Spectrum of heart diseases in a new cardiac service in Nigeria: An echocardiographic study of 1441 subjects in Abeokuta

Background

The recent determination of the complete nucleotide sequence of several Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) genomes allows the use of comparative genomics as a tool for dissecting the nature and consequence of genetic variability within this species. The multiple alignment of the genomes of clinical strains (CDC1551, F11, Haarlem and C), along with the genomes of laboratory strains (H37Rv and H37Ra), provides new insights on the mechanisms of adaptation of this bacterium to the human host.

Findings

The genetic variation found in six M. tuberculosis strains does not involve significant genomic rearrangements. Most of the variation results from deletion and transposition events preferentially associated with insertion sequences and genes of the PE/PPE family but not with genes implicated in virulence. Using a Perl-based software islandsanalyser, which creates a representation of the genetic variation in the genome, we identified differences in the patterns of distribution and frequency of the polymorphisms across the genome. The identification of genes displaying strain-specific polymorphisms and the extrapolation of the number of strain-specific polymorphisms to an unlimited number of genomes indicates that the different strains contain a limited number of unique polymorphisms.

Conclusion

The comparison of multiple genomes demonstrates that the M. tuberculosis genome is currently undergoing an active process of gene decay, analogous to the adaptation process of obligate bacterial symbionts. This observation opens new perspectives into the evolution and the understanding of the pathogenesis of this bacterium.     

Limnology and trophic status of glacial lakes in the tropical Andes (Cajas National Park,Ecuador)

相似文献   

Partition and metabolic fate of dietary glycerol in muscles and liver of juvenile tilapia

This study investigated the effect of dietary glycerol on the metabolism of juvenile tilapia (Oreochromis mossambicus) and to determine its metabolic fate. The experimental diets contained 0% (Group CON), 5% (Group G5) and 15% glycerol (Group G15) and were fed for 40 d to apparent satiation, three times a day. For the metabolism trials, six fish from each treatment were randomly chosen and tube-fed with five pellets labelled with ¹⁴C-glycerol [¹⁴C(U)] in order to evaluate the absorption, catabolism, retention and partition of glycerol in muscle and liver. Group G5 presented the highest ¹⁴C-glycerol retention and the lowest catabolism, with no significant differences between Groups CON and G15. In Group CON, the highest percentage of ¹⁴C was incorporated in muscle lipids; with no significant differences between Groups G5 and G15. Furthermore, no treatment effects were found for hepatic ¹⁴C-lipid and for ¹⁴C in hepatic and muscle non-lipid extract. In the non-lipid and non-protein fraction, the highest radioactivity was measured in livers of Group G5, however no significant differences were found for this fraction between Groups CON and G15 in liver and for all treatments in muscle. The results of the present study can have practical implications in diet formulations for tilapia and for other aquaculture species with similar feeding pattern since juvenile tilapia are able to metabolise dietary glycerol into lipids, protein and/or carbohydrates and to use it as energy source.     

Conditional Responses of Benthic Communities to Interference from an Intertidal Bivalve

Habitat-modifying organisms that impact other organisms and local functioning are important in determining ecosystem resilience. However, it is often unclear how the outcome of interactions performed by key species varies depending on the spatial and temporal disturbance context which makes the prediction of disturbance-driven regime shifts difficult. We investigated the strength and generality of effects of the filter feeding cockle Cerastoderma edule on its ambient intertidal benthic physical and biological environment. By comparing the magnitude of the effect of experimental cockle removal between a non-cohesive and a sheltered cohesive sediment in two different periods of the year, we show that the outcome of cockle interference effects relates to differences in physical disturbance, and to temporal changes in suspended sediment load and ontogenetic changes in organism traits. Interference effects were only present in the cohesive sediments, though the effects varied seasonally. Cockle presence decreased only the density of surface-dwelling species suggesting that interference effects were particularly mediated by bioturbation of the surface sediments. Furthermore, density reductions in the presence of cockles were most pronounced during the season when larvae and juveniles were present, suggesting that these life history stages are most vulnerable to interference competition. We further illustrate that cockles may enhance benthic microalgal biomass, most likely through the reduction of surface-dwelling grazing species, especially in periods with high sediment load and supposedly also high bioturbation rates. Our results emphasize that the physical disturbance of the sediment may obliterate biotic interactions, and that temporal changes in environmental stressors, such as suspended sediments, may affect the outcome of key species interference effects at the local scale. Consequently, natural processes and anthropogenic activities that change bed shear stress and sediment dynamics in coastal soft-sediment systems will affect cockle-mediated influences on ecosystem properties and therefore the resilience of these systems to environmental change.     

