At the first study visit in AMP, clinical information was collected including age, sex, race, Tanner stage (by physical examination), and family history of diabetes, atherosclerosis, myocardial BIBF 1120 cost infarction and hyperlipidaemia. Weight and height were measured and BMI was calculated [weight (kg)/height2 (m2)] and expressed as z-scores [24]. Waist and hip circumferences were measured with a nonstretchable plastic tape measure according to standard methods [25]. Anthropometric measures were standardized at the annual PHACS meeting through training sessions conducted by a registered dietician who was experienced in anthropometry. The per cent

body fat was calculated from a total body dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) scan performed on either a Lunar (General Electric Healthcare, Bucks, UK) or Hologic (Hologic Inc., Bedford,

MA) scanner according to standard methods [26]. Scans were sent to the Body Composition Analysis Center at Tufts University School of Medicine (Boston, MA, USA) for central analysis and standardization. Fasting serum levels of total cholesterol, HDL cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, triglycerides, glucose and insulin were measured locally and in real-time at study entry for all HIV-infected children. Non-HDL cholesterol was calculated as the difference between total and HDL cholesterol. In HEU children, this website plasma lipid and lipoproteins were measured by standard methods at the Diabetes Research Institute Clinical Chemistry Laboratory at the University of Miami (Miami, FL), on a Cobas 6000 analyser (Roche Diagnostics, Indianapolis, IN) Amylase using the manufacturer’s reagents and procedures. The

homeostatic model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) score was calculated: [fasting insulin (μU/mL) × fasting glucose (mmol/L)]/22.5 [27]. For HIV-infected children only, concurrent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) paediatric HIV disease stage [28], absolute CD4 T-lymphocyte cell count, plasma HIV-1 RNA by quantitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) (viral load) and ARV regimens were recorded. Fibrinogen and CRP were measured at a central laboratory by nephelometry on a Dade-Behring (Deerfield, IL) auto-analyser using the manufacturer’s reagents and instructions. Intra- and interassay coefficients of variation were 2.6 and 2.7%, respectively, for fibrinogen and 4.4 and 5.7%, respectively, for CRP. Adiponectin was measured using a double-antibody radioimmunoassay (Linco Research, St Charles, MO), with intra- and inter-assay coefficients of variation both <5%. CRP values >10 mg/dL were not used in the data analysis because high levels could be caused by intercurrent infection.

0 mL saline, diluted 105-fold, Trametinib research buy spread on MRS agar plates, and incubated overnight at 37 °C. The cells were then overlaid with 3 mL soft (0.75%) agar medium inoculated with 30 μL culture of the indicator strain (at c. l06 CFU mL−1). The plates

were then incubated again overnight at 37 °C and colonies with no clear zone surrounding them were randomly selected, isolated, purified, and tested for the presence of plasmids. Total DNA was extracted using the Wizard Genomic DNA Purification Kit (Promega, Madison) and plasmid DNA using the ‘Qiagen plasmid kit’ (Diagen, Dusseldorf, Germany) according to the manufacturers’ instructions (the latter preparation is henceforth called ‘crude plasmid DNA’). When specified, a single plasmid band was excised and cleaned according to instructions of the Silica Bead DNA gel extraction kit (Fermentas, Dusseldorf, Germany) and used for further study (such preparations are henceforth called ‘gel-purified

plasmid DNA’). First, a digoxigenin (DIG)-labelled probe corresponding to part of the SppA gene of strain wt was generated using the PCR DIG Probe Synthesis kit (Roche, Basel, Switzerland) according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Total wt DNA was used as a template and the primers were SakPfw (5′-GAA (T/A)T(A/G)(C/A)(C/A)A NCA ATT A(C/T)(A/C) GGT GG-3′) and SakPrev (5′-GGC CCA GTT TGC AGC TGC AT-3′), based on the SppA sequence deposited in the GenBank database. Southern blotting was then performed on restriction fragments of gel-purified plasmid from wt (the products selleck compound of separate HindIII, CfoI, and EcoRI digestions were run in parallel).

