Evidence for a role of Anopheles stephensi in the spread of drug- and diagnosis-resistant malaria in Africa

Anopheles stephensi, an Asian malaria vector, continues to expand across Africa. The vector is now firmly established in urban settings in the Horn of Africa. Its presence in areas where malaria resurged suggested a possible role in causing malaria outbreaks. Here, using a prospective case-control design, we investigated the role of An. stephensi in transmission following a malaria outbreak in Dire Dawa, Ethiopia in April-July 2022. Screening contacts of patients with malaria and febrile controls revealed spatial clustering of Plasmodium falciparum infections around patients with malaria in strong association with the presence of An. stephensi in the household vicinity. Plasmodium sporozoites were detected in these mosquitoes. This outbreak involved clonal propagation of parasites with molecular signatures of artemisinin and diagnostic resistance. To our knowledge, this study provides the strongest evidence so far for a role of An. stephensi in driving an urban malaria outbreak in Africa, highlighting the major public health threat posed by this fast-spreading mosquito

Analysis of Pig Vomeronasal Receptor Type 1 (V1R) Promoter Region Reveals a Common Promoter Motif but Poor CpG Islands

<p>Promoters are, generally, located immediately upstream of a transcription start site (TSS) and have a variety of regulatory motifs, such as transcription factors (TFs) and CpG islands (CGIs), that participate in the regulation of gene expression. Here analysis of the promoter region for pig vomeronasal receptor type 1 (V1R) was described. In the analysis, TSSs for pig V1R genes was first identified and five motifs (MV1, MV2, MV3, MV4, and MV5) were found that are shared by at least 50% of the pig V1R promoter input sequences from both strands. Among the five motifs, MV2 was identified as a common promoter motif shared by all (100%) pig V1R promoters. For further analysis, to better characterize and get deeper biological insight associated with MV2, TOMTOM web application was used. MV2 was compared to the known motif databases (such as JASPAR) to see if they are similar to a known regulatory motif (transcription factor). Hence, it was revealed that MV2 serves as the binding site mainly for the BetaBetaAlpha-zinc finger (BTB-ZF) transcription factor gene family to regulate expression of pig V1R genes. Moreover, it was shown that pig V1R promoters are CpG poor, suggesting that their gene expression regulation pattern is in tissue specific manner.</p

Growth performance and carcass characteristics of Arsi-Bale goats castrated at different ages

The study was conducted on thirty six male Arsi-Bale kids of 10.56±0.39kg initial body weight for 15 months to investigate the effects of age at castration on growth performance and carcass characteristics. The treatments were entire/intact (T1), castration at the month of age (T2), castration at six month of age (T3) and castration at nine month of age (T4). All castrated and entire goats were browsed during day time and supplemented with concentrated at 2.5% of body weight in DM per day which adjusted with changes in their body weight. Five goats from each treatment were randomly selected and slaughtered for carcass evaluation. Age at castration had no significant effect on body weight, total weight gain (TG), overall average daily gain (ADG) and linear body measurement. T1 and T4 had significantly (

Additional file 2 of High prevalence of Pfcrt 76T and Pfmdr1 N86 genotypes in malaria infected patients attending health facilities in East Shewa zone, Oromia Regional State, Ethiopia

Additional file 2. Representative gel image showing digested nested PCR products. (A): K76T codon cleaved with APoI restriction enzyme run in 2.0% agarose gel. L = 100 bp DNA ladder marker, lanes 1–9 are samples, lane 10 is uncut control and lane 11 is wild-type control (Pf3D7). (B): N86Y codon cleaved with APoI restriction enzyme run in 2.5% agarose gel. L = 100 bp ladder, Lanes 1–9 are samples, lane 10 is wild-type pos. cont. (3D7), lane 11 is mutant- type pos. cont. (K1), and lane 12 uncut control

Additional file 1 of High prevalence of Pfcrt 76T and Pfmdr1 N86 genotypes in malaria infected patients attending health facilities in East Shewa zone, Oromia Regional State, Ethiopia

Additional file 1. Primers sequences used in nested PCR for the amplification of Pfcrt and Pfmdr1 genes

Genetic Diversity and mRNA Expression of Porcine <i>MHC</i> Class I Chain-Related 2 (<i>SLA-MIC2</i>) Gene and Development of a High-Resolution Typing Method

<div><p>The genetic structure and function of MHC class I chain-related (<i>MIC</i>) genes in the pig genome have not been well characterized, and show discordance in available data. Therefore, we have experimentally characterized the exon-intron structure and functional copy expression pattern of the pig <i>MIC</i> gene, <i>SLA-MIC2</i>. We have also studied the genetic diversity of <i>SLA-MIC2</i> from seven different breeds using a high-resolution genomic sequence-based typing (GSBT) method. Our results showed that the <i>SLA-MIC2</i> gene has a similar molecular organization as the human and cattle orthologs, and is expressed in only a few tissues including the small intestine, lung, and heart. A total of fifteen <i>SLA-MIC2</i> alleles were identified from typing 145 animals, ten of which were previously unreported. Our analysis showed that the previously reported and tentatively named <i>SLA-MIC2*05</i>, <i>07</i>, and <i>01</i> alleles occurred most frequently. The observed heterozygosity varied from 0.26 to 0.73 among breeds. The number of alleles of the <i>SLA-MIC2</i> gene in pigs is somewhat lower compared to the number of alleles of the porcine <i>MHC</i> class I and II genes; however, the level of heterozygosity was similar. Our results indicate the comprehensiveness of using genomic DNA-based typing for the systemic study of the <i>SLA-MIC2</i> gene. The method developed for this study, as well as the detailed information that was obtained, could serve as fundamental tools for understanding the influence of the <i>SLA-MIC2</i> gene on porcine immune responses.</p></div

Comparison of amino acid sequences of MIC genes among pigs, humans, and cattle.

<p>A representative sequence of each functional <i>MIC</i> gene from each species was selected, and amino acid sequences were compared throughout the entire coding region to evaluate sequence conservation. The accession numbers for the sequences are <i>BoLA-MIC1</i> (BK006541), <i>BoLA-MIC2</i> (BK006542), and <i>BoLA-MIC3</i> (BK006543) for cattle, and <i>MICA</i> (NM_000247) and <i>MICB</i>- (NM_005931) for humans. Potential sites for N-linked glycosylation are underlined, and cysteine residues are indicated in squares for <i>SLA-MIC2</i>. Gaps are indicated by dashes and identical residues are indicated by dots. Stars above the sequences indicate conserved N-linked glycosylation sites, and plus signs above the sequences indicate a cysteine residue that is conserved across species. The starting points of protein domains are indicated above the annotated sequence, and the numbers above the sequence indicate the number of amino acids starting from the α1 domain excluding the leader peptide.</p