IL17 cytokines are central mediators of mammalian immunity. In vertebrates, these factors derive from diverse cellular sources. Sea urchins share a molecular heritage with chordates that includes the IL17 system. Here, we characterize the role of epithelial expression of IL17 in the larval gut-associated immune response. The purple sea urchin genome encodes 10 IL17 subfamilies (35 genes) and 2 ...

The family Threskiornithidae includes 13 genera and 32 species, and it is traditionally divided into 2 subfamilies: Plataleinae and Threskiornithinae. We present a phylogenetic reconstruction to test the monophyly of currently accepted subfamilies, including 15 species from both subfamilies and 10 genera of family Threskiornithidae. Phylogenetic trees were inferred on the basis of the mitochond...

The association between hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection and type II mixed cryoglobulinemia (MCII) is well established, but the role played by distinct HCV proteins and by specific components of the anti-HCV humoral immune response remains to be clearly defined. It is widely accepted that HCV drives the expansion of few B-cell clones expressing a restricted pool of selected immunoglobulin vari...

Although the sequence information on G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) continues to grow, many GPCRs remain orphaned (i.e. ligand specificity unknown) or poorly characterized with little structural information available, so an automated and reliable method is badly needed to facilitate the identification of novel receptors. In this study, a method of fast Fourier transform-based support vecto...

The phylogenetic relationships of Tettigoniidae (katydids and bush-crickets) were inferred using molecular sequence data. Six genes (18S rDNA, 28S rDNA, Cytochrome Oxidase II, Histone 3, Tubulin Alpha I, and Wingless) were sequenced for 135 ingroup taxa representing 16 of the 19 extant katydid subfamilies. Five subfamilies (Tettigoniinae, Pseudophyllinae, Mecopodinae, Meconematinae, and Listros...

sphecidae is a large and important family of hymenoptera. all members of this family are presocial predators of other arthropods and play a role in the control of pest complex. in this study, sphecids were collected from east azerbaijan province using sweep net, malaise traps and yellow pan traps. twenty species of the family sphecidae (hymenoptera), belonging to subfamilies pemphredoninae, ast...

The divergence accumulated during the evolution of protein families translates into their internal organization as subfamilies, and it is directly reflected in the characteristic patterns of differentially conserved residues. These specifically conserved positions in protein subfamilies are known as "specificity determining positions" (SDPs). Previous studies have limited their analysis to the ...

A synoptical key to the three orders Annonales, Berberidales, and Nymphaeales of the superorder Annoniflorae is presented with discussion as to why these orders, the core of the histmical Ranales, are considered to be closely related to one another but divergent from the similarly plimitive Hamamelidales of the Hamamelidiflorae, and why the names Annonales and Berberidales are preferred to the ...

Newly isolated members of two recently propagated (young) Alu subfamilies were examined for sequence diversity and insertion polymorphism in primate genomes. The smaller subfamily (termed HS-2) is comprised of approximately 5 to 25 members, while the larger (termed Sb2) includes approximately 125 to 600 members. Individual members of these Alu subfamilies share distinguishing sets of diagnostic...

The study presents taxonomic account of 52 species of dung beetles belonging to 22 genera, 12 tribes, 04 subtribes, 05 subfamilies and 03 families viz. Scarabaeidae, Geotrupidae and Hybosoridae from Chhattisgarh. Interactive identification keys to the subfamilies, tribes, genera and species were prepared by studying thoroughly the morphological characters of all the dung beetles specimens colle...