Restriction mixtures were electrophoresed through a 0.8% agarose gel, along with the 500-bp marker (Biorad) and the Big Dye Marker (Roche, Penzberg, Avelestat (AZD9668) Germany). The resulting bands were blotted onto a Hybond N+nylon membrane and allowed to hybridize with the DIG-labelled probe for 20 h at 65 °C. Chemiluminescence detection was performed using the DIG-DNA kit (Boehringer, Mannheim, Germany) according to the manufacturer’s instructions. The plasmid location of the SppA gene was confirmed by subjecting gel-purified plasmid DNA to PCR with Taq DNA polymerase (Applied Biosystems, Milan, Italy). The reaction mixture (final volume: 25 μL, placed in a 0.2-mL Eppendorf tube) contained 10 × Taq Buffer, 1.5 mM MgCl2, 0.2 mM dNTP, each primer at 0.5 μM, 5 U μL−1 Taq DNA polymerase (Applied Biosystems), and 25 μg mL−1 DNA in sterile milli-Q water. Amplification was carried out in a Mastercycler Personal thermocycler (Eppendorf, Pecq, France). The heating/cooling program was as follows: a first cycle at 94 °C for 2 min, 55 °C for 1 min, 72 °C for 1 min, followed by 32 cycles of 94 °C for 1 min, 50 °C for 45 s, and 72 °C for 1 min. The target amplicon was detected with the DIG-labelled probe. To electroporate LMG with the wt-derived plasmid, the method described by Kim et al.

This functional difference between the uvrABbu and the uvrAEco gene products is not surprising given the evolutionary distance between E. coli and B. burgdorferi (Wu et al., 2009). Borrelia burgdorferiΔuvrABbu was significantly more susceptible to H2O2 than the wild-type parental strain (Table 2), with the MIC of H2O2 for the wild-type B. burgdorferi being as much as fivefold higher than that of the ΔuvrABbu mutant. compound screening assay This increased sensitivity to ROS was partially reversed by complementation with either pAB63 or pMS9 (Table 2). Complementation was not affected by the presence of 3% CO2 (studies using pAB63), or its absence (studies using pMS9), during culture. Because the

inserted kanamycin resistance gene contained its own stop codon, it seems unlikely that polarity effects on the downstream BB0838 gene contributed to the phenotype of the ΔuvrABbu mutant. However, homologues of BB0838 are present in other Borrelia as well as in Treponema, and because the function of this hypothetical protein is unknown, it is not possible to give a definitive answer. In contrast to the sensitivity of the ΔuvrABbu mutant to ROS, its growth and that of its derivatives was not inhibited by exposure to NaNO2, SNAP or SPER/NO (Table 2). The lack of effect of exposure to any of these RNS generators on B. burgdorferi growth even though

exposure to SNAP and SPER/NO was in PBS while exposure to NaNO2 was in BSK-H suggests that this lack of effect was not likely caused Linsitinib cost CYTH4 by the serum component of BSK-H (Sohaskey & Barbour, 1999). There were also no significant differences in growth of B. burgdorferi and its derivatives in complete BSK-H at pH 6.0, 6.5 or 6.8 (Table 2). None of the strains used in the study (wild-type, uvrA inactivation mutant, complemented mutants) were able to grow at pH 5.5 in complete BSK-H (data not shown).

The ability of pathogenic bacteria to repair challenges to their genomes from various DNA-damaging agents produced by host phagocytes is critical to their survival in their hosts (Fang, 2004; Steere et al., 2004). In the absence of DNA-damaging agents, the uvrABbu inactivation mutant grew as well as the wild-type strain but was markedly inhibited by exposure to UV radiation (Fig. 2), MMC (Fig. 3a) and ROS (Table 2). Extrachromosomal complementation with wild-type uvrABbu restored growth. In contrast, growth of the inactivation mutant was identical to that of the wild-type after exposure to RNS or decreased pH, conditions under which uvrA has been shown to be protective in other bacteria (Aertsen et al., 2004; Fang, 2004). The uvrABbu gene product is thus involved in the repair of DNA damage caused by UV radiation, ROS and MMC in B. burgdorferi, but not involved in damage due to RNS or decreased pH. Repair of DNA damage caused by UV irradiation involves UvrA recognition of this damage and nucleotide excision (Sancar, 1996; Savery, 2007).

