Coccidioidin sensitivity in San Diego schools

San Diego is located within the geographic distribution of known occurrence of Coccidioides immitis contamination of the soil. Forty-five to fifty-five cases are diagnosed in San Diego hospitals each year. Skin tests were administered to one thousand and twenty-seven ninth grade students in five selected San Diego schools. Coccidioidin 1:100 was administered by Mantoux technique, intradermally. Induration was measured at forty-eight hours. Greater than 5 mm of induration was noted in 9.7% of students tested. Among 378 students who had been lifelong residents of San Diego County, 7% had greater than 5 mm of induration. Coccidioidomycosis is endemic in San Diego but the level of endemicity is rather modest.     

Book reviews/Buchbesprechungen

Schumann, Eckart H. (ed.): Coastal Ocean Studies off Natal, South Africa. Berlin-Heidelberg-New York-London-Paris-Tokyo-Hong-Kong
R oyce , W. F.: Fishery Development. Orlando/San Diego/New York: Academic Press 1987
E llis , A.E. (Ed.): Fish Vaccination. London, San Diego: Academic Press 1988.
P otts , G.W., W ooton , R.J. (Eds.): Fish Reproduction: Strategies and Tactics. London/San Diego/New York
S hepherd , C., B romage , N.: Intensive Fish Farming. BSP Professional Books div. of Blackwell Scientific Publications Ltd. 1988.
B lüm , V., C asado , J., L ehmann , J., M ehring , E.: Farbatlas der Histologie der Regenbogenforelle. Hrsg. von d. Landesanstalt für Fischerei Nordrhein-Westfalen. Berlin, Heidelberg, New York, Paris, Tokyo     

Meeting Announcement

The San Diego Glycobiology Symposium March 13–14, 2009, Shelter Pointe Hotel and Marina, SanDiego, California, USA The 12th Annual San Diego Glycobiology Symposium will take placeat the Shelter Pointe Hotel and Marina in San Diego, California.The symposium is jointly organized     

Myasthenia Gravis

Taken from the weekly Pediatric Grand Rounds held at the University Hospital of San Diego County, University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine, June 20, 1972     

Range and Frequency of Africanized Honey Bees in California (USA)

Africanized honey bees entered California in 1994 but few accounts of their northward expansion or their frequency relative to European honey bees have been published. We used mitochondrial markers and morphometric analyses to determine the prevalence of Africanized honeybees in San Diego County and their current northward progress in California west of the Sierra Nevada crest. The northernmost African mitotypes detected were approximately 40 km south of Sacramento in California’s central valley. In San Diego County, 65% of foraging honey bee workers carry African mitochondria and the estimated percentage of Africanized workers using morphological measurements is similar (61%). There was no correlation between mitotype and morphology in San Diego County suggesting Africanized bees result from bidirectional hybridization. Seventy percent of feral hives, but only 13% of managed hives, sampled in San Diego County carried the African mitotype indicating that a large fraction of foraging workers in both urban and rural San Diego County are feral. We also found a single nucleotide polymorphism at the DNA barcode locus COI that distinguishes European and African mitotypes. The utility of this marker was confirmed using 401 georeferenced honey bee sequences from the worldwide Barcode of Life Database. Future censuses can determine whether the current range of the Africanized form is stable, patterns of introgression at nuclear loci, and the environmental factors that may limit the northern range of the Africanized honey bee.     

Turning over the pieces of the post-genomic jigsaw puzzle

NMHCC Second International Conference: Post-Genomic Analysis of Therapeutic Targets preceded by a Preconference Symposium: Genomic Disease Modeling and Targeting, San Diego, CA, USA, 3–4 August 1998.     

A festival of cell-cycle controls.

The second biennial Salk Cell Cycle meeting convened on 22 June 2001 in San Diego, California. Organized by Tony Hunter and Susan Forsburg of the Salk Institute, the five-day conference was highlighted by enlightening science and plenty of San Diego sunshine. Presentations covered a broad range of contemporary cell-cycle topics, ranging from regulation of DNA replication and mitosis to DNA damage recognition and checkpoint control.     

