PATRIC: the VBI PathoSystems Resource Integration Center

The PathoSystems Resource Integration Center (PATRIC) is one of eight Bioinformatics Resource Centers (BRCs) funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infection Diseases (NIAID) to create a data and analysis resource for selected NIAID priority pathogens, specifically proteobacteria of the genera Brucella, Rickettsia and Coxiella, and corona-, calici- and lyssaviruses and viruses associated with hepatitis A and E. The goal of the project is to provide a comprehensive bioinformatics resource for these pathogens, including consistently annotated genome, proteome and metabolic pathway data to facilitate research into counter-measures, including drugs, vaccines and diagnostics. The project's curation strategy has three prongs: ‘breadth first’ beginning with whole-genome and proteome curation using standardized protocols, a ‘targeted’ approach addressing the specific needs of researchers and an integrative strategy to leverage high-throughput experimental data (e.g. microarrays, proteomics) and literature. The PATRIC infrastructure consists of a relational database, analytical pipelines and a website which supports browsing, querying, data visualization and the ability to download raw and curated data in standard formats. At present, the site warehouses complete sequences for 17 bacterial and 332 viral genomes. The PATRIC website () will continually grow with the addition of data, analysis and functionality over the course of the project.

A PDR5-independent pathway of multi-drug resistance regulated by the SIN4 gene product

The SIN4 locus encodes a global transcriptional regulator of various yeast genes. In this report, we demonstrate that loss of function mutations in SIN4 create a multi-drug hypersensitive phenotype that is independent of PDR5 mediated resistance. Thus, double sin4, pdr5 mutants are more sensitive than single mutants. Furthermore, SIN4 does not regulate the PDR5 locus. These observations establish that yeast cells have two genetically distinct pathways conferring resistance towards similar substrates.

Selenium (Se) cytotoxicity in drug sensitive and drug resistant murine tumour

Selenium is known to inhibit growth rate of neoplastic cells. We have investigated the role of selenium (Se) in resensitization of the adriamycin (ADR) resistant murine P388/ADR cells to the action of ADR. The experiments were performed in the ADR sensitive parental P388 murine leukemia (P388/S) and its subline P388/ADR, resistant to ADR, developed in our laboratory. The effect of Se was observed to be dose dependent i.e. Se at a concentration of 5 x 10(-8)M resulted in potentiation of DNA biosynthesis whereas 5 x 10(-6)M and 5 x 10(-5)M Se resulted in inhibition of DNA-biosynthesis in P388/S cells. Along with ADR there was a further increase in inhibition of DNA biosynthesis. In P388/ADR cells, Se at 5 x 10(-6)M and 5 x 10(-8)M concentration resulted in inhibition of DNA biosynthesis, which increased further when combined with ADR indicating resensitization of these cells to the action of ADR. The inhibition was observed to be partially irreversible. These results were further confirmed in the in vivo and in vitro bioassays where the Se and Se+ ADR treatments resulted in increased lifespan of tumor bearing mice.