1a) and Southern blotting (not shown) Sequence analysis of five

1a) and Southern blotting (not shown). Sequence analysis of five of these argR− mutants showed a five amino acid insertion (GVPLL) between the 149th check details and the 150th residue of ArgR (Fig. 4). These mutations all mapped to the terminal α-6 helix of the protein, which we named ArgR5aa. An ArgR derivative

truncated at position 150 was constructed by site-directed mutagenesis. This truncated protein, called ArgR149, was tested for the ability to resolve pCS210 in the argR− strain (DS956/pCS210). ArgR149 displayed the same properties as ArgR5aa, the protein containing the GVPLL insertion between the 149th and the 150th residue, namely a significant reduction in cer site-specific recombination in vivo (Fig. 1b) and the ability to repress an argA∷lacZ fusion in vivo. In order to quantify the levels of repression of the argA∷lacZ fusion in EC146(λAZ-7) with both wild-type and mutant ArgRs, β-galactosidase assays were performed. EC146(λAZ-7) does not produce a functional ArgR, and as a result, expresses β-galactosidase constitutively from the argA∷lacZ promoter fusion (128.15 Miller units). In the presence of a wild-type argR gene (present in a pUC19 plasmid), the levels of this enzyme were

reduced 25-fold (3.5 Miller units). A cloned ArgR mutant containing the C-terminal pentapeptide insertion (ArgR5aa) repressed the fusion sevenfold (19 Miller units), and the clone containing the truncated ArgR (ArgR149) repressed 33-fold (5.4 Miller Units) (Fig. 2). The variant ArgR proteins (ArgR5aa and Cilomilast in vivo ArgR149) were then analysed for specific binding to ARG box sites using gel-mobility shift assays. The mutant proteins all retarded the migration of a digoxygenin-labelled E. coli ARG box (Fig. 3). Lanes 2–6 and 9–13 show the effect of the increasing

Morin Hydrate concentrations of mutant proteins on their binding activity in the presence of a constant quantity of poly-dIdC and digoxygenin-labelled DNA. A retarded complex was observed at low protein concentrations, which became more apparent as the protein concentration increased. The retarded complexes obtained with the mutant proteins displayed a slightly slower migration than that observed with wild-type ArgR–DNA complexes (Fig. 3, lanes 7 and 14). A labelled nonspecific DNA fragment was not retarded in its migration in the presence of wild-type or mutant ArgR proteins (data not shown). The wild-type and mutant forms of ArgR were then subjected to crosslinking analysis (Fig. 5) using glutaraldehyde. All forms of the protein were able to form higher-order multimeric complexes. Both wild-type ArgR and ArgR5aa form hexamers in the presence of 0.08% glutaraldehyde (Fig. 5, lanes 4 and 8).

We observed a decline in the incidence of all CNS opportunistic i

We observed a decline in the incidence of all CNS opportunistic infections except for PML. Different studies performed in France, Spain and Denmark have also shown a stabilization in the incidence of PML despite the widespread use of HAART [17, 23, 24]. This may be partly Cetuximab supplier explained by the appearance of new cases of PML after the introduction of HAART associated with unmasking IRIS, as previously noted [25]. Different studies have shown a higher survival rate for CNS infections after the introduction of HAART [26, 27]. Indeed, patients with PML, which

is considered the most devastating CNS disorder associated with HIV, have shown improved prognoses [27-29]. Before the introduction of HAART, the median survival time for PML was 8–15 weeks [30], in contrast to the 44.5 months of estimated survival in our cohort. These data are similar to those obtained in other cohort studies performed in the HAART era [17, 24, 26, 27, 31, 32]. However, despite the improvement in survival and the reduction in the incidence, it is important to point out that overall prognosis Talazoparib mw of patients with CNS opportunistic infections is still

poor and most patients experience mild to severe neurological impairment and require long-term care [24, 25, 31, 32]. In our cohort, 31% of patients died and 29% were lost to follow-up. During the first 3 months after diagnosis of the CNS infection, the condition of 14 patients worsened and 24 died or were lost to follow-up. Finally, the estimated probability of survival was only 48% at 3 years. Taken together, these data indicate the necessity of early diagnosis of HIV infection and HAART in order to avoid the possibility of developing a CNS opportunistic infection. The incidence of IRIS in our cohort was 16.4%. This observation agrees with those in other cohorts, where between 17 and 25% of patients developed one or more manifestations as a consequence of the inflammatory syndrome after starting HAART [8, 33, 34]. A prospective study performed in South Africa showed an incidence before of 10% for patients initiating ART, including both unmasking and paradoxical forms of IRIS [35]. In our series, IRIS

