Can J Microbiol 2007,53(3):450–458.CrossRefPubMed 35. McDonald K: High-pressure Freezing for Preservation of High Resolution Fine Structure and Antigenicity for Immunolabeling. Methods Mol Biol 1999, 177:77–97.CrossRef 36. Webster P, Wu S, Webster S, Rich KA, McDonald K: Ultrastructural Preservation of Biofilms Formed by Non-typeable RG7112 ic50 Hemophilus influenzae. Biofilms 2004, 1:165–182.CrossRef 37. Hunter RC, Beveridge TJ: High-Resolution Visualization of Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1 Biofilms by Freeze-Substitution Transmission Electron Microscopy. J Bacteriol 2005,187(22):7619–7630.CrossRefPubMed 38. Han B, Bischof JC: Direct

Cell Injury Associated with Eutectic Crystallization during Freezing. Cryobiology 2004,48(1):8–21.CrossRefPubMed 39. Engelking LR: Textbook of Veterinary Physiological Chemistry. Jackson: Teton New Media 2004. 40. Costerton JW, Stewart PS, Greenberg EP: Bacterial Biofilms: a Common Cause of Persistent AZD1390 order Infections. Science 1999,284(5418):1318–1322.CrossRefPubMed 41. Wingender J, Strathmann M, Rode A,

Leis A, Flemming HC: Isolation and Biochemical Characterization of Extracellular Polymeric Substances from Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Meth Enzymol 2001, 336:302–314.CrossRefPubMed 42. Davies DG: Microbial Extracellular Polymeric Substances. Microbial click here Extracellular Polymeric Substances: Characterization, Structure and Function (Edited by: Wingender J, Neu TR, Flemming H-C). Berlin: Springer-Verlag Dapagliflozin 1999, 93. 43. Körstgens V, Flemming HC, Wingender J, Borchard W: Influence of Calcium Ions on the Mechanical Properties of a Model Biofilm of Mucoid Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Water Sci Technol 2001,43(6):49–57.PubMed 44. Stewart PS, Franklin MJ: Physiological Heterogeneity in Biofilms. Nat Rev Microbiol 2008,6(3):199–210.CrossRefPubMed 45. Romero R, Schaudinn C, Kusanovic JP, Gorur A, Gotsch F, Webster P, Nhan-Chang CL, Erez O, Kim CJ, Espinoza J, et al.: Detection of a Microbial Biofilm in Intraamniotic Infection. Am J Obstet Gynecol 2008,198(1):135.e1–135.e5.CrossRef 46. Sedghizadeh PP, Kumar

SKS, Gorur A, Schaudinn C, Shuler CF, Costerton JW: Identification of Microbial Biofilms in Osteonecrosis of the Jaws Secondary to Bisphosphonate Therapy. J Oral Maxillofac Surg 2008,66(4):767–775.CrossRefPubMed 47. West SA, Griffin AS, Gardner A, Diggle SP: Social Evolution Theory for Microorganisms. Nat Rev Microbiol 2006,4(8):597–607.CrossRefPubMed 48. Xavier JB, Foster KR: Cooperation and Conflict in Microbial Biofilms. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 2007,104(3):876–881.CrossRefPubMed 49. Danhorn T, Fuqua C: Biofilm Formation by Plant-associated Bacteria. Annu Rev Microbiol 2007, 61:401–422.CrossRefPubMed 50. Begun J, Gaiani JM, Rohde H, Mack D, Calderwood SB, Ausubel FM, Sifri CD: Staphylococcal Biofilm Exopolysaccharide Protects against Caenorhabditis elegans Immune Defenses. PLoS Pathog 2007,3(4):e57.CrossRefPubMed 51.

