Complete Genome Sequence of Hepatitis E Virus from Rabbits in the United States

Hepatitis E virus (HEV) is a single-strand positive-sense RNA virus in the family Hepeviridae. The disease caused by HEV, hepatitis E, is an important public health problem in developing countries of Asia and Africa and is also endemic in many industrialized countries, including the United States. HEV has been identified from several other animal species in addition to humans, including the pig, chicken, mongoose, deer, rabbit, ferret, bat, and fish. Here we report the complete genome sequence of the first strain of HEV from rabbits in the United States. Sequence and phylogenetic analyses revealed that the U.S. rabbit HEV is a distant member of the zoonotic genotype 3 HEV, thus raising a concern for potential zoonotic human infection. A unique 90-nucleotide insertion within the X domain of the ORF1 was identified in the rabbit HEV, and this insertion may play a role in the species tropism of HEV.     

Effect of treatment of soil with keratinaceous material on thermophilic fungi

Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. lycopersici and Rhizoctonal solani were grown in a complete 1.0 mM nutrient solution, and in solutions where Ca, Fe, K, Mg, N, P, and S were either excluded (0.0 mM) or included at depleted levels (0.1 mM) while all other constituents were maintained at 1.0 mM levels. Dry weight of both fungi were determined. For both fungi some of the lowest dry weights were recorded for samples grown in the complete solution. Exclusion of K, Mg, and S significantly increased dry weight of Fusarium. Inclusion at the 0.1 mM level of most components significantly increased Fusarium dry weight over values for both the complete and corresponding excluded nutrient solutions. The exception was S where there was no difference between excluded and 0.1 mM solutions. For Rhizoctonia dry weights in Fe excluded solutions were less than the complete solution, while dry weights in S excluded solutions were greater than the complete solution. At the 1.0 mM level Fe, K, and Mg dry weights were significantly increased over the dry weights produced in both the complete and deficient solutions.     

Clinical aspects of Campylobacter jejuni infections in adults.

Campylobacter jejuni is an almost ubiquitous, microaerophilic, gram-negative rod. Outbreaks have been associated with drinking raw milk or contaminated water and eating poultry. Campylobacter jejuni accounts for 3.2% to 6.1% of cases of diarrheal illness in the general population of the United States, and infected patients frequently present with abdominal pain and fever. Less frequently, C jejuni is responsible for bacteremia, septic arthritis, septic abortion, and other extraintestinal infections. Reactive arthritis, Reiter''s syndrome, the Guillain-Barré syndrome, and pancreatitis may accompany or follow C jejuni enterocolitis. Campylobacter jejuni is an important cause of diarrheal illness and is a more commonly identified stool organism than Salmonella or Shigella species. Recurrent and chronic infection is generally reported in immunocompromised hosts.     

Experimental analyses of competition between two species of bumble bees (Hymenoptera: apidae)

Summary Dynamical aspects of flower usage and forager body size in sympatric and experimentally-induced allopatric populations of Bombus flaviforns and Bombus rufocinctus were studied in 10 discrete subalpine meadows and over the last half of one summer. Results indicate that there is a high degree of asymmetry in the competitive effects and that B. flavifrons is the clear competitive and numerical dominant. When occurring alone, B. rufocinctus used the same spectrum of flowers in similar frequencies to that of B. flavifrons whose flower use was invariant over all meadows and treatments. When sympatric with B. flavifrons, B. rufocinctus was relegated to secondary, less preferred flowers. Shifts in flower use by B. rufocinctus were accompanied by changes in forager body-size: body weights were greater in allopatric populations of B. rufocinctus and smaller in those sympatric with B. flavifrons. Competitive dominance may be related to differences in species phenologies. Bombus flavifrons initiated colonies in the spring three weeks before B. rufocinctus and maintained higher densities over the summer; by virtue of greater numbers of foragers, it may control exploitation of the most profitable flowers.     

A rapid,sensitive method for detection of alkaline phosphatase-conjugated anti-antibody on Western blots

A rapid, sensitive method has been developed to detect antibody-antigen complexes on “Western blots.” The methods of H. Towbin, T. Staehlin, and J. Gordon were used to separate and blot the antigens onto nitrocellulose. The remaining sites of attachment were blocked and the nitrocellulose was washed with polyoxyethylenesorbitan monolaurate (Tween 20). The blot was then reacted with the antiserum or hybridoma supernate to be tested. After the antigen-antibody reaction was completed, the blot was washed and treated with anti-antibody which has been conjugated to alkaline phosphatase. The alkaline phosphatase was detected by the reduction of the tetrazolium salt to diformazan by the hydrogen ions released in the formation of indigo by the reaction of the phosphatase on the indoxyl phosphate. The advantages of this method over previously described techniques are (1) use of Tween 20 allows the blot to be stained with Coomassie blue, (2) the substrates of the alkaline phosphatase reaction are stable for long periods of time, (3) the reaction products form an intense blue color which does not fade, (4) the resolution is extremely good with little to no band broadening, (5) the reaction is sensitive to picogram quantities of antigen, and (6) the reaction is quantitative.     

Immunoregulatory T-cell defects in B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia: cause or consequence of the disease? The contributory role of decreased availability of interleukin 2 (IL-2)

Several phenotypic and functional defects have been described within the residual T-lymphocyte population of patients with B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia (B-CLL), particularly in those in the more advanced stages of the disease. In this study, we review these abnormalities and discuss their possible effects on the course of the illness. Particular emphasis is devoted to the role of interleukin 2 (IL-2) in B-CLL. Evidence is provided that the IL-2 released by B-CLL T-lymphocytes may be utilized by the neoplastic B-cell clone that expresses the IL-2 receptor and that decreased availability of IL-2 may play a contributory role in some of the T-cell defects encountered in B-CLL.