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Resequencing of the 16S rRNA gene of the type strain of Herbaspirillum putei Ding and Yokota 2004 revealed 99.9 % sequence similarity to that of the type strain of Herbaspirillum huttiense (Leifson 1962) Ding and Yokota 2004. This high phylogenetic relatedness of H. putei and H. huttiense was confirmed by the results of DNA–DNA hybridization between H. huttiense DSM 10281T and H. putei ATCC BAA-806T (reassociation value 96 %). Therefore, it is proposed to reclassify the type strain of H. putei as a strain of H. huttiense. However, the genome of the type strain of H. putei is about 0.9 Mb larger than that of the H. huttiense type strain. This results in a decrease in the reassociation value in the reciprocal DNA–DNA hybridization to 72 %, a level slightly above the threshold for delineating bacterial species. These data and distinctive phenotypic characteristics indicate that the name Herbaspirillum putei is a later heterotypic synonym of Herbaspirillum huttiense and permit the description of two novel subspecies, Herbaspirillum huttiense subsp. huttiense subsp. nov. (type strain ATCC 14670T =JCM 21423T =DSM 10281T) and Herbaspirillum huttiense subsp. putei subsp. nov., comb. nov. (type strain 7-2T =JCM 21495T =ATCC BAA-806T). Three bacterial strains, IEH 4430T, IEH 4515 and IEH 8757, isolated from water were found to be the closest relatives of these strains. Strain IEH 8757 was classified as a strain of H. huttiense subsp. putei. Studies of genotypic and phenotypic features of strains IEH 4430T and IEH 4515 showed that the strains represent a novel species, which is most closely related to H. huttiense and for which the name Herbaspirillum aquaticum sp. nov. is proposed (type strain IEH 4430T =DSM 21191T =ATCC BAA-1628T).

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Heat denaturation of Cry3A delta-endotoxin from Bacillus thuringiensis var. tenebrionis and its 55 kDa fragment was studied by differential scanning microcalorimetry at low pH. Analysis of the calorimetric data has shown that denaturation of Cry3A delta-endotoxin is a nonequilibrium process at heating rates from 0. 125 to 2 K/min. This means that the stability of delta-endotoxin (the apparent temperature of denaturation Tm) under these conditions is under kinetic control rather than under thermodynamic control. It has been shown that heat denaturation of this protein is a one-step kinetic process. The enthalpy of the process and its activation energy were measured as functions of temperature. The data obtained allow confirmation of the fact that the conformation of delta-endotoxin at the transition state only slightly differs from its native conformation with respect to compactness and extent of hydration. The comparison of the activation energy for intact delta-endotoxin and the 55 kDa fragment showed that the transition of the molecule to a transition state does not cause any changes in the conformation of three N-terminal alpha-helices. Complete removal of the N-terminal domain of delta-endotoxin and 40 amino acids from the C-terminus beta-sheet domain III causes an irreversible loss of the tertiary structure. Thus, during protein folding the nucleation core determining protein stability does not involve its three initial alpha-helices but may include the remaining alpha-helices of the N-terminal domain. The functional significance of peculiarities of structure arrangement of the delta-endotoxin molecule is discussed.