Serum LDL decreased slightly in response to creatine loading in the CrM group but returned to baseline after ingesting maintenance doses of CrM suggesting these changes were transient. Additionally, no significant differences were observed among groups in markers of catabolism (BUN, BUN:CRN, AST, ALT, Total Protein, TBIL), markers of bone status (bone mineral content, ALB, GLOB, ALB:GLOB, calcium, ALK) or whole blood markers (WBC, RBC, Hematocrit, Small molecule library Hemoglobin, MCV, MCH, MCHC, RBCDW, platelet counts). Moreover, values remained within normal levels for active individuals. These findings are consistent with other studies that have examined the safety of creatine supplementation in active individuals

[1, 3, 21, 26, 27, 38]. Consequently, present findings do not support claims LY2606368 purchase that KA is a safer form of creatine to ingest than creatine monohydrate.

Conclusion In summary, supplementation of the diet with recommended doses of a purported buffered form of creatine (1.5 g/d) for 28-days or equivalent loading (20 g/d for 7-days) and maintenance doses (5 g/d for selleck chemical 21-days) of CrM did not promote greater increases in muscle creatine content or training adaptations in comparison to creatine monohydrate (20 g/d for 7-days, 5 g/d for 21-days). Additionally, there was no evidence to support claims that the buffered form of creatine was associated with fewer side effects or was a safer form of creatine to consume than creatine monohydrate. While it could be argued that supplementing the diet with any form of creatine may provide some health and/or Branched chain aminotransferase ergogenic benefits over time as long as it delivers sufficient amounts of creatine to increase muscle creatine content; present findings do not support claims

that KA is a more efficacious and/or safer form of creatine than creatine monohydrate. With this said, some limitations of this study should be noted. For example, this study did not have a control group and depended on participants to self-report side effects. Therefore, while the safety profile of short and long-term creatine monohydrate supplementation has been well established, safety and efficacy could only be compared to ingesting different levels and forms of creatine and not controls. There is also variability in conducting muscle and blood assays as well as variability in conducting performance tests. In some instances, large mean differences among groups were either not statistically significant or only approached significance. It is possible that some of these differences would have been significant if a control group was included in the study design and/or more subjects were studied to increase statistical power. Nevertheless, results from the present study do not support claims that KA is a more efficacious and/or safer form of creatine to consume than creatine monohydrate. Funding Supported by AlzChem AG, Germany.

Lancet 359:1929–1936PubMedCrossRef 59. Hui SL, Slemenda CW, Johnston C (1998) Age and bone mass as predictors of fracture in a prospective study. J Clin Invest 81:1804–1809CrossRef 60. Kanis JA, Johansson H, Oden A et al (2004) A family history of fracture and fracture risk: a meta-analysis. Bone 35:1029–1037PubMedCrossRef 61. Kanis JA, Johansson H, Oden A et al (2004) A meta-analysis of prior corticosteroid

use and fracture risk. J Bone Miner Res 19:893–899PubMedCrossRef 62. Kanis JA, Johansson H, Johnell O, Oden A, De Laet C, Eisman JA, Pols H, Tenenhouse A (2005) Alcohol intake as a risk factor for fracture. Osteoporos Int 16:737–742PubMedCrossRef 63. Kanis JA, Johnell O, Oden A, Johansson H, De Laet C, Eisman J (2006) Smoking and fracture risk: a meta-analysis. Osteoporos Int 16:155–162CrossRef 64. De Laet C, Kanis JA, Oden A et al (2005) Body mass index as a predictor of fracture risk: Sapanisertib molecular weight a meta-analysis. Osteoporos Int 16:1330–1338PubMedCrossRef 65. Klotzbuecher CM, Ross PD, Landsman PD, Abbott TA, Berger M (2000) Patients with prior fractures have an increased risk of future fractures: a summary of the literature and statistical

synthesis. J Bone Miner Res 15:721–739PubMedCrossRef 66. Kanis JA, McCloskey E, Johansson H, Oden A, learn more Leslie WD (2012) FRAX® with and without bone mineral density. Calcif Tissue Int 90:1–13PubMedCrossRef 67. Schwartz AV, Vittinghoff E, Bauer DC et al (2011)

