Selective feeding of tobacco budworm and bollworm (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) on meridic diet with different concentrations of Bacillus thuringiensis proteins

Laboratory experiments were conducted to evaluate the behavior of bollworm, Helicoverpa zea (Boddie), and tobacco budworm, Heliothis virescens (F.), larvae on meridic diet with different concentrations of the Cry1Ac and Cry2Ab proteins from Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. kurstaki Berliner. The proteins used in these experiments are the ones in commercially available Bollgard and Bollgard II cotton. Both bollworms and tobacco budworms selectively fed on nontreated diet compared with diet treated with Cry1Ac. In addition, bollworms exhibited a concentration response with Cry1Ac. In general, bollworms selected diet with low concentrations of Cry1Ac compared with diet with higher concentrations of Cry1Ac. For Cry2Ab, the avoidance was not as prominent as that observed for Cry1Ac. Based on results from no-choice assays, the Cry1Ac and Cry2Ab concentrations used in choice assays represented a wide range of biological activity on both species. The lower concentrations provided low levels of mortality, whereas the higher concentrations provided high levels of mortality. Also, the developmental times of larvae were longer at higher concentrations of both proteins. These data provide important information about the behavioral response of key cotton pests to the B. thuringiensis proteins found in commercially available transgenic cotton. This information will be important to develop accurate scouting and management procedures for Bollgard and Bollgard II cotton.     

Influence of personality disorder on the treatment of panic disorder--comparison study

Most clinicians tend to believe that the occurrence of the anxiety disorder in comorbidity with a personality disorder often leads to longer treatment, worsens the prognosis, and thus increasing treatment costs. The study is designed to compare the short-term effectiveness of combination of cognitive behavioral therapy and pharmacotherapy in patient suffering with panic disorder with and without personality disorder. METHOD: We compare the efficacy of 6th week therapeutic program and 6th week follow up in patients suffering with panic disorder and/or agoraphobia and comorbid personality disorder (29 patients) and panic disorder and/or agoraphobia without comorbid personality disorder (31 patients). Diagnosis was done according to the ICD-10 research diagnostic criteria confirmed with MINI and support with psychological methods: IPDE, MCMI-III and TCI. Patients were treated with CBT and psychopharmacs. They were regularly assessed in week 0, 2, 4, 6 and 12 by an independent reviewer on the CGI (Clinical Global Improvement) for severity and change, PDSS (Panic Disorder Severity Scale), HAMA (Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale), SDS (Sheehan Disability Scale), HDRS (Hamilton Depression Rating Scale), and in self-assessments BAI (Beck Anxiety Inventory) and BDI (Beck Depression Inventory). RESULTS: A combination of CBT and pharmacotherapy proved to be the effective treatment of patients suffering with panic disorder and/or agoraphobia with or without comorbid personality disorder. The 12th week treatment efficacy in the patients with panic disorder without personality disorder had been showed significantly better compared with the group with panic disorder comorbid with personality disorder in CGI and specific inventory for panic disorder--PDSS. Also the scores in depression inventories HDRS and BDI showed significantly higher decrease during the treatment comparing with group without personality disorder. But the treatment effect between groups did not differ in objective anxiety scale HAMA, and subjective anxiety scale BAI.     

P2X(7) receptor-mRNA and -protein in the mouse retina; changes during retinal degeneration in BALBCrds mice

A combined real-time PCR/immunohistochemistry study was carried out to investigate whether P2X(7) receptors, known to induce apoptosis and necrosis, may be causally related to the process of retinal degeneration in BALBCrds mice. In the retinae of BALBCrds mice, P2X(7) receptor-mRNA was the highest at an age of 20-40 days, and declined afterwards. At the same time, the P2X(7) receptor-message was constantly low in the retina of control BALBC mice until postnatal day 100. The receptor-mRNA in total brain tissue of both strains of mice was comparable with that of BALBCrds retinae. Double immunofluorescence in combination with laser scanning microscopy was used to study the distribution of P2X(7) receptor-immunoreactivity (IR) on neurons and different glial cell types of the retina. An exclusively neuronal localization of P2X(7)-IR in the ganglion cell layer was found by using either anti-neuronal nuclei or microtubule associated protein-2 as neuronal markers. There was a slight age-dependent decrease in the abundance of neuronal P2X(7)-IR both in BALBCrds or BALBC mice. P2X(7)-IR failed to co-localize with any of the non-neuronal markers used to stain microglial or Müller glial cells. No P2X(7) receptor-IR was found in the retinal ganglion cell layer of P2X(7)(-/-) animals, when compared with the control littermates. Hence, we suggest that, in BALBCrds mice, an early up-regulation of neuronal P2X(7) receptors may cause injury of retinal neurons and thereby functionally contribute to the retinal damage.     

Investigation of hydrophobicity of Proteus vulgaris strains and ability of Proteus vulgaris and Proteus penneri strains to penetrate bladder membrane HCV T-29 cells

Proteus bacilli play a particularly important role in urinary tract infections (UTI). Fimbriae and adherence ability and hemolysins production (HpmA, HlyA) are one of the factors of pathogenicity of these bacteria. In this paper we describe the invasion of HCV T-29 transitional bladder urothelial cells carcinoma strains of P. penneri, as well as P. vulgaris strains belonging to different serogroups. The cytotoxic effect was observed at 8 hour of incubation of the tested cells with P. vulgaris O21 and the same effect (complete lysis) at 6 hours by P. vulgaris O4 (this strain manifests maximal activity in the production of HlyA hemolysin). P. penneri strains, produce different types of fimbriae, expressed similar bacterial invasiveness. The hydrophobic properties of 25 P. vulgaris strains were also tested and only 3 strains occur to have hydrophobic cell surface.     

Haldane rules: costs of outbreeding at production of daughters in sand lizards

Haldane's rule is one of the most widely applicable paradigms in evolutionary biology, stating that in species crossings, the heterogametic sex will suffer more severely in terms of sterility and inviability. We address this in a within‐species outbreeding situation by assessing the risk of producing inviable offspring depending on the sex ratio of the clutch produced in between‐population crossings in the laboratory. In crossings between male and female sand lizards (Lacerta agilis) from two different sampling regions, one in Sweden, one in central Europe, risk of gametic incompatibility is unaffected by outbreeding, but offspring from between‐population crossings show 300% higher malformation frequency and 10% lower hatching success. The risk of having inviable offspring increases with the production of daughters, i.e. the hemizygous sex in this species (ZW). Such sex‐specific genetic costs of offspring production need to be incorporated into life history ecology, e.g. sex allocation theory.