Genome-wide gene expression analysis of anguillid herpesvirus 1

<p>Background: Whereas temporal gene expression in mammalian herpesviruses has been studied extensively, little is known about gene expression in fish herpesviruses. Here we report a genome-wide transcription analysis of a fish herpesvirus, anguillid herpesvirus 1, in cell culture, studied during the first 6 hours of infection using reverse transcription quantitative PCR.</p> <p>Results: Four immediate-early genes – open reading frames 1, 6A, 127 and 131 – were identified on the basis of expression in the presence of a protein synthesis inhibitor and unique expression profiles during infection in the absence of inhibitor. All of these genes are located within or near the terminal direct repeats. The remaining 122 open reading frames were clustered into groups on the basis of transcription profiles during infection. Expression of these genes was also studied in the presence of a viral DNA polymerase inhibitor, enabling classification into early, early-late and late genes. In general, clustering by expression profile and classification by inhibitor studies corresponded well. Most early genes encode enzymes and proteins involved in DNA replication, most late genes encode structural proteins, and early-late genes encode non-structural as well as structural proteins.</p> <p>Conclusions: Overall, anguillid herpesvirus 1 gene expression was shown to be regulated in a temporal fashion, comparable to that of mammalian herpesviruses.</p&gt

Complete genome sequence and taxonomic position of anguillid herpesvirus 1

Eel herpesvirus or anguillid herpesvirus 1 (AngHV1) frequently causes disease in freshwater eels. The complete genome sequence of AngHV1 and its taxonomic position within the family Alloherpesviridae were determined. Shotgun sequencing revealed a 249 kbp genome including an 11 kbp terminal direct repeat that contains 7 of the 136 predicted protein-coding open reading frames. Twelve of these genes are conserved among other members of the family Alloherpesviridae and another 28 genes have clear homologues in cyprinid herpesvirus 3. Phylogenetic analyses based on amino acid sequences of five conserved genes, including the ATPase subunit of the terminase, confirm the position of AngHV1 within the family Alloherpesviridae, where it is most closely related to the cyprinid herpesviruses. Our analyses support a recent proposal to subdivide the family Alloherpesviridae into two sister clades, one containing AngHV1 and the cyprinid herpesviruses and the other containing Ictalurid herpesvirus 1 and the ranid herpesviruses

For richer, for poorer: the relationship between adolescent obesity and future household economic prosperity

Adolescent obesity not only has serious long-term health implications, but also the potential to lead to a socioeconomic trajectory of lower earnings and household income. However, the magnitude and mechanisms of such outcomes across the life course are poorly understood. Using birth cohort data from the British National Child Development Study (1958 to 2008), we examined the relationship between adolescent obesity (at age 16) and future household income, employment, wages, marriage and spousal earnings when individuals were in their 30s, 40s and 50s. We additionally investigated the role of obesity persistence from childhood (age 11) through to adulthood (age 33). After adjusting for a rich set of childhood characteristics, compared to normal weight, obesity at age 16 was associated with significantly lower levels of future household income for women (by approximately 14%), but not men. This household income penalty was greater for women with obesity in both childhood and adulthood. The household income penalty for women appeared to be driven by a lower likelihood of marriage and lower spousal earnings for those who were married, and not by their own wage penalty in the labour market. The spousal earnings penalty occurred even when obesity did not persist into adulthood

Four dimensional "old minimal" N=2 supersymmetrization of R^4

We write in superspace the lagrangian containing the fourth power of the Weyl tensor in the "old minimal" d=4, N=2 supergravity, without local SO(2) symmetry. Using gauge completion, we analyze the lagrangian in components. We find out that the auxiliary fields which belong to the Weyl and compensating vector multiplets have derivative terms and therefore cannot be eliminated on-shell. Only the auxiliary fields which belong to the compensating nonlinear multiplet do not get derivatives and could still be eliminated; we check that this is possible in the leading terms of the lagrangian. We compare this result to the similar one of "old minimal" N=1 supergravity and we comment on possible generalizations to other versions of N=1,2 supergravity.Comment: 31 pages, no figures. Minor corrections. Details of the full calculation included as an appendix. Reference adde

