leukaemia patients and an improvement in survival in these patients Rai

et al., 2008 [66], Abou-Nassar and Brown, 2010 [67]   Histamine H2 receptor Small molecule inhibitors of the Bcl-2 family of proteins     Molecules reported to affect gene or protein expression include sodium butyrate, depsipetide, fenretinide and flavipirodo. Molecules reported to act on the proteins themselves include gossypol, ABT-737, ABT-263, GX15-070 and HA14-1 Kang and Reynold, 2009 [68]   BH3 mimetics     ABT-737 reported to inhibit anti-apoptotic proteins such as Bcl-2, Bcl-xL, and Bcl-W and to exhibit cytotoxicity in lymphoma, small cell lung carcinoma cell line and primary patient-derived cells Oltersdorf et al., 2005 [69]   ATF4, ATF3 and NOXA reported to bind to and inhibit Mcl-1 Albershardt et al.

Accumulation of PbMLS was also higher in P. brasiliensis yeast cells than in the mycelial phase (data not shown). These findings were reinforced by the results of Felipe et al. [44], which suggested that the glyoxylate cycle is up-regulated in yeast cells [46]. Yeast cells grown on potassium acetate accumulated more PbMLS on the cell membrane than yeast cells grown on glucose. These results are in agreement with those obtained

by Zambuzzi-Carvalho et al. [30] where the Pbmls transcript level was higher in yeasts cells grown in a two-carbon source than in cells grown on glucose only. The high intensity of ROI found in budding cells, mainly in the cellular membrane, suggests that the PbMLS is metabolically relevant and mainly synthesized learn more by young cells (budding cells). It is unknown whether PbMLS plays any part in the differentiation and/or maturity processes of P. brasiliensis budding cells [45, 47]. www.selleckchem.com/products/AZD2281(Olaparib).html In fact, the glyoxylate pathway provides metabolic versatility for Candida albicans to utilize alternate substrata for development and differentiation and is involved in the formation of the filamentous State from the single cell State [23]. This process may help Laccaria bicolor

grow toward the host with the aggressiveness required for mycorrhiza formation [48]. Conclusion The results showed the presence of PbMLS in the culture filtrate of yeast cells (parasitic phase), its surface location in P. brasiliensis and its binding to ECM in Far-Western blot and ELISA assays and to A549 cells membranes. The reduction in the adherence of P. brasiliensis to A549 cells by anti-PbMLSr suggests that PbMLS

could contribute to active fungal interaction and disease progression in humans through its ability Phospholipase D1 to act as a probable adhesin. In addition, the absence of conventional secretion or cell wall anchoring motifs defines PbMLS as a probable anchorless adhesin that could contribute to virulence by promoting P. brasiliensis infection and dissemination. Methods P. brasiliensis isolate and growth conditions The P. brasiliensis Pb01 isolate (check details ATCC-MYA-826) was previously investigated in our laboratory and was cultivated in semisolid Fava Netto’s medium (1.0% w/v peptone, 0.5% w/v yeast extract, 0.3% w/v proteose peptone, 0.5% w/v beef extract, 0.5% w/v NaCl, 4% w/v glucose and 1.4% w/v agar, pH 7.2) as yeast cells for 7 days at 36°C. Heterologous expression and purification of the PbMLS recombinant (PbMLSr) The cDNA encoding to PbMLS was obtained by Zambuzzi-Carvalho et al. [30] (GenBank accession number:AAQ75800). EcoRI and XhoI restriction sites were introduced in oligonucleotides to amplify a 1617 bp cDNA fragment of the Pbmls, which encodes a predicted protein of 539 amino acids. The PCR product was subcloned into the EcoRI/XhoI sites of the pET-32a(+) expression vector (Novagen, Inc., Madison, Wis.). The resulting plasmid was transferred to Escherichia coli BL21 C41 (DE3).