presented as paradoxical IRIS in 55.5% of cases and the remaining 44.5% had unmasking IRIS. This finding is consistent with data from a multicentre cohort in which each type of IRIS represented 50% of cases [34]. Regarding the different neurological infections, two prospective studies reported that 13–17% of HIV-infected patients with cryptoccocal meningitis developed paradoxical IRIS after initiation of HAART [9, 36]. Of the 44 cases of IRIS described by Murdoch et al., 6.8% corresponded to cryptoccocal meninigitis, all of them unmasking IRIS [35]. Concerning PML, which has been the disease most commonly related to the development of IRIS, 25% of our cases met the criteria of IRIS, similar to the 18–23% described in previous observational studies [17, 27]. In our cohort, five of 40 (12.

, 2004) However, lack of the HEXXH consensus motif does not auto

, 2004). However, lack of the HEXXH consensus motif does not automatically exclude membership Doramapimod of camelysin in the

zinc metalloprotease family, of which His, Glu, Asp and Arg are possible zinc ligands (Barrett, 1998). Thus, camelysin belongs to the metalloproteases, showing the typical strong inhibition by metal chelators (Fricke et al., 1995), but it is insensitive to phosphoramidon or zincov, which are the strongest inhibitors of neutral metalloproteinases of the thermolysin-type (clan MA) (Rawlings & Barrett, 1993). Metalloprotease camelysin prefers cleavage sites at the Leu–Gly or Leu–Ala bond, which are in front of aliphatic and hydrophilic amino acid residues (-OH, -SO3H amido group), avoiding bulky aromatic residues. Thus, these cleavage sites have a broad protein specificity; all kinds of casein are cleaved as well as acid-soluble collagen, globin and ovalbumin, and intact insulin is only destroyed to a small extent (Fricke

et al., 2001). Metalloprotease camelysin isolated from B. thuringiensis ssp. israelensis (Bti) exhibited maximal activity against the substrate azocasein at a temperature of 37 °C and pH 7.5. However, the enzyme activity remained high at basic pH values (8–10) (Nisnevitch et al., 2010). The immune inhibitor KU-57788 in vitro A (InhA) metalloprotease, which has similarities to the Bacillus thermoproteolyticus thermolysin, the Pseudomonas aeruginosa elastase and the protease E-15 from Serratia, could specifically cleave antibacterial proteins

produced by the insect host (Lövgren et al., 1990; Grandvalet et al., 2001). It was previously reported that InhA is toxic to adult Drosophila (Sidén et al., 1979). The goal of this study was to investigate the role of the metalloproteases of B. thuringiensis Sclareol acrystalliferous strain XBU001. We addressed the issue by deleting the calY gene in the chromosome of B. thuringiensis, and then complementing it. The InhA protein was not expressed in strain KCTF in which the calY gene was deleted. However, the InhA was expressed when the metalloprotease camelysin was complementary in the strain KCTF. This is first report that camelysin can positively regulate the expression of the InhA protein. The bacterial strains and plasmids used in this study are shown in Table 1. Strain KCTF12 (Liu et al., 2008) has a 3.9-kb fragment of cry1Ac integrated in the chromosome derived from B. thuringiensis acrystalliferous strain XBU001 (Hu et al., 2004). It was routinely cultured at 30 °C in Luria–Bertani (LB) medium. Bacillus thuringiensis strains were cultured in fermentation medium for sporulation (Ding et al., 2009). For subcloning, Escherichia coli GB2005 (Fu et al., 2008a, b) was grown at 37 °C in LB medium. Ampicillin (100 μg mL−1), chloramphenicol (5 μg mL−1) or erythromycin (25 μg mL−1) were added to propagate plasmids. Plasmid pUC18 was used for routine cloning and subcloning experiments.

