Comparing patterns of taxonomic,functional and phylogenetic diversity in reef coral communities

Coral Reefs - Biodiversity defines the variety of living organisms on this planet and is often quantified by the total number of species. However, species richness is insufficient in accounting for...     

Two new species of deepwater flathead <Emphasis Type="Italic">Bembras</Emphasis> Cuvier, 1829 from the Andaman Sea,eastern Indian Ocean

Two new species of Bembras Cuvier 1829, Bembras leslieknappi sp. nov. and Bembras andamanensis sp. nov., are described from single specimens collected from the Andaman Sea off Myanmar, eastern Indian Ocean, in 2015. The two new species are distinguished from each other and five known congeners by the numbers of anal-fin rays and pectoral-fin rays (15 and 20 in B. leslieknappi vs. 14 and 20–21 in B. andamanensis), forward-slanting body scale rows above the lateral line (80 vs. 74) and upper limb gill rakers (3 vs. 4), as well as by head (41.5 vs. 42.1% SL), snout (14.3 vs. 13.8% SL) and orbit (10.4 vs. 10.9% SL) proportions, and color of the second dorsal (dusky, with blackish spots only on first spine and bases of many soft rays vs. pale, with many scattered blackish spots), pectoral (with a blotch vs. without it) and caudal (both with a broad band) fins.     

Evidence of Chikungunya virus seroprevalence in Myanmar among dengue-suspected patients and healthy volunteers in 2013, 2015, and 2018

IntroductionChikungunya virus (CHIKV) is a mosquito-borne virus known to cause acute febrile illness associated with debilitating polyarthritis. In 2019, several institutions in Myanmar reported a CHIKV outbreak. There are no official reports of CHIKV cases between 2011 and 2018. Therefore, this study sought to determine the seroprevalence of CHIKV infection before the 2019 outbreak.MethodsA total of 1,544 serum samples were collected from healthy volunteers and patients with febrile illnesses in Yangon, Mandalay, and the Myeik district in 2013, 2015, and 2018. Participants ranged from one month to 65 years of age. Antibody screening was performed with in-house anti-CHIKV IgG and IgM ELISA. A neutralization assay was used as a confirmatory test.ResultsThe seroprevalence of anti-CHIKV IgM and anti-CHIKV IgG was 8.9% and 28.6%, respectively, with an overall seropositivity rate of 34.5%. A focus reduction neutralization assay confirmed 32.5% seroprevalence of CHIKV in the study population. Age, health status, and region were significantly associated with neutralizing antibodies (NAbs) and CHIKV seropositivity (p < 0.05), while gender was not (p = 0.9). Seroprevalence in 2013, 2015, and 2018 was 32.1%, 28.8%, and 37.3%, respectively. Of the clinical symptoms observed in participants with fevers, arthralgia was mainly noted in CHIKV-seropositive patients.ConclusionThe findings in this study reveal the circulation of CHIKV in Myanmar’s Mandalay, Yangon, and Myeik regions before the 2019 CHIKV outbreak. As no treatment or vaccine for CHIKV exists, the virus must be monitored through systematic surveillance in Myanmar.     

N‐cadherin/catenin–based costameres in cultured chicken cardiomyocytes

N‐cadherin is a member of the Ca²⁺‐dependent cell adhesion molecules and plays an important role in the assembly of the adherens junction in chicken cardiomyocytes. In addition to being present at the cell‐cell junction, N‐cadherin is associated with costameres in extrajunctional regions. The significance of the N‐cadherin‐associated costameres and whether catenins are components of costameres in chicken cardiomyocytes are not known. In this study, double‐labeling immunofluorescence microscopy was used to determine the extrajunctional distribution of both N‐cadherin and its cytoplasmic associated proteins, α‐ and β‐catenins, and their relationship to myofibrillar Z‐disc α‐actinin. N‐cadherin, α‐, and β‐catenins were all found to be present at the extrajunctional region and, in some cases, were codistributed with myofibrillar α‐actinin exhibiting a periodic staining pattern. Confocal microscopy confirmed that both N‐cadherin and β‐catenin colocalized with peripheral myofibrillar α‐actinin on the dorsal surface of cardiomyocytes as components of the costameres. Intracellular application of antibodies specific for the cytoplasmic portions of N‐cadherin, α‐, and β‐catenin, either by electroporation or microinjection, resulted in myofibril disorganization and disassembly. These results suggest the existence of N‐cadherin/catenin‐based costameres in the dorsal surface of cultured chicken cardiomyocytes in addition to the integrin/vinculin‐based costameres found in the ventral surface and indicate that the former set of costameres is essential for cardiac myofibrillogenesis. J. Cell. Biochem. 75:93–104, 1999. © 1999 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Genetic Variation on Chromosome 6 Influences F Cell Levels in Healthy Individuals of African Descent and HbF Levels in Sickle Cell Patients