1 Now, with approval for pharmacists to prescribe controlled drugs see more for substance misuse, pharmacist involvement in substance misuse services (SMS) can expand.2 A pilot service in which two community pharmacist supplementary prescribers worked with local SMS teams to provide client follow-up and prescriptions from the community pharmacy through a clinical management plan was conducted from April 2012 to March 2013. The objective of this research was to evaluate questionnaire feedback obtained from this pilot service

to determine client and SMS team satisfaction. Self-administered structured satisfaction surveys were conducted to gather feedback from clients and members of the local SMS Idelalisib mouse teams at sites involved in the pilot service. Ordinal responses were quantified on a scale of 1 to 5, with one (1) correlating to strongly disagree and five (5) correlating to strongly agree. Means, standard deviations and frequency of response were calculated for each question; and the median and inter-quartile ranges (IQR) were determined from the mean individual survey scores. Other client variables collected included gender and duration of pilot participation. Ethics approval was not required because this was an evaluation of a service. Survey results were gathered from 20 clients of the pilot service, as well as 9 SMS team members. The client group was majority male (n = 18), and the majority of clients had seen a pharmacist

prescriber participating in the pilot service for 4 months or more (n = 16). RAS p21 protein activator 1 The highest frequency of a strongly agree rating in the client group were given to happiness with the service (80%), and the median client satisfaction score was 4.76 (IQR of 4.43 to 5). Feedback was obtained from two SMS teams, including nurses, doctors and administrators. Sixty-seven percent (67%) of the time, SMS team members strongly agreed with the statement that pharmacist prescribers in substance misuse

were beneficial. The median scores of the two SMS teams were 5 (n = 5) and 2.38 (n = 4), and the overall median survey score across teams was 4.75 (IQR of 2.63 to 5). Community pharmacist prescribers specialising in SMS provide an alternative model of service for clients and SMS teams. The results of this research suggest that clients find it helpful to see a pharmacist prescriber for substance misuse prescriptions, and like having the service provided by the pharmacist in a familiar community pharmacy environment. The results also suggest that SMS teams find that pharmacist prescribers complement the multidisciplinary approach. The scores of the two SMS teams differed significantly, and this variance was likely due to communication issues and caseload expectations. Overall, moderate to high levels of satisfaction were reported among client and SMS team survey groups, but due to the small sample size, no firm conclusions could be drawn.

, 2011). This biosynthetic pathway may therefore be evolutionarily distinct from other reported DFO pathways. blastp analysis revealed a putative DmdR repressor in S. arenicola CNS-205 (Sare_1414) and S. tropica CNB-440 (Strop_1456), with 62/63% identity and 72/73% similarity to DmdR1 in S. coelicolor A3(2) (Flores & Martín, 2004). blastn and EMBOSS Palindrome analyses identified four putative DmdR-binding sites

(iron boxes) in each of the Salinispora genomes. Two of the iron boxes are upstream of desE and desF in both species (Fig. 1). The des gene cluster organization is conserved in Streptomyces (Barona-Gómez et al., 2006) with all six genes in one locus whereas, in Salinispora, desF is 13- to 21-kb upstream CH5424802 supplier of desEABCD. Despite these differences, iron repression of des is consistent in both genera, as confirmed in Salinispora by transcript analysis (Fig. 2). The remaining two iron boxes are upstream of a periplasmic binding protein similar to ferric-enterobactin transporters, and a putative siderophore utilization protein in StBac1/SaBac2, which may encode a Class

I bacteriocin (Penn et al., 2009). No iron boxes were identified near sid2–sid4. Alignment of the eight putative iron box sequences enabled the prediction of a DmdR-binding consensus sequence for Salinispora: TAGGTTArCCT (Fig. 4). Although sid2 from S. tropica Enzalutamide CNB-440 was transcribed in iron-limited cultures, the lack of detectable selleck kinase inhibitor siderophores in the des mutants, and their poor growth without iron, suggests that the sid2 compound was either not produced in detectable quantities or that it is unable to chelate iron. As iron supplementation increased the growth of the des mutant, another iron chelator may be produced at very low levels or with a lower affinity for iron than CAS, which would

not be detected by our methods. Because of the differential transcriptional response of sid2 to iron in the des mutants, however, it is unlikely that this additional iron chelator is associated with sid2. Sid2 possesses similarity to ybt (Bearden et al., 1997; Pelludat et al., 1998); however, there are several differences between the two gene clusters (Fig. 1b). The three methyltransferases in sid2 are not integrated into the NRPS/PKS genes, and several essential ybt genes are absent in sid2, namely the reductase ybtU, salicylate synthase ybtS and regulator ybtT (Fig. 1b) (Geoffroy et al., 2000; Miller et al., 2002), which may explain the lack of yersiniabactin-like siderophore production. Sid2 in S. arenicola CNS-205 is transcribed under iron-replete rather than iron-limited conditions, although no chemotypic difference was detected between the wild-type and sid2 mutant in iron-sufficient conditions. The altered transcriptional regulation may be due to mobilization of the sid2 cluster 846-kb downstream on a separate genomic island. The putative CoA ligase remains in the original locus with respect to the S. tropica CNB-440 sid2 gene cluster (Fig.

