Annabella australiensis gen. & sp. nov. (Helotiales, Cordieritidaceae) from South Australian mangroves

A new genus of helotialean fungi, Annabella gen. nov. (Cordieritidaceae), is described to accommodate Annabella australiensis sp. nov. This species was collected on attached decaying wood of Avicennia marina, a common mangrove species found in protected waters of southern Australia. Annabella is distinctive among Cordieritidaceae in having relatively small perithecioid hyaline to yellowish apothecia and by the absence of an ionomidotic reaction. The apothecial shape and size of Annabella is most similar to Skyttea. The molecular phylogenetic analysis of a concatenated dataset of three ribosomal nuclear loci confirms the placement of Annabella within Cordieritidaceae, as a sister clade to Skyttea

Reflex tachycardia with airway opening in obstructive sleep apnea

Arousal from sleep is traditionally defined as a visually discernible shift to higher frequency activity in the sleep EEG lasting > 3 sec, with > 15-sec shifts considered full awakening. Arousals can occur spontaneously without an obvious trigger or be elicited by virtually any sensory stimulus applied with sufficient intensity to reach the “arousal threshold,” which varies between individuals and according to the “depth” or stage of sleep. Rather than simply a return to wakefulness, arousal appears to reflect a transiently activated state with altered responses to sensory inputs compared to wakefulness. Rapid cortical re-activation along with augmented cardiorespiratory and metabolic activity accompanying arousal has clear survival advantages, since all may be required to support “fight or flight” responses to exogenous or endogenous threats arising during sleep.Australian National Health and Medical Research Counci

Meiotic Recombination in Neurospora crassa Proceeds by Two Pathways with Extensive Holliday Junction Migration

This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.Analysis of thousands of Δmsh-2 octads using our fluorescent recombination system indicates that, as in other filamentous fungi, symmetric heteroduplex is common in the his-3 region of Neurospora crassa. Symmetric heteroduplex arises from Holliday junction migration, and we suggest this mechanism explains the high frequency of His+ spores in heteroallelic crosses in which recombination is initiated cis to the his-3 allele further from the initiator, cog+. In contrast, when recombination is initiated cis to the his-3 allele closer to cog+, His+ spores are mainly a result of synthesis-dependent strand annealing, yielding asymmetric heteroduplex. Loss of Msh-2 function increases measures of allelic recombination in both his-3 and the fluorescent marker gene, indicating that mismatches in asymmetric heteroduplex, as in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, tend to be repaired in the direction of restoration. Furthermore, the presence of substantial numbers of conversion octads in crosses lacking Msh-2 function suggests that the disjunction pathway described in S. cerevisiae is also active in Neurospora, adding to evidence for a universal model for meiotic recombination

Survival of Neurospora conidia on silica gel

Survival of Neurospora conidia on silica ge

Gene order in linkage group V of N. crassa

Gene order in linkage group

New linkage data for group V markers in N. crassa

New linkage data for group V marker

Brief comments on heterocaryosis and crossing methods

Brief comments on heterocaryosis and crossing method

Predictors of continuous positive airway pressure adherence

Continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) is the leading treatment for obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA), a prevalent disorder of breathing in sleep strongly associated with obesity. OSA has serious adverse health, social and community effects arising from disturbed breathing, loud snoring, poor quality sleep and cardiovascular sequelae. When used appropriately, CPAP treatment is highly effective in normalising breathing and sleep, improving symptoms and lowering adverse event risk. However, patients do not necessarily accept, tolerate or comply with treatment, with many factors influencing CPAP uptake and longer term use. Although knowledge to address challenges affecting CPAP adherence and CPAP mask and machine technologies continue to improve incrementally, optimising CPAP treatment adherence is an ongoing challenge in sleep medicine

The effect of rec-3 on regulation of the NADP-specific glutamate dehydrogenase of Neurospora

Effect of rec-3 on regulation of NADP-GD

The extraction, partial purification and assay of anthranilic synthetase from Neurospora crassa

The extraction, partial purification and assay of anthranilic synthetase from Neurospora crass