The second industrial area located south of Riyadh City – Saudi Arabia was selected for detailed study as pollution of this area with heavy metals has accelerated dramatically during the last decades. The concentrations of eight metals (Cd, Cr, Co, Cu, Fe, Ni, Pb and Zn) in soils and different plant organs of seven native plant species (Calotropis procera , Citrullus colocynthis , Rhazya strict...

Immunologically intact BALB/c mice infected with Leishmania mexicana develop non-healing progressively growing lesions associated with a biased Th2 response while similarly infected IL-4Rα-deficient mice fail to develop lesions and develop a robust Th1 response. In order to determine the functional target(s) for IL-4/IL-13 inducing non-healing disease, the course of L. mexicana infection was mo...

This study analyzed DNA minicircles of Mexican isolates of L. (Leishmania) mexicana to look for genetic differences between strains isolated from patients with diffuse cutaneous (DCL) and localized (LCL) leishmaniasis. The kDNA was analyzed using polymerase chain reaction (PCR), restriction fragment polymorphism analysis of the PCR products (PCR-RFLP) and the PCR products were sequenced. In the...

Developmental time, longevity, and lifetime fertility of three previously introduced parasitoids (Acerophagus papayae Noyes and Schauff, Anagyrus loecki Noyes and Menezes, and Pseudleptomastix mexicana Noyes and Schauff) (Hymenoptera: Encyrtidae) of the mealybug Paracoccus marginatus Williams and Granara de Willink (Hemiptera: Pseudococcidae) were studied in the laboratory to understand the ou...

Background: Leaves of 15 plant species were collected from the catchment areas of the river Beas, Punjab, India, and analyzed for organic acids of tricarboxylic acid cycle, viz., citric acid (CA), succinic acid (SA), fumaric acid (FmA), and malic acid (MA). Methods: Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) was used to determine the content of organic acids in the leaves of plant species. Tw...

OBJECTIVE To study cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL), in the Calakmul municipality of the Campeche State, during two years. MATERIALS AND METHODS Individuals with skin lesions were evaluated. Aspirates taken from the lesions were cultured, PCR was performed to diagnose the Leishmania species. RESULTS The culture detected 42% of the samples. PCR diagnosed CL in 76% of the samples; of those 38% we...

The evolutionary significance of hybridization and subsequent introgression has long been appreciated, but evaluation of the genome-wide effects of these phenomena has only recently become possible. Crop-wild study systems represent ideal opportunities to examine evolution through hybridization. For example, maize and the conspecific wild teosinte Zea mays ssp. mexicana (hereafter, mexicana) ar...