41 (SD 0.5). The mean physicians global assessment and parent global assessment were 1.4 (SD 1.5) and 3.3 (SD 4.5), respectively. An ESR and/or CRP were not available in all patients. Correlations between active joint count, parental global assessment, physician’s global assessment, CHAQ and stress scores AZD9291 cell line are shown in Table 3. There was a significant positive correlation (P < 0.01) between parent global assessments and both the child domain and total PSI

scores with Spearman’s correlation co-efficient (rs) of 0.4 and 0.39, respectively. There was also a positive correlation (P < 0.05) between the child domain PSI score and the CHAQ score (rs = 0.31) and the parent global assessment and parent domain PSI score (rs = 0.31). The area of maternal stress in families coping with JIA has been poorly studied to date and most studies have not been able to compare stress levels to those seen in other groups. This study

utilized a validated measure to assess stress in mothers of children with JIA and the results were compared with those reported in similar studies of the Selleckchem KU57788 mothers of children with other chronic illnesses. Manuel et al.[15] looked at maternal psychological symptoms in mothers of children with JIA. They used a number of survey tools to assess maternal stress in mothers of children attending outpatient appointments. The mothers surveyed reported higher levels of psychological symptoms than a normative group. No comparison was made to any chronic illness groups. Lustig et al.[16] also looked at the mental health of mothers of children with JIA. They used the Psychological Symptom Index to assess maternal psychological symptomatology. They found that 53%

of mothers scored in the ‘high’ range of symptoms. They found this to be consistent with findings from mothers whose children had a range of chronic illnesses. However, the studies compared in Lustig et al. did not always use comparative measures of stress levels. The results of this study indicate that stress levels in mothers of children with JIA are higher than those seen in a control group of mothers with children without a chronic illness. Furthermore, Niclosamide one-third of mothers of children with JIA experience stress at a level where professional help would be recommended. When compared to other chronic conditions, mothers of children with JIA reported higher levels of both parent domain stress and total stress than mothers of children with IDDM and profound deafness. They also had similar levels of stress (in the child domain) to parents of children with cystic fibrosis. These findings are supportive of previous studies that have also shown mothers of children with JIA to have increased levels of psychological stress.[15-17] Interestingly, maternal stress levels of JIA patients were not found to be higher than mothers of children with eczema.[14] The patients in the Faught et al.

Enteritidis did. Electron microscopy confirmed that the association correlated with the intracellular presence of S. Enteritidis click here and that the Salmonella-containing vacuole in

the WBC infected with the rfa mutants, unlike all other strains, did not develop into a spacious phagosome. Intact lipopolysaccharide, but not the type III secretion system encoded by SPI-1, SPI-2 or the flagellar operon, is important for the initial interaction of S. Enteritidis with porcine leukocytes. This information can be used for the design of live Salmonella vaccines preferentially targeting particular cell types including cancer or tumor cells. Salmonella enterica is a facultative intracellular bacterial pathogen capable of infecting a wide range of mammals, birds and reptiles. Although there are quite remarkable differences in the course of infection depending on a combination of particular host and serovar of S. enterica, the infection always consists of oral ingestion, multiplication of S. enterica in the gut lumen, followed by the adhesion and invasion of nonprofessional phagocyte cells in the intestinal tract (M cells or gut epithelial cells). After translocation through the gut epithelium,