Appl Environ Microbiol 2001,

67:1581–1586.PubMedCrossRef 35. van Eldere J, Janssen P, Hoefnagels-Schuermans A, van Lierde S, Peetermans WE: Amplified-fragment length polymorphism analysis versus macro-restriction fragment analysis for molecular typing of Streptococcus pneumoniae isolates. J Clin Microbiol 1999, 37:2053–2057.PubMed 36. Lopes MM, Silva D, Freitas G, Tenreiro R: Simultaneous identification and typing of Candida species by MSP-PCR and AFLP: study of clinical isolates from a Portoguese pediatric hospital. Med Mycol 2007, Fer-1 manufacturer 17:157–167. 37. Savelkoul PH, Aarts HJ, de Haas J, Dijkshoorn L, Duim B, Otsen M, Rademaker JL, Schouls L, Lenstra JA: Amplified-fragment length polymorphism analysis: the state of an art. J Clin Microbiol 1999, 37:3083–3091.PubMed 38. Lott TJ, Kuykendall RJ, Welbel SF, Pramanik A, Laser BA: Genomic heterogeneity in the yeast Candida parapsilosis TPCA-1 . Curr Genet

1993, 23:463–467.PubMedCrossRef 39. Fundyga RE, Kuykendall RJ, Lee-Yang W, Lott TJ: Evidence for aneuploidy and recombination in the human commensal yeast Candida parapsilosis . Genetics and Evolution 2004, 4:437–443. 40. Garcia-Effron G, Katiyar SK, Park S, DNA Damage inhibitor Edlind TD, Perlin DS: A naturally occurring proline-to-alanine amino acid change in Fks1p in Candida parapsilosis , Candida orthopsilosis , and Candida metapsilosis accounts for reduced echinocandin susceptibility. Antimicrob Agents Chemother 2008, 52:2305–2312.PubMedCrossRef 41. Tsang LH, Cassat JE, Shaw LN, Beenken KE, Smeltzer MS: Factors contributing to the biofilm-deficient phenotype of Staphylococcus aureus sarA mutants. PLoS One Selleckchem Fluorouracil 2008, 3:e3361.PubMedCrossRef 42. Boles BR, Horswill AR: Agr-mediated dispersal of Staphylococcus aureus biofilms. PLoS Pathog 2008, 4:e1000052.PubMedCrossRef 43. Martí M, Trotonda MP, Tormo-Más MA, Vergara-Irigaray M, Cheung AL, Lasa I, Penadés JR: Extracellular proteases inhibit protein-dependent biofilm formation in Staphylococcus aureus . Microb Infect 2010, 12:55–64.CrossRef

Authors’ contributions AT designed the study with LAMH, performed phenotypical analysis and drafted the manuscript; LAMH conceived the study with AT, performed AFLP analysis and wrote the manuscript; SM participated in the drug susceptibility assays; LM has made substantial contribution to acquisition of data and critically revised the manuscript. SS participated in the study coordination and has made substantive contribution to data analysis; MC participated in the study design and has given the final approval to the version to be published. All authors have read and approved the final version of the manuscript.”
“Background Chlamydiae are implicated in a wide variety of diseases in both animals and humans.

[23]. All analyses were performed in three independent runs, each taking 5 million generations. Acknowledgements This work was supported by Ministry of Education, Czech Republic (grants LC06073 and MSM 60076605801), the Grant Agency of Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic (Grant IAA601410708) and a National Science Foundation grant (0626716) to N.A. Moran (University of Arizona). We thank all of our collaborators for providing the samples. Electronic supplementary material Additional file 1:

Consensus tree derived from the Conservative matrix (284 positions) under MP criterion. Transversion/Elafibranor transition ratio was set to 1:3. Names of the taxa clustering within the Arsenophonus clade derived from Basic matrix are printed in colour: red for the long-branched taxa, dark orange for the short-branched taxa. (EPS 2 MB) Additional file 2: Tree

consensus derived from Sampling4 this website (1107 positions) matrix under the MP criterion. Transversion/transition ratio was set to 1:1. The type species A. nasoniae is designated by the orange asterisk. (EPS 759 KB) Additional file 3: Insertions MK-4827 in vivo within the sequences of P-like symbionts. (EPS 2 MB) Additional file 4: The 41 bp long motif inconsistently distributed among distinct bacterial taxa. Position of the sequence in alignment and 16S rDNA secondary structure is indicated by the arrows. Following records are not included in the Additional file 1: Sitophilus rugicollis [GenBank: AY126639], Drosophila paulistorum [GenBank: U20279, U20278], Polyrhachis foreli ever [GenBank: AY336986], Haematopinus eurysternus [GenBank: DQ076661]. (EPS 2 MB) Additional file 5: List of sequences included in Basic matrix. Dashed line separates members of the Arsenophonus clade from the outgroup taxa. Sequences

