Genome sequence of the parainfluenza virus 5 strain that persistently infects AGS cells

This work, including the efforts of Richard E Randall, was funded by Wellcome Trust (101788/Z/13/Z). This work, including the efforts of Steve Goodbourn, was funded by Wellcome Trust (101792/Z/13/Z).We have sequenced the parainfluenza virus 5 strain that persistently infects the commonly used AGS human cell line without causing cytopathology. This virus is most closely related to human strains, indicating that it may have originated from biopsy material or from laboratory contamination during generation of the cell line.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Earliest Triassic microbialites in the South China Block and other areas; controls on their growth and distribution

Earliest Triassic microbialites (ETMs) and inorganic carbonate crystal fans formed after the end-Permian mass extinction (ca. 251.4 Ma) within the basal Triassic Hindeodus parvus conodont zone. ETMs are distinguished from rarer, and more regional, subsequent Triassic microbialites. Large differences in ETMs between northern and southern areas of the South China block suggest geographic provinces, and ETMs are most abundant throughout the equatorial Tethys Ocean with further geographic variation. ETMs occur in shallow-marine shelves in a superanoxic stratified ocean and form the only widespread Phanerozoic microbialites with structures similar to those of the Cambro-Ordovician, and briefly after the latest Ordovician, Late Silurian and Late Devonian extinctions. ETMs disappeared long before the mid-Triassic biotic recovery, but it is not clear why, if they are interpreted as disaster taxa. In general, ETM occurrence suggests that microbially mediated calcification occurred where upwelled carbonate-rich anoxic waters mixed with warm aerated surface waters, forming regional dysoxia, so that extreme carbonate supersaturation and dysoxic conditions were both required for their growth. Long-term oceanic and atmospheric changes may have contributed to a trigger for ETM formation. In equatorial western Pangea, the earliest microbialites are late Early Triassic, but it is possible that ETMs could exist in western Pangea, if well-preserved earliest Triassic facies are discovered in future work

Laboratory Capacity Building in Asia for Infectious Disease Research: Experiences from the South East Asia Infectious Disease Clinical Research Network (SEAICRN)

Heiman Wertheim and colleagues discuss a network that aims to improve infectious disease management through integrated, collaborative clinical research in South East Asia

Expressions 1982

This fifth edition of EXPRESSIONS is the culmination of student efforts in the 1982 Creative Writing Contest, Campus Chronicle Photography Contest, Art and Commercial Art courses at Des Moines Area Community College. Journalism students did the design, typography and lay-out work necessary to bring these efforts together in this 1982 edition of EXPRESSIONS.https://openspace.dmacc.edu/expressions/1004/thumbnail.jp

Research Experiences for Teachers in Materials Science: A Case Study

The National Science Education Standards encourage teachers to become involved in research as ‘representatives of science in the classroom’. The Research Experiences for Teachers program affiliated with the Materials Research Science and Engineering Center at the University of Nebraska involves teachers in research on nanoscale magnetic and electronic structures over a summer. Two teachers and a sponsoring researcher share their experiences and what they believe are necessary elements for successful RET experiences

The Stability and Oxidation Resistance of Iron- and Cobalt-Based Magnetic Nanoparticle Fluids Fabricated by Inert-Gas Condensation

Magnetic nanoparticle fluids have numerous biomedical applications, including magnetic imaging, drug delivery, and hyperthemia treatment for cancer. Ideal magnetic nanoparticle fluids have well-separated, biocompatible nanoparticles with a small size distribution that form a stable colloid. We have combined inert-gas condensation, which produces nanoparticles with low polydispersity, with deposition directly into a surfactant-laden fluid to prevent agglomeration. Iron, cobalt, and iron-nitride nanoparticle fluids fabricated using inert-gas condensation have with mean particle sizes from 5-50 nm and remain stable over long periods of time. Iron and cobalt nanoparticles oxidize on exposure to air, with oxidation rates dependent on surfactant type and concentration. Iron-nitride fluids are more oxidation and corrosion resistant, while retaining the same high degree of colloidal stability. Magnetic properties vary depending on the nanoparticle size and material, but can be varied from superparamagnetic to ferromagnetic with coercivities on the order of 1000 Oe. In addition to future biomedical applications, inertgas condensation into fluids offers the opportunity to study interparticle interactions over a broad range of intrinsic materials parameters and interparticle separations

Genome sequence of the parainfluenza virus 5 strain that persistently infects AGS cells

We have sequenced the parainfluenza virus 5 strain that persistently infects the commonly used AGS human cell line without causing cytopathology. This virus is most closely related to human strains, indicating that it may have originated from biopsy material or from laboratory contamination during generation of the cell line

Analysis of paramyxovirus transcription and replication by high-throughput sequencing

We have developed a high-throughput sequencing (HTS) workflow for investigating paramyxovirus transcription and replication. We show that sequencing of oligo-dT selected polyadenylated mRNAs, without considering the orientation of the RNAs from which they had been generated, cannot accurately be used to analyse the abundance of viral mRNAs because genomic RNA co-purifies with the viral mRNAs. The best method is directional sequencing of infected cell RNA that has physically been depletion of ribosomal and mitochondrial RNA followed by bioinformatic steps to differentiate data originating from genomes from viral mRNAs and antigenomes. This approach has the advantage that the abundance of viral mRNA (and antigenomes) and genomes can be analysed and quantified from the same data. We investigated the kinetics of viral transcription and replication during infection of A549 cells with parainfluenza virus type 2 (PIV2), PIV3, PIV5 or mumps virus, and determined the abundance of individual viral mRNAs and readthrough mRNAs. We found that the mRNA abundance gradients differed significantly between all four viruses, but that for each virus the pattern remained relatively stable throughout infection. We suggest that rapid degradation of nonpolyadenylated mRNAs may be primarily responsible for the shape of the mRNA abundance gradient in parainfluenza virus 3, whereas a combination of this factor and disengagement of RNA polymerase at intergenic sequences, particularly those at the NP:P and P:M gene boundaries, may be responsible in the other viruses