BACKGROUND Gregarines are a group of early branching Apicomplexa parasitizing invertebrate animals. Despite their wide distribution and relevance to the understanding the phylogenesis of apicomplexans, gregarines remain understudied: light microscopy data are insufficient for classification, and electron microscopy and molecular data are fragmentary and overlap only partially. METHODS Scannin...

Clubroot is a soil-borne disease caused by the protist Plasmodiophora brassicae (P. brassicae). It is one of the most economically important diseases of Brassica rapa and other cruciferous crops as it can cause remarkable yield reductions. Understanding P. brassicae genetics, and developing efficient molecular markers, is essential for effective detection of harmful races of this pathogen. Samp...

While multiple genes are optimal for corroborating nematode phylogenies, only a few are commonly used. Here we examine the phylogenetic potential of the nuclear Hsp90 chaperone gene. We used degenerate primers to obtain partial Hsp90 sequences from several plant-parasitic and free-living nematodes. Hsp90 was single-copy in Heterodera glycines and Meloidogyne javanica, similar to the situation f...

The two diaporthalean fungi Anisogramma virgultorum and A. anomala are biotrophic parasites. A. virgultorum causes stromatal cankers on young shoots of birch whereas A. anomala infects young branches of Corylus avellana. Although previous classifications based on morphological characteristics placed both species in the Gnomoniaceae, Diaporthales, their taxonomic position within the order and th...

The agents driving the divergence and speciation of freeliving microbial populations are still largely unknown. We investigated the dinoflagellate morphospecies Scrippsiella hangoei and Peridinium aciculiferum, which abound in the Baltic Sea and in northern temperate lakes, respectively. Electron microscopy analyses showed significant interspecific differences in the external cellular morpholog...

The genus Coolia A. Meunier 1919 has a global distribution and is common member of epiphytic dinoflagellate assemblages in neritic ecosystems. monotis the type species was only known for 76 years. Over past few decades, molecular characterization unveiled two complexes that group morphologically very similar species, so their limits are often unclear. To provide new knowledge on biogeography co...

Theresa Mills, M.D.,∗ Shaminder Gupta, M.D.,† Frederick Helmcke, M.D.,∗ Jorge Lopera, M.D.,‡ Lynn Harrison, M.D.,§ Jorge Martinez M.D.,¶ David Luke Glancy, M.D.,∗ and Edmund Kenneth Kerut, M.D.∗∗ ∗Division of Cardiology, LSU Health Sciences Center, New Orleans, Louisiana, †Department of Medicine, LSU Health Sciences Center, New Orleans, Louisiana, ‡Department of Radiology, LSU Health Sciences C...

Authors: Randall C. Cork, M.D., Ph.D., Department of Anesthesiology, LSU Health Sciences Center, Shreveport, LA Patrick Wood, M.D., Department of Anesthesiology, LSU Health Sciences Center , Shreveport, LA Norbert Ming M.D., Department of Anesthesiology, LSU Health Sciences Center, Shreveport, LA Clifton Shepherd M.D., Department of Anesthesiology, LSU Health Sciences Center, Shreveport, LA Jam...

BACKGROUND Interrelationships among dinoflagellates in molecular phylogenies are largely unresolved, especially in the deepest branches. Ribosomal DNA (rDNA) sequences provide phylogenetic signals only at the tips of the dinoflagellate tree. Two reasons for the poor resolution of deep dinoflagellate relationships using rDNA sequences are (1) most sites are relatively conserved and (2) there are...