Association of BMD and FRAX score with risk of fracture in older adults with type 2 diabetes. JAMA 305:2184–2192PubMedCrossRef 68. Giangregorio LM, Leslie WD, Lix LM, Johansson H, Oden A, McCloskey E, Kanis JA (2012) FRAX underestimates fracture risk in patients with diabetes. J Bone Miner Res 27:301–308PubMedCrossRef 69. Nguyen ND, Frost Avelestat (AZD9668) SA, Center JR, Eisman JA, Nguyen TV (2008) Development of prognostic nomograms for individualizing 5-year and 10-year fracture risks. Osteoporos Int 19:1431–1444PubMedCrossRef 70. Hippisley-Cox J, Coupland C (2009) Predicting risk of osteoporotic fracture in men and women in England and Wales: prospective derivation and validation of QFractureScores. BMJ 339:b4229PubMedCrossRef 71. McClung MR, Geusens P, Miller PD et al (2001) Effect of risedronate on the risk of hip fracture in elderly women. Hip Intervention Program Study Group. N Engl J Med 344:333–340PubMedCrossRef 72. Delmas PD, Eastell R, Garnero P, Seibel MJ, Stepan J (2000) The use of biochemical markers of bone turnover in osteoporosis. Committee of Scientific Advisors of the International Osteoporosis Foundation. Osteoporos Int 11(Suppl 6):S2–S17PubMedCrossRef 73. Johnell O, Oden A, De Laet C, Garnero P, Delmas PD, Kanis JA (2002) Biochemical JQ1 indices of bone turnover and the assessment of fracture probability. Osteoporos Int 13:523–526PubMedCrossRef 74.

The optimal AgNP concentration was found at 5 × 10-7 mg/μl. Under this condition, the SERS intensity was at least 5-fold higher than that of the normal Raman spectrum measured from the bacteria sample without AgNP spiking, which was proof of the effectiveness of the concept for the DEP-Bucladesine purchase assisted NP-bacteria adsorption intended to enhance the Raman signal. The minimal gap for assembled microparticles has been calculated to be roughly 10 nm (approximately

2λ, λ is the thickness of the double layer) at a conductivity of 1 mS/cm [9]; thus, the electric field is compressed, and the DEP force is locally amplified at the assembled bead-bead gaps such that the nanostructures produce an extremely high positive DEP GM6001 chemical structure force for manipulating AgNPs/nanocolloids, as shown in Figure  2a. Another assisted EPZ015938 research buy mechanism for AgNP-bacteria adsorption could be attributed to the electric field-induced dipole-dipole interaction [29, 30]. Figure  4b shows five spectra of S. aureus that were detected for five times by five different chips. This result demonstrates

good spectral reproducibility via dielectrophoresistic-assisted AgNP-bacteria sorption. Figure 4 Bacteria Raman signals and spectra of S . aureus . (a) The bacteria solution with different AgNP concentrations of 2.5 × 10-7, 5 × 10-7, and 1 × 10-6 mg/μl was adjusted to investigate the optimal AgNP condition for SERS resulting in an optimal AgNP concentration being found at 5 × 10-7 mg/μl. (b) Spectra of S. aureus that were detected via the amplified DEP AgNP-enhanced Raman five runs using five different chips. The blood cell-bacteria mixture was also used to demonstrate that our platform is capable of identifying bacteria from a diluted blood sample. Therefore, the DEP approach was also used to separate bacteria and blood cells. A voltage of Sclareol 15 Vp-p at a frequency of 1 MHz was applied to separate the bacteria and blood cells based on their different DEP behaviors. Under this electrical condition, the blood

cells were attracted to the electrode edges by the positive DEP force, while the bacteria experienced a negative DEP force and were trapped and concentrated in the middle region between the quadruple electrodes where there is a high density of bacteria aggregate to be Raman-detected, as shown in Figure  5a and inset A1. After bacteria separation and concentration, the trapped bacteria aggregate continued to experience the amplified DEP force in order to adsorb the AgNPs into the bacteria aggregate for 3 min. The Raman laser spot was then irradiated to the bacteria-NP aggregate separated from the blood cells for the purpose of SERS identification of the concentrated bacteria. The red and green lines in Figure  5b indicate the Raman spectra of the red blood cell (RBC) and RBC-bacteria mixture, respectively.