Gentechnologie bij landbouwhuisdieren

Een overzicht van de ontwikkelingen van het kloneren van landbouwhuisdieren, met het oog op mogelijke consequenties voor beleid en regelgeving. Er wordt ingegaan op de techniek van dna modificatie, de invloed op veehouderij, fokkerij, praktijk, dierenwelzijn en -gezondheid, nationale veiligheid en regelgeving en de toekomstige ontwikkelingen in de nabije toekoms

Fermions, T-duality and effective actions for D-branes in bosonic backgrounds

We find the effective action for any D-brane in a general bosonic background of supergravity. The results are explicit in component fields up to second order in the fermions and are obtained in a covariant manner. No interaction terms between fermions and the field $f=b+F$, characteristic of the bosonic actions, are considered. These are reserved for future work. In order to obtain the actions, we reduce directly from the M2-brane world-volume action to the D2-brane world-volume action. Then, by means of T-duality, we obtain the other Dp-brane actions. The resulting Dp-brane actions can be written in a single compact and elegant expression.Comment: 22 pages, latex, version published by JHEP plus typos corrected in eq.(44) and eq.(47

Semiautomated isolation and molecular characterisation of single or highly purified tumour cells from CellSearch enriched blood samples using dielectrophoretic cell sorting

Background: Molecular characterisation of single circulating tumour cells (CTCs) holds considerable promise for predictive biomarker assessment and to explore CTC heterogeneity. We evaluate a new method, the DEPArray system, that allows the dielectrophoretic manipulation and isolation of single and 100% purified groups of CTCs from pre-enriched blood samples and explore the feasibility of their molecular characterisation.Methods:Samples containing known numbers of two cell populations were used to assess cell loss during sample loading. Cultured breast cancer cells were isolated from spiked blood samples using CellSearch CTC and Profile kits. Single tumour cells and groups of up to 10 tumour cells were recovered with the DEPArray system and subjected to transcriptional and mutation analysis.Results:On average, 40% cell loss was observed when loading samples to the DEPArray system. Expected mutations in clinically relevant markers could be obtained for 60% of single recovered tumour cells and all groups of tumour cells. Reliable gene expression profiles were obtained from single cells and groups of up to 10 cells for 2 out of 3 spiked breast cancer cell lines.Conclusion:We describe a semiautomated workflow for the isolation of small groups of 1 to 10 tumour cells from whole blood samples and provide proof of principle for the feasibility of their comprehensive molecular characterisation

Drag force in SYM plasma with B field from AdS/CFT

We investigate drag force in a thermal plasma of N=4 super Yang-Mills theory via both fundamental and Dirichlet strings under the influence of non-zero NSNS $B$-field background. In the description of AdS/CFT correspondence the endpoint of these strings correspondes to an external monopole or quark moving with a constant electromagnetic field. We demonstrate how the configuration of string tail as well as the drag force obtains corrections in this background.Comment: 13 pages, 2 figures, more discussion and reference adde

Electronic structure of nuclear-spin-polarization-induced quantum dots

We study a system in which electrons in a two-dimensional electron gas are confined by a nonhomogeneous nuclear spin polarization. The system consists of a heterostructure that has non-zero nuclei spins. We show that in this system electrons can be confined into a dot region through a local nuclear spin polarization. The nuclear-spin-polarization-induced quantum dot has interesting properties indicating that electron energy levels are time-dependent because of the nuclear spin relaxation and diffusion processes. Electron confining potential is a solution of diffusion equation with relaxation. Experimental investigations of the time-dependence of electron energy levels will result in more information about nuclear spin interactions in solids

Intracerebral hemorrhage in a neonate with an intragenic COL4A2 duplication

Intracerebral hemorrhage is rare in term born neonates. Besides several non-genetic risk factors, pathogenic variants in COL4A1 and COL4A2 have been described to play a role in the pathophysiology of neonatal intracerebral hemorrhage. To the best of our knowledge, no intragenic COL4A2 duplications have been reported in humans to date. We report a neonate with intracerebral hemorrhage and a de novo intragenic COL4A2 duplication. Although it is not clear yet whether this genetic factor fully explains the clinical phenotype, it may have contributed at least as a risk factor for cerebral hemorrhage. Screening for intragenic COL4A1 and COL4A2 duplications as part of collagen IV diagnostics should be considered as part of the fetal and neonatal work-up for unexplained cerebral hemorrhages and to collect more evidence of the pathogenicity of this genetic mechanism.Genetics of disease, diagnosis and treatmen