Hypomelanosis of Ito and severe sensorineural deafness.

In this report we describe an 8-year-old boy of Algerian origin with profound sensorineural deafness and skin pigmentation anomalies consistent with the diagnosis of hypomelanosis of Ito. On the basis of this observation the etiologic heterogeneity of this condition is discussed.     

X-linked recessively inherited non-specific mental retardation. Report of a large family.

A large kindred is described in which 22 males and 3 females show non-specific mental retardation with impaired speech. An X-linked recessive is the most likely mode of inheritance of this condition. Similar families have been described in the literature, characteristic physical abnormalities are absent and performance I.Q. tends to be higher than verbal I.Q. This possible heterogenous condition may be a major individual cause of mental deficiency in males, and may account for the excess of male retardates in the population.     

Fryns syndrome: another example of non-lethal outcome with severe mental handicap.

In this report we present clinical data of a patient with Fryns syndrome who survived the neonatal period. Two sibs died intra-uterine. The syndrome is characterized by craniofacial dysmorphism, diaphragmatic hernia and distal limb hypoplasia. Lethality in most cases is caused by the diaphragmatic hernia with concomitant lung hypoplasia. In patients with Fryns syndrome presenting without the diaphragmatic defect and lung-hypoplasia, survival beyond the neonatal period is possible; mental retardation is present in all four patients described so far. This report illustrates, once more, the great intrafamilial variation of the syndrome and emphasises its important consequences for genetic counseling and prenatal diagnosis.     

Pfeiffer acrocephalosyndactyly syndrome in mother and son with cloverleaf skull anomaly in the child.

A boy is reported with the cloverleaf skull anomaly as part of the Pfeiffer syndrome. So far, this combination has only been observed in sporadic cases. However, the mother of this patient had also the syndrome of Pfeiffer, indicating that the cloverleaf skull abnormality may occur in familial cases. Development of the child after birth and therapeutic approaches are reported.     

Tetraphocomelia and bilateral femorotibial synostosis. A severe variant of the thrombocytopenia-absent radii (TAR) syndrome?

In this report we describe severe tetraphocomelia with complete femorotibial fusion in a second trimester male fetus. The association of severe tetraphocomelia-femorotibial synostosis has previously been reported in three patients as examples of a severe variant of the thrombocytopenia-absent radii (TAR) syndrome. In the present fetus no morphological abnormalities of the megakaryocytes were detected. This observation is not in favour of the hypothesis that abnormalities of the primordial megakaryocytes may be causally related with the pathogenesis of the limb malformations as present in this syndrome.     

Madelung deformity as a pathognomonic feature of the onycho-osteodysplasia syndrome.

On the occasion of the observation of the Onycho-osteo-dysplasia syndrome (HOOD syndrome--Nail-Patella syndrome) in a 4-generation family we were impressed by the presence of a Madelung deformity in the four examined family members. A critical review of the literature showed that a true Madelung deformity was present in a great number of previously reported patients but that no specific attention was given to this apparently important symptom.     

Adaptation of acidogenic sludge to increasing glycerol concentrations for biohydrogen production

Hydrogen is a promising alternative as an energetic carrier and its production by dark fermentation from wastewater has been recently proposed, with special attention to crude glycerol as potential substrate. In this study, two different feeding strategies were evaluated for replacing the glucose substrate by glycerol substrate: a one-step strategy (glucose was replaced abruptly by glycerol) and a step-by-step strategy (progressive decrease of glucose concentration and increase of glycerol concentration from 0 to 5 g L^?1), in a continuous stirred tank reactor (12 h of hydraulic retention time (HRT), pH 5.5, 35 °C). While the one-step strategy led to biomass washout and unsuccessful H₂ production, the step-by-step strategy was efficient for biomass adaptation, reaching acceptable hydrogen yields (0.4?±?0.1 mol_H2?mol^?1 _{glycerol consumed}) around 33 % of the theoretical yield independently of the glycerol concentration. Microbial community structure was investigated by single-strand conformation polymorphism (SSCP) and denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) fingerprinting techniques, targeting either the total community (16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) gene) or the functional Clostridium population involved in H₂ production (hydA gene), as well as by 454 pyrosequencing of the total community. Multivariate analysis of fingerprinting and pyrosequencing results revealed the influence of the feeding strategy on the bacterial community structure and suggested the progressive structural adaptation of the community to increasing glycerol concentrations, through the emergence and selection of specific species, highly correlated to environmental parameters. Particularly, this work highlighted an interesting shift of dominant community members (putatively responsible of hydrogen production in the continuous stirred tank reactor (CSTR)) according to the gradient of glycerol proportion in the feed, from the family Veillonellaceae to the genera Prevotella and Clostridium sp., putatively responsible of hydrogen production in the CSTR.     

Whole genome sequencing of a natural recombinant Toxoplasma gondii strain reveals chromosome sorting and local allelic variants

Background  

Toxoplasma gondii is a zoonotic parasite of global importance. In common with many protozoan parasites it has the capacity for sexual recombination, but current evidence suggests this is rarely employed. The global population structure is dominated by a small number of clonal genotypes, which exhibit biallelic variation and limited intralineage divergence. Little is known of the genotypes present in Africa despite the importance of AIDS-associated toxoplasmosis.