Figure 7 Transcriptional expression patterns of the three Bdellovibrio chaperonin genes during axenic Host-Independent growth. RT-PCR with transcript specific

primers was carried out on matched concentrations of RNA (matched by Nanodrop spectrophotometer readings) from axenically grown Host-Independent Bdellovibrio. Three independently isolated strains of each sigma factor mutant and each host-independent (HI) wild-type were used to account for HI strain-to strain variation. L- NEB 100 bp ladder –ve – no template negative control + ve- HD100 genomic DNA positive control. Conclusions We have shown that of three B. bacteriovorus HD100 sigma factor genes with at least partial rpoE homology, one- bd3314, Rabusertib is likely essential for Bdellovibrio cell life and cannot be deleted. bd0881 and bd0743 can be deleted with the Bdellovibrio retaining the ability to grow predatorily or prey-independently. In the case of ΔBd0881 the predatory efficiency was reduced,

despite the flagellar motility of the mutant being slightly increased, (despite a slight but statistically significant shortening of ROCK inhibitor flagellar filament length) thus the change in predation efficiency may not be due to motility changes but regulation of other predatory genes. The bd0881 gene has an expression pattern across the predatory cycle that is ML323 similar to that of the flagellin genes whose expression is required for Bdellovibrio

motility. That bd0881 expression is turned off and then resumes at a similar time to flagellin gene expression, during the predatory cycle, implies stiripentol that Bd0881 may have a role associated with pre-septation developmental maturation of Bdellovibrio around the time that flagella are being built in newly dividing cells. However the Bd0881 sigma factor does not directly regulate the expression of fliC flagellin or mot flagellar motor genes themselves. Surprisingly, predatory efficiency was not affected in our cultures by the slower swimming speed of the ΔBd0743 sigma factor mutant; this is probably indicative of sufficient mixing of predator and prey at close quarters in lab conditions. The slight increase in flagellar length in ΔBd0743 mutants is likely to have come with the incorporation of a higher percentage of a less rigid flagellin in the flagella causing a less efficient “bow wave” and this may account for the slower swimming. In both the ΔBd0743 and ΔBd0881 mutants, small but significant changes in swimming speed were paradoxically associated with changes apparently in the wrong direction in flagellar length. This shows that it is not simply flagellar length that governs the thrust produced by flagellar propellers.

Energy Environ Sci 2009, 2:426–429.CrossRef 28. Burnside SD, Shklover V, Barbé C, Comte P, Arendse F, Brooks K, Grätzel M: Self-organization of TiO2 nanoparticles in thin films. Chem Mater 1998, 10:2419–2425.CrossRef 29. Hu H, Chen BL, Bu CH, Tai QD, Guo F, Xu S, Xu JH, Zhao XZ: Stability study of carbon-based counter MK0683 ic50 electrodes in dye-sensitized solar cells. Electrochim Acta 2011, 56:8463–8466.CrossRef 30. Wang Q, Moser JE, Grätzel M: Electrochemical Mdm2 inhibitor impedance spectroscopic analysis of dye-sensitized solar cells. J Phys Chem B 2005, 109:14945–14953.CrossRef Competing interests The authors declare

that they have no competing interests. Authors’ contributions JL participated in the design of the study, carried out the experiments, and drafted the manuscript. SYR and JK carried out the sample preparation and measurements. YJ supervised the work. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.”
“Background Since discovered by Andre Geim and Konstantin 4SC-202 chemical structure Novoselov in 2004 [1], graphene has drawn significant attention to different scientific

