Parental and revertant Brucella canis induced changes in the rabbit.

Chronic brucellosis was produced in the rabbit by parental and penicillin-induced L-phase revertant of Brucella canis. Animals in the experimental groups were injected with 1.2 x 10(8) organisms/ml of appropriate strains by specified routes at intervals. At a maximum of 12 weeks postinfection, animals were killed and samples were taken for bacteriology, serology, histology, immunofluorescent and electron microscopy. Results revealed faecal shedding in some animals from 72 hours up to three weeks postinfection. High agglutinating antibody titres of 1:1280 were sustained in all infected animals. Histopathological and ultrastructural changes attributed to the invading organisms were apparent and evidence of mitochrondriopathic changes are provided. The implication and indirect role of L-phase in brucellosis are discussed.     

Mortality in sahelian goats in Nigeria

The cause of mortality in sahelian goats was investigated in three local government areas of Borno State (Kukawa, Maiduguri and Mongonu) that are known for high goat production. A total of 150 selected flocks (50 flocks from each of the local government areas) were administered questionnaires through spot visits and interviews of the flock owners. On the whole, 644 (21.8%) goats died between May 1996 and April 1997 out of the 2956 goats in the 150 flocks. Mortality (41.4%) was higher in kids (<6-month old) than in adults (14.4%). Gastrointestinal disorders (dyspepsia), and respiratory diseases were the most-common causes of mortality. Cause-specific mortality risks did not differ between kids and adults.     

An approximately 15,000-year record of El Nino-driven alluviation in southwestern ecuador

Debris flows have deposited inorganic laminae in an alpine lake that is 75 kilometers east of the Pacific Ocean, in Ecuador. These storm-induced events were dated by radiocarbon, and the age of laminae that are less than 200 years old matches the historic record of El Nino events. From about 15,000 to about 7000 calendar years before the present, the periodicity of clastic deposition is greater than or equal to 15 years; thereafter, there is a progressive increase in frequency to periodicities of 2 to 8.5 years. This is the modern El Nino periodicity, which was established about 5000 calendar years before the present. This may reflect the onset of a steeper zonal sea surface temperature gradient, which was driven by enhanced trade winds.     

Field assessment of cadmium,lead and zinc contamination of soils and leaf vegetables under urban and peri-urban agriculture in northern Nigeria

Urban and peri-urban agriculture in dry semi-arid northern Nigeria relies on untreated wastewater for all-year irrigation and the production of vegetables for urban markets. Human and animal exposure to potentially toxic metals is attributed to the consumption of vegetables raised in metal-polluted soils. The objective of this study was to determine the bioavailability and soil–plant transfer of Cd, Pb and Zn to amaranthus (Amaranthus caudatus) and lettuce (Latuca sativa) raised in the garden fields and to assess their safety for human consumption. Ten farmers’ fields were selected per location for analysis of Cd, Pb and Zn in soils and vegetables. Whereas total concentrations of Cd and Zn were greater than the safe or permissible limits for agricultural soils, the Pb concentration was less than its maximum allowable concentration. However, the concentration of Pb and Cd in edible portions of amaranthus exceeded the safe limit for human consumption by 7–13 times, while lettuce exceeded the limit by 11–17 times. Cadmium was more rapidly transferred from soil through root to shoot than Zn > Pb. The plant tissue concentrations of the metals were not significantly correlated with the Diethylene triamine pentaacetic acid (DTPA) and dilute CaCl₂-extractable concentrations of the metals in the soils. Furthermore, permissible limit of Pb established as standards for agricultural lands may not be suitable to ensure produce safety in Urban and peri-urban agriculture (UPA) in the city of Kano.     

Evolution and functional impact of rare coding variation from deep sequencing of human exomes

As a first step toward understanding how rare variants contribute to risk for complex diseases, we sequenced 15,585 human protein-coding genes to an average median depth of 111× in 2440 individuals of European (n = 1351) and African (n = 1088) ancestry. We identified over 500,000 single-nucleotide variants (SNVs), the majority of which were rare (86% with a minor allele frequency less than 0.5%), previously unknown (82%), and population-specific (82%). On average, 2.3% of the 13,595 SNVs each person carried were predicted to affect protein function of ~313 genes per genome, and ~95.7% of SNVs predicted to be functionally important were rare. This excess of rare functional variants is due to the combined effects of explosive, recent accelerated population growth and weak purifying selection. Furthermore, we show that large sample sizes will be required to associate rare variants with complex traits.     

Amplification of mesenchymal stem cells from human bone marrow and orientation to induce MSCs differentiating into endothelial cells in vitro

AIM: Our purpose was to induce MSCs differentiating into endothelial cells (EC) in vitro and to provide the seed cells for study of cardiovascular tissue-engineering. METHODS: MSCs were separated by gradient centrifugation on Percoll (density 1 073 g/L) from human bone marrow (HBM), and incubated for purification and amplification in DMEM (low glucose) with 10% fetal bovine serum (FBS). Then, the MSCs were incubated for orientation differentiated into EC in DMEM (high glucose) with 20% FBS, VEGF (10 μg/L), bFGF (5 μg/L), L-glutamine (2 mmol/L), penicillin (1×105U/L) and streptomycin (100 mg/L) for about 14-21 days and their phenotypic characteristics were analyzed by flow cytometry. Afterwards, the differentiating cells were evaluated by histology and immunohistochemistry. RESULTS: The quantity of MSCs was increased from 5.0×105 in the primary culture to 8.0×1012, or to increase to 1.6×107 times after 15 generations of incubation. The purity of MSCs was above 95% and 98% homogeneous at passages 2 and 3, respectively. About 80%-90% of the differentiating cells from MSCs after 14-21 days were positively stained for Ⅷ factor (vWF) related antigen by immunohistochemistry assay, and Weible-palade corpuscle was also observed by transmission electron microscopy in the cytoplasm. CONCLUSION: MSCs from HBM have the capability of differentiation into ECs in vitro, which may be a potential source of seed cells for fabrication of tissue-engineering heart valve, particularly in children with congenital heart disease.     

加工类型黄瓜品质性状的主成分及聚类分析

对19个加工类型黄瓜品种的7个品质性状进行了主成分和聚类分析.结果表明19个品种分为产量、形态和品质3个主成分因子,其主成分的累计贡献率达89.81%,而且基本上可描述7个品质性状的遗传变异.当类平均距离为1.035时,19个品种被聚为短果和长果2种类型,而当类平均距离为0.942时,19个品种被聚为短果中等品质、短果优质和长果高产3种类型.