Christian in Armor and Three Others Facing the Jury, Lord Hategood, and the Clerk

Play/Playwright: Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan, adapted for the stage by Orlin Corey.Irene Corey's Design Contribution: Costume, Puppet, and Set Design.Characters: (first row, long red cloak) Christian, (behind Christian) Jury, (above the Jury, left to right) Lord Hategood, Clerk.Actors: (first row, long red cloak) Hal Proske.Company: The Everyman Players.Stamped on Original Slide: 4, MAR 73A5

Association of TLR2 gene Arg753Gln polymorphism with urinary tract infection in children

WOS: 000250940400001PubMed ID: 18001294The aim of this study is to investigate Arg753Gln allele polymorphisms of toll-like receptor-2 (TLR2) gene distribution, allele frequency in urinary tract infection (UTI) and genotype-phenotype association of TLR2 gene in children with UTI. The polymorphism was investigated in 124 children with UTI (22 boys and 102 girls; mean age 5.81 +/- 3.47 years) with direct DNA sequencing-based method. TLR2 gene Arg753Gln allele frequency was higher in the patient group when compared with control group (OR 3.14, 95%CI 1.53-6.44, P < 0.001). The frequency of the Arg753Gln allele was significantly higher in gram-positive group than in gram-negative group (OR 7.64, 95%CI 2.80-20.81, P < 0.001). The frequency of UTI was found significantly higher in the Arg753Gln allele carriers of TLR2 gene than the non-carriers (OR 4.94, 95%CI 1.09-22.33, P < 0.05). Similarly, the incidence of asymptomatic UTI was also found significantly higher in the group carrying Arg753Gln allele (OR 3.73, 95%Cl 1.54-9.04, P < 0.05). As a result, we suggest that TLR2 gene could be the predisposing factor for urinary tract infection. Additionally, we observed that subjects carrying the TLR2 Arg753Gln allele had higher risk of urinary tract infection with gram-positive pathogens, history of more than two attacks of UTI and asymptomatic UTI

Caste-Specific Expression Patterns of Immune Response and Chemosensory Related Genes in the Leaf-Cutting Ant, <i>Atta vollenweideri</i>

<div><p>Leaf-cutting ants are evolutionary derived social insects with elaborated division of labor and tremendous colony sizes with millions of workers. Their social organization is mainly based on olfactory communication using different pheromones and is promoted by a pronounced size-polymorphism of workers that perform different tasks within the colony. The size polymorphism and associated behaviors are correlated to distinct antennal lobe (AL) phenotypes. Two worker phenotypes differ in number of olfactory glomeruli in the AL and the presence or absence of an extremely large glomerulus (macroglomerulus), involved in trail-pheromone reception. The males' AL contains three macroglomeruli which are presumably involved in detection of sex-pheromone components. We investigated the antennal transcriptome data of all major castes (males, queens and workers) and two worker subcastes (large and tiny workers). In order to identify putative odorant receptor genes involved in pheromone detection, we identified differentially expressed odorant receptor genes (OR-genes) using custom microarrays. In total, we found 185 OR-gene fragments that are clearly related to ORs and we identified orthologs for 70 OR-genes. Among them one OR-gene differs in relative expression between the two worker subcastes by a factor of >3 and thus is a very promising candidate gene for the trail-pheromone receptor. Using the relative expression of OR-genes in males versus queens, we identified 2 candidates for sex-pheromone receptor genes in males. In addition, we identified genes from all other chemosensory related gene families (13 chemosensory protein genes, 8 odorant binding protein genes, 2 sensory-neuron membrane protein genes, 7 ionotropic receptor genes, 2 gustatory receptor genes), and we found ant-specific expansions in the chemosensory protein gene family. In addition, a large number of genes involved in immune defense exhibited differential expression across the three different castes, and some genes even between the two worker subcastes.</p></div

Comparison of OR gene expression between males versus queens and between large versus tiny workers.

<p>Relative OR gene expression is shown for large versus tiny workers (<b>A</b>) and for males versus queens (<b>B</b>). As a measure for the expression level of a gene, the corresponding intensity value was calculated with respect to the variance of intensity values of all OR genes using the following formula:.EF = (LTI_cand - LTI_mean) / SD. The expression factor (EF) is based on the differences of log-transformed intensities (LTI) of the candidate gene (mean of biological replicates) and the mean of all OR genes, divided by the standard deviation (SD) of intensity values of all OR genes. In large workers, one OR gene is highly expressed, and a good candidate for the trail-pheromone receptor gene (<b>A</b>). In males, three OR genes are highly expressed and good candidates for sex-pheromone receptor genes (<b>B</b>). Log-fold differences between -0.5 and 0.5 are shown in grey and considered as biologically irrelevant differences. </p