included into the Clock matrix are underlined. (DOC 142 KB) References 1. Huger AM, Skinner SW, Werren JH: Bacterial infections associated with the son-killer trait in the parasitoid wasp, Nasonia (= Mormoniella ) vitripennis (Hymenoptera, Pteromalidae). J Invertebr Pathol 1985, 46:272–280.CrossRefPubMed 2. Skinner SW: Son-killer – A 3rd extrachromosomal factor affecting the sex-ratio in the parasitoid wasp, Nasonia (= Mormoniella ) vitripennis. Nasonia 1985, 109:745–759. 3. Werren JH, Skinner SW, Huger AM: Male-killing bacteria in a parasitic wasp. Science 1986, 231:990–992.CrossRefPubMed 4. Gherna RL, Werren JH, Weisburg W, Cote R, Woese CR, Mandelco L, Brenner DJ:Arsenophonus nasoniae gen. nov., sp. nov., the causative agent of the son-killer trait in the parasitic wasp Nasonia vitripennis. Int J Syst Bacteriol 1991, 41:563–565.CrossRef 5. Hypša V: Endocytobionts of Triatoma infestans : distribution and transmission. J Invertebr Pathol 1993, 61:32–38.

B) In vivo interaction between TbLpn and TbPRMT1.

TbLpn was immunoprecipitated from PF T. brucei cytosolic extracts using anti-TbLpn polyclonal Protein Tyrosine Kinase inhibitor antibodies as described under Material and Methods. As a negative control, the cytosolic extract ERK inhibitor was incubated in the absence of antibodies. Proteins present in the starting cytosolic fraction (C), as well as the bound (B) and unbound fractions (U) were separated on a 10% polyacrylamide gel and transferred to PVDF. The presence of TbLpn in the immune complexes was assessed by probing the membrane with anti-TbLpn polyclonal antibodies (1:1,000), followed by goat anti-rabbit IgGs. The presence of TbPRMT1 in the immune complexes was detected by probing the blot with anti-TbPRMT1 polyclonal antibodies (1:1,000), followed by goat anti-rabbit IgGs. Signals were detected using chemiluminescence. In order to examine the interaction between TbPRMT1 and TbLpn in vivo, we performed a co-immunoprecipitation. As shown above, TbLpn is located in the cytosol of the parasite. For this reason, TbLpn was immunoprecipitated from PF T. brucei cytosolic extracts using purified polyclonal anti-TbLpn

antibodies. Proteins that were immunoprecipitated along with TbLpn were separated by electrophoresis and transferred onto PVDF. The presence of TPRMT1 in association with TbLpn was determined by using purified polyclonal anti-TbPRMT1 antibodies to probe the membrane by western hybridization. The results shown in Figure 4B clearly show that a band of approximately the size of TbPRMT1 (38.9 kDa) co-precipitates exclusively with TbLpn, and is not MK5108 manufacturer present in the negative control. TbLpn is methylated in vivo The physical association of TbPRMT1 with TbLpn suggests that TbLpn may serve as a substrate for methylation by TbPRMT1. In support of this hypothesis, several arginine residues throughout the TbLpn sequence are located within preferred motifs for methylation, such as RG or RXR. To evaluate whether TbLpn is methylated in vivo, an immunoprecipitation

was performed from PF T. brucei cytosolic extracts using purified anti-TbLpn polyclonal antibodies. The presence of methylated arginine residues was Ribonucleotide reductase then determined by western hybridization using anti-mRG polyclonal antibodies. These antibodies were raised against a peptide containing 7 asymmetric dimethylarginine residues alternating with 8 glycine residues. This motif is found most prevalently among verified dimethylarginine- containing proteins. The antibodies have been shown to specifically recognize methylated arginine residues [52]. Using these antibodies to probe the blot, a protein band was observed at 85 kDa, which is the predicted size of TbLpn, in the bound but not the unbound fraction (Figure 5). This clearly indicates that native TbLpn contains methylated arginine residues.