Comparative mineral and hormonal analyses of wild type and TLS somaclonal variant derived from oil palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq. var. tenera) tissue culture

Comparative mineral and hormonal analyses were made on tissue culture derived truncated leaf syndrome and wild type oil palm seedlings. Mineral analysis confirmed that Boron, Zinc and chlorophyll levels were significantly lower in truncated leaf syndrome leaves than those of wild type. Hormonal analysis also revealed various cytokinin derivatives such as trans-zeatin, trans-zeatin riboside, trans-zeatin O-glucoside and trans-zeatin riboside 5??mono phosphate were significantly higher in truncated leaf syndrome leaves compared to wild type leaves. Brassinolide level was also significantly higher in truncated leaf syndrome leaves than those of the wild type. These observations suggest that the truncated leaf syndrome abnormality could be associated to high cytokinin and brassinosteroid production which affects the uptake of Boron and Zinc.     

Advances in the systematics and evolution of western Mediterranean representative species of the Pentanema conyzae clade through genetic fingerprinting

Forty-five populations of Pentanema corresponding to seven species included in the Pentanema conyzae clade have been studied using AFLP fingerprinting. The results show that allopolyploidization could have been involved in the diversification of this group, specifically in species P. langeanum and P. maletii. Molecular data confirm the presence of P. britannicum in the Iberian Peninsula and key steps are provided to identify the species that are morphologically the most challenging.     

A New Real-Time PCR for the Detection of Plasmodium ovale wallikeri

It has been proposed that ovale malaria in humans is caused by two closely related but distinct species of malaria parasites: P. ovale curtisi and P. ovale wallikeri. We have extended and optimized a Real-time PCR assay targeting the parasite’s small subunit ribosomal RNA (ssrRNA) gene to detect both these species. When the assay was applied to 31 archival blood samples from patients diagnosed with P. ovale, it was found that the infection in 20 was due to P. ovale curtisi and in the remaining 11 to P. ovale wallikeri. Thus, this assay provides a useful tool that can be applied to epidemiological investigations of the two newly recognized distinct P. ovale species, that might reveal if these species also differ in their clinical manifestation, drugs susceptibility and relapse periodicity. The results presented confirm that P. ovale wallikeri is not confined to Southeast Asia, since the majority of the patients analyzed in this study had acquired their P. ovale infection in African countries, mostly situated in West Africa.     

Familial breast/ovarian cancer and BRCA1/2 genetic screening: the role of immunohistochemistry as an additional method in the selection of patients.

Only 20-25% of families screened for BRCA1/2 mutations are found positive. Because only a positive result is informative, we studied the role of BRCA1/2 immunohistochemistry as an additional method for patient selection. From 53 high-risk-affected probands, 18 (34%) had available paraffin blocks of their tumors and were selected for this study. Mutation screening was done by conformation-sensitive gel electrophoresis and multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification. For immunohistochemistry, 21 neoplastic specimens (15 breast carcinomas, 5 ovary neoplasms, and 1 rectal adenocarcinoma) were analyzed with BRCA1 (monoclonal antibody, Ab-1, oncogene) and BRCA2 (polyclonal antibody, Ab-2, oncogene) antibodies. Absence of the BRCA1 protein was confirmed in negative tumors by Western blotting. Seven patients were positive for BRCA1/2 mutations: 5 for BRCA1 and 2 for BRCA2. Four out of five positive patients had tumors negative for BRCA1 immunostaining, and the remaining 13 BRCA1-negative patients had positive BRCA1 immunostaining in all tumor samples. Sensitivity to predict for BRCA1 mutation carriers was 80%, and specificity was 100%, with a positive predictive value of 100% and a negative predictive value of 93%. This correlation was statistically significant (p=0.001). No correlation was observed for BRCA2. If larger studies confirm these results, high-risk patients with BRCA1-negative tumors should be screened first for this gene.