S. enterica interacts with macrophages, which are believed to be responsible for S. enterica distribution across the host’s body and into secondary selleckchem sites of infection such as the liver or the spleen. However, there are many different cells BCKDHA present in the gut tissue, for example fibroblasts or neutrophils, which may also interact with S. enterica after its translocation across the gut epithelium. Moreover, S. enterica has been reported to temporarily exist extracellularly and, under such conditions, it can become exposed to additional cell types including the leukocytes infiltrating from the blood stream (Berndt et al., 2007; Pullinger et al., 2007). Despite this, the interaction of S. enterica

with different cell types has been addressed only in a few studies. Geddes et al. (2007) showed that Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium preferentially interacted and associated with neutrophils and monocytes in Balb/C mice after intraperitoneal administration. Similarly, Cano et al. (2001) showed that S. Typhimurium may persist in fibroblasts and that the behavior of wild-type S. Typhimurium is quite different from the characteristics of the phoP mutant. Finally, we have recently shown that S. Enteritidis rfaL and rfaC mutants with modified lipopolysaccharide exhibit increased binding to porcine leukocytes in vitro (Matiasovic et al., 2011). Animals and humans can be protected against infection with a particular serovar of S. enterica by vaccination and due to the course of the infection, live-attenuated vaccines are generally more effective than inactivated ones. There are several live-attenuated vaccines available for the protection of humans or farm animals against infection with particular S. enterica serovars.

Enteritidis did. Electron microscopy confirmed that the association correlated with the intracellular presence of S. Enteritidis Selleckchem Buparlisib and that the Salmonella-containing vacuole in

the WBC infected with the rfa mutants, unlike all other strains, did not develop into a spacious phagosome. Intact lipopolysaccharide, but not the type III secretion system encoded by SPI-1, SPI-2 or the flagellar operon, is important for the initial interaction of S. Enteritidis with porcine leukocytes. This information can be used for the design of live Salmonella vaccines preferentially targeting particular cell types including cancer or tumor cells. Salmonella enterica is a facultative intracellular bacterial pathogen capable of infecting a wide range of mammals, birds and reptiles. Although there are quite remarkable differences in the course of infection depending on a combination of particular host and serovar of S. enterica, the infection always consists of oral ingestion, multiplication of S. enterica in the gut lumen, followed by the adhesion and invasion of nonprofessional phagocyte cells in the intestinal tract (M cells or gut epithelial cells). After translocation through the gut epithelium,

S. enterica interacts with macrophages, which are believed to be responsible for S. enterica distribution across the host’s body and into secondary Enzalutamide concentration sites of infection such as the liver or the spleen. However, there are many different cells Org 27569 present in the gut tissue, for example fibroblasts or neutrophils, which may also interact with S. enterica after its translocation across the gut epithelium. Moreover, S. enterica has been reported to temporarily exist extracellularly and, under such conditions, it can become exposed to additional cell types including the leukocytes infiltrating from the blood stream (Berndt et al., 2007; Pullinger et al., 2007). Despite this, the interaction of S. enterica

with different cell types has been addressed only in a few studies. Geddes et al. (2007) showed that Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium preferentially interacted and associated with neutrophils and monocytes in Balb/C mice after intraperitoneal administration. Similarly, Cano et al. (2001) showed that S. Typhimurium may persist in fibroblasts and that the behavior of wild-type S. Typhimurium is quite different from the characteristics of the phoP mutant. Finally, we have recently shown that S. Enteritidis rfaL and rfaC mutants with modified lipopolysaccharide exhibit increased binding to porcine leukocytes in vitro (Matiasovic et al., 2011). Animals and humans can be protected against infection with a particular serovar of S. enterica by vaccination and due to the course of the infection, live-attenuated vaccines are generally more effective than inactivated ones. There are several live-attenuated vaccines available for the protection of humans or farm animals against infection with particular S. enterica serovars.

A polymer film, such as that described in the present work, isolates a part of the culture medium together with

microorganisms and oil. When formed by mixed cultures, this kind of structuring results in the formation of granules containing different, but metabolically related microorganisms, potential growth substrates contained PF-562271 solubility dmso in the oil and a pool of enzymes that is produced by the entire community to carry out the degradation of oil molecules as they are stripped out of the hydrophobic interface by surfactants. These results have important practical applications, and might be used to increase the stability and viability of microbial associates in biopreparations aimed at the destruction of hydrophobic substrates. For example, it may be possible to artificially construct biopreparations