Fetal haemoglobin (HbF) is a major ameliorating factor in sickle cell disease. We investigated if a quantitative trait locus on chromosome 6q23 was significantly associated with HbF and F cell levels in individuals of African descent. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in a 24-kb intergenic region, 33-kb upstream of the HBS1L gene and 80-kb upstream of the MYB gene, were typed in 177 healthy Afro-Caribbean subjects (AC) of approximately 7% European admixture, 631 healthy Afro-Germans (AG, a group of African and German descendents located in rural Jamaica with about 20% European admixture), 87 West African and Afro-Caribbean individuals with sickle cell anaemia (HbSS), as well as 75 Northern Europeans, which served as a contrasting population. Association with a tag SNP for the locus was detected in all four groups (AC, P = 0.005, AG, P = 0.002, HbSS patients, P = 0.019, Europeans, P = 1.5×10⁻⁷). The association signal varied across the interval in the African-descended groups, while it is more uniform in Europeans. The 6q QTL for HbF traits is present in populations of African origin and is also acting in sickle cell anaemia patients. We have started to distinguish effects originating from European and African ancestral populations in our admixed study populations.     

Mesozoic origin and ‘out-of-India’ radiation of ricefishes (Adrianichthyidae)

The Indian subcontinent has an origin geologically different from Eurasia, but many terrestrial animal and plant species on it have congeneric or sister species in other parts of Asia, especially in the Southeast. This faunal and floral similarity between India and Southeast Asia is explained by either of the two biogeographic scenarios, ‘into-India’ or ‘out-of-India’. Phylogenies based on complete mitochondrial genomes and five nuclear genes were undertaken for ricefishes (Adrianichthyidae) to examine which of these two biogeographic scenarios fits better. We found that Oryzias setnai, the only adrianichthyid distributed in and endemic to the Western Ghats, a mountain range running parallel to the western coast of the Indian subcontinent, is sister to all other adrianichthyids from eastern India and Southeast–East Asia. Divergence time estimates and ancestral area reconstructions reveal that this western Indian species diverged in the late Mesozoic during the northward drift of the Indian subcontinent. These findings indicate that adrianichthyids dispersed eastward ‘out-of-India’ after the collision of the Indian subcontinent with Eurasia, and subsequently diversified in Southeast–East Asia. A review of geographic distributions of ‘out-of-India’ taxa reveals that they may have largely fuelled or modified the biodiversity of Eurasia.     

Predictive Tools for Severe Dengue Conforming to World Health Organization 2009 Criteria

Background

Dengue causes 50 million infections per year, posing a large disease and economic burden in tropical and subtropical regions. Only a proportion of dengue cases require hospitalization, and predictive tools to triage dengue patients at greater risk of complications may optimize usage of limited healthcare resources. For severe dengue (SD), proposed by the World Health Organization (WHO) 2009 dengue guidelines, predictive tools are lacking.

Methods

We undertook a retrospective study of adult dengue patients in Tan Tock Seng Hospital, Singapore, from 2006 to 2008. Demographic, clinical and laboratory variables at presentation from dengue polymerase chain reaction-positive and serology-positive patients were used to predict the development of SD after hospitalization using generalized linear models (GLMs).

Principal findings

Predictive tools compatible with well-resourced and resource-limited settings – not requiring laboratory measurements – performed acceptably with optimism-corrected specificities of 29% and 27% respectively for 90% sensitivity. Higher risk of severe dengue (SD) was associated with female gender, lower than normal hematocrit level, abdominal distension, vomiting and fever on admission. Lower risk of SD was associated with more years of age (in a cohort with an interquartile range of 27–47 years of age), leucopenia and fever duration on admission. Among the warning signs proposed by WHO 2009, we found support for abdominal pain or tenderness and vomiting as predictors of combined forms of SD.

Conclusions

The application of these predictive tools in the clinical setting may reduce unnecessary admissions by 19% allowing the allocation of scarce public health resources to patients according to the severity of outcomes.     

Predictive Value of Proteinuria in Adult Dengue Severity

Background

Dengue is an important viral infection with different presentations. Predicting disease severity is important in triaging patients requiring hospital care. We aim to study the value of proteinuria in predicting the development of dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF), utility of urine dipstick test as a rapid prognostic tool.

Methodology and principal findings

Adult patients with undifferentiated fever (n = 293) were prospectively enrolled at the Infectious Disease Research Clinic at Tan Tock Seng Hospital, Singapore from January to August 2012. Dengue infection was confirmed in 168 (57%) by dengue RT-PCR or NS1 antigen detection. Dengue cases had median fever duration of 6 days at enrolment. DHF was diagnosed in 34 cases according to the WHO 1997 guideline. Dengue fever (DF) patients were predominantly younger and were mostly seen in the outpatient setting with higher platelet level. Compared to DF, DHF cases had significantly higher peak urine protein creatinine ratio (UPCR) during clinical course (26 vs. 40 mg/mmol; p<0.001). We obtained a UPCR cut-off value of 29 mg/mmol based on maximum AUC in ROC curves of peak UPCR for DF versus DHF, corresponding to 76% sensitivity and 60% specificity. Multivariate analysis with other readily available clinical and laboratory variables increased the AUC to 0.91 with 92% sensitivity and 80% specificity. Neither urine dipstick at initial presentation nor peak urine dipstick value during the entire illness was able to discriminate between DF and DHF.

Conclusions

Proteinuria measured by a laboratory-based UPCR test may be sensitive and specific in prognosticating adult dengue patients.