coli DALRA. These results indicated that small RNA can be used as a tool for regulating ALA accumulation in E. coli. “
“Protease inhibitor cocktails are routinely

added to clinical samples used for proteomic studies to inactivate proteases. As these same samples are often used for microbial studies, we determined whether the addition of protease inhibitors could affect the quantitative or qualitative assessment of microbial profiles. Twenty-two saliva samples were collected and processed immediately with or without the addition of a protease inhibitor cocktail. Conventional cultivation methods were used to evaluate total bacterial growth. Total genomic DNA was isolated and a specific 16S rRNA gene-targeted region was PCR-amplified and separated Selumetinib nmr by denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis. A combination of 1D sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and LC-MS/MS methods Cyclopamine was used to determine the effect of the protease inhibitors on the integrity of salivary proteins and peptides. Interestingly, no significant differences were observed in either the bacterial growth and composition or the integrity of salivary proteins between the two groups. Correlation coefficients between the paired samples

for total cultivable microbiota (r2=0.847), total mutans streptococci (r2=0.898), total oral lactobacilli (r2=0.933), and total Streptococcus mutans (r2=0.870) also exceeded expected values. The results suggest that the addition of a protease inhibitor cocktail in saliva samples does not impact the growth of oral microbiota or compromise the ability to characterize its composition. Proteases are widely distributed in most animals, plants, and microorganisms. They constitute one of the largest functional groups of proteins (Rawlings et al.,

2010). Proteases play critical roles in regulating the activity of proteins and enzymes during the life cycle of cells. CHIR-99021 in vivo Proteases inhibitors (PI) inhibit the proteolytic cleavage of proteins, and they are generally grouped into five major types: cysteine, serine, threonine, aspartate, and metalloproteinase, according to the amino-acid-active site responsible for proteolytic cleavage (Supuran et al., 2002). As proteases are involved in intra- and extracellular biological processes, protease inhibitors also play an important role in modulating multiple molecular events in all forms of organisms. It has been reported that some protease inhibitors affected bacterial morphological differentiation, evasion ability, biofilm formation, and the acquisition of nutrients (Curtis et al., 2002; Armstrong, 2006; Tsang et al., 2008). Studies have demonstrated that the presence of endogenous protease inhibitors, such as cystatins in saliva, inhibited the growth of some oral bacteria (Blankenvoorde et al., 1998; van Nieuw Amerongen et al., 2004).