, 1999; Brinkman et al, 2003) A microarray analysis has shown t

, 1999; Brinkman et al., 2003). A microarray analysis has shown that at least 10% of all Escherichia coli genes are under Lrp control (Tani et al., 2002). For some of these genes, the interaction with leucine is responsible for the modulation of Lrp action, with cases in which leucine potentiates and others in which it reduces the Lrp effect. For a third class of genes, which includes the Lrp structural gene, lrp, leucine has no effect on Lrp action

(Wang et al., 1994). It has long been known that in pathogenic enterobacteria, Lrp controls virulence-associated genes (Nou et al., 1993; Hay et al., 1997; Marshall et al., 1999; Comacho & Casadesus, 2002; Cordone et al., 2005; McFarland et al., 2008). More recently, Lrp has been selleck inhibitor shown to repress transcription of genes carried on the pathogenicity islands SPI-1 and SPI-2 of Salmonella (Baek et al., 2009). We have previously characterized the lrp gene of C. rodentium, a mouse pathogen that belongs to the family of human and animal pathogens that includes the clinically significant enteropathogenic (EPEC) and enterohemorrhagic (EHEC) E. coli (Cordone et al., 2005). Citrobacter rodentium causes transmissible colonic hyperplasia in mice by attaching and effacing (A/E) lesions through

which it colonizes the host gastrointestinal tract (Luperchio & Schauer, 2001). As EPEC, EHEC, and other human enteropathogens are not able to colonize mice, C. rodentium has been extensively used as a model of human gastrointestinal pathogens in animal experiments and has FK506 proven useful in revealing phenotypes for proteins not revealed by in vitro P-type ATPase infection models (Mundy et al., 2005). As in EPEC and EHEC, the C. rodentium genes responsible for the induction of A/E lesions belong to the LEE (locus of enterocyte effacement) pathogenicity island (Mundy et al., 2006). The LEE region

of the chromosome is organized into five polycistronic operons (LEE1–LEE5), two bicistronic operons, and four monocistronic units (Clarke et al., 2003). The LEE1 to LEE3 operons mainly encode structural components of a type III secretion system, the LEE4 operon encodes proteins involved in protein translocation, and the LEE5 operon encodes the proteins needed for intimate attachment. Additional genes within the LEE island encode regulatory proteins, such as effector proteins, chaperones, and transcriptional regulators (Barba et al., 2005). Several studies have shown that a complex regulatory network controls the expression of the LEE genes (Friedberg et al., 1999). The global transcriptional regulator H-NS represses the expression of several LEE genes including the LEE1 operon whose first gene, ler (LEE-encoded regulator), encodes the positive regulator Ler, needed for the expression of several LEE genes. Ler induces the expression of genes repressed by H-NS, thus counteracting the H-NS-mediated repression (Bustamante et al., 2001).

A strikingly higher proportion of Pcdh-γ-containing

organ

A strikingly higher proportion of Pcdh-γ-containing

organelles in synaptic compartments was observed at postnatal day 16. To determine the origin of Pcdh-γ-trafficking organelles, we isolated organelles with Pcdh-γ antibody-coupled magnetic beads from brain organelle suspensions. Vesicles with high levels of COPII and endoplasmic reticulum–Golgi intermediate compartment (ERGIC) components were isolated with the Pcdh-γ antibody but not with the classical cadherin antibody. In cultured hippocampal neurons, Pcdh-γ immunolabeling partially overlapped with calnexin- and COPII-positive puncta in dendrites. Mobile Pcdh-γ-GFP profiles dynamically codistributed Screening Library with a DsRed construct coupled to ER retention signals by live imaging. Pcdh-γ expression correlated with accumulations of tubulovesicular and ER-like organelles in dendrites. Our results are consistent with the possibility that Pcdh-γs could have a unique function within the

secretory pathway in addition to their documented surface roles. “
“Neuronal injury is a key feature of neonatal hypoxic–ischemic (HI) brain injury. However, the mechanisms underpinning neuronal losses, such as in the brainstem, BMN 673 manufacturer are poorly understood. One possibility is that disrupted neural connections between the cortex and brainstem may compromise the survival of neuronal cell bodies in the brainstem. We investigated CYTH4 whether brainstem raphé serotonergic neurons that project to the cortex are lost after HI. We also tested if neuroinflammation has a role in disrupting brainstem raphé projections. Postnatal day 3 (P3) rats underwent unilateral carotid

artery ligation followed by hypoxia (6% oxygen for 30 min). A retrograde tracer, choleratoxin b, was deposited in the motor cortex on P38. On P45 we found that retrogradely labelled neurons in the dorsal raphé dorsal, ventrolateral, interfascicular, caudal and ventral nuclei were lost after P3 HI. All retrogradely labelled neurons in the raphé nuclei were serotonergic. Numbers of retrogradely labelled neurons were also reduced in the ventromedial thalamus and basolateral amygdala. Minocycline treatment (45 mg/kg 2 h post-HI, 22.5 mg/kg daily P4–P9) attenuated losses of retrogradely labelled neurons in the dorsal raphé ventrolateral, interfascicular and ventral raphé nuclei, and the ventromedial thalamus. These results indicate that raphé neurons projecting to the cortex constitute a population of serotonergic neurons that are lost after P3 HI. Furthermore, neuroinflammation has a role in the disruption of raphé and thalamic neural projections. Future studies investigating the cellular mechanisms of axonal degeneration may reveal new targets for interventions to prevent neuronal losses after neonatal HI.