The Origins of Agriculture in the Lowland Neotropics

The Origins of Agriculture in the Lowland Neotropics. Dolores R. Piperno and Deborah M. Pearsall. San Diego. CA: Academic Press. 1998. 400 pp.     

Spatially explicit and multi-sourced genetic information is critical for conservation of an endangered plant species,San Diego thornmint (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Acanthomintha ilicifolia</Emphasis>)

San Diego thornmint Acanthomintha ilicifolia (Gray) Gray (Lamiaceae) is a winter herb restricted to San Diego county in the United States and Baja California Norte in Mexico. Historic records document 80 occurrences of this species, with 55 extant occurrences in San Diego County currently known. We compared three measures of genetic variation to inform ongoing conservation efforts: putatively neutral genetic structure revealed from isozyme markers, apparent cytogenetic variation confirmed using flow cytometry, and potentially adaptive morphological variation quantified in a common-garden study. Together, these data indicated that this rare endemic is genetically complex, revealing significant differentiation of neutral and potentially adaptive genetic variation among populations, and possessing at least two cytotypes, sometimes even within the same population. While additional study is required to resolve the extent of potential local adaptation in this species, conservation plans should limit the movement of germplasm among occurrences and monitor populations in order to limit potential long-term impacts to population viability. Given that these findings challenge the canonical model of genetic structure in rare plants (low genetic variation and limited genetic structure), we recommend guidelines to apply genetic information to conservation strategies.     

Book review

Biological Fouling of Industrial Water Systems: A Problem Solving Approach, by Marc W Mittelman and Gill G Geesey. Published by Water Micro Associates (1987), San Diego. 357pp. ISBN 0–9619642–0–0     

Oxidation of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons under Sulfate-Reducing Conditions

[(sup14)C]naphthalene and phenanthrene were oxidized to (sup14)CO(inf2) without a detectable lag under strict anaerobic conditions in sediments from San Diego Bay, San Diego, Calif., that were heavily contaminated with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) but not in less contaminated sediments. Sulfate reduction was necessary for PAH oxidation. These results suggest that the self-purification capacity of PAH-contaminated sulfate-reducing environments may be greater than previously recognized.     

Implication of the alpha 1 beta 1 interface in the hemoglobin affinity changes. A comparative study between normal and San Diego fully ligated hemoglobins

The alpha 1 beta 1 interface of normal and mutated San Diego hemoglobins in their fully liganded form was investigated, through the SH vibrational absorption of beta-112 cysteine, by Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy. The center frequency of this thiol group was significantly shifted in San Diego hemoglobin compared with normal human hemoglobin. Different dimer organization between the two proteins was also revealed by circular dichroism of the heme. These findings agree well with assessment that the alpha 1 beta 1 interface, far from being inert, is involved in the affinity changes of the hemoglobin molecule.     

Advances in microRNA Biology

Meeting report from 49th Annual Drosophila Research Conference, April 2008 in San Diego, CA     

Biodegradation,biotransformation and the Belmont

Keynote Address at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Industrial Microbiology, San Diego, August 1992.     

A cornucopia of genomes

A report on the Plant and Animal Genome XIV Conference, San Diego, USA, 14-18 January 2006.     

Plant and animal genomes achieve functionality

A report on the conference 'Plant and Animal Genomes XIII', San Diego, USA, 15-19 January 2005.     

Macromolecular technologies: applications and improvements

A report on the Association of Biomolecular Resource Facilities (ABRF) meeting, San Diego, USA, 24-27 February, 2001.     

Inhibition of polyamine metabolism

Book Review

Inhibition of polyamine metabolismP.P. McCann, A.E. Pegg and A. Sjoerdsma (Eds), San Diego: Academic Press Inc. 1987. xvi + 371 pages. $75. ISBN 0-12-481835-8     

Chips to hits

A report on the IBC USA International Microtechnology Conference 'Chips to hits', San Diego, USA, 27 October to 1 November 2001.     

From sequence to consequence

A report from the "Quantitative challenges in the post-genomic sequence era" workshop and symposium, San Diego, January 11-15, 2000