Toegangsmodaliteiten en publiek van de Franstalige kinderopvang in het Brussels Hoofdstedelijk Gewest

Deze factsheet stelt de belangrijkste resultaten voor van een enquête die tussen juli en oktober 2018 werd afgenomen bij Franstalige kinderopvang in Brussel. De auteurs bespreken achtereenvolgens de inschrijvingsmodaliteiten en -criteria, de organisatie van de instap en van de eerste opvangdagen, de kenmerken van het publiek en de financiële bijdrage van de ouders.Cette fact sheet reprends les principaux résultats d’une enquête réalisée, entre les mois de juillet et d’octobre 2018, auprès de milieux d’accueil de la petite enfance francophones à Bruxelles. Elle aborde successivement les modalités et critères d’inscription, l’organisation de l’entrée et des premiers jours d’accueil, les caractéristiques du public et la contribution financière des parents.This fact sheet includes the main results of a survey of French-speaking childcare centres in Brussels between the months of July and October 2018. It deals with the registration procedures and criteria, the organisation of the first days of childcare, the characteristics of users and the financial contribution of parents

Modalités d’accès et public des milieux d’accueil francophones de la petite enfance en Région de Bruxelles-Capitale

Cette fact sheet reprend les principaux résultats d’une enquête réalisée auprès de milieux d’accueil de la petite enfance francophones à Bruxelles entre les mois de juillet et d’octobre 2018. Elle aborde successivement les modalités et critères d’inscription, l’organisation de l’entrée et des premiers jours d’accueil, les caractéristiques du public et la contribution financière des parents.Deze factsheet stelt de belangrijkste resultaten voor van een enquête die tussen juli en oktober 2018 werd afgenomen bij Franstalige kinderopvang in Brussel. De auteurs bespreken achtereenvolgens de inschrijvingsmodaliteiten en -criteria, de organisatie van de instap en van de eerste opvangdagen, de kenmerken van het publiek en de financiële bijdrage van de ouders.This fact sheet includes the main results of a survey of French-speaking childcare centres in Brussels between the months of July and October 2018. It deals with the registration procedures and criteria, the organisation of the first days of childcare, the characteristics of users and the financial contribution of parents

French-speaking childcare centres in the Brussels-Capital Region: access and users

This fact sheet includes the main results of a survey of French-speaking childcare centres in Brussels between the months of July and October 2018. It deals with the registration procedures and criteria, the organisation of the first days of childcare, the characteristics of users and the financialCette fact sheet reprends les principaux résultats d’une enquête réalisée, entre les mois de juillet et d’octobre 2018, auprès de milieux d’accueil de la petite enfance francophones à Bruxelles. Elle aborde successivement les modalités et critères d’inscription, l’organisation de l’entrée et des premiers jours d’accueil, les caractéristiques du public et la contribution financière des parents.Deze factsheet stelt de belangrijkste resultaten voor van een enquête die tussen juli en oktober 2018 werd afgenomen bij Franstalige kinderopvang in Brussel. De auteurs bespreken achtereenvolgens de inschrijvingsmodaliteiten en -criteria, de organisatie van de instap en van de eerste opvangdagen, de kenmerken van het publiek en de financiële bijdrage van de ouders

Evidence for diversifying selection of genetic regions of encoding putative collagen-like host-adhesive fibers in Pasteuria penetrans

© FEMS 2018. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Pasteuria spp. belong to a group of genetically diverse endospore-forming bacteria (phylum: Firmicutes) that are known to parasitize plant-parasitic nematodes and water fleas (Daphnia spp.). Collagen-like fibres form the nap on the surface of endospores and the genes encoding these sequences have been hypothesised to be involved in the adhesion of the endospores of Pasteuria spp. to their hosts. We report a group of 17 unique collagen-like genes putatively encoded by Pasteuria penetrans (strain: Res148) that formed five different phylogenetic clusters and suggest that collagen-like proteins are an important source of genetic diversity in animal pathogenic Firmicutes including Pasteuria. Additionally, and unexpectedly, we identified a putative collagen-like sequence which had a very different sequence structure to the other collagen-like proteins but was similar to the protein sequences in Megaviruses that are involved in host-parasite interactions. We, therefore, suggest that these diverse endospore surface proteins in Pasteuria are involved in biological functions, such as cellular adhesion; however, they are not of monophyletic origin and were possibly obtained de novo by mutation or possibly through selection acting upon several historic horizontal gene transfer events.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio

Predictive factors for the presence and long-term persistence of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in healthcare and university workers

peer reviewedWhile patient groups at risk for severe COVID-19 infections are now well identified, the risk factors associated with SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2) transmission and immunization are still poorly understood. In a cohort of staff members of a Belgian tertiary academic hospital tested for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies during the early phase of the pandemic and followed-up after 6 weeks, 3 months and 10 months, we collected personal, occupational and medical data, as well as symptoms based on which we constructed a COVID-19 score. Seroprevalence was higher among participants in contact with patients or with COVID-19 confirmed subjects or, to a lesser extent, among those handling respiratory specimens, as well as among participants reporting an immunodeficiency or a previous or active hematological malignancy, and correlated with several symptoms. In multivariate analysis, variables associated with seropositivity were: contact with COVID-19 patients, immunodeficiency, previous or active hematological malignancy, anosmia, cough, nasal symptoms, myalgia, and fever. At 10 months, participants in contact with patients and those with higher initial COVID-19 scores were more likely to have sustained antibodies, whereas those with solid tumors or taking chronic medications were at higher risk to become seronegative

