Lyme disease has spread in the United States from the northeast to more southern and western parts of the country. It has been shown that the tick which most often carries the Lyme disease pathogen ( ​Borrelia burgdorferi​) in North America, ​Ixodes scapularis ​,​ ​has also spread to these new areas of concern. In Virginia, the disease has progressed from the eastern shore to the western, more ...

There is a need to modify DNA extraction methods to obtain amplifiable DNA from herbarium specimens that are relatively old –– we explored several methods to improve both quality and quantity of DNA obtained from a range of specimens of Asteraceae. Leaf tissue was sampled from herbarium specimens of varying ages. Modifications were made to the Qiagen DNeasy® Plant Mini Kit and the CTAB Extracti...

Interleukin-17A (IL-17A) is founding member of a novel family of inflammatory cytokines that plays a critical role in the pathogenesis of many autoimmune diseases, including multiple sclerosis (MS) and its animal model, experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE). IL17A signals through IL-17RA, which is expressed in most peripheral tissues; however, expression of IL-17RA in the central nerv...

In order to metabolise both dietary fibre constituent carbohydrates and host glycans lining the intestinal epithelium, gut bacteria produce a wide range of carbohydrate active enzymes, of which glycoside hydrolases are the main components. In this study, we describe the ability of phosphorylases to participate in the breakdown of human Nglycans, from an analysis of the substrate specificity of ...

1. Methods, last sentence: “The reliability of the herein described qPCR method was validated for additional genes (HPRT1, ATM, PTEN and BRCA1)”: is not clear why (HPRT1, ATM, PTEN and BRCA1) are considered additional genes, since the test has been set up for all genes listed within brackets. Corrected to (page 2): “The reliability of the herein described qPCR method was validated for several g...

Alderman, S. C., Walenta, D., Hamm, P. B., Martin, R. C., Dung, J., and Kosman, E. 2015. Afternoon ascospore release in Claviceps purpurea optimizes perennial ryegrass infection. Plant Dis. 99:1410-1415. In Kentucky bluegrass (Poa pratensis),Claviceps purpurea, the causal agent of ergot, typically releases ascospores during the early-morning hours, between about midnight and 10:00 A.M., corresp...

Most humans become lifelong carriers of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) by adulthood. Primary EBV infection in adolescents causes infectious mononucleosis. EBV infection is associated with various diseases, neoplasms and hematological disorders. Recently, we reported that EBV can infect rabbits by intravenous, intranasal and/or peroral inoculation, which caused primary EBV infection in rabbits with he...

18 Plant-derived aromatic compounds are important components of the dissolved organic carbon 19 pool in coastal salt marshes, and their mineralization by resident bacteria contributes to carbon 20 cycling in these systems. Members of the roseobacter lineage of marine bacteria are abundant in 21 coastal salt marshes and several characterized strains, including Sagittula stellata E-37, utilize 22...

Objective: We aimed to evaluate the inactivation of COX-2 , HMLH1 and CDKN2A by promoter methylation and its relationship with the infection by different Helicobacter pylori strains in gastric cancer. Methods: DNA extracted from 76 H. pylori -positive gastric tumor samples was available for promoter methylation identification by methylation-specific PCR and H. pylori subtyping by PCR. Immunohis...

GABAA receptors composed of 1, 2, 1 subunits are expressed in only a few areas of the brain and thus represent interesting drug targets. The pharmacological properties of this receptor subtype, however, are largely unknown. In the present study, we expressed 1 2 1-GABAA receptors in Xenopus laevis oocytes and analyzed their modulation by 21 ligands from 12 structural classes making use of the t...