Bacterial resistance mechanisms against host defense peptides

Host defense peptides and proteins are important components of the innate host defense against pathogenic microorganisms. They target negatively charged bacterial surfaces and disrupt microbial cytoplasmic membranes, which ultimately leads to bacterial destruction. Throughout evolution, pathogens devised several mechanisms to protect themselves from deleterious damage of host defense peptides. These strategies include (a) inactivation and cleavage of host defense peptides by production of host defense binding proteins and proteases, (b) repulsion of the peptides by alteration of pathogen’s surface charge employing modifications by amino acids or amino sugars of anionic molecules (e.g., teichoic acids, lipid A and phospholipids), (c) alteration of bacterial membrane fluidity, and (d) expulsion of the peptides using multi drug pumps. Together with bacterial regulatory network(s) that regulate expression and activity of these mechanisms, they represent attractive targets for development of novel antibacterials.     

Magnetic impurity formation in quantum point contacts

A quantum point contact (QPC) is a narrow constriction between two wider electron reservoirs, and is the standard building block of sub-micrometre devices such as quantum dots and qubits (the proposed basic elements of quantum computers). The conductance through a QPC changes as a function of its width in integer steps of G(0) = 2e2/h (where e is the charge on an electron, and h is Planck's constant), signalling the quantization of its transverse modes. But measurements of these conductance steps also reveal an additional shoulder at a value around 0.7G(0) (refs 1-4), an observation that has remained a puzzle for more than a decade. It has recently been suggested that this phenomenon can be explained by the existence of a magnetic 'impurity' in the QPC at low electron densities. Here we present extensive numerical density-functional calculations that reveal the formation of an electronic state with a spin-1/2 magnetic moment in the channel under very general conditions. In addition, we show that such an impurity will also form at large magnetic fields, for a specific value of the field, and sometimes even at the opening of the second transverse mode in the QPC. Beyond explaining the source of the '0.7 anomaly', these results may have far-reaching implications for spin-filling of electronic states in quantum dots and for the dephasing of quantum information stored in semiconductor qubits.