Long-term longitudinal evaluation of the prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in healthcare and university workers.

peer reviewedAsymptomatic and pauci-symptomatic cases contribute to underestimating the prevalence of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infections. Moreover, we have few studies available on the longitudinal follow-up of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies after natural infection. We tested staff members of a Belgian tertiary academic hospital for SARS-CoV-2 IgG, IgM, and IgA antibodies. We analyzed the evolution of IgM and IgG after 6 weeks, and the persistence of IgG after 3 and 10 months. At the first evaluation, 409/3776 (10.8%) participants had a positive SARS-CoV-2 serology. Among initially seropositive participants who completed phases 2 and 3, IgM were still detected after 6 weeks in 53.1% and IgG persisted at 12 weeks in 82.0% (97.5% of those with more than borderline titers). IgG levels were higher and increased over time in symptomatic but were lower and stable in asymptomatic participants. After 10 months, 88.5% of participants had sustained IgG levels (97.0% of those with more than borderline titers)

The human phylome

The human phylome, which includes evolutionary relationships of all human proteins and their homologs among thirty-nine fully sequenced eukaryotes, is reconstructed

Reconstructing the evolution of the mitochondrial ribosomal proteome

For production of proteins that are encoded by the mitochondrial genome, mitochondria rely on their own mitochondrial translation system, with the mitoribosome as its central component. Using extensive homology searches, we have reconstructed the evolutionary history of the mitoribosomal proteome that is encoded by a diverse subset of eukaryotic genomes, revealing an ancestral ribosome of alpha-proteobacterial descent that more than doubled its protein content in most eukaryotic lineages. We observe large variations in the protein content of mitoribosomes between different eukaryotes, with mammalian mitoribosomes sharing only 74 and 43% of its proteins with yeast and Leishmania mitoribosomes, respectively. We detected many previously unidentified mitochondrial ribosomal proteins (MRPs) and found that several have increased in size compared to their bacterial ancestral counterparts by addition of functional domains. Several new MRPs have originated via duplication of existing MRPs as well as by recruitment from outside of the mitoribosomal proteome. Using sensitive profile–profile homology searches, we found hitherto undetected homology between bacterial and eukaryotic ribosomal proteins, as well as between fungal and mammalian ribosomal proteins, detecting two novel human MRPs. These newly detected MRPs constitute, along with evolutionary conserved MRPs, excellent new screening targets for human patients with unresolved mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation disorders

Fifteen years of research on oral–facial–digital syndromes: from 1 to 16 causal genes

Oral–facial–digital syndromes (OFDS) gather rare genetic disorders characterised by facial, oral and digital abnormalities associated with a wide range of additional features (polycystic kidney disease, cerebral malformations and several others) to delineate a growing list of OFDS subtypes. The most frequent, OFD type I, is caused by a heterozygous mutation in the OFD1 gene encoding a centrosomal protein. The wide clinical heterogeneity of OFDS suggests the involvement of other ciliary genes. For 15 years, we have aimed to identify the molecular bases of OFDS. This effort has been greatly helped by the recent development of whole-exome sequencing (WES). Here, we present all our published and unpublished results for WES in 24 cases with OFDS. We identified causal variants in five new genes (C2CD3, TMEM107, INTU, KIAA0753 and IFT57) and related the clinical spectrum of four genes in other ciliopathies (C5orf42, TMEM138, TMEM231 and WDPCP) to OFDS. Mutations were also detected in two genes previously implicated in OFDS. Functional studies revealed the involvement of centriole elongation, transition zone and intraflagellar transport defects in OFDS, thus characterising three ciliary protein modules: the complex KIAA0753-FOPNL-OFD1, a regulator of centriole elongation; the Meckel-Gruber syndrome module, a major component of the transition zone; and the CPLANE complex necessary for IFT-A assembly. OFDS now appear to be a distinct subgroup of ciliopathies with wide heterogeneity, which makes the initial classification obsolete. A clinical classification restricted to the three frequent/well-delineated subtypes could be proposed, and for patients who do not fit one of these three main subtypes, a further classification could be based on the genotype

SARS-CoV-2 susceptibility and COVID-19 disease severity are associated with genetic variants affecting gene expression in a variety of tissues

Variability in SARS-CoV-2 susceptibility and COVID-19 disease severity between individuals is partly due to genetic factors. Here, we identify 4 genomic loci with suggestive associations for SARS-CoV-2 susceptibility and 19 for COVID-19 disease severity. Four of these 23 loci likely have an ethnicity-specific component. Genome-wide association study (GWAS) signals in 11 loci colocalize with expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs) associated with the expression of 20 genes in 62 tissues/cell types (range: 1:43 tissues/gene), including lung, brain, heart, muscle, and skin as well as the digestive system and immune system. We perform genetic fine mapping to compute 99% credible SNP sets, which identify 10 GWAS loci that have eight or fewer SNPs in the credible set, including three loci with one single likely causal SNP. Our study suggests that the diverse symptoms and disease severity of COVID-19 observed between individuals is associated with variants across the genome, affecting gene expression levels in a wide variety of tissue types