[13] Further, vitamin D has been reported to attenuate inflammati

[13] Further, vitamin D has been reported to attenuate inflammation in periodontal tissue induced by Porphyromonus gingivalis, again a strong triggering event for development of RA.[14] Such associations of low vitamin D state with many other systemic autoimmune diseases, including lupus, are also well known and readers will have no difficulty in finding selleckchem enough, and convincing, publications in this regard.[15, 16] Apart from its osteoimmunological implications, vitamin D deficiency and the renin angiotensin system (RAS) activity may represent two sides of the same

coin which is responsible for metabolic syndrome and high cardiovascular mortality, as hypothesized and reported by some.[17] This is all the more relevant as vitamin D is also reported to have a protective role against metabolic syndrome in RA.[18] An inverse relationship between vitamin D levels and C-reactive protein is yet another factor in imparting cardiovascular protection in RA.[19] In contrast, there is a query if vitamin D levels should be tested indiscriminately for every ache and pain in rheumatology and this was addressed in a study from Kuwait published in this issue of IJRD. While the authors report otherwise in this study, there are some elements of truth in the other school of thought too. Most of these studies have methodological flaws, heterogeneous cohort, smaller sample

size and are underpowered to address this issue. However, the majority of the reports from different populations have documented lower vitamin D levels in vague aches and pain than reference populations.[20-22] Correlation between low back pain in people learn more with modic changes and vitamin D insufficiency also

do exist in the literature.[23] A randomized controlled trial conducted among non-Western immigrants with nonspecific musculoskeletal pain in the Netherlands suggests modest benefit of vitamin D.[24] Low Ketotifen vitamin D state in a cohort of fibromyalgia patients and good response to corrective treatment have been documented both in veiled, conservatively dressed, as well as in non-veiled subsets alike.[25] Even in the elderly, post-menopausal, as well as in mixed cohorts of patients with different rheumatic diseases, vitamin D showed clear improvement in musculoskeletal pain[26-28] and negative studies have been reported only occasionally.[29] To add further, vitamin D deficiency leading to hypersensitivity to pain in muscles via nerve endings has been described.[30] And finally, what is non-specific musculoskeletal pain (NSMP)? Is it a harbinger of evolving early inflammatory arthritis at least in a subset of patients, especially in view of its strong association with deficiency of vitamin D in many studies? Can the onset of inflammatory arthritis be delayed by treating a low vitamin D state in this setting? These questions have no answers at this moment.

Author contributions: As the

Author contributions: As the http://www.selleckchem.com/products/jq1.html corresponding author, MBK has had full access to all the data in the study and takes responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis. She supervised the study design, conduct and reporting and participated in revising the manuscript. All of the authors have seen and approved the final manuscript and have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for its content. The Canadian Co-infection cohort investigators (CTN222) are: Drs Jeff Cohen, Windsor Regional Hospital Metropolitan Campus, Windsor, ON; Brian Conway, Downtown IDC, Vancouver, BC; Curtis Cooper, Ottawa General Hospital, Ottawa, ON; Pierre Côté,

Clinique du Quartier Latin, Montreal, QC; Joseph Cox, Montreal General Hospital, Montreal, QC; John Gill, Southern Alberta RO4929097 manufacturer HIV Clinic, Calgary, AB; Mark Tyndall, Native Health Centre, Vancouver, ON; Shariq Haider, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON; Marrianne Harris, St. Paul’s Hospital, Vancouver, BC; David Hasae, Capital District Health Authority, and Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS; Julio Montaner, St. Paul’s Hospital, Vancouver, BC; Erica Moodie, McGill University, Montreal, QC; Neora Pick, Oak Tree Clinic, Vancouver, BC; Anita Rachlis, Sunnybrook Health

