These data present guidance to clinicians and other professionals investigating the deficiency of essential trace metals in biological samples (scalp hair and blood) of children with night blindness.”
“The meropenem susceptibility surveillance

study was performed between 2002 and 2006 in Japan. Meropenem resistance against Pseudomonas aeruginosa was nearly constant at about 10% during the period. For all species of the bacteria tested, the MIC90 of meropenem in 2006 was not more than 4-fold higher than that in 2002 and 2004. (C) 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.”
“The years 2000 through mid-2010 marked a transformational period in understanding of the biosynthesis of marine natural products. During this decade the field emerged from one largely dominated by chemical approaches to understanding biosynthetic pathways to one selleck products incorporating the full force of modern molecular biology and bioinformatics. Fusion of chemical and biological approaches yielded great advances in understanding the genetic and enzymatic basis for marine natural product biosynthesis. Progress was particularly pronounced for marine microbes,

especially actinomycetes and cyanobacteria. During this single decade, both the first complete marine microbial natural product biosynthetic gene cluster sequence was released as well as the first entire genome sequence for a secondary metabolite-rich marinemicrobe. The decade also saw tremendous progress CHIR-99021 inhibitor in recognizing the key role of marine microbial symbionts of invertebrates in natural product biosynthesis. Application of genetic and enzymatic knowledge led to genetic engineering of novel “unnatural” natural products during this time, as well as opportunities for discovery of novel natural products through genome mining. The current review highlights selected seminal studies from 2000 selleck screening library through to June 2010 that illustrate breakthroughs in understanding of marine natural product biosynthesis

at the genetic, enzymatic, and small-molecule natural product levels. A total of 154 references are cited.”
“The interaction between a common soil yeast, Cryptococcus laurentii, and a slow-growing medicinal plant adapted to low-nutrient soils, Agathosma betulina (Berg.) Pillans, was studied. C. laurentii CAB 578 was isolated from the rhizosphere of wild A. betulina, and liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS-MS) analysis revealed that the yeast was capable of producing polyamines, such as cadaverine and spermine, while growing in vitro in a chemically defined medium. Since the exogenous application of polyamines are known to impact on root growth, these findings supported the results obtained when axenic cultures of A. betulina seedlings were inoculated with C. laurentii CAB 578 and cultivated for 5 months under glasshouse conditions. The presence of the yeast increased root growth by 51%.