of microbial consortia that include specific microorganisms that construct particularly efficient trophosomes. Studies on interactions between degrader organisms may also consider the compatibility of various degrader organisms with the exopolymers contained in these trophic structures that differentially affect bioavailability to different species. Still another consideration is the effect of dispersants, commonly used in remediation, on the production of trophosomes. In future work, it may be interesting to evaluate the extent to which the rate of oil degradation is influenced not only by the types of enzymes and surfactants that are produced by microorganisms but also by differences in the ability of cells to produce these trophic structures or CX-5461 nmr to coexist with bacteria and yeasts that perform this function. Often, the rate of degradation by mixtures of bacteria is improved over that obtained by pure cultures of single species. Possibly, this may reflect such interactions, involving the creation of microhabitats comprised of mixtures of exopolymers, with different species contributing to the overall features of community-level trophic structures. For example, in a study examining the mechanical properties

of the oil–film interface (Kang et al., 2008), it was shown that the bacteria Acinetobacter venetianus RAG-1 and Rhodococcus erythropolis 20S-E1-c Methocarbamol produced substances that created very different surface properties of the oil–water interface: one was soapy and the other was more firm or papery. A comparative analysis of the trophosome habitat generated by different combinations of microorganisms could be a logical follow-up to the research conducted here. We acknowledge support from the US Department of Energy (GIPP) through ISTC project #4033 and a grant from the Russian Foundation of Fundamental Research (RFFI-08-04-01449-a). “
“In this study we investigated the potential prebiotic effect of natural (NS) and blanched (BS) almond skins, the latter being a byproduct of the almond-processing industry.

Samples were incubated at 37 °C for 20 min shaking (200 r.p.m.). Surviving cells were enumerated by serial dilution in PBS and subsequent plating onto BH agar. For colony forming unit (CFU) enumeration, overnight cultures (2 × 109 CFU mL−1) were washed twice in PBS and serially diluted to approximately 2 × 107 CFU mL−1. A further 1 selleck in 10 dilution into the desired growth media was performed resulting in an inoculum of approximately 2 × 106 CFU mL−1. Counts were taken every 2 h over an 8 h period by serial dilution in PBS and enumeration on BHI agar. All agar plates were incubated

at 37 °C. For concurrently running OD600 nm readings, a sample was removed at the same time points and measured using a spectrophotometer. RNA extraction from stationary phase cells was carried out using the Macaloid method (Raya et al., 1998). The reverse transcriptase PCR was run using 4 μL random primer p(dN)6, 2 μL RNA, and 2 μL DEPC water (Sigma) at 65 °C for 10 min and put directly on ice. To these samples, 32 μL of a mastermix was added containing: 1 μL Expand Reverse Transcriptase (Roche), 8 μL 5× Buffer (Roche), 4 μL 100 mM dTT (Roche), 1 μL dNTP mix (dATP, dCTP, dGTP, dTTP – 10 mM), and 18 μL DEPC water. This reaction was run at 30 °C for 10 min, 42 °C for 3 h, and held at 4 °C. cDNA was confirmed through PCR using L142 and U141 primers and the wild-type

L. monocytogenes extracted DNA as a positive control. Quantitative real-time PCR was used for transcriptional analysis. The Universal Probe Library Assay Design Center (https://www.roche-applied-science.com/sis/rtpcr/upl/index.jsp?id=UP030000)

was TGFbeta inhibitor used to design PCR primers that correspond to a specific probe in the library. Primer sequences, synthesized by MWG, and corresponding probes are listed in Online Resources (Table S1). The 16S rRNA gene was used as a housekeeping gene to compensate for any variability in the initial amount of Montelukast Sodium starting total RNA. Amplification reactions consisted of 2.5 μL of cDNA, 6.4 μL of 2× FastStart TaqMan Probe Master (Roche), primers (900 nM), and probe mix (250 nM). RNase-free water was added to bring the total volume of the reaction to 10 μL. Reactions were run in duplicate on 384-well plates using the LightCycler 480 System (Roche). Negative control reactions, without cDNA, were also included on the plate. Thermal cycling conditions were carried out according to manufacturer’s instructions (Roche), and the method (Livak & Schmittgen, 2001) was used to calculate the relative changes in gene expression from the qRT-PCR experiments. Zinc uptake systems have been described in numerous bacteria and include the high-affinity systems znuABC of E. coli and ycdHIycA of B. subtilis (Patzer & Hantke, 1998, 2000; Gaballa et al., 2002). For the most part, these systems are under the control of the zinc uptake regulator Zur, a homolog of which (ZurR) has been identified in L. monocytogenes (Dalet et al.