Sciences Centre, Toronto, ON; Roger Sandre, HAVEN Program, Sudbury, ON; Danielle Rouleau, Centre Hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal, Montréal, QC; David Wong, University Health Network, Toronto, ON; Mark Hull, BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, Vancouver, BC; and Sharon Walmsley, Toronto General Hospital, Toronto, ON. “
“For detailed

guidance on HIV VL, resistance and genotropism testing, the reader should consult BHIVA guidelines for the routine investigation and monitoring of adult HIV-1-infected individuals 2011 [1] (http://www.bhiva.org/Monitoring.aspx). The following recommendations concern the management of patients experiencing virological failure on ART. Patient populations at the Etomidate time of virological failure will include those with no or limited HIV drug resistance through to those with three-class failure and either no or limited treatment options. For the assessment and evaluation of evidence, priority questions were agreed and outcomes were ranked (critical, important and not important) by members of the Writing Group. For patients with no or limited HIV drug resistance the following were ranked as critical outcomes: viral suppression <50 copies/mL at 48 weeks, development of resistance, discontinuation rates for clinical and laboratory adverse events. For patients with three-class failure/few therapeutic options: clinical progression, median CD4 cell count change at 48 weeks, and development of new resistance. Treatments were compared where data were available and differences in outcomes assessed.

Results are expressed as ‘Miller’ units, which are proportional <

Results are expressed as ‘Miller’ units, which are proportional Idelalisib in vitro to the increase in the absorbance of free o-nitrophenol per minute per constant cell density. Statistical significance was evaluated using Student’s t-test, with a P-value <0.05 considered significant. In order to determine the 5′ end of the NMA1803–NMA1805 transcript, primer extension was performed. Oligonucleotide EMSA_NMA1803-R

was end labelled with [γ32-P]-dATP using polynucleotide kinase (New England Biolabs) (Sambrook et al., 1989). Next, total RNA was mixed with 200 ng of end-labelled oligonucleotide in the presence of SuperScript II RNAse H reverse transcriptase, according to the manufacturer’s instructions. In parallel, a sequencing reaction was performed using the sequenase 2.0 kit (USB) using the same EMSA_NMA1803-R primer and the PCR product as that obtained with primers EMSA_NMA1803-F

and NMA1803-Up to allow the identification of the end of the mRNA. The ORF of NMA1805 devoid of its stop codon was amplified by PCR using genomic DNA from N. meningitidis strain 8013 as a template and a pair of primers NMA1805-NcoI-5′/NMA1805-XhoI-3′ (Table 1), which contained restriction sites for NcoI and XhoI, respectively. The PCR product was digested with NcoI and XhoI, gel purified using the QIAEXII gel extraction kit (Qiagen) and subcloned into pET28a(+) (Novagen) restricted by NcoI and XhoI. This introduced a six-histidine tag at the C-terminus HSP inhibitor of the recombinant NMA1805 protein. The protein was expressed in E. coli BL21(DE3) and purified using Ni-NTA agarose (Qiagen). EMSA was performed as described previously (Tzeng et al., 2006), using as probes PCR products Selleckchem Gefitinib generated using genomic DNA from N. meningitidis as a template and the primers indicated in Table 1. DNA fragments were PCR amplified, 32P-labelled

by T4 polynucleotide kinase, mixed with the NMA1805 protein, subjected to gel electrophoresis and autoradiographed. In order to elucidate the regulation pathway that controls the expression of the pilC1 gene, an insertional-mutant library of N. meningitidis where transposon insertions have been mapped (Geoffroy et al., 2003) was screened for the search of mutants disrupted for genes encoding known and putative transcription factors. The mutations were introduced by transformation in N. meningitidis strain KZ1C that harbours a transcriptional fusion between the pilC1 gene and a promoterless lacZ gene that encodes the β-galactosidase. The resulting mutants were investigated in adhesion assays. The β-galactosidase activity was measured from bacteria grown in the absence of host cells and from adherent bacteria harvested after 1 and 4 h of adhesion to HUVECs. In wild-type strain KZ1C, the β-galactosidase activity, which reflects the expression of the pilC1 gene, was induced by host cell contact (Fig. 1b), as reported previously (Taha et al., 1998; Morelle et al., 2003; Morand et al., 2004).

