Halioticida noduliformans infection in eggs of lobster ( Homarus gammarus ) reveals its generalist parasitic strategy in marine invertebrates

publisher: Elsevier articletitle: Halioticida noduliformans infection in eggs of lobster (Homarus gammarus) reveals its generalist parasitic strategy in marine invertebrates journaltitle: Journal of Invertebrate Pathology articlelink: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jip.2018.03.002 content_type: article copyright: © 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc.0000-0002-6719-5565The file attached is the Published/publisher’s pdf version of the articleThis is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/BY/4.0/)

Halioticida noduliformans infection in eggs of lobster (Homarus gammarus) reveals its generalist parasitic strategy in marine invertebrates

This is the final version of the article. Available from the publisher via the DOI in this record.A parasite exhibiting Oomycete-like morphology and pathogenesis was isolated from discoloured eggs of the European lobster (Homarus gammarus) and later found in gill tissues of adults. Group-specific Oomycete primers were designed to amplify the 18S ribosomal small subunit (SSU), which initially identified the organism as the same as the ‘Haliphthoros’ sp. NJM 0034 strain (AB178865.1) previously isolated from abalone (imported from South Australia to Japan). However, in accordance with other published SSU-based phylogenies, the NJM 0034 isolate did not group with other known Haliphthoros species in our Maximum Likelihood and Bayesian phylogenies. Instead, the strain formed an orphan lineage, diverging before the separation of the Saprolegniales and Pythiales. Based upon 28S large subunit (LSU) phylogeny, our own isolate and the previously unidentified 0034 strain are both identical to the abalone pathogen Halioticida noduliformans. The genus shares morphological similarities with Haliphthoros and Halocrusticida and forms a clade with these in LSU phylogenies. Here, we confirm the first recorded occurrence of H. noduliformans in European lobsters and associate its presence with pathology of the egg mass, likely leading to reduced fecundity.This work was conducted within the Centre for Sustainable Aquaculture Futures, a joint initiative between the University of Exeter and the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas) and funded by a Cefas-Exeter University Alliance PhD Studentship to CH. Work was also supported through the Agri-Tech Catalyst, Industrial Stage Awards, Lobster Grower 2 project funded by Innovate UK (102531) and BBSRC (BB/N013891/1) and Defra contracts C6560 and C7277 to D

Constraining the nature of two Lyα emitters detected by ALMA at z = 4.7

We report optical VLT FORS2 spectroscopy of the two Ly-alpha emitters (LAEs) companions to the quasi-stellar object (QSO) - sub-millimetre galaxy (SMG) system BRI1202-0725 at z = 4.7, which have recently been detected in the [CII]158um line by the Atacama Large Millimetre/Sub-millimetre Array (ALMA). We detect Ly-alpha emission from both sources and so confirm that these Ly-alpha emitter candidates are physically associated with the BRI1202- 0725 system. We also report the lack of detection of any high ionisation emission lines (N V, Si IV, C IV and He II) and find that these systems are likely not photoionised by the quasar, leaving in situ star formation as the main powering source of these LAEs. We also find that both LAEs have Ly-alpha emission much broader (1300 km/s) than the [CII] emission and broader than most LAEs. In addition, both LAEs have roughly symmetric Ly-alpha profiles implying that both systems are within the HII sphere produced by the quasar. This is the first time that the proximity zone of a quasar is probed by exploiting nearby Ly-alpha emitters. We discuss the observational properties of these galaxies in the context of recent galaxy formation models.This work was co-funded under the Marie Curie Actions of the European Commission (FP7-COFUND).This is the final published version, which originally appeared in MNRAS and is available at http://mnras.oxfordjournals.org/content/439/2/2096

Monkeypox Disease Transmission in an Experimental Setting: Prairie Dog Animal Model

