BACKGROUND: Several regulatory proteins are involved in Salmonella invasion. The key regulator of SPI-1 (Salmonella pathogenicity island 1 ) is hilA, a transcriptional activator encoded on SPI-1 that regulates the expression of the SPI-1 secretion system. OBJECTIVES: Importance of hilA mutation on S. enteritidis colonization and shedding in layer hens was evaluated in a long-term experiment. ME...

Most amniotes vertebrates have an intromittent organ to deliver semen. The reptile Sphenodon and most birds lost the ancestral penis and developed a cloaca-cloaca mating. Known as hemipenises, the copulatory organ of Squamata shows unique features between the amniotes intromittent organ. They are the only paired intromittent organs across amniotes and are fully inverted and encapsulated in the ...

The objective of the present study was to evaluate the capillary electrophoresis single-strand conformation polymorphism (CE-SSCP) to characterize poultry gut microbiota and the ability of this molecular method to detect modifications related to rearing conditions to be used as an epidemiological tool. The V3 region of the 16S rRNA gene was selected as the PCR target. Our results showed that th...

Persistent cloaco is the most severe type of anorectal malformation encountered in children. Patients with cloacal anomalies have a high incidence of associated anomalies most commonly: urinary tract and spinal. Persistent cloaca remains a difficult reconstructive challenge but it is now possible to anatomically correct the defect with surgery in the majority of patients. This review discusses ...

BACKGROUND Epispadias is the mildest phenotype of the human bladder exstrophy-epispadias complex (BEEC), and presents with varying degrees of severity. This urogenital birth defect results from a disturbance in the septation process, during which separate urogenital and anorectal components are formed through division of the cloaca. This process is reported to be influenced by androgen signalin...

Campylobacter is a major foodborne pathogen responsible for acute gastroenteritis characterized by diarrhea that is sometimes bloody, fever, cramps, and vomiting. Campylobacter species are carried in the intestinal tracts of mammals and birds, and sources of human infection include raw milk, contaminated water, direct contact with pets, and foods, particularly poultry. Campylobacter jejuni and ...

The nephron is the functional unit of the kidney and is divided into distinct proximal and distal segments. The factors determining nephron segment size are not fully understood. In zebrafish, the embryonic kidney has long been thought to differentiate in situ into two proximal tubule segments and two distal tubule segments (distal early; DE, and distal late; DL) with little involvement of cell...

Oesophageal atresia/Tracheo-oesophageal fistula (OA/TOF) are common congenital malformations of the foregut in newborns. Until recently little was known about the pathogenesis of these anomalies. Adriamycin, a chemotherapy agent, has been found to cause birth defects in mice that resemble the OA/TOF anomalies providing an animal model to study the etiology of the defects. A number of genes have...