A new species of bird’s nest fungi: characterisation of Cyathus subglobisporus sp. nov. based on morphological and molecular data

Recent collections of bird’s nest fungi (i.e. Crucibulum, Cyathus, Mycocalia, Nidula, and Nidularia species) in northern Thailand resulted in the discovery of a new species of Cyathus, herein described as C. subglobisporus. This species is distinct by a combination of ivory-coloured fruiting bodies covered with shaggy hairs, plications on the inner surface of the peridium and subglobose basidiospores. Phylogenetic analyses based on ITS and LSU ribosomal DNA sequences using neighbour-joining, maximum likelihood and weighted maximum parsimony support Cyathus subglobisporus as a distinct species and sister to a clade containing C. annulatus, C. renweii and C. stercoreus in the Striatum group

High Fat Relative to Low Fat Ground Beef Consumption Lowers Blood Pressure and Does Not Negatively Alter Arterial Stiffness

Beef consumption has been stigmatized as an unhealthy dietary choice. However, randomized control trials to support this claim are lacking. PURPOSE: To examine the effect of low-fat (5%) and high-fat (25%) ground beef consumption on blood pressure (BP) and carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (PWV).METHODS: Twenty-three male subjects (age 40±11 yrs, height 177.4±6.7 cm, weight 97.3±25.0 kg, lean mass 64.5±9.5 kg, fat mass 30.6±19.1 kg) volunteered to participate in this cross-over design study. Each participant completed two, 5-week ground beef interventions in a randomized order with a 4-week washout period in-between. All participants visited the lab four times after an overnight fast. Each visit to the lab consisted of supine BP, dual energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA) scan to assess body composition, and PWV analysis. The PWV recording was assessed on the right carotid and femoral arteries. The distance used for the PWV calculation was 80% of the actual distance between carotid and femoral sites. All PWV measures were completed according to previously published procedures (Van Bortel, 2011). BP and PWV results were analyzed separately via 2x2 repeated measures ANOVA. RESULTS: Our results indicate there was a significant decrease in systolic BP (p=0.01) following the high-fat ground beef intervention compared to the low-fat. The BP values for low-fat beef and high-fat beef are 120/74 and 116/73 mmHg, respectively. Further, there were no significant differences between the PWV measures. CONCLUSION: Based on our results, high fat ground beef favorably alters systolic BP and does not negatively affect PWV measures

Cytological and transcript analyses reveal fat and lazy persister-like bacilli in tuberculous sputum

As nonreplicating tubercle bacilli are tolerant to the cidal action of antibiotics and resistant to multiple stresses, identification of this persister-like population of tubercle bacilli in sputum presents exciting and tractable new opportunities to investigate both responses to chemotherapy and the transmission of tuberculosis

Dominance of variant A in Human Herpesvirus 6 viraemia after renal transplantation

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Human herpesvirus 6 (HHV-6), mostly variant B reactivation in renal transplant patients has been published by other authors, but the pathogenetic role of HHV-6 variant A has not been clarified. Our aims were to examine the prevalence of HHV-6, to determine the variants, and to investigate the interaction between HHV-6 viraemia, human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) infection and clinical symptoms.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Variant-specific HHV-6 nested PCR and quantitative real-time PCR were used to examine blood samples from renal transplant patients and healthy blood donors for the presence and load of HHV-6 DNA and to determine the variants. Active HHV-6 infection was proved by RT-PCR, and active HCMV infection was diagnosed by pp65 antigenaemia test.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>HHV-6 viraemia was significantly more frequent in renal transplant patients compared to healthy blood donors (9/200 vs. 0/200; p = 0.004), while prevalence of HHV-6 latency was not significantly different (13/200 vs. 19/200; p > 0.05). Dominance of variant A was revealed in viraemias (8/9), and the frequency of HHV-6A was significantly higher in active infections compared with latency in renal transplant patients (8/9 vs. 2/13; p = 0.0015). Latency was established predominantly by HHV-6B both in renal transplant patients and in healthy blood donors (11/13 and 18/19). There was no statistical significant difference in occurrence of HCMV and HHV-6 viraemia in renal transplant patients (7/200 vs. 9/200). Statistical analysis did not reveal interaction between HHV-6 viraemia and clinical symptoms in our study.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Contrary to previous publications HHV-6A viraemia was found to be predominant in renal transplant patients. Frequency of variant A was significantly higher in cases of active infection then in latency.</p

Multiple M. tuberculosis Phenotypes in Mouse and Guinea Pig Lung Tissue Revealed by a Dual-Staining Approach

A unique hallmark of tuberculosis is the granulomatous lesions formed in the lung. Granulomas can be heterogeneous in nature and can develop a necrotic, hypoxic core which is surrounded by an acellular, fibrotic rim. Studying bacilli in this in vivo microenvironment is problematic as Mycobacterium tuberculosis can change its phenotype and also become acid-fast negative. Under in vitro models of differing environments, M. tuberculosis alters its metabolism, transcriptional profile and rate of replication. In this study, we investigated whether these phenotypic adaptations of M. tuberculosis are unique for certain environmental conditions and if they could therefore be used as differential markers. Bacilli were studied using fluorescent acid-fast auramine-rhodamine targeting the mycolic acid containing cell wall, and immunofluorescence targeting bacterial proteins using an anti-M. tuberculosis whole cell lysate polyclonal antibody. These techniques were combined and simultaneously applied to M. tuberculosis in vitro culture samples and to lung sections of M. tuberculosis infected mice and guinea pigs. Two phenotypically different subpopulations of M. tuberculosis were found in stationary culture whilst three subpopulations were found in hypoxic culture and in lung sections. Bacilli were either exclusively acid-fast positive, exclusively immunofluorescent positive or acid-fast and immunofluorescent positive. These results suggest that M. tuberculosis exists as multiple populations in most conditions, even within seemingly a single microenvironment. This is relevant information for approaches that study bacillary characteristics in pooled samples (using lipidomics and proteomics) as well as in M. tuberculosis drug development