The relationship between the number of sutures and the strength of microvascular anastomoses.

The relative strengths of microvascular anastomoses in rat femoral arteries were measured, comparing controls (no anastomosis) to those with 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, and 14 stitches. The ones in which 8 sutures were used most closely paralleled the control state, whereas those with 4 or 6 sutures were clearly inferior. With a greater number of sutures the vessel behaves as a "shorter" vessel, with the anastomosis becoming the weakest part of the vessel.     

The transient-state kinetics of L-glutamate dehydrogenase. pH-dependence of the burst rate parameters.

The pH dependence of the initial transient velocity of NADPH production during the burst phase of the oxidative deamination of L-glutamate by L-glutamate dehydrogenase (L-glutamate : NAD(P)+ oxidoreductase (deaminating), EC 1.4.1.3) and NADP+ has been measured by stopped-flow spectrophotometry. These studies provide evidence that the entire pH dependence below pH 8.26 arises from reaction steps contributing to V of the burst with an apparent pKa of 8.1 +/- 0.1. The data are consistent with a model in which the formation of the first enzyme-coenzyme-substrate ternary complex on the reaction path equilibrates rapidly and in which the pH-dependent steps are mechanistically close to and may include the catalytic hydrogen transfer itself. At pH 8.87, there is evidence that L-glutamate binds less tightly to the enzyme and to the enzyme-NADP+ complex than at lower pH values.     

A New Entodiniomorphid Ciliate,Troglocorys cava n. g., n. sp., from the Wild Eastern Chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) from Uganda

ABSTRACT. Troglocorys cava n. g., n. sp. is described from the feces of wild eastern chimpanzee, Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii, in Uganda. This new species has a spherical body with a frontal lobe, a long vestibulum, a cytoproct located at the posterior dorsal side of the body, an ovoid macronucleus, a contractile vacuole near the cytoproct, and a large concavity on the left surface of the body. Buccal ciliature is non‐retractable and consists of three ciliary zones: an adoral zone surrounding the vestibular opening, a dorso‐adoral zone extending transversely at the basis of the frontal lobe, and a vestibular zone longitudinally extending in a gently spiral curve to line the surface of the vestibulum. Two non‐retractable somatic ciliary zones comprise arches over the body surface: a short dorsal ciliary arch extending transversely at the basis of the frontal lobe and a wide C‐shaped left ciliary arch in the left concavity. Because of the presence of three ciliary zones in the non‐retractable buccal ciliature, the present genus might be a member of the family Blepharocorythidae, but the large left concavity and the C‐shaped left ciliary arch are unique, such structures have never been described from other blepharocorythids.     

Location of deuterium oxide solvent isotope effects in the glutamate dehydrogenase reaction.

Stopped flow studies of D2O kinetic solvent isotope effects on the reaction catalyzed by L-glutamate dehydrogenase reveal, in addition to several effects apparently attributable simply to pKa shifts, a 2-fold pH-independent effect on the velocity of the steady state oxidative deamination of L-glutamate by enzyme and NADP. Comparable pH-independent D2O kinetic solvent isotope effects are seen both in a transient phase of the reaction in which alpha-ketoglutarate is displaced by L-glutamate from an enzyme-NADPH-alpha-ketoglutarate (product) complex and in an analogous model reaction in which alpha-ketoglutarate is displaced by D-glutamate. These results suggest that alpha-ketoglutarate dissociation from an enzyme-NADPH-alpha-ketoglutarate complex is rate-limiting in the steady state.