Monkeypox virus (MPXV) is considered the most significant human public health threat in the genus Orthopoxvirus since the eradication of variola virus (the causative agent of smallpox). MPXV is a zoonotic agent endemic to forested areas of Central and Western Africa. In 2003, MPXV caused an outbreak in the United States due to the importation of infected African rodents, and subsequent sequential infection of North American prairie dogs (Cynomys ludovicianus) and humans. In previous studies, the prairie dog MPXV model has successfully shown to be very useful for understanding MPXV since the model emulates key characteristics of human monkeypox disease. In humans, percutaneous exposure to animals has been documented but the primary method of human-to-human MPXV transmission is postulated to be by respiratory route. Only a few animal model studies of MPXV transmission have been reported. Herein, we show that MPXV infected prairie dogs are able to transmit the virus to naive animals through multiple transmission routes. All secondarily exposed animals were infected with MPXV during the course of the study. Notably, animals secondarily exposed appeared to manifest more severe disease; however, the disease course was very similar to those of experimentally challenged animals including inappetence leading to weight loss, development of lesions, production of orthopoxvirus antibodies and shedding of similar levels or in some instances higher levels of MPXV from the oral cavity. Disease was transmitted via exposure to contaminated bedding, co-housing, or respiratory secretions/nasal mucous (we could not definitively say that transmission occurred via respiratory route exclusively). Future use of the model will allow us to evaluate infection control measures, vaccines and antiviral strategies to decrease disease transmission

Liver-Targeting of Interferon-Alpha with Tissue-Specific Domain Antibodies

PMCID: PMC3581439This 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

Correlation of Group C Meningococcal Conjugate Vaccine Response with B- and T-Lymphocyte Activity

Despite the success of conjugate vaccination against meningococcal group C (MenC) disease, post-vaccination, some individuals still exhibit rapid waning of initially protective bactericidal antibody levels. The mechanism of this relative loss of humoral protection remains undetermined. In this report we have investigated the relationship between T- and B-cell activation and co-stimulation and the loss of protective antibody titers. We have found that healthy volunteers who lose protective MenC antibody levels one year after receipt of glycoconjugate vaccine exhibit no detectable cellular defect in polyclonal B- or T-cell activation, proliferation or the B-memory pool. This suggests that the processes underlying the more rapid loss of antibody levels are independent of defects in either initial T- or B-cell activation

Submillimeter Studies of Prestellar Cores and Protostars: Probing the Initial Conditions for Protostellar Collapse

Improving our understanding of the initial conditions and earliest stages of protostellar collapse is crucial to gain insight into the origin of stellar masses, multiple systems, and protoplanetary disks. Observationally, there are two complementary approaches to this problem: (1) studying the structure and kinematics of prestellar cores observed prior to protostar formation, and (2) studying the structure of young (e.g. Class 0) accreting protostars observed soon after point mass formation. We discuss recent advances made in this area thanks to (sub)millimeter mapping observations with large single-dish telescopes and interferometers. In particular, we argue that the beginning of protostellar collapse is much more violent in cluster-forming clouds than in regions of distributed star formation. Major breakthroughs are expected in this field from future large submillimeter instruments such as Herschel and ALMA.Comment: 12 pages, 9 figures, to appear in the proceedings of the conference "Chemistry as a Diagnostic of Star Formation" (C.L. Curry & M. Fich eds.

Holocene deglaciation and glacier readvances on the Fildes Peninsula and King George Island (Isla 25 de Mayo), South Shetland Islands, NW Antarctic Peninsula

To provide insights into glacier-climate dynamics of the South Shetland Islands (SSI), NW Antarctic Peninsula, we present a new deglaciation and readvance model for the Bellingshausen Ice Cap (BIC) on Fildes Peninsula and for King George Island/Isla 25 de Mayo (KGI) ~62°S. Deglaciation on KGI began after c. 15 ka cal BP and had progressed to within present-day limits on the Fildes Peninsula, its largest ice-free peninsula, by c. 6.6–5.3 ka cal BP. Probability density phase analysis of chronological data constraining Holocene glacier advances on KGI revealed up to eight 95% probability ‘gaps’ during which readvances could have occurred. These are grouped into four stages – Stage 1: a readvance and marine transgression, well-constrained by field data, between c. 7.4–6.6 ka cal BP; Stage 2: four probability ‘gaps’, less well-constrained by field data, between c. 5.3–2.2 ka cal BP; Stage 3: a well-constrained but restricted ‘readvance’ between c. 1.7–1.5 ka; Stage 4: two further minor ‘readvances’, one less well-constrained by field data between c. 1.3–0.7 ka cal BP (68% probability), and a ‘final’ well-constrained ‘readvance’ after 1950 CE) is associated with recent warming/more positive SAM-like conditions