The structure of a resuscitation-promoting factor domain from Mycobacterium tuberculosis shows homology to lysozymes

Resuscitation-promoting factor (RPF) proteins reactivate stationary-phase cultures of (G+C)-rich Gram-positive bacteria including the causative agent of tuberculosis, Mycobacterium tuberculosis. We report the solution structure of the RPF domain from M. tuberculosis Rv1009 (RpfB) solved by heteronuclear multidimensional NMR. Structural homology with various glycoside hydrolases suggested that RpfB cleaved oligosaccharides. Biochemical studies indicate that a conserved active site glutamate is important for resuscitation activity. These data, as well as the presence of a clear binding pocket for a large molecule, indicate that oligosaccharide cleavage is probably the signal for revival from dormancy

Characterisation of Bombyx mori odorant-binding proteins reveals that a general odorant-binding protein discriminates between sex pheromone components

In many insect species, odorant-binding proteins (OBPs) are thought to be responsible for the transport of pheromones and other semiochemicals across the sensillum lymph to the olfactory receptors (ORs) within the antennal sensilla. In the silkworm Bombyx mori, the OBPs are subdivided into three main subfamilies; pheromone-binding proteins (PBPs), general odorant-binding proteins (GOBPs) and antennal-binding proteins (ABPs). We used the MotifSearch algorithm to search for genes encoding putative OBPs in B. mori and found 13, many fewer than are found in the genomes of fruit flies and mosquitoes. The 13 genes include seven new ABP-like OBPs as well as the previously identified PBPs (three), GOBPs (two) and ABPx. Quantitative examination of transcript levels showed that BmorPBP1, BmorGOBP1, BmorGOBP2 and BmorABPx are expressed at very high levels in the antennae and so could be involved in olfaction. A new two-phase binding assay, along with other established assays, showed that BmorPBP1, BmorPBP2, BmorGOBP2 and BmorABPx all bind to the B. mori sex pheromone component (10E,12Z)-hexadecadien-1-ol (bombykol). BmorPBP1, BmorPBP2 and BmorABPx also bind the pheromone component (10E,12Z)-hexadecadienal (bombykal) equally well, whereas BmorGOBP2 can discriminate between bombykol and bombykal. X-ray structures show that when bombykol is bound to BmorGOBP2 it adopts a different conformation from that found when it binds to BmorPBP1. Binding to BmorGOBP2 involves hydrogen bonding to Arg110 rather than to Ser56 as found for BmorPBP1

Nicholas V. Riasanovsky, Russian Identities

Studies of Russian ‘identity’ have boomed in recent years, yet it is far from clear just what this term means. Is it a synonym for ‘mentality’ or merely a constituent part thereof, or perhaps a substitute for that currently disparaged old favourite, the ‘Russian soul’? Nicholas V. Riasanovsky, who is professor emeritus of European history at the University of California, Berkeley, cleverly sidesteps this problem by writing of ‘identities’ in the plural. He sees the national psyche as having d..

Recent Writing on Stalin's Gulag : An Overview

This is a survey of the most important publications, in Russia and the West, on the Soviet penal system under Stalin, since certain archival data became available to scholars from 1988 onwards. Various data on death sentences and the size of the convict population, compiled by the security authorities since 1953, and the lacunae in them, are assessed. The system was inherently arbitrary, unjust and cruel. The Gulag was an essential buttress of the totalitarian order, designed « to destroy people on a mass scale », not merely a device to boost output on the cheap. Finally the question is raised whether these crimes can be atoned for morally or dealt with judicially, and the writings of ex-Soviet and Western « revisionist » historians are appraised.Cet article passe en revue les plus importantes publications concernant le système pénal soviétique sous Staline, publiées en Russie ou en Occident depuis l'ouverture aux chercheurs, après 1988, d'un certain nombre de fonds d'archives. L'auteur examine diverses données relatives à la peine de mort et à la population pénitentiaire, compilées par les services de sécurité depuis 1953 et en analyse les lacunes. Ce système était intrinsèquement arbitraire, injuste et cruel. Le Goulag était un composant essentiel de l'ordre totalitaire, conçu « pour la destruction massive des individus » et non pour fournir une main-d'œuvre à bon marché. En conclusion, l'auteur soulève la question de l'expiation morale ou de la sanction judiciaire de ces crimes et évalue les écrits des historiens « révisionnistes » ex-soviétiques ou occidentaux

Sergei Bogatyrev, ed., Russia Takes Shape

This miscellany brings together some fruits of recent research by Finnish specialists in Russian history, whose excellent work, even when published in a Western language, does not always receive sufficient attention abroad. The editor, Sergei Bogatyrev (London), who defended his doctoral thesis on sixteenth-century Muscovite court politics at the University of Helsinki in 2000, devotes this volume to the history of Russia’s regions. In particular the six contributors seek to throw light on th..

Signs in deaf mute education : an explanation and defense of the American system of deaf mute education

https://ida.gallaudet.edu/deaf_rare_books/1109/thumbnail.jp