Prevalence of Transfusion Transmissible Infection among Healthy Blood Donors at Dongola Specialized Hospital, Sudan, 2010–2015

Background: Blood transfusion saves lives but carries the risk of transmission of infections. Screening donors for transfusion transmissible infection (TTI) is mandatory. Objectives: To study the prevalence of TTI among blood donors at Dongola Specialized hospital, Northern State, Sudan. Materials and Methods: Retrospective study performed on blood donors at the blood bank of Dongola Specialized Hospital during the period 2010–2015. Demographic data and results of screening tests for all donors in the study period were included. Data were analyzed using SPSS and results were presented in percentages. Results: The total number of donors were 6,489, of which 6,433 (99.1%) were included in the study. All donors were males and family donors. Mean age (SD) was 27.9 (6.516) years. hepatitis B virus was detected in 85 (1.3%), syphilis in 68 (1.1%), hepatitis virus in 45 (0.7%), and human immunodeficiency virus in 3 (0.05%) donors. Coinfections of hepatitis B with syphilis and hepatitis B with hepatitis C were found in 0.05% and 0.03% of the donors, respectively.  Conclusion: The prevalence of TTI is low compared to national and international figures. These findings may reflect low prevalence rates of the studied infections in the community. Key words: blood donors, Northern State, Sudan, transfusion transmissible infectio

Introduction to the Special Issue: The ecology and genetics of population differentiation in plants

Grants PID2019-104135GB-I00 (F.X.P.) and PID2019-111294GB-I00 (M.A.) from the Agencia Estatal de Investigacion (AEI) of Spain and the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER, UE) funded this research. M.A. also acknowledges the project 2415/2017 from the Organismo Autonomo de Parques Nacionales of Spain. A.R.C. received support from a Portuguese FCT postdoctoral fellowship (SFRH/BPD/115781/2016).Population differentiation is a pervasive process in nature. At present, evolutionary studies on plant population differentiation address key questions by undertaking joint ecological and genetic approaches and employing a combination of molecular and experimental means. In this special issue, we gathered a collection of papers dealing with various ecological and genetic aspects of population differentiation in plants. In particular, this special issue encompasses eight research articles and two reviews covering a wide array of worldwide environments, plant functional types, genetic and genomic approaches, and common garden experiments to quantify molecular and/or quantitative trait differentiation in plant populations. Overall, this special issue stresses the validity of traditional evolutionary studies focused on plant populations, whilst emphasizing the integration of classical biological disciplines and state-of-the-art molecular techniques into a unique toolkit for evolutionary plant research.Spanish Government PID2019-104135GB-I00 PID2019-111294GB-I00European Regional Development Fund (FEDER, UE)Organismo Autonomo de Parques Nacionales of Spain 2415/2017Portuguese FCT postdoctoral fellowship SFRH/BPD/115781/201

Genomic analyses of the Linum distyly supergene reveal convergent evolution at the molecular level

Supergenes govern multi-trait-balanced polymorphisms in a wide range of systems; however, our understanding of their origins and evolution remains incomplete. The reciprocal placement of stigmas and anthers in pin and thrum floral morphs of distylous species constitutes an iconic example of a balanced polymorphism governed by a supergene, the distyly S-locus. Recent studies have shown that the Primula and Turnera distyly supergenes are both hemizygous in thrums, but it remains unknown whether hemizygosity is pervasive among distyly S-loci. As hemizygosity has major consequences for supergene evolution and loss, clarifying whether this genetic architecture is shared among distylous species is critical. Here, we have characterized the genetic architecture and evolution of the distyly supergene in Linum by generating a chromosome-level genome assembly of Linum tenue, followed by the identification of the S-locus using population genomic data. We show that hemizygosity and thrum-specific expression of S-linked genes, including a pistil-expressed candidate gene for style length, are major features of the Linum S-locus. Structural variation is likely instrumental for recombination suppression, and although the non-recombining dominant haplotype has accumulated transposable elements, S-linked genes are not under relaxed purifying selection. Our findings reveal remarkable convergence in the genetic architecture and evolution of independently derived distyly supergenes, provide a counterexample to classic inversion-based supergenes, and shed new light on the origin and maintenance of an iconic floral polymorphism.European Research Council (ERC) 757451 Swedish Research Council European CommissionBergstroms foundation Carl Tryggers grant Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation as part of the National Bioinformatics Infrastructure Sweden at SciLifeLabNational Genomics Infrastructure (NGI) in Stockholm and Uppsala (Uppsala Genome Center, SNP&SEQ) - Knut and Alice Wallenberg FoundationScience for Life LaboratorySwedish Research CouncilEuropean Commission 2018-05973NBIS (National Bioinformatics Infrastructure Sweden