and technical communities due to its unique electrical, chemical, mechanical, optical, and structural properties [2]. However, large-area graphene remains to be a metallic conductor even at the neutrality point which limits its application in nanoelectronic devices and biological science [3–6]. In addition, for the purpose of drug delivery and biological nanoprobe applications, small-sized graphene or graphene oxides (GOs) can easily be swallowed into organs, tissues, and cells [7]. Recently, quite a lot of researchers have reported about the preparation of graphene ribbons with quantum confinement and edge effect properties by directly tailoring large-area graphene via e-beam lithography [8], hydrogen plasma etching [9], scanning tunneling microscope lithography [10], atomic force

microscopy [11], chemical stripping, Inositol monophosphatase 1 or catalytic tailoring (Fe, Ni, and Co nanoparticles as catalysts) [12–16]. Usually, the technologies used for synthesis of graphene ribbons mostly must be operated under ultrahigh-vacuum and high-energy conditions. So it is very difficult to produce large quantities of water-soluble graphene pieces. Moreover, these extreme synthetic conditions will be ultimately bound to affect the properties of graphene ribbon. Till now, direct soluble-phase formation of nanoscale graphene or graphene oxide pieces has been rarely involved [17]. Generally, through selecting small-sized graphite as raw materials to control the size of GO during the synthesis of GO through the Hummers procedure, subsequently complicated treatment with strong sonication treatment and stepwise centrifugation at 4,000 to 10,000 rpm, a small-sized GO can be obtained [18]. However, the procedures are quite complex and the yield of nanoscale fragments is also very low.

The authors conclude that the development of consistent and regionalized adaptation strategies for forest management and the adequate transfer of these into practice are particularly important for conserving forest biodiversity in the context of climate change. The last three articles address potential strategies and instruments of forest biodiversity conservation for coping with climate

change and related challenges. These tackle this topic from different see more points of view and use rather diverse approaches, ranging from a classical review, via an empirical study of socio-cultural data to a model-based spatial analysis. The extensive literature review of Pawson et al. (2013) analyses the direct and indirect impacts of climate change for plantation forests. Though often underestimated, plantation forests may contribute via their increasing area worldwide to biodiversity conservation by serving as secondary habitats as well as by reducing negative impacts on remaining primary forest ecosystems. MAPK inhibitor Similar to other forest ecosystems, plantation forests will suffer from direct impacts of climate change such as higher storm and fire frequencies or outbreaks of pests and diseases. However, the

authors conclude Selleck VS-4718 that the adaptation of forest management is likely to have greater effects on biodiversity in plantation forests than direct climate impacts. They advocate a landscape-level concept for the design and management of plantation forests to maximize the opportunities ID-8 for biodiversity conservation of plantation ecosystems in a changing climate. Provided adequate environmental safeguards are included, the international payment transfer mechanism to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries, known as REDD+, could take on an important role in climate change mitigation as well as forest biodiversity conservation in the future. Taking REDD+ pilot projects in Peru as an example, Entenmann and Schmitt (2013) identify expectations and policy issues with regards to forest biodiversity conservation that are assigned to

the instrument by different actors in this country. The authors reveal that most actors see direct links between REDD+ and biodiversity conservation. Biodiversity values mentioned by the actors were, above all, connected to direct or indirect uses. Aspects of biodiversity that are vital for the long-term integrity of forest ecosystems were not rated as equally important. This highlights the importance of integrating respective safeguards into the REDD+ mechanism. In light of climate change, conservation priorities may shift. Thus, the systematic and efficient redirection of the limited resources available for biodiversity conservation will become increasingly important. In the last paper of this special issue, Freudenberger et al.

