Browsing by Author "Turner, Raymond J"

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    Assembly Pathway of a Bacterial Complex Iron Sulfur Molybdoenzyme
    (De Gruyter, 2017-08-08) Cherak, Stephana J; Turner, Raymond J
    Protein folding and assembly into macromolecule complexes within the living cell is a complex process requiring intimate coordination. The biogenesis of complex iron sulphur molybdoenzymes (CISM) requires use of a system specific chaperone – a redox enzyme maturation protein (REMP) – to help mediate final folding and assembly. The CISM Dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) reductase is a bacterial anaerobic respiratory oxidoreductase that utilizes DMSO as a final electron acceptor to survive within anoxic conditions. The REMP DmsD strongly interacts with DMSO reductase to facilitate folding, cofactor-insertion, subunit assembly and targeting of the multi-subunit enzyme prior to membrane translocation and final assembly and maturation into a bioenergetic catalytic unit. In this article, we discuss the biogenesis of DMSO reductase as an example of the participant network for bacterial CISM maturation pathways.
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    Exploration of Multidrug Resistance Efflux Pumps (MDREPs) in Tolerance to Biocides
    (2022-06-14) Brown, Damon Craig; Turner, Raymond J; Gieg, Lisa; Chu, Angus; Hubert, Casey Russell James; Kumar, Ayush
    Biocides are broad-spectrum antiseptics used in industry and increasingly in domestic environments to control microbial growth. Microbial tolerance towards biocides is a well documented phenomenon in industries such as medical, water treatment and food processing but has not been well described in the oil and gas industry. A key form of acquired biocide tolerance is the acquisition of multidrug resistance efflux pumps (MDREPs) through horizontal gene transfer. In this project, I set out to determine if biocide tolerance could be determined and monitored using DNA-based quantitative PCR (qPCR) to facilitate the testing of samples from oil and gas pipelines where biocides are used to control microbiologically influenced corrosion. I first had to design primers for use in qPCR capable of detecting these poorly conserved genes using the annotated genomes of six species (Acetobacterium woodii, Bacillus subtilis, Desulfovibrio vulgaris, Geoalkalibacter subterraneus, Pseudomonas putida and Thauera aromatica) chosen to represent metabolic clades frequently identified in microbiologically influenced corrosion environments. During the creation of the model community, a surprising knowledge gap was identified correlating different microbial growth methods, so the decision was made to use optical density, ATP measurements, DNA concentrations and qPCR targeting 16S rRNA and determine how well these methods agreed. A mixed community of D. vulgaris, G. subterraneus, P. putida and T. aromatica was successfully grown reproducibly in bioreactors allowing for sessile and planktonic sampling following exposure to sublethal concentrations of biocides. Using the developed primers, the MDREP genes were quantified and ratioed to 16S rRNA copy numbers to track changes in the relative abundance. These results provide a proof-of-concept for the creation of a monitoring program aimed at targeting genetic markers and assessing microbial tolerance to biocides without costly sequencing.
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    Principal component analysis of the relationship between pelvic inclination and lumbar lordosis
    (2019-02-13) Dakin, Geoff; Turner, Raymond J; Cherak, Stephana J
    Abstract Background The purpose of this study was to describe the relationship between pelvic inclination (PI) and lumbar lordosis (LL). Pelvic inclination and pelvic tilt are two different names for the same metric. The geometrical parameters of the spine and pelvis were measured using surface topography scanning, and the data was explored for any physical relationships using principal component analysis. Once widely assumed to be a direct correlation, research in the 1980s first cast doubt upon the PI to LL relationship. And yet, other studies have suggested a relationship does exist. Decades later, the rehabilitation professionals often still rely on this supposed correlation when making decisions about rehabilitation treatment interventions. This theoretical relationship requires further clarification, which is explored herein. Methods Surface topography imaging is a technology that has proven to be a radiation-free way to produce accurate, reliable skeletal alignment measures. Patient data from one physical rehabilitation clinic was collected at the time of initial assessment. Patients presented with a wide range of musculoskeletal complaints. Surface topography scans were performed on 107 patients at the commencement and completion of their therapy. Principal component analysis was performed on the collected data to determine how these spine and pelvic alignment parameters changed between the two points in time and what trends and/or relationships exist between the parameters. Our analysis evaluated eight spinal and pelvic measurements as input and focused on LL and PI as the two principal components at time points of beginning and completion of treatment. Results Pelvic inclination and lumbar lordosis changed during treatment but were not correlated. Conclusion Our data demonstrates that pelvic inclination and lumbar lordosis do not have a predictable relationship as previously assumed.
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    Spatial distributions of Pseudomonas fluorescens colony variants in mixed-culture biofilms
    (BioMed Central, 2013-07-28) Workentine, Matthew L; Wang, Siyuan; Ceri, Howard; Turner, Raymond J