Different Filling Patterns of the Choriocapillaris in Fluorescein and Indocyanine Green Angiography in Primate Eyes Under Elevated Intraocular Pressure

学記番号：医博甲1662

Comparison of the histological and immunohistochemical features of the thymus in young- and elderly-onset myasthenia gravis without thymoma

ArticleJOURNAL OF CLINICAL NEUROSCIENCE. 14(2): 110-115 (2007)journal articl

Invasion threat of benthic marine algae arriving on Japanese tsunami marine debris in Oregon and Washington, USA

Recognisable debris from the Great Tōhoku Earthquake and Tsunami of March 2011 began arriving on the coasts of Oregon and Washington, USA in June 2012. This debris often carried fouling Japanese marine algae, and there was concern that these species might recruit and invade northeast Pacific shores. From June 2012 to July 2016, we examined 42 heavily fouled debris items and, using both morphology and sequencing data, identified 84 species and varieties of marine algae and cyanobacteria on the debris. Many of these taxa had features that indicated a high invasion potential: 83% were reproductive, 48% were ephemeral, and 75% were opportunistic forms. Naturally widespread species and 13 well-known global invaders were present. However, 61% of the species or their genetic variants had been reported from the northeast Pacific before the tsunami. Although the invasion risk was still deemed high, preventative debris removal appears to have been effective in averting many potential introductions.Keywords: Fouling, Invasive features, Japan, Marine algal diversity, Northeast Pacific, Tsunami debri

The Minute Alga Schizocladia ischiensis (Schizocladiophyceae, Ochrophyta) Isolated by Germling Emergence from 24 m Depth off Rhodes (Greece)

This research was funded by the UK Natural Environment Research Council in support to FCK(program Oceans 2025–WP 4.5 and grants NE/D521522/1 and NE/J023094/1) and the NERC National Facility for Scientific Diving (NFSD/14/02). We would also like to thank the TOTAL Foundation (Project “Brown algal biodiversity and ecology in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea”). This work also received support from AFP from the project IDEALG (France: ANR-10-BTBR-04) and from FCK from the Marine Alliance for Science and Technology for Scotland pooling initiative. MASTS is funded by the Scottish Funding Council (grant reference HR09011) and contributing institutions.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Arguments to consider Rugulopteryx okamurae (Dictyotales, Ochrophyta) the potential first seaweed species to be included in the lists of invasive species of European Union concern

In 2015 a new exotic seaweed with invasive behaviour was detected at the Strait of Gibraltar (western Mediterranean), which was morphological and genetically identified as Rugulopteryx okamurae. Due to its rapid expansion and remarkable ecological, economic, and social impacts, the species was included in the Spanish Checklist of exotic invasive species. However, distribution models of the species identified other European coasts as favourable for this new invader. In this presentation we provide scientific arguments for the inclusion of R. okamurae in the list of invasive species of European Union concern, becoming the first seaweed species to be included in that list.Fundación Biodiversidad-Miteco. Universidad de Málaga (Plan propio de investigación). Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Relationship between nerve fiber layer defect and the presence of epiretinal membrane in a Japanese population: The JPHC-NEXT Eye Study

The study subjects were residents of Chikusei city, Japan, aged 40 years or older who attended annual health check-up programs and participated in the JPHC-NEXT Eye Study which performed non-mydriatic fundus photography of both eyes. The relationship of glaucomatous fundus changes such as optic disc cupping (cup to disc ratio ≥ 0.7) and retinal nerve fiber layer defect (NFLD) with the presence of epiretinal membrane (ERM) were examined cross-sectionally. A total of 1990 persons gave consent to participate in this study in 2013. The overall prevalence of ERM was 12.9%. Of these, 1755 had fundus photographs of sufficient quality and no history of intraocular surgery (mean age: 62.3 ± 10.0 years). After adjusting for age, sex and refractive error, NFLD was positively associated with the presence of ERM (odds ratio [OR]: 2.48; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.24, 4.96; P = 0.010), but optic disc cupping was not (OR: 1.33; CI: 0.71, 2.48; P = 0.37). The results did not necessarily suggest an association between glaucoma and ERM, but indicated an association between NFLD and ERM

Body mass index and colorectal cancer risk : A Mendelian randomization study

Traditional observational studies have reported a positive association between higher body mass index (BMI) and the risk of colorectal cancer (CRC). However, evidence from other approaches to pursue the causal relationship between BMI and CRC is sparse. A two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) study was undertaken using 68 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) from the Japanese genome-wide association study (GWAS) and 654 SNPs from the GWAS catalogue for BMI as sets of instrumental variables. For the analysis of SNP-BMI associations, we undertook a meta-analysis with 36 303 participants in the Japanese Consortium of Genetic Epidemiology studies (J-CGE), comprising normal populations. For the analysis of SNP-CRC associations, we utilized 7636 CRC cases and 37 141 controls from five studies in Japan, and undertook a meta-analysis. Mendelian randomization analysis of inverse-variance weighted method indicated that a one-unit (kg/m2) increase in genetically predicted BMI was associated with an odds ratio of 1.13 (95% confidence interval, 1.06-1.20; P value <.001) for CRC using the set of 68 SNPs, and an odds ratio of 1.07 (1.03-1.11, 0.001) for CRC using the set of 654 SNPs. Sensitivity analyses robustly showed increased odds ratios for CRC for every one-unit increase in genetically predicted BMI. Our MR analyses strongly support the evidence that higher BMI influences the risk of CRC. Although Asians are generally leaner than Europeans and North Americans, avoiding higher BMI seems to be important for the prevention of CRC in Asian populations

An exceptional horizontal gene transfer in plastids: gene replacement by a distant bacterial paralog and evidence that haptophyte and cryptophyte plastids are sisters

BACKGROUND: Horizontal gene transfer (HGT) to the plant mitochondrial genome has recently been shown to occur at a surprisingly high rate; however, little evidence has been found for HGT to the plastid genome, despite extensive sequencing. In this study, we analyzed all genes from sequenced plastid genomes to unearth any neglected cases of HGT and to obtain a measure of the overall extent of HGT to the plastid. RESULTS: Although several genes gave strongly supported conflicting trees under certain conditions, we are confident of HGT in only a single case beyond the rubisco HGT already reported. Most of the conflicts involved near neighbors connected by long branches (e.g. red algae and their secondary hosts), where phylogenetic methods are prone to mislead. However, three genes – clpP, ycf2, and rpl36 – provided strong support for taxa moving far from their organismal position. Further taxon sampling of clpP and ycf2 resulted in rejection of HGT due to long-branch attraction and a serious error in the published plastid genome sequence of Oenothera elata, respectively. A single new case, a bacterial rpl36 gene transferred into the ancestor of the cryptophyte and haptophyte plastids, appears to be a true HGT event. Interestingly, this rpl36 gene is a distantly related paralog of the rpl36 type found in other plastids and most eubacteria. Moreover, the transferred gene has physically replaced the native rpl36 gene, yet flanking genes and intergenic regions show no sign of HGT. This suggests that gene replacement somehow occurred by recombination at the very ends of rpl36, without the level and length of similarity normally expected to support recombination. CONCLUSION: The rpl36 HGT discovered in this study is of considerable interest in terms of both molecular mechanism and phylogeny. The plastid acquisition of a bacterial rpl36 gene via HGT provides the first strong evidence for a sister-group relationship between haptophyte and cryptophyte plastids to the exclusion of heterokont and alveolate plastids. Moreover, the bacterial gene has replaced the native plastid rpl36 gene by an uncertain mechanism that appears inconsistent with existing models for the recombinational basis of gene conversion