Although this article is not a systematic review, it

prov

Although this article is not a systematic review, it

provides a comprehensive and detailed review of the rules and regulations regarding the training and educational requirements of pharmacy technicians across different pharmacy settings in the USA. The future roles of pharmacy technicians are limited only by their education and the restrictions of individual states. Future duties may continue to change as the profession looks for new and innovative ways to utilize pharmacists as medication counselors and managers of patient care. Balancing the profession’s needs with patient care and the standardization of pharmacy technician training Galunisertib in vitro and examination remains the source of the controversy. With more incentives to participate in certification, as well as the recent surge www.selleckchem.com/products/nivolumab.html of support from employers, the profession of pharmacy should not hesitate to demand standardized national training for all technicians in the future. The Author(s) declare(s) that they

have no conflicts of interest to disclose. This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. We express our sincere thanks to Robbie Davis, PharmD, Kalicharan Motheramgari, PharmD and Theodore Simmons, PharmD for their contributions towards the literature review reported in this paper. “
“Objective  To understand and clarify how professionalism is learnt, cultivated and facilitated in pharmacy education. Methods  Qualitative methodology involving three UK schools of pharmacy was used, including documentary analysis of course materials, interviews with seven teaching staff,

six focus groups with 38 final-year pharmacy students and observation of professional pharmacy practice classes. We used a ‘curriculum mapping’ framework; analysis was thematic, with triangulation of methods and constant comparison between groups of participants and schools. Bcl-w Key findings  Students and teachers found defining professionalism difficult, but they identified common attitudinal and behavioural attributes. These were predominantly based on students’ work experience, and role models were identified as particularly influential. Professionalism learning needed to be grounded and longitudinal throughout the curriculum. Practical classes and the use of real-life examples and role plays were influential; and teacher practitioners appeared particularly valuable due to their dual base in practice. Explicit statements in year books and codes of conduct were valuable, especially if they were reinforced and carried through. Conclusions  This study offers novel insights into professionalism learning during undergraduate education in the UK, by triangulating evidence from different sources and perspectives. It not only underpins the importance of professionalism learning but also highlights approaches which appeared valuable within the constraints of an otherwise artificial university environment.

S2) Fermentation broths of S spinosa CCTCC M206084 and three ex

S2). Fermentation broths of S. spinosa CCTCC M206084 and three exconjugants were detected by HPLC and HPLC-MS. All samples revealed two compounds with the same retention times as those of the standard spinosyn A and spinosyn D (Fig. 2). Their identities were further confirmed by HPLC-MS, showing a measured m/z of 732.6 and 747.0 (M + H)+ which were consistent with the molecular formula C41H65NO10 for spinosyn A and C42H67NO10 for spinosyn D, respectively (Fig. S3). Three exconjugants enhanced their production of spinosad ranging from 1.90- to 2.24-fold when fermented in the production medium PM1. Fermentation in the modified

production medium PM2 showed a similar trend of increased spinosad production, with S. spinosa trans1 showing the highest increase. According to the standard curve, the total concentration of spinosyns A and D of S. spinosa trans1 in production medium PM2 was 388.0 Dasatinib (± 25.0) mg L−1, which overproduced 3.88-fold spinosad compared with 100.0 (± 7.7) mg L−1 in the parental strain. Analysis of variance by spss 16.0 showed that the increases of spinosad

production in the three exconjugants when compared with that of the wild-type strain were statistically significant. Furthermore, three extra peaks were observed in the chromatogram of the mutant strain but not UK-371804 molecular weight of the wild-type strain (peaks marked with an asterisk, Fig. 2). The HPLC-MS result indicated that these peaks might have a m/z of 718.0 (M + H)+. As the spinosyns B, E, F, H, J, and K all had a relative molecular mass of 718.0 (Sparks et al., 2008), we speculated that they could be minor spinosyn derivatives. The exconjugants and the wild-type strain shared a comparable final biomass

(data not shown), implying that higher biomass was not an overproduction mechanism. Saccharopolyspora spinosa trans1, which had the highest increase in spinosad production among the three exconjugants, was chosen to further assess gene dose effect on increasing the enzyme production. According to the time course for spinosad production of the parental strain and S. spinosa trans1 in production medium PM1 (Fig. S4), the total RNA was extracted from the fifth day fermentation culture for RT-PCR analysis. spnK, spnI and spnH were selected from three different transcript units. The transcript level of the gene fragment PtdIns(3,4)P2 of sigA served as a control in this study. The transcript levels of spnK, spnH, and spnI in recombinant strain trans1 were 3.203-, 3.524- and 3.495-fold higher than those in the parental strain, respectively (Fig. 3). The increase in transcript levels for spnK, spnI, and spnH agreed with the high yield of spinosad in the exconjugants. Exconjugants of S. spinosa CCTCC M206084 were passaged in the absence of selection in TSB for 16 culture doublings (Matsushima et al., 1994), and then plated on brain heart infusion broth (BHI; Difco) with Am (50 μg mL−1) and without Am.