Effects of typhoons on gelatinous carnivore zooplankton off Northern Taiwan

We examine the effect of typhoons, as potential drivers of nutrient pulse events, on gelatinous carnivore zooplankton. The period investigated spanned from 2007 to 2010, where seasonal abundance and taxonomic composition of the gelatinous zooplankton community was recorded off North Taiwan. Typhoon effects were assessed in the abundance, diversity and species richness of the gelatinous carnivore populations. Significant associations between typhoons and gelatinous carnivores were found in time delays varying from 3 to 25 days, but no association was identified for longer time intervals. Generally, a decrease in species richness occurred during the summer season, and this was accentuated in 2008, shortly after typhoons events. We hypothesize that typhoons might act as resource pulse triggers probably enhancing open niches for opportunistic carnivore zooplankton groups

Structure-Based High-Throughput Epitope Analysis of Hexon Proteins in B and C Species Human Adenoviruses (HAdVs)

Human adenoviruses (HAdVs) are the etiologic agent of many human infectious diseases. The existence of at least 54 different serotypes of HAdVs has resulted in difficulties in clinical diagnosis. Acute respiratory tract disease (ARD) caused by some serotypes from B and C species is particularly serious. Hexon, the main coat protein of HAdV, contains the major serotype-specific B cell epitopes; however, few studies have addressed epitope mapping in most HAdV serotypes. In this study, we utilized a novel and rapid method for the modeling of homologous proteins based on the phylogenetic tree of protein families and built three-dimensional (3D) models of hexon proteins in B and C species HAdVs. Based on refined hexon structures, we used reverse evolutionary trace (RET) bioinformatics analysis combined with a specially designed hexon epitope screening algorithm to achieve high-throughput epitope mapping of all 13 hexon proteins in B and C species HAdVs. This study has demonstrated that all of the epitopes from the 13 hexon proteins are located in the proteins' tower regions; however, the exact number, location, and size of the epitopes differ among the HAdV serotypes