Angew Chem Int Ed 2008, 47:6177–6179.CrossRef 25. Srivastava M, Selvi VE, Grips VKW, Rajam KS: Corrosion resistance and microstructure of electrodeposited nickel–cobalt alloy coatings. Surf Coat Tech 2006, 201:3051–3060.CrossRef 26. Hansen M: Constitution of Binary Alloys. 2nd edition. New York: McGraw-Hill; 1958:486. Competing interests The authors declare that they have no competing interests. Authors’ contributions The experiments presented in this work were conceived and designed by VMP, KN, and CL. JG, LI, and VV prepared the samples during the laboratory tasks on the SiO2 atomic layer deposition

on the 3-deazaneplanocin A cell line alumina membranes. Co-Ni magnetic nanowires were microscopically characterized Bafilomycin A1 by JG, LI, VV, EDB-C, Combretastatin A4 price RM-R, AP, and CL, and they analyzed the SEM, TEM, STEM, and SAED results. JG, VV, and VMP carried out the magnetometry measurements on the samples and analyzed the results. JG, VV, RM-R, CL, DG, KN, and VMP analyzed and discussed the results obtained from the experiments.

JG, VV, CL, and VMP wrote the manuscript, and the last version of this was revised by all the authors (VMP, JG, LI, VV, DG, KN, EDB-C, RM-R, AP, and CL). All authors read and approved the final manuscript.”
“Background Over the past years, ZnO nano- or microstructures have attracted great interest in a wide range of application fields such as electronic, photonic, photovoltaic, piezoelectric, 4-Aminobutyrate aminotransferase and chemical sensing devices due to their unique properties [1–5]. Recently,

many efforts have been made to synthesize and integrate such ZnO nanostructures on specific substrates based on functional materials including graphene, paper fibers, and conductive fabric as well as flexible or foldable plastic substrates with less weight and cost-effective productivity because their physical and chemical properties can be improved [6–9]. Synthetic strategies, e.g., hydrothermal synthesis, sol–gel method, electrochemical deposition (ED), chemical vapor deposition, and laser ablation technique, have been developed to fabricate high-purity and high-crystallinity ZnO nanostructures on functional substrates. Among them, particularly, the ED method has many advantages in producing ZnO nanostructures [10–12]. For instance, ZnO nanostructures could be grown at low temperature (75°C to 85°C) for short preparation time utilizing the ED process. Furthermore, the shape and size of ZnO nanostructures were readily tuned by controlling the external cathodic voltage and concentration of growth solution. For this reason, it would be desirable to integrate ZnO submicron structures on carbon fibers by the ED method.

We note that, due to thermal fluctuations, the FGFR inhibitor curvature profile of the rings are constantly changing; calculating the bending strain energy for a particular case may result in a more accurate description for a single instance. Thus, we consider limiting cases only. The maximal case can be determined considering the upper bound of α = 1, wherein the entire loop may unfurl, and the minimum β. In the three-loop configuration, κ = 6π/L, while completely unfolded, κ = 2π/L, such Proteasome inhibitor that, for this particular structure, the lower bound of β is 1/3. With these two assumptions, (4b) Moreover, noting again that κ = 6π/L, (4c) Note that here D represents the effective

bending stiffness. We also presume that carbyne behaves as a flexible molecular chain with a temperature-dependent flexibility and finite rigidity at zero temperature. A common property of molecular chains in polymer science is the persistence length, P, defined as the characteristic length over which direction can be correlated [71], related to both temperature (T) and bending rigidity (D). For flexible molecules, the persistence length can be approximated

as P = D/k B T, where k B is the Boltzmann constant [72]. In a similar manner, persistence length is formulated here as a proxy for rigidity, assuming some finite persistence independent of temperature. As a consequence, the bending ITF2357 solubility dmso stiffness, D, can be directly represented as a function of temperature: (5) where P 0 is considered the temperature-independent persistence length. In effect, the apparent bending rigidity increases with temperature,

