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Tuc2009 is a temperate bacteriophage of Lactococcus lactis subsp. cremoris UC509 which encodes a CI- and Cro-type lysogenic-lytic switch region. A helix-swap of the 0 helices of the closely related Cl-type proteins from the lactococcal phages r1t and Tuc2009 revealed the crucial elements involved in DNA recognition while also pointing to conserved functional properties of phage Cl proteins infecting different hosts. CI-type proteins have been shown to bind to specific sequences located in the intergenic switch region, but to date, no detailed binding studies have been performed on lactococcal Cro analogues. Experiments shown here demonstrate alternative binding sites for these two proteins of Tuc2009. CI2009 binds to three inverted repeats, two within the intergenic region and one within the cro(2009) gene. This DNA-binding pattern appears to be conserved among repressors of lactococcal and streptococcal phages. The Cro(2009) protein appears to bind to three direct repeats within the intergenic region causing distortion of the bound DNA. (c) 2005 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The C-terminal region (cA) of the major autolysin AcmA of Lactococcus lactis contains three highly similar repeated regions of 45 amino acid residues (LysM domains), which are separated by nonhomologous sequences. The cA domain could be deleted without destroying the cell wall-hydrolyzing activity of the enzyme in vitro. This AcmA derivative was capable neither of binding to lactococcal cells nor of lysing these cells while separation of the producer cells was incomplete. The cA domain and a chimeric protein consisting of cA fused to the C terminus of MSA2, a malaria parasite surface antigen, bound to lactococcal cells specifically via cA. The fusion protein also bound to many other Gram-positive bacteria. By chemical treatment of purified cell walls of L. lactis and Bacillus subtilis, peptidoglycan was identified as the cell wall component interacting with cA. Immunofluorescence studies showed that binding is on specific locations on the surface of L. lactis, Enterococcus faecalis, Streptococcus thermophilus, B. subtilis, Lactobacillus sake, and Lactobacillus casei cells. Based on these studies, we propose that LysM-type repeats bind to peptidoglycan and that binding is hindered by other cell wall constituents, resulting in localized binding of AcmA. Lipoteichoic acid is a candidate hindering component. For L. lactis SK110, it is shown that lipoteichoic acids are not uniformly distributed over the cell surface and are mainly present at sites where no MSA2cA binding is observed.

AcmA, the major autolysin of Lactococcus lactis MG1363 is a modular protein consisting of an N-terminal active site domain and a C-terminal peptidoglycan-binding domain. The active site domain is homologous to that of muramidase-2 of Enterococcus hirae, however, RP-HPLC analysis of muropeptides released from Bacillus subtilis peptidoglycan, after digestion with AcmA, shows that AcmA is an N-acetylglucosaminidase. In the C-terminus of AcmA three highly similar repeated regions of 45 amino acid residues are present, which are separated by short nonhomologous sequences. The repeats of AcmA, which belong to the lysine motif (LysM) domain family, were consecutively deleted, removed, or, alternatively, one additional repeat was added, without destroying the cell wall-hydrolyzing activity of the enzyme in vitro, although AcmA activity was reduced in all cases. In vivo, proteins containing no or only one repeat did not give rise to autolysis of lactococcal cells, whereas separation of the producer cells from the chains was incomplete. Exogenously added AcmA deletion derivatives carrying two repeats or four repeats bound to lactococcal cells, whereas the derivative with no or one repeat did not. In conclusion, these results show that AcmA needs three LysM domains for optimal peptidoglycan binding and biological functioning.

Genetic competence is a differentiation process initiated by Bacillus subtilis as a result of nutritional deprivation, and is controlled by a complex signal transduction cascade. The promoter of comK, encoding the competence transcription factor, is regulated by at least four different transcription factors: Rok, CodY, DegU and ComK itself. Genetic data have shown that comK expression is influenced by the transition state regulator AbrB as well. In this paper we show that AbrB binds specifically to the comK promoter and covers the RNA polymerase binding site, making it the fifth transcription factor regulating the activity of the comK promoter. (C) 2002 Federation of European Microbiological Societies. Published by Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Deze bijdrage gaat over de veranderende patronen van armoede op het platteland en bij boeren in de periode 1950-2000. Na een algemene inleiding wordt ingegaan op het begrip armoede. In dit gedeelte schetsen we verschillende soorten armoede, aan de hand van de metaforen over kapitaal van Bourdieu (1977), en wijzen we op een vierde vorm van kapitaal die voor boeren van belang is: het ecologische kapitaal. Dan volgt een beschrijving van de armoede op het platteland in de late jaren veertig en de jaren vijftig. Dit gebeurt door de situatie van welvaart en armoede te plaatsen tegen de achtergrond van oorspronkelijke landschaps- en nederzettingstypen. Daarna volgt een case-study over veranderingen en ontwikkelingen in een Fries dorp (Ureterp) met meerdere landschappen. Het volgende deel is een samenvatting van de resultaten van recente onderzoeken naar armoede bij agrarische gezinsbedrijven. In het slotdeel wordt de huidige aan de landbouw gerelateerde armoede op het platteland vergeleken met die van een halve eeuw terug