also supported by previous theoretical results; a recent ab initio (temperature-free) investigation reports the bending stiffness to be in the order of 5.3(10-2) nN-nm2[23], while a finite temperature (300 K) molecular dynamics study reports a stiffness of approximately 13 to 20(10-2) nN-nm2[21]. Here, D 0 is the rigidity at zero temperature (as carbyne is not ideally flexible) much and thus is approximated as 5.3(10-2) nN-nm2. At the critical condition for unfolding, the gained strain energy (Equation 4) must be sufficient to overcome a local energy barrier, Ω, where Ω is a combination of adhesion energy and required strain energy to unfold (e.g., local increase in curvature as depicted in Figure 7 and torsional and adhesion contributions) such that ΔU b = Ω. Substituting (4) into (3c) and rearranging to solve for temperature results in (6) Using Equation 6 with the simulation results, the approximate unfolding temperature, T unfolding, can be predicted. The key assumption is that the unfolding process does not imply a constant decrease in energy (i.e., release of bending strain energy), and thus some energetic input, Ω, is required to allow deviation from the high-energy folded or looped state, which can be considered a temperature-dependent state of quasi-equilibrium.

FEMS Microbiol Lett 2000,183(1):49–53.PubMedCrossRef 16. Volokhina EB, Beckers F, Tommassen J, Bos MP: The beta-barrel outer https://www.selleckchem.com/products/torin-2.html membrane protein assembly complex of Neisseria meningitidis.

J Bacteriol 2009,191(22):7074–7085.PubMedCrossRef 17. Gotschlich EC, Seiff M, Blake MS: The DNA sequence of the structural gene of gonococcal protein III and the flanking region containing a repetitive sequence. Homology of protein III with enterobacterial OmpA proteins. J Exp Med 1987,165(2):471–482.PubMedCrossRef 18. Sonntag I, Schwarz H, Hirota Y, Henning U: Cell envelope and shape of Escherichia coli: multiple mutants missing the outer membrane lipoprotein and other major outer membrane proteins. J Bacteriol 1978,136(1):280–285.PubMed 19. Weiser JN, Gotschlich EC: Outer

Pifithrin-�� concentration membrane protein A (OmpA) contributes to serum resistance and pathogenicity Eltanexor cost of Escherichia coli K-1. Infect Immun 1991,59(7):2252–2258.PubMed 20. Grizot S, Buchanan SK: Structure of the OmpA-like domain of RmpM from Neisseria meningitidis. Mol Microbiol 2004,51(4):1027–1037.PubMedCrossRef 21. Jansen C, Wiese A, Reubsaet L, Dekker N, de Cock H, Seydel U, Tommassen J: Biochemical and biophysical characterization of in vitro folded outer membrane porin PorA of Neisseria meningitidis. Biochim Biophys Acta 2000,1464(2):284–298.PubMedCrossRef 22. Fichorova RN, Desai PJ, Gibson FC 3rd, Genco CA: Distinct proinflammatory host responses to Neisseria gonorrhoeae infection in immortalized

human cervical and vaginal epithelial cells. Infect Immun 2001,69(9):5840–5848.PubMedCrossRef 23. Harvey HA, Post DM, Apicella MA: Immortalization of human urethral epithelial cells: a model for the study of the pathogenesis of and the inflammatory cytokine response to Neisseria gonorrhoeae infection. Infect Immun 2002,70(10):5808–5815.PubMedCrossRef 24. Ponting CP, Aravind L, Schultz J, Bork P, Koonin EV: Eukaryotic signalling domain homologues in archaea and bacteria. Ancient ancestry and horizontal gene transfer Ergoloid . J Mol Biol 1999,289(4):729–745.PubMedCrossRef 25. Serino L, Nesta B, Leuzzi R, Fontana MR, Monaci E, Mocca BT, Cartocci E, Masignani V, Jerse AE, Rappuoli R, et al.: Identification of a new OmpA-like protein in Neisseria gonorrhoeae involved in the binding to human epithelial cells and in vivo colonization. Mol Microbiol 2007,64(5):1391–1403.PubMedCrossRef Competing interests The authors declare that they have no competing interests. Authors’ contribution RL designed the study, carried out experiments and analyses of the data and wrote the draft of the manuscript. BN performed the cloning and construction of knock-out mutant strain and supported the adhesion studies. EM contributed to FACS analysis. EC performed 2D electrophoresis. LS and RR participated in the planning of this study. MS participated in writing the manuscript. MP coordinated the study and assisted in writing the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.